Time and Motion

As an entrepreneur there's one resource you can never have enough of and it's not cash, credit, space, or staff; it's time. There are 24 hours each day, 168 hours each week, 720 hours in the average month, 8760 hours each year and without proper planning, they slip through our fingers like sand. The life of an entrepreneur is perpetual urgency. Urgency colors every moment and every situation. It can turn a driven new business owner into a hysterical wreck if not properly managed, because urgency without focus, prioritization, and scheduling will lead the mind of an aspiring entrepreneur in so many directions, so quickly, that they will never accomplish anything no matter how hard they work or how passionate they are.

When founders of a new business sit down to talk priorities, time management almost never comes up in a productive way. The time based topics which are discussed generally have to do with some deadline they are placing on themselves and their company for when they absolutely must have this, that, or the other so they can move on to the next phase of kicking ass and taking names. This way of looking at time is a waste of that same resource. Before they can start maximizing the time they have, an entrepreneur must first recognize what powers they lack so that they can avoid wasting the life blood of their new venture attempting to dictate the timing of events over which they have limited control.

For instance, I have heard many people say something like "We're going to have our first $300,000 raised by June X which means we need to be ready to get that office building and start production by June Y." Unless it is June X and they are watching a check for $300,000 being signed by an investor, they cannot be sure that the prerequisite for their action statement will become true - they are letting wishful thinking sneak into their scheduling through their natural sense of urgency. Of course they want to achieve their funding goal and start production on a schedule they set, what entrepreneur wouldn't want that? Unfortunately, this is where positivity crosses into blind optimism, and hurts a new company.

The founders from the above sample are now likely to not only continue wasting time on a conversation based on an erroneous assumption, they are also likely to waste subsequent time investigating and securing office space and planning for the hiring of staff, the need for which will simply be delayed by their misguided assumptions as to what they can and cannot schedule effectively.

An entrepreneur who wants to succeed must drop from their schedule anything which requires third parties, known or unknown, over which they do not have direct control. I would suggest that this means only scheduling events which the founders themselves can cause to occur without the assistance of anyone who has not voluntarily committed to accomplish something on behalf of the new company and who has proven that they can deliver on their commitments. Knowing what not to include in the schedule is vital, but is only one prerequisite for effectively managing a new company's most important resource.

Once they have a clear picture of what they can and cannot put a date on, a new entrepreneur must face up to a second set of limitations; those placed on them by their biological existence. Out of each 24 hour day, a certain portion must be set aside for sleep lest the new entrepreneur go mad before their time. Each person is different, but most require between four and eight hours each night to maintain mental stability and alertness. Time must also be written off for eating (even when there are not lunch meetings), hygiene tasks, and the love and care of any and all pets, spouse, children, parents, or other living beings which depend on the entrepreneur and on whose support the entrepreneur depends. If not deliberately planned for, these unavoidable responsibilities to life, love, and health can eat away all of a new company owner's time, their sanity, or both.

It is always better for an entrepreneur to address these important matters upfront in a maintainable way rather that realizing the night before a major conference that they have become a sleep deprived, smelly, half-starved, mess who's left all living beings who love them sad and lonely for an indeterminate period of time; that realization is a morale killer and can easily be avoided by some earlier realizations of a more helpful nature. A company owner is not the company they own. A company owner is a sentient biological creature which must be properly cared for physically, mentally, and emotionally or it will rot away and never be any use to themselves, those who love them, or the fantastic and inspiring idea behind their company.

Once an entrepreneur has faced the two issues of what they can't do, and what they can't do without, they can finally get an accurate picture of the next important step in effective time management; long term goals. Entrepreneurs love making long term goals, and once the two established types of pit falls are addressed they can generally do a fine job of identifying what goals to set for their company to insure that it has the best possible chance at success.

From these long term goals, medium term goals can be established, and from these the day to day goals will come. For instance, if a long term goal is to have a business plan ready to submit to a Venture Capital group in six months, medium term goals would be things like "Financial Projections Complete in Week One", "First Draft Complete in Week Three", "15 Family and Friend Reviews in Week Four", etc. Day to day goals would then easily present themselves: day 1 week one, "Put Together Staff and Employee Tax Estimates", day 1 week two "Executive Summary First Draft", day 1 week four "Ask Spouse, 2 Kids, and Aunt Jude to Critique Draft".

The very process of learning to manage their own time makes an entrepreneur better at managing their business once other people are involved. A company owner must perpetually effectively analyze the needs of their company, the needs of the individuals working for that company, and the limitations of both in the long, medium, and short term in order to drive their business to excellence rather than ruin. No other resource can make up for a faulty approach to time management. An infinite amount of capital, equipment, space, and staff can be squandered on a company no matter how fantastic their product concept, if the owners do not approach time management and scheduling in a consistently logical and methodical manner.