Running a small business is chaotic, even in the best of times. This is simply the reality—and it’s not surprising considering that most small business owners wear a wide variety of “hats” each and every day. From marketing to accounting to customer service, the typical small business owner has his or her hands involved in every aspect of the business.
Unfortunately, this reality can cause problems when the chaos begins to take over. When a business owner is constantly reacting to the chaos around him, instead of spending time efficiently, the business suffers. And one of the most common problems business owners make is confusing the urgent with the important.
Urgent tasks demand an immediate response. Urgent tasks can include things like:
-Responding to a customer complaint.
-Fixing a broken piece of equipment.
-Resolving a dispute between employees.
-Ordering a new shipment of supplies from a vendor ahead of the deadline.
On the other hand, tasks that are truly important have an impact on the long-term future of the business. Important tasks can include things like:
-Strategizing for a new marketing campaign.
-Creating an employee development strategy.
-Performing competitive analysis in search of new opportunities.
Do you see the difference? Urgent tasks demand immediate attention, but have little impact on the long-term fate of the business. Important tasks may be easily ignored from day to day, but ultimately play a crucial role in the success or the failure of a given business.
But if your business is like many small businesses today, you spend the vast majority of your time dealing with urgent issues rather than the truly important ones. That is why organizing and systemizing your business is so important—it allows you to spend less time responding to the chaos, and more time planning and strategizing for success. The time you spend on high level strategic functions is so much more valuable than time spent managing trivial, yet urgent details. So make it a goal to spend less time each day dealing with “urgent” tasks… and more time focused on the tasks that are truly important!
If you’d like to learn more about systemizing your business so that you can spend your time more effectively, please get in touch with us today!