Maximizing Your Potential: Understand the Relationship Between Capacity and Business Goals
One of the largest issues we see in the service industry, specifically related to CEOs and their time, is that they aren’t aware of what their capacity is or how to best split their time to focus on all of the areas that need their attention. Without the knowledge of what baseline their capacity should cover (i.e. 20% in this area and 10% in another), they also aren’t able to see the clear path forward to reaching their goals. In this post, we’ll be breaking down how your time should be spent as a CEO and how to understand your capacity and its effects on your business goals.
The Shaking Realization of Many CEOs
So many CEOs don’t understand what their capacity is right now (like how much time you’re spending on client work specifically), therefore they can’t work to spend the correct percentage of their time on that thing. Most people think they have 80-100% of their time to work on client deliverables when in reality, you only have 25-30%. For many business owners, the line is muddy between what their own schedule looks like as the CEO versus what their team members’ schedules look like. Depending on a team member’s role, they may very well have 80-100% of their time to dedicate to deliverables, and if that’s the case, then that means there’s definitely no reason for you to spend that much time on the same thing also.
Once you realize that you’ve been spending too much of your time in one area, you’ll likely need to make drastic changes to your scope and price point in order to reach your financial goals. This is what leads to the feeling that you’re always busy yet not making any more money– you’re at capacity, out of time, and there’s nowhere else for you to go.
How to Actually Spend Your Time as a CEO
If it isn’t your reality now, this is actually the gauge that you should work up to in terms of how you’re utilizing your time in what areas of your business. Be mindful that this is only for you as the CEO, not your team.
We’re aware that as you grow, there will be seasons where your time is spent differently. For example, if you need a ton of clients right now, your ratios may change for your marketing and sales, but this should only be temporary. Give yourself a benchmark that once you hit, you can start to scale your time back to base or even to allow focus on a different area like systems or operations. We forget as the CEOs that all of our time can’t be spent in one department, whether that’s client delivery, sales, marketing, etc. There are other things in your business that need and deserve your attention for the entire business to rise.
When Blocking Your Calendar Seems Impossible
When you have a busy season it is absolutely your job to give yourself a season of rest right after, whether that means one busy week and then one rest week, or a busy month followed by a rest month, etc. You're the only one who holds the responsibility behind your schedule, not your clients or your team. Block your calendar so that you can have some space to work on different things in your business to have a slower morning, or to take out Friday afternoons for lunch, or to block off most evenings for family time or sports practice drop-offs. Stop telling yourself that you can’t, and just do it.
SETTING THE TONE WITH YOUR TEAM
It’s our job as the CEOs to dedicate time for ourselves, and then communicate to our team when we’re going to be out. We also know that when we have busy weeks, the entire team is ready for a little bit more breathing room. It’s also our job to set that tone, so they follow suit as well. If you continue your weeks with every square inch of your calendar stuffed with work forever and always, not only will you be burnt out but your team will be also. The cost of that is far greater than a few less meetings per week or booking your hair or nail appointment on a Tuesday. If you’re working from 5 a.m. to midnight but then cut that down to a normal work schedule, you’re actually going to feel a lot more productive because you’re filtering only the things that deserve your time and attention right now. We encourage you to start somewhere by pushing the boundaries a little bit on how much time you think you actually need to spend on things.
Sometimes You Just Need the Extra Push
We get that every business owner has their own situation that may feel more nuanced than what allows for a simple “just cut a half day” solution to their busy schedule. We can give you that one-on-one feedback and unbiased input that you may need to give you a push in the right direction. There have been countless clients we’ve worked with where the key to unlocking their full financial potential was to grab the reins on their capacity and how they were spending their time. We’d love to hear about your situation and what areas you need help with the most by filling out this short waitlist and booking a call!
