Clock sitting on top of stack of papers.

Time Management and the Small Business Owner—Part 1

The first in a series of articles dedicated to encouraging small business owners to value their time as a limited resource essential to their success

David Cox | August 20, 2019

Time Management: If you own a small business, your time is valuable

As a small business owner, the time I can devote to client projects will ultimately determine my income. Subsequently, when I launched ThirdPartyBlogger.com, I should have realized that the ability to manage my time effectively was essential to my business’s financial success. Instead, I assumed the time management skills that helped me succeed as an employee would automatically do the same for me as a business owner.

An employee may view time management as a process for maintaining a schedule and getting things done. On the other hand, a small business owner must also consider time management as a value-process. One that tracks whether his/her time generates revenue or becomes an expense.

Employee experience

As an employee, I kept a master calendar (digital). Also, I worked on projects and individual tasks from a to-do list (paper). I kept a notepad with me, ready to adjust my schedule, tasks, or changes in priorities. These were standard time management practices. Nevertheless, they served me well. In fact, my time management system became an integral part of my productivity and helped me succeed as an employee.

I scheduled all appointments, meetings, and events. I created to-do lists and wrote down every task for which I was responsible. Then, I prioritized these items as urgent, important, or any other designation I considered appropriate. Once completed, I checked them off and progressed through my list.

Applying the employee experience to small business ownership

Apparently, the time management practices that helped me succeed as an employee didn’t work for me as a small business owner. Sadly, I repeatedly scheduled activities that had little hope of helping me grow my business. When I received requests to donate my time for a worthy cause. As such, I found it difficult to say “no.” Undeniably, from a small business owner’s perspective, giving away my time was a costly and unrecoverable expense.

I also prioritized activities without consideration as to whether they would help me generate income. In other words, I managed my time like an employee with a lot of stuff to do rather than a small business owner who needed to manage his time carefully.

Time Management: Applying new rules

Eventually, I accepted that as a small business owner, I had to take responsibility for my time management practices. If I wasted time due to bad decisions, there was no one else to blame other than me. Now, I treat every decision about scheduling my time and tasks as a decision that could impact my business’s income. My new perspective drives me to think about this subject differently and apply new rules to increase my efficiency.

I believe a turnaround in time management begins with making smart decisions, then actively working to correct present deficiencies. For me, it started with accepting what I consider is the first rule of time management.

Rule #1 – Your time is more important than money

If you lose money, you can always make more. If you lose your time, it’s gone forever. There is nothing you can ever do to recover the time you’ve lost. Moreover, if you lose time in your business, you’re responsible for the loss. Acceptance of this rule forces you to take responsibility for your time.

An excellent resource on time management is the Small Business Administration’s participant guide on time management for small businesses. The PDF is available for download at no charge.

Next week, I’ll cover the second of five rules that have helped me make better decisions with regards to time management. Moreover, they’ve kept me on track as ThirdPartyBlogger.com continues to develop. I can’t guarantee they’ll help you, but I can attest they’ve certainly worked well for me.

About
Latest Posts

David Cox

David is the Principal Content Writer for ThirdPartyBlogger.com, a blogging and web content service. Our clients are professionals who realize the importance of writing quality blog articles (on a regular basis) and producing general website content, but don't have the time to do so in addition to their other responsibilities.

Please contact David if you need help in writing regular, updated blog articles for your website. He would welcome an opportunity to discuss how TPB's blogging services could potentially simplify this task for you and contribute to the success of your site.

Latest posts by David Cox (see all)

5 Steps for Successfully Overcoming Mistakes at Work - July 23, 2019
Managing Stress While Building a Successful Business - July 9, 2019
10 Essential Characteristics for Earning Respect in Your Organization - June 25, 2019

Contact us for a free consultation about blogging and web content services

More from the TPB Blog

Lessons for Successfully Managing Career Transitions

Career Transitions can be as simple as progressing from one job to another in the same organization. Unfortunately, they can also involve unemployment, loss of income, relocation, learning new skills, and other significant challenges.

5 Steps for Successfully Overcoming Mistakes at Work

No one is immune to making mistakes—it’s universal among human beings. However, it’s the determination and ability to overcome our mistakes that distinguishes some in business as exceptional. Successful business and organizational leaders learn how to manage their mistakes objectively. They logically accept their fallibility and are prepared to overcome potential problems they may have unintentionally created. Unfortunately, when I hear employees and management acknowledge mistakes in the workplace, too often, their reason for doing so is to blame someone else.

Managing Stress While Building a Successful Business

Building a small business means coping with stressful situations daily. As stress continues, it hinders the ability to focus or think clearly. The inability to think clearly can lead to bad business decisions that can negatively affect your business’s growth and development. The more stress you experience, the more frustrated and impatient you may feel, which can increase your stress even further. Likewise, the adverse effects of increased stress will prove detrimental to the business, and your health if this increase remains unchecked.

10 Essential Characteristics for Earning Respect in Your Organization

Earning respect: Why is it important?
Earning respect is essential to your job success and career opportunities.

You may be a business owner, working to increase quality and productivity. You may be a middle manager seeking further advancement. Perhaps you started as an entry-level employee a few months ago, and are now under consideration for your first promotion.

Managerial Leadership Skills for a Competitive Workforce

More organizations are augmenting the traditional criteria for advancement to management roles in an increasingly competitive business environment. Obviously, technical skills, past employee performance, and tenure are all crucial factors, but they’re no longer sufficient for determining management potential.

Blog Post Value: Growing Your Audience

A blog post value focuses on what your article offers readers. Specifically, the reason your article matters to them. Then again, if you discover an overall blog post value that repeatedly gains attention, it may help you plan more articles that will continue to attract a growing audience.

Mug that reads "Go Get Em'" of steaming coffee on table next to pen and paper.

Self-confidence Supports Greater Business Success

There is an inevitable connection between self-confidence and business success. Those who struggle with inadequacies, whether real or imagined, often find it difficult to succeed. In contrast, confident individuals stand tall and proud as they manage stressful situations.

Desk with calendar, clock, newspaper and computer in a grid pattern.

Organizing for Business Success Begins with You!

There are numerous tools and systems available to support better time management. Unfortunately, too many entrepreneurs understand the details of their business but cannot seem to grasp that a lack of organization can sabotage their success.

You started a business, and you need your network of clients, prospects, and supporters to have confidence in you. No one has confidence in a disorganized business owner. Seriously: Once you become known for being disorganized – No one is going to have confidence in you. That’s not good for you and could be disastrous for your business.