The business pitfalls of being a ‘busy fool’

Yes, I know that many of you reading this will feel like the term ‘busy fool’ is insulting, but if you are honest with yourself and agree with the statements below, you should read on. I will explain the business pitfalls of being a ‘busy fool’ and why you need to take action to avoid the costly consequences.

What are the business pitfalls of being a ‘busy fool’? Here are some of the signs:

Do your days spiral out of control?
Do you struggle finding time to make important decisions?
Is your working day spent firefighting?
You don’t trust your employees to do tasks properly
Are you guilty of micro-managing?
Are you busy all day but your business is not growing?

If you have answered yes to any of the questions above, get in touch with Elaine at Spero Solutions to find out how an online business manager can give you back the time to focus on business growth.

Are you a ‘busy fool’?

What is a ‘busy fool’? This term is used to describe someone who fills every day with tasks, while managing to avoid doing the tasks they really need to do. In the case of a business owner, they may be spending too much time doing and not enough time leading.

Business owners should spend their time making strategic decisions to fulfil profitable business growth, by focusing on business goals and how to achieve them. If your day consists of:

Jobs that could be easily undertaken by your employees
Inconvenient telephone calls that you don’t really need to make/take
Meetings that you do not contribute to

You could be a ‘busy fool’.

Coming to this realisation is a bitter pill for most business owners to swallow. However, the business pitfalls of being a ‘busy fool’ could be a far more difficult and costly lesson to learn.

For me, recognising that I was too involved in the day-to-day running of my business instead of focusing on growth and strategic aspects, was a difficult admission. But boy am I glad that I was honest with myself!

Realising that I was indeed acting like a ‘busy fool’, enabled me to reassess what I should be spending my valuable time on. I was able to reacquaint myself with my business vision and goals and view my business objectively.

What are the business pitfalls of being a ‘busy fool’?

What happens if you are too involved in the day-to-day running of your business? You will:

Lose sight of the bigger picture
Become overwhelmed by your to-do list
Be at risk of ‘burnout’
Undermine the confidence of your team, leading to a drop in morale and ultimately, recruitment issues
Become a micromanager, fostering resentment and staffing problems
Make poor decisions because you are too tired or don’t have time to consider all the options
Risk health issues as you become more tired and anxious
Have a poor work/life balance
Damage relationships with family and friends
Affect your company’s ability to grow and prosper through bad management
Lose the confidence of partners, investors and customers

Ultimately, being a ‘busy fool’ will stifle business growth and make each day even more of a struggle. Constant firefighting will take all your time, and you will be too tired and stressed to make objective decisions to take your business forward.

What are the business pitfalls of being a ‘busy fool’?

And how to fix it…

If your working day consists of the actions I outlined above, there are steps you can take to stop being over-involved in manager roles and responsibilities and get back on track.

Trust your team

The problem for many small business owners is that when you started your business, you had to do everything yourself. There was no alternative. You had to be able to do every task because when you started, there was only you to do it all!

Understandably, this can make it difficult to let go and relinquish some tasks to others. It is physically and mentally impossible to do everything yourself, you risk burnout. Plus, being too involved in day-to-day operations means you can lose sight of your business goals and objectives.

So, if you have employees to help you, let them! Give them the authority and responsibility of the duties you hired them to do.

Delegate!

Delegating to your team is not a sign of weakness. It demonstrates your faith in them and their abilities. Fostering a good relationship with your employees through trust and commitment, increases morale and confidence. The art of delegation is to:

Delegate the tasks that you do not like, enjoy or find challenging
Delegate the tasks that you do not have the skills or expertise for0 – this is why you hired someone else to do them in the first place!
Delegate the tasks you really should not be spending your time doing

Remember that in business terms, your time comes with the highest price tag, so delegating to others is always a more cost-effective solution!

Hire someone to help you

If you are planning to sell your business or even take some time out to spend with family, it is crucial that it runs smoothly without you.

An online business manager has critical business skills that can give your business a strong foundation. They will implement systems and processes to automate some tasks and improve efficiency.

Hiring an online business manager to manage the day-to-day running of your business, gives you space and time to reassess, and reacquaint yourself with your original business vision and goals. They will implement your business strategy and report progress against KPIs, without you having to do everything yourself!

In addition, an online business manager will empower your team to make strategic decisions for business growth, while you assess the possibilities objectively.