Don't Waste Your Time

Businesses are the tools society uses for the efficient allocation of resources. Businesses are good at this, better than other forms of organization such as governments or associations. These other forms are used where efficiency is not the prime goal, like in education or museums. But, the goal of a business is to do its job efficiently, and the measure of how successful the business is at operating efficiently is its profit.

For most small businesses, this is not just theory, since the business owner is probably "making a living," i.e., paying for his groceries, mortgage and medical bills out of the profit his small business generates. But, often the link between efficient operation and profit is not clearly kept in mind and the small business owner spends a lot of time at activities which don't contribute to the efficient operation of the business.

In large corporations, the structure and organization is in place to keep people focused on what they should be doing. Jobs are narrowly defined and there is always someone watching who can say, "Why are you doing that? This is more important." While it doesn't always work and lots of time is wasted in large companies, at least the problem there is one of implementation and not inherent in the structure. In the small business, on the other hand, the temptation for the owner to work inefficiently can only be monitored and corrected by the owner himself.

The big problem for the owner is to clearly and objectively evaluate which work will result in the greatest return for the business and to carry out that work first. The typical small business owner will tend to first do what he likes to do and does well, and keep the more difficult stuff for later. For socially inclined owners, that might mean calling clients and chatting, while technically inclined owners may prefer to work on their contact management database. For both, the most valuable thing for their business might be to go after overdue accounts or make a few cold calls.

Many small business owners went into business for themselves precisely so that they could do what they wanted and didn't have a corporate structure to limit their freedom. Often, they then lose sight of the link between efficiency and profit and wonder why their business is not doing well. It's fine to postpone doing the cold calls and saying to yourself that you don't need the extra money - it's not fine to spend time updating the computer and wonder why the money isn't rolling in.

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