Can you imagine someone telling you that they have enough time to drive their car, but that it keeps breaking down because they don’t have enough time to put fuel into it?
It sounds like an odd thing for an intelligent adult to say, doesn’t it? After all, fuelling a car is essential, if we want the car to work. So, we do it. We know that without that fuel, the car is going nowhere.
If you just found that example weird, you’d probably find what I am about to share with you, even weirder. You see this one is for real!
I don’t have the time to develop my business
One of the main excuses small business owners give, for failing to market their business, is that they just don’t have enough time. They seem to have enough time to work hard for a fraction of their worth. They just don’t have the time to identify and remedy the problem.
Wouldn’t you love to see the diary of someone like that – someone who has the time to do it wrong, but not to do it right?
Wouldn’t you be curious to see what they do have time for, which is more important to their business, than its very existence?
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I see this all the time and they ALWAYS have an excuse.
Even when they have competitors, who find the time, they say it’s not possible.
Hi Gareth. I think it’s a a question of balance and knowledge.
Some small business owners are so involved in the moment, that they seldom get their head up and look at the bigger picture.
Others, (and this is very common) seem unaware of the need to focus on the development of their business, until it’s too late. I get a LOT of emails form people, who waited until it was too late before taking the development of their business seriously.
I have a friend who owns a pizzeria and he’ll spend time taking trips to the country, watching television, etc. But when it comes to marketing his business, even with something like social media, he outsources or has it automated.
I see the same thing with churches. I love social media, but churches do it just to say, “Yes, we have a facebook and twitter account.” They do not spend any time replying to people and for goodness sake, they’re in the people business so why do they not spend the time to be social on their social media accounts?
The churches I’ve seen do marketing or social media wrong, or not engage totally, are busy with meeting after meaningless meeting and they still shrink in size.
If business owners or church leaders could simply prioritize their time better and know the importance of engaging with people, they’d be a lot more successful.
This far Brian, after 17 years running a marketing business, 100% of the people who said they didn’t have enough time, did.
Like your pizzeria guy, they had time to watch TV. If there’s time for TV, surely the work needs to be done first?
I think it’s the decision that’s broken, Jim.
if they have time to screw it up they have time to do it right.
I like that line Jean Paul, that the decision is what’s broken.
Wish I’d thought of that!
I’m going to use that example of the car constantly running out of petrol. I like how you use examples in your posts. Makes the message more accessible.
Hi Jim. This is a very timely post for me and I read it as soon as it was in my inbox. The idea of getting into a routine seems to outweigh the question of “is this a good routine?”. Movement does not equal progress and the idea that just being busy regardless at what is something I think that starts in schools. A lot of teachers would rather their students busy at something, anything. Rather than do less but with more quality, it seems that appearance sadly becomes reality.
Thanks
I like that Craig. I’d never thought about school’s role in this before, but you’re right. In my case, we were always told to be busy and if we were found ‘thinking’ rather than doing, we were screamed at.
My first few jobs were the same. You had to look busy.
Thanks for the comment.