Have you heard of the Pareto Principle or the 80/20 rule?

It goes like this:

• 80% of your results are produced by 20% of your efforts

• 80% of your income comes from 20% of your clients

• 80% of your files are used 20% of the time

are you getting the picture?

It’s little things that make a huge difference on how productive you are.
Unfortunately it can be difficult to see the solutions yourself as you get so immersed in your story of how busy you are, that you can be totally unaware of the time you waste.

It’s amazing to see so many people who are prepared to sacrifice their lives for the sake of their business. I’m sure you know of someone like that. They get up at the crack of dawn, drag their weary bodies out of the house and head off for another rollercoaster ride at work. Ten or twelve hours later they head home totally exhausted with all their energy sapped from their body.

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Did you know that 60-90% of all doctor visits are for stress-related illnesses?

Stress is costly in terms of your health, relationships and performance. When you’re affected by too much stress your body wears down and you get sick. Highly disorganized people seem to be more susceptible to sickness as they are always under extreme pressure, running from one disaster to another.

What many business owners fail to realize is one of the major reasons they are not getting ahead is they are disorganised! They constantly repeat the same  mistakes and do not address the fundamental issues that are the cause of their problems.

Mary is a typical small business owner, she keeps herself busy doing the ‘hands on’ work. In her case it is doing beauty treatments and she told me she keeps doing this because she really enjoys it.

Her clients constantly told her how great she was, which made her feel appreciated. However it trapped her into staying ‘on the tools’.  Mary had 5 people on her team, and she struggled with letting them handle her clients.

Only problem is Mary stayed up late most nights working on her business doing the basic administration and ‘trying’ to squeeze some time in for marketing. There was barely any time for her to spend with her husband.

When you look at the list of what women ‘do’ in their businesses it looks something like this:

1.  General administration

2.  Email

3.  Website maintenance

4.  Phone calls

5.  Marketing

6.  Social Networking

7.  Client work

8.  Bookkeeping

9.  Running errands

plus much much more.

Of course this ‘to do’ list is similar to what men ‘do’ in business, however the woman in business is also responsible for the personal side of life. Having children and partners plus take care of the household can consume your day without even going anywhere near their business!