Issue #19
[GROW-3] How to MAKE more time
Today is part 3 of our series, here on The Daily, of how to make the most headway in your business in the least possible time. This week, we’re talking about some things related to time management itself, then next week we’re going to be diving into actual actions in your business which are high-leverage and don’t take very long. The goal is 30 minutes or less. 🙂
Yesterday, I got a little philosophical with you about one’s viewpoint of time and how we can develop superhuman strength when it comes to our own time management.
But, today, I straight-up want to talk to you about BUYING TIME.
Yes, if you are short on time, you can literally buy more.
And if you just paralyze yourself because you think you have no time OR money, then…. stop concentrating on problems. You want this or not? If not, admit it and go do something else. But, if you WANT this, you either need to put some real sweat equity into it, or you can buy shortcuts.
This is one of the MAJOR sources of leverage in your business, but unfortunately many people try desperately to avoid it because it involves spending money. But, it isn’t really about spending. It is about what you GET for it and doing it in a high-leverage way.
There’s always the fairly obvious act of hiring somebody else to do things you don’t want to do, can’t do, or don’t have time for. There’s no doubt that outsourcing is a way to BUY TIME. When you hire a service provider to do something for you, they are able to handle it for you while you’re off doing something else. Plus, since it is their area of expertise, they will usually do it better and faster than you would.
So, clearly, one way to move the needle in a massive way and get projects done faster is to outsource them.
But, there are other ways that don’t involve hiring anybody.
For instance…. TOOLS.
As an example, you may remember we had Hurricane Irma blow through our area not long ago. My brother had a fence blown down in that storm and he decided to rebuild it himself rather than paying the $2,400 it was estimated by a fencing company. Now, he could have nailed it together with a hammer, but he tells me there were about 1,500 nails involved in the job, so you can imagine how long that would have taken. Instead, my brother picked up a nail gun to operate off his air compressor. That tool whizzed through things and 1,500 nails was child’s play.
The right tool for the job, is all it was.
When it comes to our online businesses, we use tools of the trade, too. But, some tools are much better suited to the job than others.
If I had to make a landing page, it would be a long, tedious and ANNOYING thing to try to create it by hand, or even using my theme. All kinds of CSS, HTML, coding. All to make a single landing page.
Or, I could just use Thrive Architect. I could use one of the pre-built templates and drag-and-drop some customizations. No coding required. The page will look better than I could have hand-coded and it would take a tiny FRACTION of the time!
Right tool for the right job.
Definitely don’t go on a tool collection spree. We’ve all probably bought tools we didn’t end up using. But, at the same time, don’t avoid buying tools just because you want to avoid spending any money. Buying a dedicated tool (or a collection of them through the Thrives Membership) is one of the most economical ways to BUY TIME. That’s really what you’re buying. You’re buying time.
Another example of how to buy time is to use paid traffic through the likes of Facebook Ads.
Could you build up your traffic all for free? Maybe. Honestly it is harder than it used to be, but it can still be done. It will require a lot of sweat and time, tho.
Plus, when you’re doing this for business reasons, you need to test ideas. To test out a list opt-in or a product idea, you need traffic. To do that with a slow trickle of google traffic can take so long that you never even know what’s happening. But, if you use paid traffic, you radically speed it up and can sail through testing concepts much faster. Ultimately, your time to market shortens substantially.
(And yes, the Lab does offer a course on this: The Facebook Ads Blueprint).
So, that’s another example of buying time. Sure, you’re buying traffic, but you are also buying time.
Successful entrepreneurs don’t avoid buying time. They realize that the most important asset they have isn’t money, it is time. There are a lot of ways to make money. Time, however, cannot simply be made. You can change your perception of it (as we discussed yesterday), or you can buy time. But, it isn’t as if we’re going to add a 25th hour to the day, or an 8th day to the week.
If you don’t value your time, it is going to be quite difficult to build your business successfully.
And it’ll be quite hard to move the needle in your business in short time allotments.
It is the difference between driving your car in 5th gear or 1st. In 1st gear, your engine is racing but you’re barely cracking 10 mph. In any higher gear, the engine RPM drops but you’re going faster. Buying the right tools and using them can put you into 2nd gear or even third. As time goes on and concepts are proven, you’ll build higher leverage. You can use automated systems or even consider hiring somebody. This puts you into higher gears.
Before too long, you’ll be on vacation while your business is operating. Or making good revenue while working on a pretty part-time schedule of your own choosing.
Really depends how far you want to take this. It doesn’t come all at once, of course. But, it does begin with that mindset that…
You can MAKE more time by buying it.
See ya mañana.
– David