If I had a dollar for every time I have heard a business owner tell me he or she is too busy to invest time planning their business, well I would be swimming in gold coins.
It’s a common thread to also think you are planning but the reality is that the plans are focussed on short term sales and growth.
Sure these are important, but only if you are planning to build an income business. Most business owners have a goal to sell their business at some stage but invest no time in actually understanding how to do this.
Somewhere along the road we have been told that you "must work hard to get ahead". This failed to say what you need to work hard on, but what I can tell you is it is not just on growing your business.
You see there are a few problems with this:
1) Busy should not be valued - Too often I see people equating "busy-ness" with hard work. In fact being busy is so often a trait admired by many. "Wow he must be doing well he is always so busy" At times it almost feels like a competition of who can be the most busy. Business owners tell me how long and hard they have worked and wear it like a badge of honour. To be honest I feel pity for them. Long nights deprive you from sleep and your health and work performance can suffer. The body shuts down before the mind does and poor health is often a tell-tale sign, as is getting sick on holidays when your body finally gets a rest and the adrenaline stops pumping. Families are torn and what used to be fun can quickly become laborious.
2) Idle Hands are not the Devils Workshop - Many business owners fret when their staff are not busy. They then "create" work for them to justify why they are paying them. I have even seen owners give the same task to 2 or 3 people just to check that they get the same answer, all in the name of make sure people are busy. However without space there is no scope for creativity. Sure you still need to work hard at times. But hard work alone will not get you your outcome. Good planning, a creative strategy, inspiring leadership and loyal staff will get the outcome.
3) Too busy to plan - This one is the clincher. As a business advisor it is so clear for me to see, but many business owners need to learn this the hard way. They tell me that they are just "too busy right now" to work on the strategy and planning as they just need to close a few deals or do some more work and then they will allocate time for this work. The sad part is that usually when I start working with my clients we are cleaning up the strategy which if done properly at the start would have saved a lot of time, money and frustration.
You see knowing your business, being able to close deals and acquire customers doesn't make a seasoned business owner. I have never seen an investor acquire a business because the founder is "really busy". In fact quite the opposite. A stressed out, overworked business owner is a sign of trouble in the business. As an investor I find this a sign that the business has not yet figured out how to implement good strategy or leverage themselves.
If you are counting your staff hours you don't value what they produce.
If you are counting your hours you don't value yourself.
If you are too busy to plan, then you really must. It is just postponing the inevitable and getting busy does not reduce your busy-ness, however good planning does.
