Many of us want to create a business. With that comes being able to manage our business, but what about a self-managing business? Is it possible? The short answer is yes, but let’s break it all down. Paul Dworianyn of Awesome Dynamic, an Amazon Consulting Agency, shares with us how to get started!

Paul’s Quick Background

I’m a business owner with twenty employees in nine states. My wife is retired and we have the one thing which people strive for, work for, and dream about, but sadly never achieve. The freedom of time.

Having the Right Mindset is Key to Creating a Self-Managing Business

When it comes to creating a self-managing business you need the right mindset. Having the right mindset is more than affirmations and positive thinking. It’s getting comfortable with being uncomfortable. It’s taking the time to analyze your excuses, questioning yourself, continuously improving, and increasing the choices you have in life and business.

There is a statistic that ninety-five percent of self-employed people trade their time for money. They should be trading value for money.

When I first started my business, these were the statements which frustrated me: “Work ON your business instead of IN your business,” and “Delegate more.” While both of these made sense, I still had questions like “How do I do this?” and “Where should I start?”

In part, the answer had to do with optimizing my time.

Optimizing Time Part I

This is one of the crucial steps in the process. You need to create the mindset shift and learn to trade value for money instead of time. This comes from prioritizing how you spend your time and discovering ways to actually multiply your time. Being busy is a choice, think about choosing to focus on a goal versus just staying busy.

One method is to track your time. Remember, “What gets measured, gets managed.” What time are you spending doing what? Become self-aware of how you’re spending your time. By tracking it, you can review where time is spent and on what. Then ask yourself, was this important? Was there a faster way to do it? Should I have delegated it?

Some great resources to help with tracking time are Tsheets.com and old-fashioned pen and paper.

Consider “The Buckets” as the First Step toward a Self-Managing Business

Use the Three Bucket method to multiply your time. Take a piece of paper and make three columns. Labe one Bucket A, the next Bucket B, and the third Bucket C.

Bucket A is things I hate to doing. Bucket B is things I don’t mind doing. Bucket C is things I like doing, but probably shouldn’t be doing.

For example, my buckets (business and personal) are as follows:

Bucket A – Things I hate doing 

Business:

  • Bookkeeping
  • Personnel Files
  • HR Compliance

Personal:

  • Doing laundry
  • Cleaning the House

Bucket B – Things I don’t mind doing

Business:

  • Annual Employee Reviews
  • Sorting through emails
  • Invoicing & Depositing Checks
  • Website Maintenance

Personal:

  • Manually paying the bills
  • Mowing the lawn
  • Getting the mail

Bucket C – Things I like doing, but probably shouldn’t be

Business:

  • Closing Deals
  • Talking with Clients
  • Marketing

Personal:

  • News
  • Social Media
  • TV / Movies / Youtube

Optimizing Time Part II

There are numerous ways to gain some time back. Make sure all your bills are set up on autopay. Stop wasting time on stuff that doesn’t align with goals. Unsubscribe from all emails that are irrelevant to meeting your goals. Don’t categorize emails, use Gmail and google search inside your email! Be sureGoogleways ask, “How can I make a second improvement on this?” And “Who can I delegate this to?”

One resource which shows an example of how a business owner makes a 2-second improvement to everything is on Fastcap.com in the video section.

Recommended reading on time optimization and how to think differently about how to use your time.

  • 2 Second Lean: How to Grow People and Build A Fun Lean Culture by Paul Akers
  • The ONE Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results by Gary Keller and Jay Papasan
  • The One Minute Manager by Ken Blanchard
  • The 4-Hour Workweek by Timothy Ferris

Another tactic is to use automation services and software such as Chrome extensions or Calendly.com for scheduling all of your appointments. Consider hiring an assistant or sourcing out some of your tasks. Talk to your colleagues and other business owners. Tap their minds and come up with some solutions for whatever you’re time challenged with at the moment.

At some point, you need to take an honest inventory of your business. Where are you creating a bottleneck in your business and how or what can you do to get things flowing smoothly? One possible solution is letting someone take the reins. Letting go and trusting someone else to do anything in your business can be nerve-wracking, stressful, and sometimes can backfire, but you won’t progress towards letting go without trying.

Know your what, find your who,  don’t figure out how:

  • Know what you want done.
  • Find the who you can have do it.
  • Let them figure out how.

If your who hasn’t figured out how to get what you want done, your job is to find a different who, not to figure out how to get it done.

There’s a saying attributed to Jim Rohn: “You’re the average of the five people you spend most of your time with.” Maybe it’s also time to do an inventory not only of where time is spent, but with whom is your time spent.

For more information about how to get other people to run your business, read:

  • Traction: Get a Grip on Your Business by Gino Wickman
  • Rocket Fuel: The one Essential Combination That Will Get You More of What You Want from Your Business by Gino Wickman and Mark C. Winters
  • The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don’t Work and What to Do About It by Michael E. Gerber

How would spend your extra time?

What are you passionate about or is there something you’ve always wanted to do yet told yourself you didn’t have the time?

For me, it’s all about spending quality time with friends and family. I also love to read and absorb information by listening to podcasts. I’d make sure to schedule the time to scale my business and invest.

On a personal level, I’d do a better job of getting into shape and staying in shape. There’s also a desire in me to grow and impact a billion people in a positive way.

What about you? It’s worth the time to take a sheet of paper and make a list of what you would do with extra time. Would you grow a garden? Go to more theater shows? Take a class to further your education? There is no right or wrong answer. Have fun while creating the list and always be adding to it.

One book which has been instrumental to me during this process is The Miracle Morning for Entrepreneurs: Elevate Your SELF to Elevate Your BUSINESS by Hal Elrod.

 

See you at a meeting soon!

The Southwest Florida Real Estate Investment Association is the leading source of SWFL real estate investing events that provide investment education and networking in southwest Florida. We analyze the housing market and foreclosures and provide information, education and networking events in order to build a network and knowledge base for investors and potential investors. Our members include real estate agent, brokers, investors, hedge fund managers, rehabbers, wholesalers and more.

Our SWFL REIA General Meeting is held in Fort Myers where we provide education on hot topics in investing and an opportunity to enjoy the camaraderie of your fellow investors. You’ll get a chance to ask for advice from successful real estate professionals and even make a few deals on your latest projects.

To become a member, anyone can register as an individual, a couple, or a corporation. Being a member opens the doors for endless networking opportunities, advice from members with decades of experience, new ideas from entrepreneurs, camaraderie with those just beginning, and deals and contracts done in the meeting room. For those interested in Cape Coral rental property investment and/or Fort Myers rental property investment, SWFL REIA will be able to provide a network to help launch a successful investment career.

The SWFL REIA is known and respected as a source of current, actionable and useful information about the housing market in the area that we meet.

We meet twice a month.

Click here for information about the monthly luncheon.  

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One of the premier sources for real estate investing networking and education is the SWFL REIA. In the real estate world, the SWFL REIA is different in that they do not do information product sales. Their meetings are focusing on the best ways of investing in real estate by collaborating with other property investors who are sharing their experiences.

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