If you want to do more of something in your business (sell more, gain better results, improve processes), the first question you should ask yourself is: How do I spend my time?
Let’s focus on the sales goal for a moment. Let’s say a main goal for your business is to increase sales and add new MRR.
How many hours are you spending specifically on this goal? To truly see a change from one quarter to the next, you need to dedicate more time to this single initiative.
One thing you should do — at least once a year — is journal your time for about two weeks. Then total that time and break it down by what you spend your time on. Next, list your priorities and see if the time you spend on each matches up. You may be surprised at what you find!
The truth is that you’re most likely spending a lot of time on things that don’t move the needle for your job, role and business. This exercise is a great way to see if this is in fact the case for you.
I learned this lesson when I sold my first MSP. My role at the time revolved around several business areas, including sales, finance and leadership. I was also managing our vCIOs.
Now, I considered my main priority to be sales, which showed because we sold new business every quarter. But once I sold the business, I had an earnout clause that was tied to money. The buyer wanted my main focus to be continuing to add new MRR, so I pulled myself out of things like the vCIO process and anything else that was not related to sales. And I assumed what would happen was that we would begin to have issues in the areas I pulled away from.
Well, here’s what actually happened: We sold way more, and everything else was fine. The time I was spending on those other things wasn’t actually moving the needle much.
My teams in other areas stepped up. We added better instrumentation, so that I could guide the results, and we became a better company because of that!
So, whatever your role is, take a deeper look at how you’re spending your time. This is a great time of the year to look at your results for 2020 and your goals for 2021. If there is a results gap, looking at how you spend your time is one of the best ways to close it.
Lastly, think about what you enjoy most about your work or role. How much time do you spend doing what you love or are good at, and how does that intersect with what makes you successful in that role? That intersection is the sweet spot. Find that and expand it to not only improve results, but to also find passion and enthusiasm.
So, again, ask yourself, “How do you spend your time?”
