Victoria Rayburn [00:00:00]:
As a small business owner or leader, you should argue, be focusing on the money making aspects of your business, the 20%, while someone else handles the 80%. The 80 20 rule demonstrates that you can and should disregard 80% of your business activities.
Victoria Rayburn [00:00:15]:
They should either be delegated or outsourced so you can focus on the top 20% that produce revenue.
Victoria Rayburn [00:00:24]:
You it hey there, you're listening to the Priority Pursuit podcast, a podcast dedicated.
Victoria Rayburn [00:00:29]:
To helping small business owners and leaders define, maintain, and pursue both their personal and business priorities so they can build lives and businesses they love. I'm your host, Victoria Rayburn, and it's a new year.
Victoria Rayburn [00:00:41]:
Friends.
Victoria Rayburn [00:00:42]:
If you are listening to this episode, the day that it airs, we are only two days into 2024 and while this may or may not be your first day back to work after the holidays, I bet I'll bet that you're already thinking about your goals for the new year, both your personal life and in your professional life. I'd also bet that you are excited to get started. Personally, I love this time of year. I mean, the holidays allow me to rest and the new year always feels like it contains so many possibilities. As a driven small business owner or leader yourself, I am sure that you can relate.
Victoria Rayburn [00:01:20]:
Now, as we go into the new.
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Year, I'm sure that your podcast feed.
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Is full of episodes about how to.
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Set smart goals and actually follow through.
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On your New Year's resolutions.
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Which is great. But today I want to have a different conversation. You see, pursuing goals well takes time, and that time has to come from somewhere.
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So rather than just adding tasks to your plate as we go into a.
Victoria Rayburn [00:01:43]:
New year, I want to encourage you to also commit to a few time.
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Saving tactics so that you can pursue both your new goals and your priorities. Well.
Victoria Rayburn [00:01:55]:
With this in mind, in this episode of Priority Pursuits, we're exploring six time saving hacks you can use as a small business owner. Now this is the Priority Pursuit podcast.
Victoria Rayburn [00:02:06]:
As a result, you can't possibly be.
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Surprised that the first thing I want to encourage you to do is determine what your business priorities are. Because in order to use your time.
Victoria Rayburn [00:02:17]:
Well, you need to know what you.
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Specifically need to focus on. Now, quick side note, this is also a great time of year to assess your personal priorities. If you'd like an exercise that allows.
Victoria Rayburn [00:02:28]:
You to do that, go back and listen to episode 120, how to pursue.
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Your personal priorities as a small business owner at the link in the show notes or wherever you listen to podcasts. But to determine your business priorities, I.
Victoria Rayburn [00:02:41]:
Want to encourage you to use what's.
Victoria Rayburn [00:02:43]:
Called the Pareto principle, which is often referred to as the 80 20 rule.
Victoria Rayburn [00:02:49]:
Now, in case you aren't familiar with.
Victoria Rayburn [00:02:51]:
This idea, the Pareto principle contends that in nearly all situations, 80% of results or consequences are a result of 20% of causes or effort.
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In business.
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That means that typically 80% of profits and growth are a result of 20% of work. In other words, only 20%. What you do actually yields profits, while the other 80%, while still necessary, does not.
Victoria Rayburn [00:03:19]:
As a small business owner or leader, you should argue, be focusing on the.
Victoria Rayburn [00:03:23]:
Money making aspects of your business, the 20%, while someone else handles the 80%. I love this quote from Sabri Subi.
Victoria Rayburn [00:03:33]:
In his book sell like crazy, which I highly recommend, by the way, and we can include a link to in the show notes.
Victoria Rayburn [00:03:39]:
But according to Sobri, the 80 20.
Victoria Rayburn [00:03:43]:
Rule demonstrates that you can and should disregard 80% of your business activities. They should either be delegated or outsourced so you can focus on the top 20% that produce revenue. With this in mind, I would encourage you to write down all of the tasks you're responsible for in your business, as well as the tasks you need to add to your list with your new goals for the new year in mind. Then determine the 80% that can either be handed off to someone else, which we'll discuss more in a moment, or that just don't need to be done.
Victoria Rayburn [00:04:17]:
In the first place.
Victoria Rayburn [00:04:18]:
We all have tasks like that. They just hang out on our to do lists and they really don't need to be done. But chances are there are only a few things that you personally have to do within your business and when you can put your effort toward the things that you must do and the most revenue generating tasks, your business will see more growth and you'll be much more.
Victoria Rayburn [00:04:38]:
Likely to reach your goals.
Victoria Rayburn [00:04:40]:
Now, the 80 20 rule sounds great, but the fact of the matter is somebody has to take care of the 80% of the tasks that you just eliminated from your to do list. I mean, you cannot possibly expect to stay in business if nobody is running payroll, taking care of tax responsibilities, responding to customers emails, or marketing your business. With this in mind, you need to determine who will be responsible for the other 80%, whether it be a full time team member, Ava, part time contractors, or perhaps time to partner with an agency or another company to take some things off your plate. Now, every small business owner's priorities list is going to look a little different. But as small business owners that work with other small businesses day in and day out Kelly and I have found that. We have found that most small business owners and leaders can outsource or delegate HR, payroll, accounting, bookkeeping, legal matters, IT services and marketing, and then also any repeatable task that can be taught or systematized. So whether it's taking care of your services, taking care of your products, chances are somebody else can be taught to do that. You do not need to be the only one doing that.
Victoria Rayburn [00:05:54]:
Again, if you want your business to grow and to have the capacity to reach your goals, you need to be able to focus on the most important and or money making aspects of your business. And chances are about 80% of what's on your current to do list can be handled by, and possibly handled better by someone else. So determine what business tasks you can delegate or outsource and get them off your plate as soon as possible. In addition to thinking about what tasks you can outsource or delegate in your business, I want to encourage you to think about what you can outsource in your personal life. For example, how much more time would you have if you used a grocery delivery service like Instacart to deliver your groceries to you? Or how could you more effectively use your time if you had a house cleaner come once a month? What if you had your 17 year old take your car for an oil change every three months? Or what if you discussed carpooling with another parent so that you aren't running kids to and from practice 15 times per week? Or are you at a point in your business where it's time to hire a personal assistant to keep track of your calendar and run errands for you regardless of your budget, I can almost promise you that there are things in your personal life that you can either delegate or outsource as naturally driven people, small business owners and livers tend to take on more than they actually have to, both at home and at work. But by outsourcing and delegating, you can give yourself more time to pursue your goals and to focus on both your personal and business priorities. Now, in case you're listening and thinking, yeah, sounds great, but I don't have the budget to just start hiring people. I get it.
Victoria Rayburn [00:07:41]:
While I do still want to encourage you to start small by delegating as much as you can to a VA or contractor, another way you can free up your time is to create systems and automations. I'm not going to dive deep into systems and systems in this episode because our systems expert was just on the show and is so much more gifted in this area than I am. So if you'd like to learn more about how you can develop systems to save time, I want to encourage you to go back and listen to episode 118 or systems every small business must have to increase efficiency and growth with Treefrogs director of operations Mary Adkins. You can find this episode wherever you listen to podcasts or via the link in the show notes. But basically, guys, when you take the time to develop systems and processes for your regular business tasks, you can drastically free up your time and even teach other people how to handle them. In addition to developing systems, I also want to encourage you to take the time to develop automations. Essentially, look at the tasks that you have to regularly complete within your business and do a little research to see.
Victoria Rayburn [00:08:47]:
If there is a tool that will.
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Allow you to automate any of those tasks, whether it be through AI technology or more traditional forms of automation. For example, we use Honeybook, which is a CRM to handle all podcast guest communication. Honeybook allows me to set up workflows, email templates, and automations so that I can invite podcast guests to come on the show and provide them all of the details they need to know in just a few clicks, as opposed to having to email each of them one by one, which would just be miserable. Other automation tools we love and regularly recommend to small businesses include Zapier for connecting tools and softwares, Minichat for serving our audience well on Instagram, and ClickUp for project management. With today's technology, there are so many automation options out there. With this in mind, look at your task list and do some research to determine what can be automated. Now, if you need automation suggestions, don't hesitate to reach out to us through treefrogmarketing.com or on Instagram at Treefrog Marketing, chances are Mary will have an automation recommendation for you, and she is always more than happy to share just her zone of genius and an area she's super passionate about. But once you've selected a tool, commit to setting it up.
Victoria Rayburn [00:10:07]:
Yes, it does take time to set up automations. However, I can promise you that the time you spend setting up automations will save you hours upon hours of time in the long run.
Natalie Franke [00:10:17]:
What would you do with an extra 45 minutes every workday? That would save you 16 hours a month or roughly eight days a year? And over the course of your career, we're talking about over one year of your life saved all that time back? Well, many independent business owners spend far more than 45 minutes a day on administrative tasks, and with honeybook you can get that time back and then some. Honeybook lets you easily manage projects, contracts, invoices, scheduling and client communication, saving you time and allowing you to better serve your clients. For a discount on your first year of Honeybook, visit honeybook.com and subscribe with the code priority Pursuit, 45 minutes a day adds up quickly. Use it to focus on what matters most.
Victoria Rayburn [00:11:02]:
As a small business owner, you probably.
Victoria Rayburn [00:11:04]:
Have a seemingly endless to do list.
Victoria Rayburn [00:11:07]:
But I can almost promise that there are things on your list that can be outsourced, like grocery shopping. I mean, as a wedding photographer, the last thing I wanted to do after shooting a wedding on a Saturday was to spend my Sunday in a grocery store. So I am forever thankful that a friend told me about Instacart. Instacart is a grocery delivery service. Basically, you use the Instacart app to make your shopping list. Then a personal shopper goes to your preferred store, selects your groceries for you, and delivers them to you, typically all within just a few hours. You can also schedule your delivery time personally, I will sing Instacart's praises forever because one, it has saved me countless hours. And two, Instacart employs local personal shoppers, meaning with every Instacart purchase, you are putting money directly back into your local economy.
Victoria Rayburn [00:11:53]:
While Instacart does charge a delivery fee, when you upgrade to Instacart plus, for just $99 a year, you'll receive free, unlimited deliveries for all orders over $35. Considering the time and frustration you'll save, that's $99 well spent.
Victoria Rayburn [00:12:07]:
If you'd like to avoid going to.
Victoria Rayburn [00:12:08]:
The grocery store and save $20 on your first order from Instacart of $35 or more, visit treefrogmarketing.com instacart. Again, if you'd like $20 off your first Instacart order of $35 or more, visit treefrogmarketing.com Instacart.
Victoria Rayburn [00:12:24]:
Now speaking of Mary, the fourth time saving hack I want to encourage you to pursue as soon as you are financially able is to hire an integrator, a project manager, or an operations director. In other words, hire someone to oversee your projects, systems and processes so that you can be sure all deadlines are being met, your customers are being served well, and that nothing is being missed, and that you aren't spending your valuable time handling these responsibilities on your own. Now don't get me wrong. There are systems like ClickUp, honeybook, and Trello that you can use to manage and track projects and to handle your team's schedules and timelines however, even with such tools, someone still needs to be monitoring progress and adjusting timelines, and chances are, that person should not be you. Having Mary oversee Treefrog from an operations perspective allows every member of our team to focus on the most important aspects of their jobs and for us to serve our clients well by enabling us to consistently meet deadlines. For example, as you are listening to this episode, I'm actually not working. I'm on maternity leave and thanks to Mary's foresight and planning, we were able to batch months of podcast episodes so that I can fully focus on my family during my leave. The Treefrog team doesn't have to stress about creating podcast episodes or handling my other responsibilities, and so know you and I can keep having conversations like this on a weekly basis.
Victoria Rayburn [00:13:53]:
Long story short, I can almost promise you that hiring an integrator, operations director, or whatever you want to call them, will be one of the best hiring decisions that you ever make. All right, we cannot wrap this episode up without talking about marketing, specifically, the flywheel marketing method. If you've been listening to priority pursuit for any time at all, you likely already know that we found the flywheel marketing method to be the most effective marketing strategy for small businesses by far, and that we are passionate about this strategy for two reasons. First of all, it's proven to work. Our clients have experienced up to 800% growth as a result of this exact strategy.
Victoria Rayburn [00:14:35]:
Once your flywheel system is in place.
Victoria Rayburn [00:14:37]:
Your marketing will essentially continue to work on its own. As a result, this strategy is ideal for small businesses who want to see big, consistent results without spending all of their time working on their marketing. Now, usually we spend a lot of time talking about the effectiveness of the flywheel marketing model. However, today I want to focus on the time saving aspect of the strategy. You see, setting up the flywheel marketing strategy does take quite a bit of work up front. I'm not going to lie to you, but the investment of time and or money if you decide to outsource it is worth it, because once every piece is in place, your marketing, like a flywheel, will continue to produce results even when you don't personally have time to focus on your marketing. Now, in case you aren't mechanically inclined, a flywheel is a mechanical device used to store rotational energy. A flywheel includes a heavy wheel or disc that's mounted on an axle that can rotate.
Victoria Rayburn [00:15:35]:
Now, it's important to note that flywheels are different than regular wheels in that flywheels store energy, allowing them to rotate and function from their built up energy reserve even when new energy is not being applied. For example, think about a hand crank flashlight. When you rotate the crank, you give the flywheel energy which it stores. As a result, when you need to use the flashlight, you don't have to crank the wheel to keep the light on. Instead, the flashlight uses its stored energy from its flywheel to power the flashlight's bulb with a hand crank flashlight. If you apply energy up front, you'll have light for a long time. And in the same way, when you use the flywheel marketing method, you or your marketing team will need to put in quite a bit of work up front. Then your marketing will more or less continue to work on its own and just require minimal maintenance.
Victoria Rayburn [00:16:26]:
As a result, when you use the flywheel marketing method, you can feel confident in your marketing strategy. Prevent the time and income loss that come with trying one ineffective marketing tactic after another, and focus on your goals and other important aspects of your business. Now this strategy is something I am super passionate about and could talk about for hours because of how I've seen it work for Treefrog clients and how I've experienced it work as a small business owner myself. But to keep this episode short and sweet, if you want a marketing strategy that produces big results and saves time, I want to encourage you to tune into episode 103, the best marketing strategy for small businesses, the flywheel marketing method at the link in the show notes or wherever you listen to podcasts. In this episode, Kelly and I break down the exact marketing strategy we use to help small businesses grow, some by more than 800%. Last but not least, to save time as a small business owner or leader, I want to encourage you to make what many refer to as a someday list. This is simply a list of projects or goals that you would like to accomplish someday, but not right now. You see, as a small business owner or leader, there are likely countless things that you would love to do and.
Victoria Rayburn [00:17:40]:
Would love to pursue.
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And if you aren't careful, your excitement about these new ideas may divert your attention from your current goals and priorities, which will likely prevent you from reaching your goals, revenue and otherwise. Kelly and I are certainly guilty of this at times. There are so many ways that we want to serve small businesses and could spend hours talking about all the possibilities. But we also know that in order to reach our current goals so that we can eventually pursue those bigger goals, there are things that need our full attention now so that we can serve our clients well and set the agency up for success long term. Now don't get me wrong, there are times where goals and priorities need to change. However, more often than not, there are reasons the original plan exists. So the next time you get a new idea, record it in your someday list. Simply writing it down will give you a feeling of accomplishment and allow your brain to focus on what's currently most important.
Victoria Rayburn [00:18:42]:
And then, when you're ready to move on to your next goal or project, refer to your someday list. Maybe it will be time to pursue something on that list. Or you might look at your list and say, like, what was I thinking? That's a terrible idea. Why would I spend my time doing that? But either way, a someday list can help you focus on what matters most in your business. Now friend, as we wrap up this episode and you get to work pursuing your 2024 goals, I want to encourage you to first of all, make sure your goals for the year are in line with both your personal and business priorities. And second, use these time saving hacks to give yourself the capacity to pursue your goals well. And on that note, happy New Year friends. Please know that Kelly, the Treefrog team and I are wishing you nothing but the best in 2024.
Victoria Rayburn [00:19:28]:
And if you have any small business marketing questions, please don't hesitate to reach out. Whether you become a Treefrog client or we can simply be an educational resource for you, there is nothing we want more than for your small business to succeed. Also, thank you for tuning into another episode of the Priority Pursuit podcast, our very first podcast episode of 2024, which I'm personally excited about. But if you enjoyed this episode, we hope you'll take a moment to share it with your small business friends to leave us a review on Apple Podcasts. You'll join us next week for even more marketing boundary and priority driven tactics you can use to build a life and small business that you love.