Stop wasting time

Johannesburg - Most small-business owners find themselves wishing they had more hours in the day, but fail to treat their time as an asset.

"The most limited resource of a business owner is not only cash, but time," said Jannie Rossouw, senior business manager at Sanlam Cobalt. He said many South African small-business owners were very diligent in managing finances, but neglected to apply the same principles to time.

Rossouw's advice echoes the sentiments of entrepreneurs profiled by Fin24.com, who have agreed that time remains one of their most valuable and underrated assets.

Conrad Steyn, managing director of Barnstone Investments, said budding entrepreneurs should use their time to generate cash flow quickly. "Don't make big investments in products that will only generate cash flow in years to come," he said.

Local small business guru Mel Brooks also focused on time management in his message to entrepreneurs. He pointed out that as the year drew to a close, many corporates decided to put off new spending until the new year.

"Make sure you get the business this year," he said. "By the end of October it may be too late for this year."

Some of the areas that Rossouw identified as being prime time wasters included:

• Spending time with clients who do limited business with you.
• Waiting for events to fill your diary due to a lack of planning.
• Disrupting your planning by taking every phone call.
• Searching for things because you do not have a good filing system.

My Business has prepared some time-saving tips for small-business owners, who find they never have enough hours in a day:

Prioritise what is important

Business owners will often find themselves swamped trying to handle all the administrative duties involved in running the business. Delegate this to competent people. Identify what the most important issues and opportunities of the business are. Once you know what is important, you can accurately dedicate time and attention.

Implement systems but don't get bogged down

Technology can be a great enabler for a business - use it to be able to communicate quickly and efficiently. However, don't allow technology - such as email - to slow you down when you should be focusing on providing direction to your business.

Plan your day

One of the biggest time wasters for people is an inability to plan their day. Identify early what you are looking to achieve and tick these items off the list as they are completed. If you find yourself adding items to the list and not finishing activities you had identified early on, then you are not making optimal use of your time.

Work out your return on investment

Your time is an investment and at the end of the day you should be able to identify how you spent your time and the return it generated for the business. If your primary focus is sales and you are expending a lot of energy for little return, then identify where the problems lie in terms of how or what you are trying to sell. If you are a business manager and you find yourself micro-managing every little problem in the business, then perhaps it is time to delegate some activities.

Stop procrastinating

The biggest timewaster is very often your own activities. Plan your day and ensure that you set your mind to finishing the tasks that are most important.

"Make a decision right now to improve your time-management if you are guilty of allowing other people and their priorities to disrupt your day," said Rossouw.

- Fin24.com