I watched a TikTok earlier this week of a creator asking their partner if they’d be ready to go out in five minutes. The partner replied that yes, five minutes was enough, but they ‘just needed to finish what they were doing’. It turned out that finishing what they were doing couldn’t be done in five minutes, as it was actually a 4-hour job!
We’ve all been there, haven’t we? Completely underestimating how long something is going to take – whether that’s because we keep getting distracted, or because we’ve not appreciated how much work could be involved on a specific task.
When that happens once or twice, it’s an annoyance. When you’re a busy business owner and find your time is getting sucked up in an endless task vacuum, it can be much more problematic. If you’re spending all your time working in your business instead of on it, how can it develop and grow?
When we meet new clients, one of the first things we discuss with them is finding out where their own task vacuums exist. Showing someone how much time we can save them is one of the most satisfying parts of our job!
To give you an idea of how we might be able to help, take a look at how much time we’ve saved some of our clients over time!
Content creation
Our new client told us that she knew she needed to post more on LinkedIn, but that she hated doing it. Even a short 200-word post would have her tied up in agony for hours – reading, rereading, tweaking… she would routinely spend 3 or more hours writing a post, and then get tied up in knots again worrying about what kind of responses she would get.
We took over her social posting and blogging, providing her with 2-3 mini blog posts a week that she just needed to tweak and post – giving her back about 6 hours a week… or a whopping 312 hours a year. That’s 13 days!
Death by PowerPoint
This is something we’ve seen time and time again, but one of our most recent examples was from a long-term client. They asked our associate to take over an element of the job they detested: tidying up slides. Every time they had a new project the slides would be the last job to get done and they’d often be working into the early hours desperately trying to get things finished before the deadline, only to find that in the stress of rushing, there would nearly always be an error that they would then beat themselves up about afterwards (whether their client had noticed it or not).
We spent time with them confirming their preferred styles and themes, then took over the polish as soon as they’d provided all the content, which was often early on in the process. All they needed to do, once we’d waved our magic wands over the work, was to make some final amendments – meaning they had more time to work on the actual presentation and make sure they were properly prepared.
We’ve saved them, on average, about 12 hours of their own time every month, not to mention the emotional benefits of not trying to present something on only a couple of hours sleep!
Order from chaos
I’ve lost count of the number of clients who claim to love working in ‘organised chaos’… but the reality of it is that whether you think it’s organised or not, ‘chaos’ isn’t a word you want associated with your business!
One of our clients had grown quite considerably but was still something of a one-man shop: doing everything themselves but having a lot of trouble staying on top of everything – as a result they were working virtually 24-7 to try and get things done and at dangerous risk of burnout.
Understandably they were anxious about handing things over to a third party, but soon realised that the pros far outweighed the cons. We took over their diary management, regularly checked their emails (responding on their behalf when appropriate) and a few other basic tasks. Just doing that gave them back about 10 hours a week – that’s 40 hours a month or 480 hours a year! We helped them get properly organised and helped them put some systems in place to streamline their working processes – things that are all very easy but only when you have space to breath and an objective eye to help you see the wood for the trees.
If you recognise yourself in the examples above, then get in touch. We’re all about helping you make the most of your time and really take your business to the next level!
Until next time!
Stay productive.