I've changed my mind.
Yesterday I told you I'd discuss the #1 job of a business owner today, but that will have to wait until tomorrow.
This morning I'm in Vegas doing some Infusionsoft / sales / marketing / processes training for a client who is also a friend.
We spent nine hours together yesterday
Today we'll spend another 7-8 hours together.
In the next 90 days he and his team will experience a 50% growth.
In the next 12 months they'll double their revenue—if not triple or quadruple it—as a result of the work we did yesterday and will do today.
How do I know this?
Several reasons.
- He's already great at what he does. We're not polishing turds here or trying to raise the dead.
- He has assembled a good team, which meant kissing several frogs and cutting the under-performers quickly, but he has surrounded himself with good people.
- They are ready, willing, and able to do the work.
- They are ready, willing, and able to stop doing the work.
"But Wes...#'s 3 and 4...are...contradictory...right? (Did you have a little too much fun in Vegas? You may want to un-send this email.")
What happens in Vegas will be discussed, studied, and shared for years to come so don't worry about my state of mind or my liver (this time).
What I mean about "doing the work" and "stop doing the work" is actually not contradictory at all.
Growing a business is work. It requires focused effort, but to succeed we should only focus on what matters. (And our days are filled with things that don't matter.)
That is where the "stop doing the work" comes into play.
You need to be able to detach on a daily—if not hourly—basis and ask:
- "Am I making the best use of my time right now?"
- "Am I doing what needs to be done right now?"
- "Can I assign this to someone else?"
- "Does anyone on my team even need to do this at all?"
- "Do we have a process for what I'm doing right now?"
- "Can what I'm doing right now be automated?"
In yesterday's training, my friend and his entire team admitted to multiple, tedious, redundant tasks they were doing manually on an hourly basis in order to get the job done.
They just didn't know any better. They were willing and able to do the work.
I told them—and I'm telling you—look at anything you do 2-3 times a day or 4-5 a week and figure out a process for it and a way to automate that process in order to surpass your sales goals.
We spent about 15 minutes (it only took me eight years to be able to do this in 15 minutes) to create an automated process with their Infusionsoft application that now turns a 7-minute task into a "Scroll—Click—Scroll—Click" process that takes about 5 seconds.
"But Wes...big deal. So what?"
Did you know that in the United States, termites do more damage to homes annually than all reported fires, hurricanes, and tornadoes combined?
It's the little, insidious, supposedly-insignificant things that'll steal your business and your life. (Remember my "On pigs and sharks" post recently?)
When you have five people, each doing a 7-minute task 10-30 times per day, that comes out to 350 to 1,050 minutes—or 5.8 to 17.5 hours—per day saved...FOREVER!
That's 29 to 87.5 hours saved per week.
If you're paying $20/hr, that's $580 to $1,750 back per week returned to the bottom line just by asking how one repetitive task could be streamlined, outsourced and/or eliminated.
We created 7-8 similar processes like that yesterday and their heads were spinning with the possibilities that today's session will open up.
Yesterday I taught them how to fish. Today we'll confirm they know how to fish. Tomorrow they'll feed themselves forever because they were willing to stop doing the work that doesn't matter to learn how to better do the work that does matter.
That's how I know they'll experience nearly miraculous growth in the next 90 days and beyond.
What are you willing to stop doing so you can start doing? Need some help?
Tomorrow I'll pick up where I left off today and look at the third part of the 3-part series as we consider the #1 job of a business owner.
Market like you mean it.
Now go sell something.
