Greetings Flooring Dealers!
In the last installment, I discussed the definition of systems, and why they are important for you success as a flooring store owner. If you ever want to achieve freedom and “walk-away” power in your business, if you ever want to be able to take vacations and time off and have a life outside of business without worrying constantly about everything falling apart in your absence, it’s critical that you move from being owner dependent to being system dependent.
Using systems in your business is a big topic, and there is no way I can do it justice in a series of short articles. I highly recommend that you read Michael Gerber’s outstanding book, The E-Myth Revisited.
But here are some things you can do immediately to remove daily tasks from your plate.
First, realize that the single most profitable use of your time is marketing. As the owner (leader) of your business, you are the rainmaker; that’s your most important role. You are the one responsible for generating business. There is no activity in your business that will return higher dollars-per-hour than marketing.
Second, once you realize that marketing is the most profitable use of your time, then you’ll see that anything else you spend your time on is costing you money. Here’s what I mean. As the business owner, your time is worth at least $200 per hour, and that’s extremely conservative. In reality, it’s closer to $500-$600 per hour, but let’s use $200 for our example. Every time you do a task that you could pay someone $10 an hour to do, you are throwing away the other $190.
Third, recognize the importance of delegation. You should be spending the majority of your time implementing marketing and implementing systems into your business. This means anything that’s NOT marketing or systems should be delegated.
Some may say, “But Jim, I like doing installations, and other things in the business that aren’t marketing.” That reminds me of a McDonald’s owner I heard about who loved to go in and flip burgers, so he would have the manager schedule shifts on the grill for him. The difference is, he did not have to do it: it was his choice. So if you enjoy a certain aspect of your business, keep doing it if you want to. Just make sure that, like the McDonald’s owner who liked flipping burgers, that your business won’t grind to a screeching halt if you decide not to do it, or go on vacation, or just take some time off.
In the next installment, I’ll give some tips on delegating.
To Tons Of Customers!
Jim Augustus Armstrong is The “Coach”
Jim Augustus Armstrong is the President of Flooring Success Systems, a program that equips dealers to double their profits, cut their work hours in half and beat the boxes! Many dealers have totally transformed their businesses and their lives for the better after joining Flooring Success Systems.
See what real, live dealers are saying!