Editor’s Note: Another post from fan-favorite, Brian Schachtner.
Time is one of the few things we can’t ever buy more of. When I am at work, or working in my business my time is money. You will hear a lot about that from anyone who is in business for themselves. One thing you don’t hear very often is when time isn’t money.
As a business owner, we find ourselves working to the bone in some cases trying to make ends meet. An example of this would be a friend of mine that owns a pet store. She does 60 hours a week at the store, and 8 hours away from the store. She is making minimal profit, hates her store, and can’t afford to enjoy more than the basics of life. To her time is money, she just can’t find enough of either to make a living.
She has found she is miserable with her employees, life, and business. Who wants to be this way? She is slowly getting back onto the right track. She has found that her employees can be trusted and trained to do what they’re supposed to do, if she uses a trust-but-verify strategy. When she learns to trust her employees, she does not have to monitor camera systems all day at home on her days off. She is also able to allow one of her employees to close the store so that she is able to leave at a decent hour. Finding a few extra hours for herself, she is able to find something she enjoys doing.
Business Success Will Only Come When You Start To Work On Your Business Rather Than In Your Business
She is finding that in the extra time she has she is able to take time to play with her great dane on her property. She is also finding time to do the small things she used to enjoy such as cross-stitching, and reading. When she is bogged down with everything she would wake up get ready for work, go to work, come home go to bed. Not the life a business owner sees for themselves.
We make our businesses what they are by what we do in them. My friend will never be the true owner of the store, because she will never be able to give up most of the operations she needs to to be an owner. She will remain an employee of her own business.
In my business, I have outsourced some of the online arbitrage I do to some paid lists. I know while I am at work I can source on my lunch at a Wal-mart ever so close to my work. I also know that after 8 pm each night my daughter will be going to bed, and my wife will be catching up on her 80+ shows on the dvr. I make time to label, pack, and ship while my wife is watching her shows, and my daughter is sleeping. We need to make time for our lives so that we don’t learn to hate our businesses, and ultimately have them fail because of short-cuts, dreading them, or just not caring anymore.
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In the end if we run our business, our business can’t run us. Schedule that free time for family, friends, or whatever you enjoy. If you don’t your family will grow-up without you, your friends will slowly drift away, and your enjoyment slowly slips into a life that you no longer enjoy.
Brian S.[/ezcol_2fifth]
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Editor’s Time Saving Suggestions:
25DollarListClub
Keepa / CCC / FBA Calculator
OAXray with FBAMaster 10 day trial
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