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How you can increase your productivity and sales.
As a founder, you know this situation: your calendar is jam-packed. Tasks, meetings, and phone calls get you through the day. Still, the strange feeling of not really making progress and stepping on the spot creeps in on you.
You're wondering if you're on the right track. Have you really focused on the tasks that move your company forward, or have you wasted your time with small stuff and unimportant things?
Time management and productivity are two of the defining issues that every founder must address.
There are simply too many things to worry about, and you quickly get the feeling of being overwhelmed. In principle, it is about the question of which activities you should delegate or outsource, and which activities are so important that they require your undivided attention. So imagine that you would rate all of your activities at an hourly rate
So imagine that you would rate all your activities at an hourly rate
Marketing specialist Perry Marshall has this process in his book 80/20 Marketing described in detail.
An 8-hour working day is 480 minutes long. During those 480 minutes, you'll likely be doing many different tasks. How would it be if you rated every job with a fictitious hourly wage. This hourly wage should be calculated as precisely as possible on the basis of the value this activity contributes to the company's income.
You will find that certain activities have a higher value, while others only represent a very low value. A deal with an important customer may be rated hundreds of times higher than cleaning up or sorting out your office. Of course, it is important that even simple tasks are carried out in a concentrated and disciplined manner, and a degree requires a lot of preparatory work. In addition, it is often difficult to delegate these activities, especially for small companies. However, what is essential for every entrepreneur is the ability to distinguish what is important from what is unimportant.
The list of a working week might look like this.
10€ per hour
Conversations with unqualified target customers, office cleaning, cold calling, preparation of travel expense reports, tidying up or sorting documents.
100€ per hour
Solving a problem for an existing or a new customer, a conversation with a qualified new customer or a producer, minor product improvements, writing an email to target customers or customers, following up a customer telephone call.
1000€ per hour
Negotiating/sales discussion with a qualified target customer, setting up a sales funnel, planning a realistic budget, product development, evaluating marketing tests, writing sales texts, photoshoot.
10000€ per hour
Improving your USP, creating new and better offers, establishing systems, negotiating major orders, selecting team members, establishing values and corporate culture, talking to partners
Of course, the hourly values given are set arbitrarily and the exact value of one hour cannot be determined exactly. The hourly values also vary greatly depending on the business model, but the principle should be clear. There is an extreme difference between a €10,000 hour and a €10 hour.
The 80/20 rule
You've probably heard of the 80/20 or Pareto rule before. This states that a low (20%) proportion of activities is responsible for a large part (80%) of the results. In this blog post, we have already briefly discussed 80/20 phenomenon written, a more detailed description with interesting comments can be found in this post .
It seems logical that you, as an entrepreneur, should increase the proportion of activities that guarantee a high yield per hour. Those tasks that achieve a low rating should be delegated, outsourced or eliminated first. However, many founders make the mistake of outsourcing very valuable activities and taking on simple tasks such as office cleaning themselves. This is primarily due to the tendency to evaluate activities according to the pleasure principle. Everyone knows the areas they don't like and don't like. Many founders outsource these areas and managerial literature is often recommended to focus on your strengths and delegate your weaknesses. This approach should be relevant for established companies that have filled all important areas with experienced employees, for founders and startups it is vital to understand the relevant areas even if you hate them. A suitable quote is: Life begins beyond your comfort zone (Nealle Donald Walsh)
To give you clarity about the activities you carry out, we recommend recording all activities for a week. You should then list the activities as above in a table. Think carefully about which activities really create value. Pay particular attention to the valuable activities that are unpleasant to you and think about how you can control and master them.
Now you should consider which low-value activities you can outsource. An important tip to finish: It takes time and energy to change habits in the long term. So don't set yourself up too much, especially at the beginning, and take one step at a time. We wish them every success.
