How do you spend your time in your business? Do you have a dedicated plan on where to focus your time and attention?

 

Today we’re talking about wise ways to use your time as the leader and CEO of your business. I’m always curious to know how other leaders use their time. I wanted to share what I do so it can help you refine the way you spend your time and run your company. This conversation is really important as we move from a baby business to a big girl business. 

 

There are three phases of business: building, growing and scaling. If you are in the building or growing phase, it is really important for you to wrap your head around the six buckets of time we will focus on today. If you don’t dedicate the majority of your time to these six things, then it is going to be difficult to get into the scaling phase, which is the place we all dream of being.

 

“The success that you have in your business is a direct reflection of the way you spend your time in your business.”

  What does a weekly schedule look like?

This is not a prescription. We are all building different businesses and you want to make sure that you are building a business that is authentic to you. What I’m sharing today are examples of the key buckets of time that I see as being really helpful in determining where you need to spend time in your business, but you may need to adjust. Be thinking of the buckets that make sense for you and your model, then start applying them.

 

Ultimately you need to think about the amount of hours you want to spend on each of these buckets, and set goals. Then you want to keep track, do an hourly inventory once a week, and try to adjust to match your goal for each bucket.

 

Today we are talking about what your weekly schedule should look like, and the areas of concentration that you need to dedicate time and attention to. There are six different areas you need to focus on if you anticipate getting to the scaling phase of business. 

 

1. Business Development

If you are a service professional with a coaching business or an agency you will need to focus on business development. This means reaching out to people, building a strong network so that you can build business, and awareness. Business development activities may include working with affiliates, making connections with an influencer, or educating someone about your products or services.

 

“Business development can be very wide, but this is the piece of the business that is uniquely something you can do better than anyone else.”

2. Strategy

We all wish we could have time to think about our business. Sometimes you don't have the bandwidth to work on your business or in your business because you are so busy serving your clients. Strategy is when you are doing your planning, when you are cultivating new ideas, when innovation pops up, when new product ideas come in, or when you get to brainstorm your business. My goal is to spend 10 hours each week on strategy, and when I have that dedicated time to strategize in my business, it makes things go much smoother. If you are here for the long haul, this is something that can’t be avoided.

3. Marketing and Content

You need to create a marketing plan for your business. There are so many options to market and to be visible: podcasting, social media affiliate programs, etc. But you need dedicated time to be able to do this. I spend about 5 hours a week on my marketing plan and producing content. What if you did this in your business? Your content would be solid and you would be in alignment with what your future offers looked like. 

 

4. Delivery and Coaching

Delivery and coaching refers to the coaching experience, leading a call, or recording content for delivery inside a paid program. I spend about 10 hours on delivery and coaching every single week.

 

5. Administration/Technology

There are certain things that only you can do in your business, whether it’s dealing with applications, approvals, emails, or customer service. It's not always glamorous, but you will probably always have some time devoted to these tasks. 

 

6. Team Development

It’s important to develop, coach, train, and communicate with your team. I spend about 5 hours each week for my team of 16 people. I look at performance, organizational design, and how my team can develop and leverage their skill sets. 

 

Think about these six buckets and recalibrate them to fit into your business model. Once you get the buckets adapted to your business, then you can start to allocate time to other projects if needed.

  Weekly Ops Activity

Reflect on your business model and figure how many hours you have available to dedicate to each of the six buckets, and what is your biggest area of focus? Share it with us in the Facebook group!

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This episode was first published at theopsauthority.com/podcast/87.