Tales from the Online Marketing Crypt #17
Stop Doing These 3 Wasteful Things in Your Business to Start Making Net Profits!
“Waste not, want not.”⨔Don’t waste your breath.”⨔What a waste of time/space/energy.”
The list goes on and I’m sure you’ve either heard or said any number of these idioms over the years.
Being the system type of personality that I am, wasting time is a big pet peeve of mine.
Growing up on the farm my Dad decided he wanted to control the thistles that were starting to take over the back pasture. I guess pesticides weren’t a thing back then, but child labour was!
One summer he put me to work pulling out every single thistle stock… by hand. Armed with adult-sized leather gloves, I sat on the field grabbing the large prickly stalks at the base and tugged with all my might to free those suckers from their clutches. I had to ensure every bit of root was captured; otherwise, the weed would grow right back again.
I laboured all summer on that project (or so my childhood memory has deemed this to be true). It was a big patch of nettles with thick stocks firmly implanted into the hard ground, so they weren’t all that easy to pull out for this 10 year old.
Of course the next summer they all came back to continue their dominance of the field.
What a colossal waste of time that was.
Have you ever felt like you’ve wasted too much of something in your business? When marketing the services that we provide, you’ll often hear me encourage business owners to stop wasting three things:
1. Wasting Time
2. Wasting Money
3. Wasting Energy
Let’s explore each of these areas and see if anything resonates with you.
Wasting time
One of the biggest problems I see entrepreneurs have is wasting their time trying to learn and do something that’s outside their area of expertise.
Somewhere along the way, especially us women, we got it into our heads that we should know how to do everything that involves building a business.
How is that even possible?
Even if one had a Masters degree in Business, would they know HOW to do everything? Certainly they would know WHAT needs to be done, but I argue not how.
That’s why businesses can’t be built with just one person. They need a team.
Businesses need to delegate to people who have expertise in areas the founder doesn’t.. And no, the DIY tools that are available don’t cut the mustard. Just because I know how to use a calculator, doesn’t make me a mathematician.
Ultimately, you don’t know what you don’t know and that’s OK. There’s nothing wrong with you. You simply need to learn to delegate!
I asked fellow business owners in a Facebook group I belong to what they found wasteful in their business and throughout this piece you will hear their responses.
This one from Christine Awram, founder of Woman of Worth, shares her valuable lesson on trying to do everything herself:
“Wearing too many hats and not staying focused on what I’m most brilliant at, letting others shine their specific brilliance on areas I’m not as strong in. Doing everything and/or micromanaging comes with a price tag, primarily burnout and unintentionally pissing people off LOL. This was a hard lesson for me many years ago, when I thought I was Superwoman and could do everything.”
+ There are no comments
Add yours