How long does it take to really improve a business? Much less time than you think. I have seen hundreds of businesses changed in minutes.
Just by asking a few carefully selected questions.
The right question can really focus your mind on what’s important in your business and reveal answers that can lead to total transformations in effectiveness and profits.
Here the four question, I’ve used when I’m Business coaching a executives and entrepreneurs that are particularly powerful:
QUESTION 1. WHAT ARE THE TWO MOST IMPORTANT THINGS I DO THAT BRING MONEY INTO THE BUSINESS?
We often make business too complex. We fuss about having meetings, writing reports and handling an infinite tsunami of administration tasks. As a result, at the end of the week many people find that the have made little progress building their business.
One of the main causes of this profit destroying problem is that so many entrepreneurs are not 100% clear on the key one or two tasks that actually bring in the money.
Are you? If you even had to pause before you answered then the answer is No.
Each day you go into work you must be absolutely crystal clear about those two tasks that really increase income. They must be on your mind all day long. Only then are you likely to give them the priority and importance they deserve.
QUESTION 2. HOW MUCH TIME AM I SPENDING ON THESE TOP TWO INCOME PRODUCING TASKS?
The answer to this question often shocks people.
When they sit down and monitor their weekly work activities they often find to their abject horror that they are spending hardly any time at all on these vital business building jobs. Believe it or not, I have coached entrepreneurs who discover they are actually spending zero hours on their key income increasing activities! Many are only spending ten hours out of fifty each week doing the stuff that brings in the moola. The likely effect of this poor use of time is a low growth company.
So this week, job number one is to write down how you’re spending your time. You may be alarmed at what you find.
QUESTION 3. HOW MUCH TIME SHOULD I BE SPENDING ON THESE TOP TASKS?
Awareness is the first step to improvement. Once you know the amount of time you’ve been allocating to your income increasing tasks, your next job is to look at your calendar and work out how many hours you could and should be spending doing them. You need to stretch yourself here, yet balance that ambition with realism. Look at your absolutely compulsory meetings and activities then try to estimate the average amount of hours per week you need to handle them.
Now look at the remaining hours. If you’re like most people you’ll see at east 15 hours spare. Much of this time could and should be allocated to those top two most important tasks. These tasks are the ones that will really grow your business, these are the ones that can bring you closer to your financial dreams.
Treat them like gold, because they are the hours that will actually create your future wealth.
QUESTION 4. WHAT DO I HAVE TO DELEGATE OR DO LESS OF TO MAKE THIS HAPPEN?
Finding the time to do the key income enhancing tasks won’t just happen by itself. You need to engineer it.
Work out your biggest time drainers and design ways to eradicate them- or at least reduce their influence on your diary.
You could delegate those tasks to an assistant. Or rush through them if they’re not important. Or you could use a timer to make sure you only spend a small number of minutes on any low value activities.
Once you start focusing on spending less time on these income sapping jobs, it will be easy to see ways of reducing the time you spend on them.
These are four very simple questions. But very few people know the answers to them. If you don’t, please spend 15 minutes right now to get clear on them. These four questions hold the key to growing your business. The more you focus on them, the more money you will make. Treat them with the importance that they deserve – they really are the keys to a high profit business.
