I remember when I used to run my brick-and-mortar; for some reason I had this erroneous idea that I had to be busy all the time. I figured I had to set precedence. I was the first one in the office and I was the last one to leave. I even worked Saturdays. I was truly slaving my life away to my once beloved business.

The toughest part of this type of mentality was the horrible guilt trip I felt every time I had to do something that was non business related. Like going to my kid’s field trips; or to breakfast with some friends…I missed so many of them! I figured if I went, then my employees would want to go too and that would set be a terrible precedence. Looking back…how wrong I was!

There is a huge difference between being “effective” and being “efficient”. Building processes and systems into your business allows you to do exactly that. Be productive, so that you can accomplish more with less time, and stop the “paper pushing” syndrome that plagues so many businesses today.

Now the trick is knowing what you are going to do with this sudden increase of free time.  Stop being a workaholic is more complicated than just freeing up time. Designing your business to fit your lifestyle is a state of mind. It gives you the freedom to channel time and energy into doing things you love. That was the hardest for me. You can’t just switch you business mind off. It takes planning and complete reprogramming on how you view things.

So how do you position your business to fit your lifestyle?

1. Identify your inefficiencies and eliminate them. This applies from routine business tasks, to costs, operations, marketing, sales and people (vendors, employees and even customers).
2. Figure out your strengths and multiply them. This applies to your business processes, know-how, employees, vendors and customers.
3. Figure out where most of your income is coming from and concentrate on those. Eliminate the time gobbling money wasters.
4. Be selective. Identify what is important and get them done. Eliminate the thinking that “being busy” is the way to a successful business
5. Learn to “chunk”. Bundle projects or tasks, instead of running around aimlessly taking care of unimportant minutia.
6. Digitize, digitize, digitize
7. Implement systems, eliminate duplicity

Now, if you would excuse me, it is 10:45 a.m. and I am volunteering at my kid’s school today. It’s time to take care of the important things in life…talk to you tomorrow.

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