Bay of Plenty Business News April/May 2017

BAY OF PLENTY BUSINESS NEWS April/May 2017 11
The challenges associated with managing time
Everyone only has 24 hours in every day,
yet some people appear to be able to
achieve more than others.
Why is that?
It’s because they
know exactly what
they want to achieve.
In order to better manage
time it is vital to set your
direction, ensuring you’re on
track and the goals you’ve set
are being met.
There are two types of
goals – short-term and longterm
goals.
Long-term goals are the
one, five, 10 or even 20 year
goals which you establish first
so you can work towards them
with your short- term goals.
These are goals that take
less than 90 days to achieve,
are part of the bigger picture
and you plan them weekly.
Goals need to be results
driven and measurable. They
need to be positive and realistic
while providing you with a
challenge - and they must have
specific deadlines.
But, in any given day we
may have a number of urgent
deadlines placed before us,
have team members and perhaps
irate customers to deal
with.
How do we decide what to
do first?
What else needs to be dealt
with and in what order?
If we’re being driven by
urgency in this decision process,
it’s time to think again.
A book, First Things First
by Stephen R Covey and A
Roger Merrill categorises the
way we spend our time in four
ways:
1. Important/urgent – eg crises,
pressing problems,
deadline-driven projects,
preparations
2. Important/not-urgent – eg
prevention, values clarification,
planning, relationship
building, team meetings
3. Not important/urgent – eg
interruptions, some phone
calls, some emails/mail,
some reports, and some
meetings
4. Not important/not urgent –
eg trivia, busywork, junk
mail, some phone calls,
“escape” activities
But just because something
is urgent, doesn’t mean it’s
important.
A quick way to differentiate
is to ask whether the activity
is contributing to an important
objective. If not, it’s probably
not important.
If you find urgency is driving
you, consider the cost.
What important things –
maybe even “first things” – are
not receiving your time and
attention?
Consider the activities
you’ve completed successfully
and which have had a positive
effect your lives or business.
They’re most likely to be
activities that are not driven by
urgency, mostly falling under
seven activities:
1. Improving communication
2. Better preparation
3. Better planning and organising
4. Taking better care of self
5. Seizing new opportunities
6. Personal development
7. Empowerment
They are all important
activities.
So why aren’t we doing
them or doing more of them?
Probably because they
aren’t urgent.
They don’t act on you, you
MONEY MATTERS
> BY MICHELLE HILL
Michelle Hill is director and partner at BDO Rotorua, Chartered
Accountants and Advisers. To find out more visit bdorotorua.co.nz or
email rotorua@bdo.co.nz
have to act on them.
Take time to consider how
you spend your time and make
some positive changes in the
short term to help you achieve
your long term goals.
Making time for marketing
I
recently met with a Bay
of Plenty business owner
who wanted to launch a
website but didn’t have the
time to source photos or think
about the written content. He
had some major projects due
that were demanding all of
his attention but few jobs on
his books afterwards, which
was fuelling an increasingly
urgent need to generate new
business.
When things get busy
it’s easy to focus
single-mindedly on the
job at hand instead
of devoting time to
securing the next sale.
This is a common experience
for many small business
owners. When things
get busy it’s easy to focus
single-mindedly on the job at
hand instead of devoting time
to securing the next sale.
I’ve been guilty of it
myself. Using the argument
that it’s easier to keep an
existing client than to find a
new one, I’ve often thrown
future-proofing to the wayside
to ensure I deliver my
current projects ahead of
schedule.
Exceeding expectations is
key to most successful businesses,
and for good reason.
But when projects end and
money gets tight, it becomes
painfully obvious that building
time into your daily schedule
to ensure there’s more
work on the horizon is also a
must. Minimising downtime
and making sure new work is
coming in is even more critical
for businesses that employ
staff. After all, wages need to
be paid, whether or not staff
have productive work to do.
It’s difficult to put a number
on how much time a small
business owner should devote
to prospecting, marketing,
and improving their business,
but I’d suggest a bare minimum
of an hour every single
day is a reasonable starting
point.
This time can be spent
identifying and approaching
prospects, exploring advertising
avenues, identifying
media opportunities, attending
networking events, or on
any number of other activities
that raise your business’ profile
with those who you want
to connect with.
Of course, this kind of
work doesn’t generally pay
by the hour, so it’s vital that it
elicits a return in the long run.
Ensure everything you do is
measurable so you can tell
whether or not it is resulting
in a return on investment. If
you are placing online advertising
with the goal of driving
traffic to your website, it’s
worth paying attention to the
number of people clicking on
your ad so you can calculate
what you are paying per click.
This can also be done for time
spent approaching prospects.
By quantifying how many of
your approaches are resulting
in successful sales, you
can determine the kinds of
approaches that are working,
and which ones aren’t worth
the effort.
Finally, pressure on time
isn’t the only obstacle for
business owners looking
to ramp up their marketing
and development efforts.
Sometimes financial hurdles
can feel just as insurmountable.
Fortunately there are a
number of funds available that
Bay of Plenty business owners
can apply to if they need
financial support. These range
from New Zealand Story’s
Creative Collective funding,
which assists exporters with
the costs of producing promotional
videos, to New Zealand
Trade and Enterprise’s
Capability Development
Voucher scheme, which
co-funds coaching and training
for people who want to
build capability in a variety of
TELLING YOUR STORY
> BY JAMES HEFFIELD
Director of Bay of Plenty communications consultancy Last Word
Writing Services. To find out more visit lastwordwriting.co.nz or
email james@lastwordwriting.co.nz.
different capacities, including
marketing.
Securing funding support
can be a game-changer, but
it can also be onerous process,
so it pays to ensure your
business can clearly articulate
how it meets all of the criteria
before sitting down to develop
an application.
The Bay of Plenty’s very own job portal.
Featuring a variety of roles from across the Bay, candidate profiles, locals’ tips on
what to do and where to go, plus education and business resources.
It really is better in the bay!
Employers jump on board and get your job listing noticed!
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