How To Become A Successful Builders #2 – Give Yourself Time
Highly skilled builders give themselves time
When was your last holiday?Go! Go! Go! How many times have I’ve heard that from renovation builders? Organizing home renovation quotes... running between building design meetings… ordering building materials… coordinating sub-trades… answering questions… meeting architects… calming clients…paying invoices!!! It’s just full on.To make matters worse, one of your competitors swans around in his truck, takes holidays with his family and plays golf on Fridays. Wouldn’t that be nice? But how do you become a successful builder and still have time for the more important things?In this article I list four of the things that highly successful builders do to get time for family and for themselves.
1 Re-define Urgent
Most builders have heard of Stephen Covey, known internationally for popularizing the urgent/important grid. It’s part of the highly successful builders’ bible. Read a great summary at http://www.4buku.com/covey-grid-pdf-documents-pdf.html Learn from him to categorize your tasks using the urgent/important grid.Urgent simply means it has to be done now. But is that your now or someone else’s now? If it’s not your now then it’s not urgent. Decline politely or re-schedule to suit you.Important means it has to be done. If it is important to your business, then make it urgent! e.g. Preparing your marketing plan for the year doesn’t have to be done today; it can be done tomorrow. The problem is that tomorrow never comes. So, the trick is to take tomorrow’s important task and make it today’s urgent task. Simple but powerful.
2 Go for High Value
Many builders who say, “I don’t have time,” fill their day with low value work. “There’s no-one else to do it,” they say. Know the feeling? Hey. There’s always someone else who’ll work minimum wage. Just go find that person and off load your low value tasks. Make them happy and get yourself focused on choosing high value work.
3 Pass-up Great Opportunities
Opportunities constantly present themselves to the entrepreneurial builder. And the some are easy prey for the easy money promises. Unfortunately the majority are huge time wasters. So pass up most and select very carefully. Ask the hard questions and don’t get caught with the “too good to be true.”Build security into your current revenue stream and only invest in new ventures after adequate research and with capital you can afford to lose.
4 Think Long Term
Busyness happens because you over-estimate what you can do in a week. Do you have a diary full of tasks? And do most not get done? Does it feel like failure?The real problem is you don’t believe what you CAN do in a year, if you just keep focused on doing the few things that count. e.g. by consistently delivering flyers to a local residential area Andrew grew his presence as the maintenance builder of choice. Results were thin to start with, but grew exponentially over time.
Question??
So, how do you spend your day? Are you running sort of time? Or have you learned how to give yourself time.I’d love to hear your stories.
View more in the "How To Become A Successful Builder" Series:
How To Become A Successful Builder: #6 Unleash Effective Systems
How To Become A Successful Builder: #7 Work The Business Cycle
Graeme
P.S. Whenever you’re ready….here are 4 ways I can help you grow your building business:
1. Grab a copy of my free book
It’s a road map of a successful 15 minute sales call that’s guaranteed to increase your conversion rate. Download Here
2. Join Trade Mates and connect with builders who are scaling too.
It's our new Facebook community where smart builders learn to get more income, time and freedom. View our free business resources for builders. Ask questions of like minded business owners and business coaches. Give your knowledge and expertise to help others. - https://www.facebook.com/groups/TradeMates/
3. Join My New Group
I’m starting a new group called “OnRamp” to kick start sales and marketing in your business. If this sounds like you, message me with the words, “OnRamp”, and I’ll get you all the information.
4. Join Loft Members
If you’d like help to get off the tools, make more money and get your life back...just message me at graeme@thesuccessfulbuilder.com and put “LOFT MEMBERS” in the subject...tell me a little about your business and I’ll get you all the details.