Evaluating Your Time

If you’re one of those business owners that has a calendar full of meetings, networking events, client assignments, and sales calls, listen up.  When we overschedule ourselves, we sometimes just spin our wheels.  Just because you are busy, doesn’t mean you are productive.  We see this a lot with small business owners. They run at a very fast pace, from client to meeting, etc. but really don’t produce that much cash for their business.  So, how do you know if you are just spinning your wheels or are actually being productive?  Look at your bottom line.  Are you making money? Have you met the goals you (should have) set for the month? 

It’s easy to spend time on things that don’t bring in money or on things that we could pay others to do. I have written several blogs on this subject.   It’s important that you take your weekly or monthly goals and see how you will achieve them.  If you aren’t making enough money to pay all the bills, then you aren’t as productive as you could be. 

It’s critical that you evaluate your time critically.  What am I doing that really brings in money? Should  I pay someone a lot less than I charge to help me get things done?  Are there activities that just aren’t producing the connections I need?  Look at all the time you spend networking and evaluate each of those activities to see what you really received from the time you have put into them.  It may be time to rearrange some of the time suckers in your life for more productive activities.  Only you will know for sure.  But only you will know if you take the time to look.  

Suzanne Cormier
Executive Director
BizWorks (Small Business Incubator)
Follow Suzanne Cormier on Facebook and
Twitter @BizWorksCenter

Image Source