Hey there

All my life I've been under the influence of incredibly strong and powerful women...

These incredible women have all in all helped me become the man that I am today...

But the most powerful female influence in my life has been my grandmother...

The woman I fondly refer to as "shine shine granny".

She thought me how to cook...

Talk to girls...

And how to keep me head when others are losing theirs.

One of the most special things about Shine Shine Granny was that she had a way with words...

Through out my life till she passed a few years back...

She kept me on the path of commonsense by consistently sharing her unique brand of african wisdom with me...

One of them: Get out of your own way...

Has become a mantra not just for me but for the community I'm building here on HPEN.

Another one of my favorites is this: 

"If you must carry shit (poop)...make sure it is shit that is worth carrying."

In other words...

If you must do something that's unpleasant to you...

Make sure it's something that really has a big pay off...

Don't waste your time focusing on activities that ultimately don't count.

Applying this to business has some pretty interesting implications.

Anyways...

In answer to a question I got in my email yesterday...

How do you start the process of building a business that frees you up to focus on what really makes a difference in business?

Here's what you do...

First...

Make a list of all the things you do in your business right now...

First...

Make a list of every activity you perform during the next

week.

Second...

Cross out everything you currently do that really could and should be done by a staff member and not you...

Every admin activity...

Accounts activity (The blood! The blood!! The blood!!!)

Buying activity...

Manufacturing activity...

Artwork for marketing activity..

Maintenance or upgrade activity....

And so on.

I'll bet that over 80 per cent of your time currently is spent on staff member activity and not actual entrepreneurial activity...

YOUR major activity must be to as quickly as possible become, the ideas-maker, innovator, leader, director, marketer.

These are the activities that drive a business to heights of success and prosperity, and only you can be the person who directs that drive.

Anyways...third...

From your list...

What's the one staff activity that currently takes up the bulk of your time?

Now pay attention.

I'm not asking you to pick the one activity that drains you the most...

I'm saying pick out the one activity that consumes your time the most...

The minute you release yourself from your current most time consuming staff activity...

And replace that with the entrepreneurial activity of marketing, innovating and leading...

You'll find your business growing at a faster and more profitable rate...almost overnight. 

So in my case when I did this exercise a few years back...

I was at home with my girls...

I did their dinners...

Prepped them for school...

Helped them with homework..

Washed their clothes and cleaned up after them....

While it was great to be available to my kids at that level...

I realized it was taking a great chunk of time...

So I simply narrowed down to the most important thing I needed to focus on as a father....

Bedtime, homework and just hanging out.

I got someone else to do the rest and like magic...my productivity went up.

Once you know what the biggest time takers are...

Start planning to get someone to handle those activities for you.

That person could be on a volunteer basis or part time or full time with you.

And once you give that person the job...

GIVE THEM THE JOB AND DON'T BE THIER OWN SUPPORT STAFF.

Giving up control is one of the most difficult things for us as business people to do.

We've got to learn to delegate.

Or like Chichi Eruchalu (One of my favorite business strategists) would say: Delegate to dominate.

That's the real secret to freeing yourself up to be the entrepreneur you were born to be.

Till tomorrow..

Get out of your own way.

CTM