Time Management, Multi-tasking For Owners/principals

pm_sup

Anyone who has their own business has gone through this, but how do you guys manage your time.
If you are a business owner, you have to devote a certain amount of time to quoting, managing the job, and all the paperwork that comes at the end of the day, including paying the bills, and employees.

What are some of the strategies which have worked for you well, in helping manage your time efficiently?

For example, when I was self employed, I really tried hard to filter phone prospects who were phoning for quotes.
The most annoying ones were insurance claims, who were usually after three high quotes to get the maximum $ from their insurance company. When the job actually went out, they'd never call you, they wanted a low ball contractor so they could pocket the $ difference.

Anyway so I'd just say we don't do insurance claims.

However I despized paperwork and would procrastinate as long as possible.

SelfContract

Most guys here have either their wives and/or relatives or friends to help out with administrative/accounting tasks/duties. Otherwise they do whatever know how to do so they can just try control their accounting cost/time down.

Double-A

Time management is an art, one I was terrible at for a long time.

Some of the things and techniques I've found useful are;

• Make and keep appointments, including a rigid ending time. This includes appointments to get work done, if you're a solo employee. You know you put in more hours than just a straight eight, so plan on which hours you'll be on the job and productive and which hours you'll be off-site running errands and chasing things down.

• Return phone calls the same day, but not always right away. Set aside some time each day to deal with phone calls.

• Get control of your paperwork. Invoices, delivery receipts, time sheets, estimates, bills,... these things will become a mountain of wasted time if you don't have a way to deal with them immediately. I use a folder system in the truck that allows me to file papers away right away. The folders go into the office with me every time I'm there.

• Use email and text messaging. You can't waste time shooting the breeze with someone if you send them an email.

• Use a voucher form of check. The three part one. Yes its a pain in the butt, but you can preprint your lien waiver on the portion of the check you keep and have your subs and suppliers sign at the time you hand the check over to them. No signature, no check. This also allows you to staple the check stub to the invoice so there is no confusion as to when and how the invoice was paid, or the amount.

• Get a second line for your cell phone. Many of todays cells will accept and make calls for two separate numbers. You can also assign one number a different ring tone or to vibrate. Give family and friends one number, business associates another. This way you can decide if answering that call from the top of a ladder is really what you need to do without having to pull out the phone to see who is calling.

• Make a keep a first-aid kit on-hand and learn how to use it. Time is wasted every day on job-sites by folks looking for duct tape and clean towels or rags to wrap up a minor cut. If you have the knowledge and tools to do a good job of dealing with minor injuries right away, you save time in the long run.
• Top your fuel tank off on the way home. Once you set out on your day, don't waste time getting a cup of coffee and a donut in the morning when you stop for gas. Top of your tank at night, on the way home, when you're less likely to care about a hot cup of coffee and something sweet.

• Delegate, delegate, delegate. If someone can do something for you, let them. Don't micro manage. Nothing makes someone feel better than to be given a challenge at work and to meet that challenge well. If you want better employees, then you have to challenge them. Force them out of their comfort zone and let them learn something. Hen-pecking and shadowing are just signs of an insecure boss. If they do it right, tell them they did well. If not, put your foot up their butt, but don't follow them around telling them how to plug in a skillsaw.

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"My clients’ wishes are the center of my attention." -- David Guido, a contractor in Woodstock, N.Y.
New York Times, July 20, 2006

Brian

There are 5 essential ways to manage time more efficiently:
1. Delegate—Give employees more responsibility to free up your time. Picking up materials or routine paperwork are candidates for delegation. Assign mundane or routine tasks to others.
2. Outsource—Hire others to perform certain tasks, such as bookkeeping or graphics design. Don’t try to do-it-yourself when it may be more efficient and effective to hire a professional. You are an expert in your field—hire those who are an expert in theirs.
3. Planning—Make daily and weekly to-do lists. To-do lists help keep you focused and can help avoid forgetting important tasks. Planning your time will help you use it more efficiently.
4. Prioritize—Focus on those tasks that move you closer to your long-term goals. Keep the big picture in mind. Spend your time on those tasks that require your attention and cannot be delegated or outsourced.
5. Just Say No—Don’t over commit yourself. If you don’t control your time, others will do it for you. Learn to say know no rather than take on another commitment that will rob you of precious time and not more you towards your goals.

Brian Phillips

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Houston Interior Painting
Houston Exterior Painting
Houston Painting Contractor

Ed the Roofer

Of those 5 fine points stated, I believe that delegation is the most readily available. It allow the business man to see how much he shoud have been charging for various tasks previously taken for granted and done by himself for gratis.

By having a secretary who also is my bookkeeper, I reduce my office role down to a mere show up and find out what estimates have come in to measure. I no longer have to sit up late at nights to attempt tasks that I am either not properly talented enough to do, or no longer have the desire to do.

By having the crew foreman with a company van, I no longer have to get phone calls while I am on a roof measuring and estimate and stop what I was doing to retrieve additional materials.

I have been allowed to express my talents to focus on buiding the business and having additional family and liesure time.

The reality of delegating though, is that other personal now must be paid for tasks that I formerly did not have to pay someone else for, but the prices charged must reflect those additional costs incurred.

Eventually, it would be my goal to have someone else doing what I am doing and I remain along primarily to direct and redirect the focus of how things can be achieved. I do not see a true in the sense of the word, version of a retirement for myself, but I do visualize that I will have as much time as I want to do what I desire to do.

Ed

Pete M

Good thoughts, Ed...

Grumpy

#1 strategy? Hire people to do what I don't do well and/or don't have the time to do.

returning phone calls has got to be my #1 problem right now. I used to be so on-top-of-it! My cell phone voice mail has been full for about a month and I haven't even made an effort to check it.

The thing is since my #1 responsibility is to put out fires, my whole perfectly planned day can change immediately at any second.

The only times things go as planned is when I plan to NOT go to the office at all that day. When my whole day is inspecting job sites and running estimates I am ok. Once I step into this office I realized just how overwhelmed I am.

The ONLY answer is to give more responsibility to more people so I have more time to focus on what I do.

mseneker

Get a Franklin Day Planner (no other brand). If you tend to me a list maker, like myself, use the daily version and understand how to use it properly.

If you manage by pile then the monthly planner may work for you. I promise you will see a very big improvement in time management.

Also, if you drive and check jobs a lot, go to the furthest first just in case you run out of time and have to be closer to the office by the end of the day.

Put your best people on the job furthest away.

Have your number one employee use a Franklin also and have everyone else write things down when it's important.

Now, tell me how to cut down on the phone? I spend around 52 hours per month on the phone. Long talks with employees I very much avoid because it's like paying double for my time.

I do return phone calls to quickly but am sometimes worried someone might be locked out of a house or a delivery truck is lost. Yes, checking voice mails takes time just like returning a call.

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http://www.alliancedrywallservices.com
email: Alliancedrywall@hotmail.com

nadonailer

I am trying to make the transition from a bags - an owner to an office guy. Really tough for me as I love hands on work and don't like paperwork. But I know I have to go this direction if I want to keep growing. With 6 full time employees, a part time bookkeeper and my wife as an office manager, I need to be waaay more involved in the office. I currently do about 30 hrs week in the field plus bidding, estimating, meeting clients, and all the office stuff. So I know I'm skating on thin ice, need to delegate more as people have said, but dang it - no one does everything as well as me!
I definitely agree with writing everything down in your Day Planner (or whatever), make constant lists, goals, etc.. I don't know whether an electronic device would help much for me (ideas?)
Also - why the Franklin Planner?
Anyway, next year is my year to take the next step, I just want to do some occasional framing and finish carpentry, y'know, the fun stuff

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"History does not long entrust the care of freedom to the weak or the timid”.
Dwight D. Eisenhower

mseneker

Nadonailer, I feel your pain!

Franklin invented time management in terms of day planners. They got it right the first time. I'm suggesting Franklin because it have worked for me the past twenty years. The Franklin planner itself is only part of the system. Franklin has a good system to go along with how to use a day planner. I went to a one day class Franklin put on regarding their system of prioritizing tasks and such.

I don't find electronic day planner devises to work very well. Coming from someone with a computer background I can't believe I said that!

Sounds like you might be a Franklin daily task planner person. The daily planner helps you control things better and gives you a good feeling that you did not miss anything important. I use the original version of the Franklin Day Planner. It may be worth the $50 to give it a try. The monthly planner version is better for those that just want to keep track of appointments or big things to do. The daily version includes a daily list of thing you want to get done, ordered in importance. If you don't get something done you can move it to another day in your planner. For myself, if I move something from one day to another, over and over again, I just take it off my list because it is not important.

Hope that helps a little.

__________________
http://www.alliancedrywallservices.com
email: Alliancedrywall@hotmail.com

Heritage

Comes equipped with GPS for $10/month, saves quite a bit of time when finding HO's address for an estimate. I stay connected with the office at all times. Email notification helps too. Bluetooth earpiece. Keep it on me at all times when on a job site. I'm on a ladder...phone rings, it's just a press of a button away. No time lost. Screening estimate calls is very important also. Average estimate takes 2 hrs (driving to, from, during). "What's your budget?" are the three most important questions in the screening process. HO has 2500 sq/ft of hanging and taping with a budget of 5k gets the dial tone. I admit, my wifey does a good share of the administrative also. Which allows me to handle the "hands on" aspects of the job. But the most important lesson I have learned though is from an old chinese proverb..."early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise".

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