January 26, 2013 Blog

Where Do You Spend Your Time?

The success of your business has a lot to do with where you spend your time. Most small and mid-sized business owners spend most of their time in the present – dealing with employee, customer, operational, or administrative issues. The more time you spend living in the present, the less time you spend living in the future. However, the more time you can spend living in the future, the more your business is worth. In large companies, the CEO spends most of his/her time living in the future – developing new products or services, new customer segments, new alliances, laying out a vision, or giving visionary speeches. As you go down the organization, employees spend less and less time living in the future until you get to the bottom tier of the hierarchy where the individual contributors spend most, if not all, of their time living in the present. Are you more like a CEO or an employee?

If you think this pie-in-the-sky thinking only applies to large companies, think again. When creditors evaluate your company, the largest consideration is whether your future cash flows will allow you pay them back. Likewise, when a potential acquirer looks at your business they are interested in the future earnings or, more specifically, future cash flow. If you cannot show them how the business will generate profits and free cash flow in the future, they will not value your business as much.

I realize that the leaders of small and mid-sized business cannot spend all of their time in the future – you do, after all, have to deliver your product or service to your existing customers in the present. But you should spend at least some of your time living in the future. Here are several strategies to try:

  • Stare out the window – The first step in creating a future is to imagine it. Set aside a few minutes every day or a few hours every week to take your mind off the day-to-day activities and spend that time thinking about the future. This can be as simple as closing your door and staring out the window. Other options are taking a short walk or going to a coffee shop for a leisurely beverage.
  • Set aside some “cave time” – Find a place and time where you can “get away from it all” for a while. I have a client who goes to a café one morning every week. She arrives when they open and stays until the lunch crowd starts arriving around 11:30. She tips the waiters well and they know to keep the coffee warm and the distractions to a minimum. Another client spends one morning each week working in his home office, away from phone calls and interruptions. Another spends an afternoon each week with a glass of wine and his thoughts. It doesn’t matter where you go, but it should be away from the office.
  • Hire a business coach – A business coach’s main job is to help you develop a vision for your future and to put some structured thought into how you will achieve it. This, by definition, requires you to spend time in the future. This works especially well for folks who do their best thinking conversationally rather than sitting alone in their cave.
  • Join a peer advisory group – Spending time with other business owners can be a very effective way to spend time thinking about the future. You are there to stimulate the other business owners and they are there to stimulate you. At our meetings of The Alternative Board it is common for the members to say that their key take-away came while discussing someone else’s business. Often, just being around other successful business owners is enough to get ideas flowing!
  •  Develop one or more seconds-in-command – As you spend more time in the future, someone will have to step up and take more responsibility for the day-to-day activities.  Larry Linne wrote an excellent book called “Make the Noise Go Away” which defines all the daily distractions as “noise”. If someone makes your “noise” go away, you will have more time to focus on the future.

I personally use a combination of these tactics. I leave the office every day to go home to walk the dog. I spend a half day away from the office every two weeks and spend a week away every quarter. Even though I am a business coach, I have a business coach (it is difficult for the physician to heal himself!) and I try to outsource or automate as much of my administrative activities as possible. Regardless of what works for you, the more time you spend living in the future the more your business is worth.