Many business owners get into entrepreneurialism for one reason only – to afford the lifestyle they want.
It makes perfect sense. Instead of working 60 hour weeks for 50 years... and then spending what’s left of your life ‘living’... why not turn your whole life into The Dream?
For 99.9% of entrepreneurs (ok, this isn’t a real statistic – but I bet it’s close), part of the ‘dream’ is to spend *less* time at ‘work’.
Less time in the hustle and grind, and more time playing with the kids, giving back to the community, sipping margaritas on a beach...
Having the ability to choose how you spend your time is a luxury.
Personally, I’m all for some personal time completely away from business. Spending time ‘unplugged’ from the phone + internet brings about greater clarity and focus when you return.
And it IS do-able.
Even for the most overstretched, busy-as-hell business owner.
It’s something we at The Game Changers help our Opulence members achieve.
Many of our members now enjoy 3 day weekends and quarterly holidays since applying smarter strategies to manage their business.
So how do our members create this ‘free’ time?
One of the key elements we use is the Pareto principle.
The Pareto principle states that 20% of our effort will produce 80% of our results.
- The top 20% of your clients generate 80% of your income
- 20% of your activities account for 80% of your wasted time (hello, social media)
- 20% of your new projects will result in 80% of your results
If you can figure out which 20% of your focus produces 80% of your business’ results, you can spend more time on those activities and less time on others.
A simple way to do this is to start auditing your tasks.
Create a simple spreadsheet where you keep record of the task, the time it takes to complete, and most importantly - the cost per hour of that time vs the income it generates.
I guarantee you’ll start to see where you can apply the 80/20 principle to cut (or outsource) low-value tasks, and free up more time in your business.
Best,
Barry Magliarditi