There is absolutely no doubt whatsoever that managing your time has to be your utmost priority.

Look at a typical small to medium business scenario...

• The boss gets into the office early, maybe before 7am (to play catchup)
• He starts to read through stuff from yesterday (stuff he didn't get round to)
• His staff start to drift in from around 7:30am to 9am (I know why do you?)
• His staff start to greet him or ask questions as soon as they arrive (interruptions)
• He goes to an operational meeting (he can't get the staff to run operations how he likes it)
• He goes to see clients (although he has sales staff he needs to keep in touch with clients)
• He comes back late afternoon and starts answering questions from his staff
• Around 6:30pm most of the staff have left and maybe one or two stay to chew the fat
• The hangers on leave, around 7:30pm to 8pm, or they all go to a bar
• The boss starts to go through he stuff he started to go through this morning
• Eventually still unfinished he leaves about 9 or 10pm and arrives home in time to kiss his sleeping children goodnight

Is Time Management The Answer?

Does that list of activities ring any bells?

Do you think it's about better time management?

It's not.

You can manage all those tasks so you complete them all to plan. What if they're the wrong tasks for you?

Think about it...

What if you're working on tasks that someone else can do? What if you trained that person to do it better than you?

What if the questions people asked you could be answered by someone else equally effectively? What would that do...?

• People wouldn't wait for you to come back to resolve many issues
• the company would run without you ringing up every hour on the hour to check how things are going
• Clients and prospects wouldn't be kept waiting for answers
• You would have time released to spend on things you should be doing.

What Should A Business Owner Do?

As Michael Gerber says in the The E-myth and the E-myth Revisited The ultimate aim of the business owner is to sell their business. That means that almost every task they personally get involved with should be aimed at doing that. 

For those of us who prefer to listen as we drive through our packed schedule you can check out these two Michael Gerber audio sets.

• The first one is Michael's  UK event where over 1,000 delegates heard him at the event and where this programme was recorded. Each person paid £150 for the privilege. The 3 CD boxed set includes the whole day's presentation from Michael Gerber.
• The second is a Nightingale Conant boxed set of the E Myth Manager Seminar.

Enjoy!