I’ve come to the conclusion that there are three attributes that pretty much drive things: Money, energy and time. I learned that while working on home improvement tasks, and my limits were set… or driven… by one of those factors. When I had the time, I didn’t have the money or the energy. When I had the money and energy, invariably I didn’t have the time. Expertise was a little less important because I figured I could always learn a skill, but in turn, learning it also took a bit of money, time and energy.
You get the picture. Business tasks are really not much different. If you have the skill, you have to dedicate the time and energy. Whenever you choose to “do it yourself” whether it’s wallpapering the dining room or creating content for your website, you’re making an investment. And while doing it yourself may save you direct costs, it’s never free. There will always be an investment of your time and energy. But time is at the heart of the matter.
Of all the things you can waste, time is the only thing you cannot get more of. You can rest to rejuvenate your energy and cut spending to replenish the coffers, but when time’s gone, it’s gone forever. For me, that makes time the most critical factor. I don’t have any time to waste, and as an entrepreneur, neither do you. Paying with time is the most expensive way to pay! It’s your most precious commodity both in your business and in your life. It’s also very fixed. When you dedicate time to a task, you automatically eliminate the time you can spend on something else. Staying late to work on copy for your website? What are you giving up? Family time? Much needed downtime? Time that you can clearly spend doing something that needs your expertise? Yup, time’s the most expensive way to pay.
Look around your business and determine what tasks are not worth your time. That doesn’t mean they’re not important; it simply means you should not be paying for them with your most precious resource – your time. Outsourcing is often the solution, so don’t hesitate to pay someone else to handle certain tasks in your business. Start with outbound information and the writing tasks that always seem to pile up. Contact me ( adeiterich@writewordforyou.com or 484-769-8897), and I’ll be happy to help you free up your time, so you can stop paying with your most valuable resource. Besides, you have better things to do!
