As the business owner, your time is your most valuable asset. If you’re treating your time the same as the rest of your team, you’re not going to scale your business.
To work on opportunities and activities that bring in more cash, you need to free up more of your time; especially if you’re still on the tools.
I’ve learned this lesson through trial and error. Now, I’m going to share a practical how-to guide that will help you leverage your team to bring more cash into your business.
Respect your hourly rate
Your business stops and starts with you. Employees are valuable, but without you, there would be no customers to serve. You are the one driving the business forward, seizing opportunities, taking risks, and making the tough decisions.
You wouldn’t expect your employees to take on those tasks, it’s above their pay grade. Yet many business owners don’t respect their own hourly rate.
If your hourly rate is $45 per hour, should you complete tasks that bring a return of only $20 per hour? Absolutely not!
You need to focus on the tasks that bring AT LEAST your hourly rate into the business. Moving forward, focus on the 3-5 needle moving tasks every week, and delegate the rest.
Many business owners try to do everything themselves. This is often necessary in the early days when money is tight and you’re a team of 1 or 2. But if you have a larger team, use them!
Improve your team meeting structure
Many potentially productive hours have been lost to team meetings. But, if you implement a few planning and structural changes, you can get more done in less time, both inside and outside of meetings.
My first recommendation is to create your agenda ahead of time and share it with your team well in advance of the meeting. There’s nothing worse than being put on the spot. It can be embarrassing and unhelpful to everyone at the meeting if someone is unprepared.
If you need ideas, feedback, numbers, or information on projects, include it in the agenda, and those who need to prepare material can do so. This will save you time during and after the meeting.
Secondly, how many times have you and your team left a meeting, only to forget what you needed to do? It’s a massive waste of time! Never leave a meeting without discussing action points and assigning tasks with agreed deadlines.
This ensures everyone understands what’s expected of them, in what time frame, and to what quality level. Action points provide clarity, and with clarity comes productivity.
You can read more tips on how to run better team meetings here.
Set up systems and processes
One of the biggest frustrations I hear from business owners is that they need to constantly supervise their team. So it often feels impossible to leverage their team to improve efficiency and productivity in your business!
There are 3 processes that I recommend setting up and leaning on:
- Goal setting – If there is a lack of clarity in the business, team members will need to rely more on your guidance and input for everyday tasks. Just as your business needs goals, so do your employees. Make sure they know what they’re working on, the level of expectation, deadlines, etc. Sometimes we assume too much, instead of outlining exactly what we want and expect. Including action points in your team meetings will also help with this.
- Using middle level management – There needs to be someone in charge of tracking team progress, and that shouldn’t be you. Whether this be middle level management or team leaders, they keep your team on track, problem solve, and tackle challenges as they come up. This frees up your time, because you only deal with team tasks when necessary.
- Writing SOPs – This is where SOPs (Standard Operating Procedures) come in useful. Write down the processes in your business and store them in an easy to access place. For example, the staff member who handles invoicing is ill, and you need to create a client quote ASAP. Someone should be able to quickly and easily take over that task using your SOPs, with minimal disruption to your business.
Start leveraging your team today
For more support and to learn how to leverage your team effectively, join our closed Facebook Group, filled with trades and construction business owners, on the journey to growing their businesses. Click here to join.
