If I had to nail down the #1 excuse I get, more than any other, it would be the “I’m too busy” excuse. The worst part; 99% of the time, the people who tell me they are “too busy”, are busy doing the WRONG THINGS. That’s right, they are “too busy” doing things that don’t make them money. “You know who you are…”
I’ve seen countless people go broke by being too busy. Often times, when we think about a person being busy, we think about them having a lot of customers. In most cases, that’s not true. Businesses who have a lot of customers, have usually scaled themselves to accommodate their clientele.
It’s the lone wolf and small business entrepreneur that I’m talking about here. The guy who spends all day chasing a dime, when in the same amount of time he could have made a $100 dollars. The folks who are simply too busy being too busy.
Here’s the problem: Being busy doesn’t pay the bills
Closing business and serving customers is what pays the bills. If you’re busy doing anything other than that, you’re wasting your time on things that hurt you, more than they help.
By nature, in my world, I work with a lot of real estate agents. Most of the time, when an agent comes to me, they tell me they are just too busy to keep up. By the time I start to dissect their schedule and what consumes their time, I find them doing the $10/hour jobs and skipping out on the things that brings in the big bucks. For example, driving across town to print fliers, instead of spending that same time prospecting and paying someone to print them and drop them off.
Every second you waste being “too busy” is a second you can’t get back. If you’re trying to grow a high 6 or 7+ figure business, you can’t be too busy. Do you think Mark Zuckerberg is too busy? What about Warren Buffet, do you think he’s too busy? I can promise you they are not. They make their own time. They only do what makes them money. The rest, they delegate out.
If billionaires only focus on doing tasks that bring in the most money, why would you run your business any differently?
One of the hardest things for salespeople and entrepreneurs to do, is to delegate their tasks. Most of us are such damned control freaks, we can’t let sh!t go. We want things done our way, and we’re usually too busy to train someone our way of doing things.
People say they are too busy out of habit. Even when business is slow, most of us will never admit it. Instead of saying “I’m crushing it right now making a ton of money”, we say “I’m really busy right now”. But what does that even mean? Well.. in most cases it means “I’m losing my f*cking mind doing dumb sh!t, trying to find some damn clients” Let’s be real.
People who appear “busy” also have a tendency to be scatterbrained. Scatterbrained people scare off prospects. You have to be confident and clear when you are running a business. If you’re not, the public will see that you don’t have it together and they will shy away from doing business with you.
I’ve seen it happen a lot. Entrepreneurs get “too busy” and turn down clients. Some salespeople go as far as to turn away new prospects, in order to finish menial tasks on things that don’t get them paid. It’s ludicrous! Stop it! If you’re too busy to make money, you’re doing it all wrong.
Here’s the solution to being too busy
Stop doing things that don’t make you money. Yes, you’ll spend some of your hard earned money at first, on outsourcing. But you’re not spending money. You’re investing it. Investments come with returns. If you’ll get clear on what you need to be doing to bring in the bucks, delegate everything else out.
I know that at Hardcore Closer, the things that make me money are running ads, creating content and customer service. Those are the only things I focus on. I have managers who handle everything else. From sales to operations, I got it delegated to someone else, so that I can focus on what brings in the $$$.
I’ve had a lot of people come to me and ask me to help them scale their business. I too was a lone wolf that was “too busy” at one point. Where do you think I’m getting the experience to speak from here? I’m glad I had a mentor to point it out for me and point me in the right direction. Now I’m busy, but only busy doing what counts and I’m not too busy for anything.
