Maximizing the Value of Your Time

My name is Matt Leavell and I am the CEO of BuyLow Warehouse. I have been an entrepreneur for over 20 years. In that time, I have learned a few things that just make things flow smoother.

As an entrepreneur or intrapreneur, one of your core responsibilities is to “pave the way” for how your business will operate. When starting out, you may be the person doing everything in the business; however, if you can learn to document & delegate tasks to other team members, you will see the value of your time explode. Below are some thoughts on how to achieve this.

Document repetitive processes

If you find yourself performing a task regularly every day, week or month, that is an ideal task to document into a process to be executed in the same way every time. Documenting a process is much easier than it sounds and can be done in 3 steps. First, write down every single step of the process as you do it, including screenshots. Do not leave anything out. Second, the next time you have to perform this task, open the process document and follow the process EXACTLY. If you do something that is not written in the process, add it. Third, ask a team member to perform the task by following the process. If they complete it satisfactorily without questions, the process is done. If there are questions or they take an action not written in the process, the process must be updated.

Outsource low-return tasks.

After you have documented processes for the recurring tasks, find the tasks that do not require your decision making or knowledge base and delegate those tasks to another team member that is compensated at a lower hourly rate. This frees you up to work on the tasks that only you can do. This will also help to keep your time focused on the highest return tasks for moving the business forward. Do this before you think you need it. If you wait until you feel the pressure, your effectiveness has already fallen off.

Leverage technology

Lastly, if you find yourself performing repetitive tasks, take a moment to perform a Google search on the topic. Review the results, try to word the search phrases differently and review the results again. See if there are any software tools that can streamline or even automate the tasks that you are working on. Sometimes, just a 20-minute Google search can save you thousands of man hours over time. Leveraging online software that can help save you time by automating or performing tasks faster. Time is your most valuable asset as you are growing your business. You need to do anything possible to buy back your time, even if this means spending a little money.

If you would like to read further on this topic, I believe the book that does an excellent job of teaching these concepts is The 4-Hour Work Week by Tim Ferriss. I have seen this book supercharge the productivity of so many people. If you are serious, get it and read it. It is an amazing book that helps you understand what is possible!