When I started my business I was a one man band.
All the delivery, the admin and social media creation was my job.
I wore every hat in the business.
As I took on more clients, I hired support and trained them to handle the repetitive tasks in my business.
This reduced my efforts for tasks in my business such as financial reporting, bookkeeping, payments, media creation and web page editing.
This allowed me to take on more clients.
My coach James Schramko calls this optimising your effective hourly rate (EHR).
I regularly audit my tasks and see if I can transfer any repetitive tasks to a team member.
This leaves me with just the highest value tasks and increases my EHR.
Eventually there were more clients then I could personally deliver for. Even with the admin taken care of.
I hired an experienced operator. I coached and supported her with one of my clients.
Now I have a team of operators who handle delivery for my clients. The highest value for my time (or EHR) is spent supporting my team who support my customers, working on my business and this content!
I recently read “Buy Back Your Time” by Dan Martell. The lessons were so familiar, it resonated with me immediately.
I have taken a very similar path and apply these same learnings when I save my clients time.
Dan has some punchy frameworks like Audit, Transfer, Fill.
Here, we are assessing the tasks to transfer by how much money it makes you and your energy it takes.
For me the stand-out lesson was that many business owners make the mistake of hiring staff to grow their business instead of hiring to buy back their time first which then can then be filled with higher value tasks. Boom!
I also loved Dan’s advice on delegation. Another 3 word framework: Outcome, Measure, Coach.
This style is very different to micro-management and making all the decisions for your team.
He were my key take-aways:
1. Identify and Eliminate Time Drains
Scrutinize your daily activities with a critical eye.
Many tasks that we consider indispensable are actually time sinks that contribute little to our overarching goals.
Identifying these drains, start the process of delegating, automating, or simply eliminating them, freeing up swathes of time for pursuits that truly matter.
2. The Power of Automation
Technology isn’t cold machinery; it’s your ally.
Automation is a force multiplier for your efforts, handling the mundane so you can focus on the extraordinary.
It’s about stripping away the unnecessary, leaving only what matters.
3. Invest in Time-Saving
View time-saving not as an expense but as an investment with the highest return.
Spend money to free up time, this can then be allocated to high-value activities or simply enjoying life.
4. Delegate Effectively
The power of delegation is hailed as a cornerstone of time liberation.
Martell offers actionable strategies for identifying tasks to delegate and finding the right people to take them on.
This isn’t about offloading work; it’s about empowering others and ourselves to operate within our zones of genius.
5. Prioritize High-Impact Work
For the work that remains, concentrate on tasks that have the highest impact on your personal and professional growth.
It’s about making strategic choices that amplify our efforts and bring us closer to our goals.
6. Embrace a New Paradigm
Values time above all else.
Time is not a resource to be managed, but a gift to be cherished and spent in alignment with our deepest values and aspirations.
Talk soon,
Lloyd
PS – Would you like some help getting back your time? Let’s chat.
