00:00:02special video edition of ask Evan today
00:00:06we’re going to look at one of the most
00:00:07common questions that I get asked by
00:00:08entrepreneurs how can I be more
00:00:10productive so we’re going to look at how
00:00:12you can eliminate automate and delegate
00:00:15your way to success here we go getting
00:00:19started the first thing you need to do
00:00:21is make a list of all the tasks that you
00:00:23do on a regular basis this means
00:00:25everything from selling to customers
00:00:27work with suppliers in visayan managing
00:00:30your cash flow and so on the second step
00:00:33is to bundle all your tasks into common
00:00:35themes for exempt making cold calls
00:00:37attending networking events and doing
00:00:40your email campaigns can all be on their
00:00:42sales and marketing pain your staff
00:00:44building your clients and keeping track
00:00:45of your expenses can all be called admin
00:00:47continue classifying all your tasks
00:00:50until you have five to seven main
00:00:51categories the third step is to figure
00:00:54out how much time you’re spending in
00:00:56each category for example you might
00:00:58spend 20 hours a week on sales marketing
00:01:0110 hours a week on admin and so on it’s
00:01:05easy to improve your performance once
00:01:06you start measuring it so make sure you
00:01:09go through this exercise to determine
00:01:11where your time is currently being spent
00:01:13once you know how your week is broken up
00:01:15we can work on freeing up your time for
00:01:17the CEO tasks from doing this exercise
00:01:20with many entrepreneurs I usually find
00:01:22that the one area we find that we spend
00:01:24too much time on is admit I’ve never met
00:01:27an entrepreneur who loves doing the
00:01:28admin side of their business we tend to
00:01:30want to focus on the tasks that we like
00:01:32we find interesting and that make us
00:01:34money who wants to spend time figuring
00:01:36out your tax calculations I’m going to
00:01:38show you how you can eliminate automate
00:01:40and delegate to reduce your time or in
00:01:43the admin’s you can focus on your
00:01:44business growth you can use these same
00:01:47steps for any of your business areas but
00:01:49I’m going to focus on admin because it
00:01:50seems to be the biggest area of concern
00:01:52for most entrepreneurs
00:01:56step one eliminate as business owners we
00:01:59never seem to have enough time in the
00:02:01day to get everything done and in other
00:02:03entrepreneurs in the rocket the super
00:02:05started how does that happen we all have
00:02:07the same 24 hours in a day the answer
00:02:10starts with illumination illumination is
00:02:13at the core of every successful business
00:02:14you have to focus on what you’re really
00:02:16good at what drives your business
00:02:18forward and what you’re legally required
00:02:20to do in order to stay in business
00:02:21everything else should be eliminated
00:02:24spending too much time on admin look at
00:02:26the tasks that you do on a regular basis
00:02:28do you actually need to do them yes we
00:02:30need to pay our staff balance our books
00:02:32invoice customers etc but are there
00:02:34other tasks that you’re doing that
00:02:36aren’t absolutely necessary we tend to
00:02:39do things because it’s supposed to be
00:02:40done that way or because someone showed
00:02:42us how they do it but that’s not that
00:02:44was the best way sometimes the best
00:02:46option is to do nothing here’s an
00:02:48example I used to take detailed notes at
00:02:51all my meetings and then send a nicely
00:02:53formatted summary of the meeting minutes
00:02:54to everyone it took me almost as much
00:02:56time to create the minutes as it did to
00:02:58actually be in the meeting but I thought
00:03:00it was a high value add thing to do
00:03:01after a particularly long meeting I
00:03:04decided not to send the minutes you know
00:03:06what happened nothing nobody asked about
00:03:09them after swallowing my pride I realize
00:03:12that most people didn’t even open my
00:03:14minutes and if they did they only took a
00:03:16quick glance at them they kept their own
00:03:17notes wrote down what was important to
00:03:19them how many hours did I waste on these
00:03:21minutes thinking I was providing a
00:03:23high-value service when nobody really
00:03:24cared too many to count but I don’t do
00:03:27it anymore I instantly had less admin
00:03:30work and I could spend more time growing
00:03:31my business take a look at your list and
00:03:34see what you can eliminate just because
00:03:36everyone else does it or because you’ve
00:03:38always done it that way it doesn’t mean
00:03:40you have to continue doing it
00:03:43step 2 oughta me if you want to squeeze
00:03:47more hours out of your day without
00:03:49coming into the office in the earlier
00:03:51the answer lies in automation we’ve
00:03:53already eliminated the non essential
00:03:55tasks but if you’re like most
00:03:56entrepreneurs there are still a lot of
00:03:58tasks left on your administ have to get
00:04:01done what we’ve got to do now is find
00:04:04you the tools that can get the same
00:04:05quality results or better in far less
00:04:07time a great example is accounting
00:04:10software depending on what study you
00:04:12believe between 65 and eighty percent of
00:04:15entrepreneurs don’t use accounting
00:04:17software that number blows my mind
00:04:19instead entrepreneurs to all their
00:04:21accounting on a spreadsheet or by hand
00:04:23want a quick way to boost your
00:04:25productivity and save you hours of
00:04:27frustration by an accounting software
00:04:29package for starters check out simply
00:04:32accounting using this software you can
00:04:34prepare bill payments and invoices track
00:04:36your cash flow revenue and expenses
00:04:38track customers and suppliers
00:04:40automatically calculate government sales
00:04:42tax write checks genet reports it even
00:04:45supports multi lingual functions how
00:04:47much time do you waste doing any of
00:04:49those tasks when it can all be done
00:04:51easily for you my favorite feature is
00:04:54that my bank allows me to download my
00:04:56bank and visa statements directly into
00:04:58the software from their website no more
00:05:00manually typing in each expense into an
00:05:02Excel spreadsheet it downloads
00:05:04everything in categorizes everything for
00:05:06me and I’m done less time spent on admin
00:05:09and
00:05:10my business I know what everything I
00:05:13possibly can on my visa is set a pain
00:05:15cash just so that the accounting process
00:05:17is so much easier simply counting starts
00:05:20at six nine dollars and it’s one of the
00:05:21best investments you can make into your
00:05:23business you can even get a free trial
00:05:25that’s risk-free for 30 days if you want
00:05:26to test it out and that’s just one
00:05:28example look through all your admin
00:05:30tasks and see what software and tools
00:05:32you can use to make the tasks more
00:05:34automated we need to raise your
00:05:35standards and value your time properly
00:05:37if you want to be a successful
00:05:39entrepreneur making a $69 purchase isn’t
00:05:42an expense it’s an investment into your
00:05:44business to give you better results and
00:05:46free up your time step 3 delegate the
00:05:52last step the successful time management
00:05:54for entrepreneurs is to delegate even
00:05:56after you’ve eliminated the non
00:05:58essential tasks and automated the other
00:05:59tasks through software tools you still
00:06:02got those final nagging tasks that have
00:06:04to get done what you need to ask
00:06:06yourself is am I the best person to do
00:06:08this for admin tasks the answer is
00:06:11usually no but something takes five
00:06:13hours away from your month every month
00:06:14then why not delegate that function so
00:06:16you can focus on your business growth
00:06:18yes it’s an expense but now you’re a CEO
00:06:21and you need to be doing CEO tasks not
00:06:24admin tasks if you only focus on the
00:06:26cost and try to do everything yourself
00:06:28you’ll always be limited in how much you
00:06:30can grow because you only have so many
00:06:32hours in the day you can gain more hours
00:06:35by leveraging a time of other people
00:06:37that’s the secret you don’t have to do
00:06:39everything yourself look at your admin
00:06:41tasks list and see what’s left some of
00:06:44them might be things that require a
00:06:45specific skill set for example you might
00:06:47hire an accountant or bookkeeper for
00:06:49some of your financial tasks other tasks
00:06:51you might be able to hire a part-time
00:06:52worker to help you the first person I
00:06:55hired in my first software company
00:06:56worked for one hour per day for me on
00:06:58admin tasks who’s boring work that I
00:07:01didn’t enjoy
00:07:02importantly and took up an hour off my
00:07:05time so I can focus on other projects I
00:07:07didn’t have the budget to hire someone
00:07:09full-time but I could afford one hour
00:07:11per day that freedom gave me the extra
00:07:13hour to spend growing my business which
00:07:15is exactly what I did and then I could
00:07:17afford to hire him for more hours to
00:07:19take even more admin tasks on my plate
00:07:20you don’t have to start with full-time
00:07:22staff I’ve had great success by using
00:07:25interns from various colleges and even
00:07:27high schools I’ve also used odesk calm
00:07:29and alliance com for work that can be
00:07:31done by someone who doesn’t physically
00:07:33have to be in my office both are
00:07:35excellent resources and you can hire
00:07:36skilled labor for highly competitive
00:07:38wages on an hourly or contract basis
00:07:41effective delegation is a final set
00:07:43deferring of your time the focus on the
00:07:45opportunities that are ahead of you and
00:07:47help you reach your full potential as an
00:07:49entrepreneur the order of eliminate
00:07:54automate delegate is really important
00:07:56eliminate is first you don’t want to
00:07:59automate or delegate something that can
00:08:00be eliminated because it’s a
00:08:02non-productive task automate is next you
00:08:05don’t want to delegate something that
00:08:06can be automated because it’s more
00:08:07expensive and more prone to error follow
00:08:10the steps I laid out to put your regular
00:08:11tasks into groups and then eliminate
00:08:13automate and delegate everything away
00:08:16until you working only on the top
00:08:17priority CEO tasks it all starts with a
00:08:21first little step
00:08:25thank you for joining me for this
00:08:27special video edition of ask Evan if you
00:08:30like the video please give it a thumbs
00:08:32up I’d also love to hear your thoughts
00:08:33and comments if you want to leave a
00:08:34comment below and stay tuned to the next
00:08:37episode
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