Just Because You Can Do Something, Doesn’t Mean You Should…

I was talking with Erin from FedEx Office last week. I was asking about the yard signs she is creating for our Piranha Members (which are getting Members LOTS of jobs by the way…).

She mentioned to me that a business owner had ordered signs without the H-metal sticks to post the signs in the ground.

The gentleman was going to… *ahem*… and I quote, “weld some sticks together myself for the signs.”

Did I mention that the order was for a hundred signs?

Did I mention that ordering without the metal H-sticks saved him just a few bucks per sign?

Did I mention that he OWNS his own business?

OPERATION MONEY SUCK

My favorite copywriter, John Carlton, has a phrase he coined “operation money suck” when he describes business owners spending time on activities not making them money instead of the activities that do.

In a quest here to save a few bucks per sign, this person was willing to instead spend a day welding sticks instead.  Instead of what?

Instead of working on getting marketing campaigns out the door.

Instead of working on sales strategies to land more large jobs.

Instead of doing REAL high-value activities.

What will it COST him to save this money on signs? It will cost him the time to spend on opportunities that really make a difference for his business.

Don’t laugh… you know there is some area in YOUR business where you are doing the same thing. It may not be welding.  It may be checking email, for the TENTH time today.  It may be texting absolutely nothing of value to someone who also is looking for a reason to not work.  It may be running off to the office supply store because you need one thing (do you really know how much it costs YOU to do this?).

There are times when we spend effort keeping busy instead of spending it on CREATING business.  We are all guilty of this!

When a business owner is choosing to do TEN dollar an hour work (or in this case FIVE dollar an hour work) instead of work that is bringing in hundreds of dollars an hour, then he … or she … is choosing to tear up hundreds of dollars.

I hear it all of the time, “I don’t need to hire help, it’s just easier to do it myself.”

Penny-wise and pound-foolish.

If you are the owner, or key person, in your company, then it is your responsibility to make most of your “work” time executing the highest value activities in the company. Period.

If you choose to do $10 an hour work, that’s fine, but go work for someone else and quit pretending that you are a REAL business owner.  It gets tiring to hear some business owners drone on about how hard running a business is, and when you look closer you see they spend most of their time doing fake work.

Want to find more hours in your week? Here’s strategy for you. One I learned from a great business mind David Kekich.

Sit down and identify the most valuable activities that make money for your company. (I’ll give you a hint – marketing and sales!)

Put a stopwatch around your neck.

For one week, click it on ONLY when you are doing activities that are truly MAKING you money. When you are doing something making no money, or spending money, keep it off.

At the end of the week – see how many hours (or minutes – yikes!) you honestly spent on MONEY MAKING activities.

This will be good and bad news.

The bad news will be that it will be much less than what you thought you were investing in a “typical” week. (Even worse, you know many of your employees are likely not anywhere near your total time.)

The good news is that you will be able to see how you can easily double your productive hours. (Even better, if you encourage your team to follow your lead your company can produce some incredible results in a short time.)

Want some suggestions on how to jump right into some “valuable money making” activities right now, I have one quick one for you.  Go to www.joepolish.com and request the “Seven Steps To A Successful Ad” report. With this outline you can improve EVERY marketing piece your company is currently running. The report is free. It will make you money.

Keep it ELF!
Lisa

P.S. I came across Dave Kekich’s Time Tracker document on our Members only website www.PiranhaCentral.com and thought we’d go ahead and share this with our loyal Rich Cleaner Blog readers…  Click Here To Download The Time Tracker File

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