Take time out to plan for business growth strategies

The Forum  of Private Business offers tips on time management. Focus on growth Unsurprisingly, growing business and winning new business continue to be the biggest priority for UK SMEs, particularly as they look to take advantage of the opportunities of the recovery this year. As the business owner it is up to you to concentrate on plans to keep customers and find new ones. Often this means taking a step back and reappraising where the value lies in your business. Set aside more time for activities that deliver a return on the investment of your time and money. Plan To stop yourself from being overwhelmed and spreading yourself too thinly, break down projects into more manageable tasks that you can prioritise and set timescales and goals for. Reduce distractions To get more from your time, you have to learn to be unavailable sometimes. Turn your phone and other devices off and only access your email at certain times of the day. If your staff always turn to you when there is the slightest problem, you should encourage them to come up with some options themselves which they can discuss with you. Support them in their choice and be ready to do it again until they are confident in making decisions by themselves. If colleagues cause interruptions, learn to feel OK about telling them you are busy and explain its importance to the business, or give them a time when it is convenient to come back. Sometimes we can be our own worst enemy when it comes to time management. We choose to do the things that we feel comfortable doing, so we procrastinate about the more challenging things. Ask yourself why you're procrastinating; what's the worst that can happen if you do it and the worst if you don't? If you don't feel confident in a certain area of business, perhaps source training or get advice from someone with the required skills.