- Pulling back, limiting your hours in the office, and why
- Identifying and Removing Obstacles, especially ourselves
- Hobbies that generate business
- Selective Ignorance (of interruptions, ie phone, email, and voicemail)
- Systems and disaster planning
- 80/20 and Clients that expect to much
- Branding/Credibility
- Home work and Follow up
Pulling Back/Removing the Obstacle
Have you started the 4 Hour Work Week yet? We can all use ideas from Tim Ferris in our businesses, which in discussion we mostly agreed can change how we our utilize resources in our businesses.
Where can we identify the highest and best use of our time and activity? We discussed many cases where we over-work ourselves, in the belief that we have to in order to operate in the best interests of our clients and businesses. I think it was Kevin who brought up the fact that there are activities we take care of that are best done on our own, if we want them done right. We have all subscribed to that theory at some point and may even be card carrying members, but the challenge is to ask ourselves whether it is really in the best interest of our businesses and in our lives if we truly seek growth in each?
Laurie brought up the fact that her most successful clients spend the least amount of time in their businesses (working on your business as opposed to in your business). The E-Myth, which I’m positive we’ll be referring to as we move forward (add it to your list) systems are important as they play a role in getting you to identify potential systems in your business that can free you up to focus on the highest and best use of our time and activity.
Although I haven’t finished reading Tim Ferris’s book, I sure that systems hand-in-hand and critical reducing the amount of time you spend in the office. The time reduction should “in theory” avail ourselves to higher value activities, hobbies, or family activity. My recent poker activities (for example) seem to have had an unanticipated business networking result that may lead to more business. Laurie mentioned that her clients had quite a bit of “hobby” activity. Where can we identify and remove ourselves as obstacles in our business, and propose a new system to provide more freedom?
Anyone have clients who expect to much? Sometimes we refer to these as C or D clients and we all have them. From time to time these clients can make the 80/20 rule look like more like 99/1. Rob recently went on vacation on to find himself not being able to completely get away from “the client” due to circumstances that he believed required his contribution. What could he have done?
Economic forces and fears are “in play” that can sometime force our decision to take the good, with the bad. There is no substitute for the word “courage” in trying to fix this situation, because in order to fix it, a tremendous amount is at risk including the potential loss of clients that contribute heavily to your bottom line. However, long-term success in terms of business growth and personal fulfillment are highly unlikely if we don’t at least address it. I’ve recently tried selective ignorance with email and voicemail, which Ferris points out as a positive step in reclaiming more “highest use” territory, an although I’m still experimenting – I do see opportunities to stop being a slave to rapid fire interruptive impediments from clients and staff. Charlie, congrats on getting rid of the Blackberry. iPhone anyone? How is this relevant in each of our businesses? What steps can we take to improve on this?
The critical feature a business needs to free up the entrepreneur is Systems. We discussed disaster proofing our businesses, which is outlined in the E-Myth as a way of developing our organizations into systems and processes that can handle most if not all situations. If we find ourselves over-reliant on ourselves to always have to be there to ensure everything “goes right”, then we may have on opportunity to create a system. Perhaps, someone can comment here to enrich this conversation, as I haven’t read the book in a decade.
Can it be done in an organization that is riddled with an 80/20 problem and the business owner working a 60 hour workweek? It would probably help alleviate some of those problems, but both issues seem symbiotic and worth attacking simultaneously.
Kevin, what are the systems at Stoneridge responsible for the “Street Credibility” it maintains. It seems that, across the board – customers, attorneys, mortgage brokers, etc appreciate the brand of Stoneridge. Beyond individual efforts, is there a system responsible for this? What can we apply from it?
Homework
Okay, students…just kidding. When we began, we agreed that an important core value in building a strong network organization was to share business issues so that as advisors, we can offer real and timely solutions where we might not otherwise have easy and consistent access.
In the spirit of today’s conversation, let’s advance the discussion by peeling the onion back a bit to expose problems and identify opportunities for solutions and perhaps action items. As succinctly detailed as possible, please provide the following:
1) An examples where the 80/20 rule contributes to inefficiency in your business.
2) A behavior, business practice, or procedure that you follow where you are potentially an obstacle or a bottleneck.
3) Identify the Lowest Value/Worst Use of Time activities that you practice on a weekly basis.
Attendence
Thank you Kevin Wallace, Lisa Jewitt, Patrick Fuller, Charlie Palmissano, Rob Pellegrini,
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