I’ve been building my CEO skills, with a course to ensure that I know my business stuff as well as I know my HR stuff; and I’ve found that the biggest challenge that I and my fellow business owners have is time.

Time to create, deliver and do all the things that you need to make sure your business runs smoothly.

Can you relate?

It’s so easy to say I’ll do that when I get the time, but to be honest you don’t find time. You have to make time!

I worked with a Manager that was over-worked, he had the budget to hire some more people into his team, but he didn’t have the time to recruit. I’d find candidates and by the time he’d looked at their applications, and shortlisted, they’d have found other employment. He’d miss telephone interviews for client emergencies. In the end I had to block out time in his calendar and sit with him to shortlist and interview. He was able to get some highly skilled additions to his team and get his life back.

But first he needed to make the time investment!

How do you schedule your time to make sure you have time to be proactive, instead of just reacting?

I use a weekly planner that I stick above my desk, so that I can schedule in what I’m doing and see my availability and to get my tasks done I use my version of the Pomodoro Technique (instead of 25 minute blocks, I do 90 minute blocks).

Effectively managing time and resource isn’t exclusively an issue for small businesses owners; when I worked corporately, one of the main reasons we’d get a contractor in was because they could focus 100% on the task they were hired for without all of the distractions and it’s the reason why our clients work with us, we have the experience and knowledge to get the HR work done without added drama.

It’s time to make time for the things you want to do for your business, block out the time and turn off the distractions!

If you need to build or scale your team but are struggling to find the time to even THINK about it? Get our free guide to hiring and outsourcing for Small Business here