Business Builders (Pt.15) How to Take Back Your Time as a CEO Artwork

The Small Business School Podcast

Ready to leave the small business struggle behind? The “School for Small Business” podcast supports small business owners in scaling a business that is profitable, purposeful, and doesn’t leave you burnt out. No matter whether you run your business online or you own a brick-and-mortar, you can expect our world class experts to support you with mindset, tactics, and everything in between so you can have the business you dreamed of. Based on our lived experience, we know that small business CAN be easy and we are here to show you how.The “School for Small Business” is hosted by Staci Millard, a CPA by trade with over 15 years of experience seeing the behind the scenes of thousands of small businesses. After growing and selling her first 7 figure business, Staci has been on the ground running - mentoring small businesses and working to increase success rates. Staci strongly believes you don’t need to have gone to business school to be successful so you can expect nothing but simple, impactful advice. Tune in each Tuesday for a new 30 minute or less episode of nothing but valuable advice to help you grow your small business. We are so excited for you to be on this journey with us!

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The Small Business School Podcast

Business Builders (Pt.15) How to Take Back Your Time as a CEO

April 22, 2025 • Staci Millard • Episode 293

0:00 | 15:44

Hey friend, welcome back to Business Builders! This episode hits close to home for me — because I’m living it right alongside you. We're diving into a topic every business owner wrestles with: time management. Not the boring, corporate kind — the real, messy, "why am I so busy but nothing’s moving forward?" kind. I’m sharing what I’ve learned (and am still learning) while scaling two businesses, including the real cost of staying in task-mode instead of CEO-mode.

Key topics covered:

Why being busy doesn’t always mean being productive (been there!)
The five key categories your time falls into — and which ones are slowing you down
How to audit your time (without dreading it) and use it to make better decisions
Guardrails that protect your time — from office hours to team decision-making
The power of elimination, automation, and delegation to reclaim your calendar

If you’ve ever ended your day wondering what you even got done — this episode’s for you. Let’s get you back into the driver’s seat of your business. 💪

Challenge

Track your time for 2–3 days — write down everything you're doing during the day.
Highlight tasks that didn’t require your unique expertise as the CEO.
Choose one task to either eliminate, automate, or delegate.
Reflect: Are you spending most of your time firefighting and doing, or leading, creating, and thinking?
Make one small shift to start reclaiming your time and aligning your calendar with your vision.

Mentioned in this episode: If you are running a business in Canada and you need help with all the things accounting related, but more importantly understanding the numbers I invite you to check out https://thriveaccounting.co/

Staci's Links:
Instagram. Website.