How busy are you? Too Busy!
What would your reaction be if you were chatting to a friend with a small business and you asked them “How busy are you?” and their reply was
“Not really, I suppose I only do two or three days a week!”
You might feel concerned for them and ask if there is anything that you can do to help.
This concern comes because we are conditioned from a young age to think that being busy is good. The media reinforces the message with stories of this tycoon working 20 hours per day or that they never take a day off as they make their millions.
But this isn’t the reason that most small business owners work long hours. The problem lies in the fact that small businesses are generally set up to create a job for their owners. And we all know that business owners work incredibly hard, some claim to work 80/90 hours per week, never taking a holiday, and that they struggle to make a decent living on the back of this hard work. The reason is simple. The business are actually set up unintentionally to create a time consuming poorly paid job.
Why would someone create this situation? One of the problems is that we are never taught to run a business. Certainly, we are never told that not being busy could be a good thing. What if you were to sit down today and decide that you wanted to make twice the profit you made last year and work half the time?
What would you have to change?
The classic small business discussion played out just last week when I met a customer. They outlined at least 6 valuable benefits of using their business compared to their larger rivals. Then they spent a further 10 minutes justifying why they charged half the price, which in reality was no more than a long list of excuses starting with “I’m a small business therefore customers expect us to charge less because….”.
So “How busy are you?” Is the answer “too busy!”
Our Profit Plus – Business Growth Programme helps small businesses owners to increase their profits and work less, to improve the quality of their lives.
The Business Growth Programme is risk free with a money back guarantee and can attract up to 35% grant funding.
Find out more about how to improve your work life balance with our Business Growth Programme by emailing Brian Russell or call 01661 872004