The Construction Business Blueprint #034 - You Don’t Have a Time Problem (You Have a Boundary Problem)

Most construction business owners don’t actually have a time problem.

They have a boundary problem.

In this episode, we break down one of the biggest frustrations founders face:
 “I just don’t have enough time.”

But what if the issue isn’t time at all?

What if your business has slowly been designed around everybody else’s priorities except your own?

Inside this episode, we talk about:

• Why work always seems to take priority
• The real reason you keep missing personal events
• Why saying “yes” is costing you control
• How founders unintentionally train people to interrupt them
• Why protecting your time is a leadership skill
• The simple shift that changes everything

This isn’t about motivation.

 It’s about awareness.

Because if your current life and business have been designed one way over time… they can also be redesigned.

If this resonates with you, drop a comment below and let me know the one thing you’re going to protect this week.

Subscribe for weekly videos built specifically for construction business owners who want more time, more profit, and more control.

Chapters

00:00 – Introduction

00:39 – “I Just Wish I Had More Time”

01:28 – Looking at Your Business Differently

02:02 – Who Decides Where Your Time Goes?

03:21 – Why Work Always Takes Priority

03:47 – The “Them, Us, Me” Analogy

04:54 – The Family Event You Keep Missing

06:57 – What Actually Happens When You Say No?

08:47 – Why Founder Time Never Happens

10:54 – The Truth About Protecting Your Time

11:47 – Start Small This Week

12:19 – Your Life Was Designed This Way

12:35 – Final Thoughts

Transcript

Why Time Always Feels Scarce

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome back to the Construction Business Blueprint YouTube channel. It's May and we're staying on the segment of sort of like the mindset approach, and we're talking about things that are coming up time and time again with new clients coming on board. I just want to share some of these scenarios with you because I know with all these new clients and all you know guys that come on and work with me one-to-one, they all face the same issues. It's kind of the same issues, different types of jobs, but it's all the kind of same DNA, same challenges, because again, this is construction. There's not really any two businesses that are that dissimilar in what challenges you're facing or whatever else. No matter whether you're a 100k company or a 100 million pound company, they're kind of all kind of all the same challenges just on a different scale. Today I want to talk about something massive, something that I hear all the time, which is the line of I just wish I had more time. You know, I just don't have the time. I can't say how I'm gonna have the time. And the reason why this is important, it's because when people come to me and I join them as like their strategic business partner, I go into them with their business and help them out, you know, the one-to-one bespoke mentorship. Their concern is always, but I don't know if I have the time to commit to this. You know, time's always a problem. That's why the three pillars of blueprint are time, profit, and control. That's what we give you as a business owner to your life from your business. So time is always the first pillar, and it's a massive one. And it's a it's a it's a genuine concern. And that's why the first thing we work on when a new client comes on board is their time, what they're spending their time on, etc. etc. And I hear the same thing every week. But I just want to talk about this and I want to get you to look at it from a different perspective, because that's kind of what we're doing here in this segment in May. We're trying to get you guys or get you, the business owner, to look at things through a different lens and have a different perspective on things because when we're just going thing through things the same thing every week, we're going through business day by day, week by week, month by month, and we very rarely lift our head above the power pit to see like what's going on, why is it like this? How do we get to this place? And that's kind of the first move we make with our clients to come inside the blueprint. We get them to look at things differently, we reframe it, look through different lenses, whatever you want to call it, but we get them very clear on what they're spending their time on

Who Decides Your Time

SPEAKER_00 1:59

essentially. And a big question that I always ask is who's deciding where your time actually goes? So, who who who's dictating to you what you spend your time on or what you don't? Because at the end of the day, guys, this is your business. You you you make the decisions, you decide who goes where and when, you decide what jobs you do and what you don't do, etc. etc. Or at least you should be. And if you if you aren't doing that, if that's not the attitude that you have with your business, you need to ask yourself why. Because was that not the point of doing all this in the first place? Do things on your terms, live life on your terms, do business your way, you know, have your own spin on it, do things better, but that's got lost in translation somewhere. So that's the question I want you to ask yourself. Who's deciding where your time actually goes? It's a major one. And what I want you to, I want to kind of frame it like this if there's no time for anything but work, it's because work has been prioritized. So if you say to yourself, how am I supposed to get the time to do this? It means that anytime, most of us aren't even planning our weeks, week on week. Most guys watching this, you know, you're not sitting down on a Friday or a Thursday and planning the next week. The week's just happening to you. You know, you're just being thrown into things on a Monday, and before you know it, it's Friday, and you've survived, and that's kind of as as good as it gets. And it's been that way for a long time. Not for everybody, but we're talking about the general population of people in this in this construction industry. That's that's the norm. And it's because the work is being prioritised. And you might say, well, no shit, Mark, of course it's being prioritised, that's the business. But just hear me out for a second. It's not always intentional, but it's consistent. So you you do try to prioritize other things. Maybe you know, your home life, you know, maybe the family are at you saying you're never there and doing things, maybe it's your own health, taking a hammering, and you're trying to prioritize different things, but but business always

Fix The Priority Order

SPEAKER_00 3:37

gets in the way, it seems to always take priority every single time. And hardy I know this because I've been there. I have been there for and I had been there for a long time, where the business came first. And if someone gave me an analogy one day, and the analogy was them, us, me, and that's kind of the priority. If you're saying you're a business owner here, you're a family man, you've got your own business, them is the business, as in the clients or your team, us is the family, and then it's you, you're last me. So where that should be flipped on its head, it should be me, us, them. That should be your priority, that should be your sequence of priority. And I know most of you say to yourself, you know, I always put my family first, but in reality, that's not the case. I've said that myself many times, and I know deep down that it was a lie. I always prioritise the business. And we don't do it intentionally, like we said, that's not where our priority lies. If if the shit hit the fan and we had to do something, we would drop everything and go and be with the family if we could. That would always take priority, but that's not how the business is currently built. That's not how the business currently is, week on week, day by day, month on month. So you've kind of built up this way where everything else comes before your time. So you're you're last on the list, like I said, they must meet. Everything, you're you're at the end at the end of the line, the pecking order, or whatever you want to say. So again, let's put it in a real world perspective. And I guarantee the majority of people watching this are gonna be shaking their head going, yeah, I've definitely been there. So, how many times has this happened? You've planned something. Say now coming into the approach in the summer, the kids have events on in school, we've got sports days, family dinners, birthdays, something that you say that you would be at, and it's in the dairy. You've remembered maybe it's not, maybe it's just up here, like most of us put it in there. But you've meant it. You know, I'm gonna make a priority to be there, I'm gonna show up. No, 100%. I've been to you know your wife or your girlfriend or whoever your husband has been telling you this for for months now. Mark, make sure you block this off, make sure this happens. You know, you can't do this again. You know, last year this what happened and you couldn't make it. So please block it off, let everybody know you're not available, and you genuinely intentionally mean it. No, I'll be there. Look, 100%. Then the next thing that happens is you're going into a meeting with the client, or you're going into a meeting with whatever or whoever, something relating to the business. So say

The Friday Meeting Trap

SPEAKER_00 5:42

we're going to a client meeting to discuss a big project, and they say, Right, so we'll catch up on Friday and we'll discuss this, or say wherever there's there's a big meeting, there's a delay on the job. Okay, we're gonna meet on Friday and we're gonna discuss this at detail. Make sure everybody's available. And without even thinking, you say, Yeah, yeah, yeah, no problem, no problem. But deep down you're going, I knew, like, I've just agreed to that. And you're kicking yourself, but you're going, I cannot be here. Like, this is this is the business. You know, I do this for the family, this is all for them. It's generating the money, it's doing, you know, this is all for them. So, really, they're gonna benefit. I I can't afford not to go to this meeting. So you say yes, yeah, no problem. Then you walk away, and next thing is you take the phone out and you send a dreaded text. Sorry, look, something's came up, I'm not gonna be able to make it on Friday now, and and that's it. So be honest, how many times have you done that? How many times, and even though you've been you've had this boxed off for months, a client or a team member something's came up and you've gone, well, that's that all thrown up in the air. I have no choice but to do this. But how come? Where has that come from that there's no choice? Let's look at why that actually happened. So, yeah, you feel like you have no choice but to say yes. Why did that happen? It's usually one of two things fear of losing the job or reputation, or like a fear of disappointing the client or something else. So, what do you do? You sacrifice your own plans again, again, again, and again. Same shit, different week. But let's flip it for a second. If you said, Oh, hold on, I'm actually not available Friday, what actually happens? Do they cancel the job? Do they pull the plug? Do they walk away? No, nine times out of ten they'll reschedule. If they're the kind of client who says, excuse me, you know, let's not get into it. That's not the kind of client. You don't need to explain yourself as where you're of where you're being or where you're gonna be that day, that you can't be there. You just need to put the the letter of the law down and say, Ah, sorry, I can't do Friday. I really can't do Friday. I have a personal matter on Friday that I need to attend to, and I I can't miss it for anything. So unfortunately, I'm not gonna be able to make Friday. Can we reschedule maybe do Thursday evening? Could we maybe do Monday morning? You know, offer a suggestion. What'll happen? And I guarantee you that fear of oh my god, what would happen? Like the world's gonna stop if I say no to this guy. Nine times out of ten, what'll happen is they'll reschedule. The world hasn't ended, it hasn't imploded. Or they'll you'll say to them, Look, I can't be there for the meeting, but you know what you could do is go ahead and have the meeting, and if you want to give me a call after when I'm free, we can we can 100% discuss it over the phone and see what came out of the meeting and where you need me to be on Monday or whatever it may be. And let's face it, if you had something serious on, you wouldn't even question saying no. So say it was a life or death hospital appointment, or say it was something you're waiting on for months, like you wouldn't say no just to go to a meeting for an hour. But when it comes to something that doesn't seem like life or death, then you just say no. But like, what impact is that having on you personally? You know, you're letting the family down again, you're letting somebody else down, you're letting yourself down again, you're suffering, and again, what you're doing is you're setting the precedence that you're always available. You're a yes man, you're always gonna say yes. You're not in control of your own business, your own life, or whatever. You're just rolling over like a good boy and saying yes, no problem. So you're choosing not to. That's essentially what you're doing now. You're choosing not to over fear of what might happen. The majority of the time will be nothing, nothing will happen, the world will not stop, everything will just go on as normal. So I had this same conversation with a client recently, and this is more relevant, like if you're a commercial guy, okay, and you you're you're a subcontractor and you're working to larger teams, and I understand what it's been like. That's an industry that I was in for over two decades. I understand that these guys want to be the big wig and they want to call you to a meeting. I've had to fly to meetings all over the UK and Ireland and even sometimes Europe. I want you to fly in here, I want you to be here and be there for that meeting. Well, I can't be there. Like, I can't be there in less than 24 hours' notice. The contract wasn't thrown out and ripped up because it's not a contractual obligation for you to be there in a meeting at 9 o'clock the next morning. But I understand what that commercial space is like, and I understand that fear. That fear is real of being afraid to say no. But at the end of the day, there's ways of doing it. You know, look, look, I'm I'm sorry, I'm not available. It's not even a business issue. I have I have a personal issue outside of business, and I cannot miss this personal thing. I you know, don't explain it in too much detail, just say it like it is and leave it there. What can they say, really? But I had this same conversation with a client recently where he says, I just can't

Ring Fence Founder Time

SPEAKER_00 9:44

seem to get this founder time. If only if only I could get another guy on board, and again, you're looking for external things to fix the internal problem. Like I always say, if you haven't blocked off the time, if you haven't allocated the time to do something, it will not happen if you're not planning that into your week. So I've said this a million times. If there's a time that you need, as in to work on the business, like I call founder time, to do your invoicing, to get those quotations out the door, to finally put a system in place, to finally have a conversation with a client, something that's going to make a massive impact in the business, but you can never seem to get at it. If you're a domestic client, why does that keep happening? Or if you're in the domestic market, why does that keep happening? At the end of the day, there's nobody there holding a gun to your head. If you if you plan your week from Monday to Thursday and keep a Friday free for admin time, who's who's there to say you can't do that? The only person that that that tells anybody that you're available on the Friday when you're actually not is you. You know, you're given that permission and saying that you're free. You're you're you're booking in time and you're doing it again just to try and please people, just to try and stay nice. And I understand commercially it can be it can be much more complicated. There's so many more moving cogs, there's so much more hierarchies, there's so many other people to please. But trust me, I've I've been there a million times. When you're not available, the whole project doesn't fall apart and the world doesn't end. Trust me, I was the first one there who was saying yes to everything to try and please everybody. And the only person that suffered was me. When I started to say no, nothing really changed except for I got control back and I was able to control what I was doing, and I was more organized, more structured, and more in control. So, like I would say to every client, if you don't plan that time, if you do not protect your time, like it was a meeting, like it was a doctor's appointment, like it was a life changing surgery and it was blocked off those two hours that nothing happened. If you don't plan that time, then of course it's not going to happen. If you plan in other things to try and please other people during that time, then of course it's never gonna get done. And I know that might sound easier in principle than what it is, but it is as simple as that. If you don't commit to the time, if you don't block that time off, it won't happen. And the only person to blame there is yourself. So if you're not available, you're not available. So what I would encourage everybody to do after watching this video is start small. Block something out this week. This video is coming out in the Monday. Look at this week, one thing and don't move it. Block off certain time for a certain thing, even if it's something personal, doing the school run, doing whatever, block off those two hours and do not move it. Not for a client, not for a job, not for a team member. Protect it, ring fence it, make it an absolute non-negotiable. Because if you don't protect your time, and if you don't protect your time as in you the person, then nobody will. So, like I've stayed consistent during these sort of episodes in May, if your life is all work right now, it's not because it has to be, it's because you've designed it that way. And again, if you've designed it that way, it can also be redesigned. But look, if you're here because you've got an issue in construction with your business, if this video resonated with you, if you're unsure where to even start on designing this, don't just sit there again and nod and think, yeah, this is me, this is me. Do something about it. Reach out, make sure you like, subscribe, drop a comment if it resonated, reach out to me on socials, and I'd be happy to help you in any way I can.