3 “Aren’t-I-Smart” Lies That Kill Your Profits
Posted November 5, 2007 in Productivity 36 Comments »
When it comes to lying, there’s nobody more willing to believe us than… well, us. When we’re not doing the best things to move our business forward, we tell ourselves it’s okay, we’re doing great, it’s not that bad… but at the end of the day all that rationalization isn’t building revenue and bagging new customers.
Here’s how to recognize where we’re sweet-talking our way past out problems… and how to fix them for good.
Lie #1: I got a lot of stuff done today!
Sure, you’ve been running around doing a lot of things today… but were they high-value things that move your company (and your revenue) higher? There’s a big difference between activity and accomplishment. One keeps you busy doing stuff… the other keeps you busy watching the cash roll in.
The Solution: Ask yourself if your current actions are going to grow your company or not. If not, pick something that will and do it now … then catch up with that little task later. (Then read David Seah’s rocking article on giving your tasks point values.)
Lie #2: I can improve on (x) later – I need to work now!
If you know you’re doing something inefficiently and you tell yourself you’ll get to improving it later, guess what – you won’t, 9 times out of 10. If you’re too busy to learn how to do something effective now, when are you going to have time to do it later? If you know that 20 hours spent improving your follow-up skills could boost your profits 20%… and you’ve known this for a year now… quit saying you’ll get to it.
The Solution: Schedule those hours in over the next 30 days. Consider it overtime. Consider it smart too – you didn’t get into business to work longer hours – you built it to thrive. And just “working through it” for the time being isn’t being productive, it’s being an enabler. Don’t do this to yourself.
Lie #3: I should be doing (x) myself, because I’ll save money!
Sure, when you’re bootstrapping it you want to do it all yourself, because it’s a powerful way to keep expenses down. But eventually you hit a wall where your time doing business-related activities is actually the bottleneck to higher profits. Think of what you do that brings in the big bucks… and then think of all the little jobs that suck time away (things like accounting, web tech work, whatever isn’t your high-dollar skill). Every hour you spend doing the low-value activities is an hour you can’t bill high. And that sucks.
The Solution: Find a way, any way, to outsource those tasks. If you don’t have money, barter. Do favors. Get creative. Tell yourself there’s a way and you’ll find one. And if all else fails, schedule some overtime to improve your client base so you can afford to do the outsourcing. And if you don’t want to work much overtime, cut out more of that ‘activity’ and hit more cash-generating accomplishment. You’ll thank yourself for it.
Bonus Lie #4: I should click somewhere else instead of leaving a comment!
Don’t fall for this one – stop right where you are. Ask yourself – are you going to take the 90 seconds you spent reading/skimming this article and make it “activity”… or revenue-generating accomplishment? If you click away now, it’s time wasted.
The Solution: If you take just one minute to join the conversation below, and declare one thing you’re going to apply as a result of reading this article, you might just kick your cashflow up a notch. Do it now!
Keep it rocking,
Dave
******
Dave Navarro is all about helping you get more done faster. Pick up your free “More Time” kit at your30hourday.com.
******
About the author: Dave Navarro is a business productivity coach who loves showing freelancers how to make more money and have more time for themselves. Get more of the good stuff at Rock Your Day or follow Dave on Twitter.
-
There’s no doubt that freelancing can be tough — freelancers face many obstacles. From finding clients, to meeting deadlines, to…
[Read More...] -
With the economy on a downward spiral, more people than ever before are examining freelancing as a viable source of…
[Read More...] -
Unless you’ve been living under a rock this year, you have witnessed the explosion of social media as a tool…
[Read More...]
The Unlimited Freelancer is Now Only $19
Unleash the true potential of your business. Get The Unlimited Freelancer and start transforming your freelance business,
now only $19.
Try searching "Getting Clients" or "Productivity"
FreelanceCommunity
Free Resource: Massive Web UI and Button Set
This is a free photoshop set provided by MediaLoot with hundreds of free buttons, boxes, and other useful web elements.5 Fresh and Useful jQuery Plugins Were Born in November 2009
In November 2009, 5 jQuery plugins were born that are new and useful for web designers. Read this post to learn more.How Well Do You Understand CSS Positioning?
The css position property seems easy to grasp, but it works a little differently than it appears on the surface.
Free Report
Sign up for our product discount list to get a free copy of Why Some Freelancers Thrive and Others Barely Survive. You can unsubscribe anytime.
Popular Articles
- SEO Techniques All Top Websites Should Use
- When a Client Can't Afford You: Why It's Still Better to Bid High
- How To Stop Scrambling For Clients And Get A Steady Stream Of Paying Gigs
- A Simple Way To Stop Clients From Rejecting Your Proposals
- 3 Reasons Your Rates Are Still Low (And How To Start Raising Them)
36 Comments
Mandy
November 5th, 2007 at 1:03 amThis is a great article, Dave.
You say: “There’s a big difference between activity and accomplishment. One keeps you busy doing stuff… the other keeps you busy watching the cash roll in.”
That’s something I need to remind myself to check on. Is what I am doing right now the best thing for servicing my clients or building my business, or do I have my priorities wrong?
It’s good to get a kick up the pants occassionally, cheers.
A Blog about Nothing
November 5th, 2007 at 1:34 amGood article and nice way to hook a comment (#4).
I’m guilty as charged of all of these. I think I’ll start by tackling number one because if I actually did things I might well get moving forward.
Shane Pearlman
November 5th, 2007 at 1:45 amI here you brother – delegation and managing the flow has been the topic of the week in our firm.
Roberta
November 5th, 2007 at 2:08 amLie #4 is one that a lot of people fall for. They click away before actually doing something on a blog. If I find the content compelling and the article useful, I will leave comments. Great article, Dave. I’m going to pick up the feed today. Hopefully one day, I’ll be freelancing!
Joohliah
November 5th, 2007 at 3:55 amHi Dave ! I seem to be coming accross your articles everywhere these days ! But that’s great news as I love them, always so useful and full of sense :)
Today is the day where I choose the person who’ll do the sewing for me in my art/craft business… it should give me time to take care of more important things, even though it took a while to find the right person. So I guess the lesson is : keep on looking for qualified people to help you, it’s worth it !
Have a great day everyone :)
Dave Navarro
November 5th, 2007 at 6:26 amMandy –
Thanks for the kind words. Glad to be an inspiration
A Blog About Nothing –
I try :-) Conversation’s very important to me. Glad it worked!
Shane -
I hope the topic of the week’s jump-starting change …
Roberta –
Thanks for subscribing. Do a little something each day and eventually you’ll be there.
Joolliah –
Thanks for the kind words and congrats on outsourcing – it’ll be worth it.
Peter
November 5th, 2007 at 7:02 amI StumbledUpon this while I should have been doing something more productive. Thanks for the kick in the pants.
Matt
November 5th, 2007 at 8:18 amNice one. I’m going to spend more time in the office and send my boys out to do on site stuff with clients. I also need a tea boy. That should save me at least 3 hours a day!
Good list!
Christine O'Kelly
November 5th, 2007 at 9:36 amDave – you are speaking to me! I have done/still do every single one of these things! Thanks for the kick in the butt :D
Dave Navarro
November 5th, 2007 at 9:37 amChristine –
Butt-kicking is my speci-a-lity. :-)
pressdog
November 5th, 2007 at 11:10 amI’m in! I need to quit surfing espn.com and get to writing! Thanks for the post. I’ve found just starting out where about half of my time is billable that a good first step is to try to fill all eight hours in a day with something business-related, whether that’s organizing files on your laptop, writing and sending direct mail looking for work, networking with contacts, etc. I try to have a pile of stuff I can do waiting so I can knock a few things off in between billable hours.
HART (1-800-HART)
November 5th, 2007 at 11:25 amWell .. I don’t like to call ‘em lies .. and prefer to distinguish the days when I am “busy” and “productive” (which are never the same thing)
Naomi Dunford
November 5th, 2007 at 11:37 amDave, you sneaky comment getter, you. I like the overtime idea. Do you know how long I’ve been putting off reading Getting Things Done? The irony of it is killing me. Oh I read BLOGS about GTD all the time. But the book? The one that I own? The one that’s SITTING ON MY DESK? Nuh-uh.
Thanks. I’m going to go eat some toast and read.
Dave Navarro
November 5th, 2007 at 11:49 amPeter –
*kick!* (you’re welcome.)
Matt –
Make sure you use those 3 hours well :-)
Pressdog –
Replace surfing with billable hours and soon enough you’ll watch sports from a SkyBox!
Hart –
As long as you’re moving your business forward every week …
Naomi –
Glad you’re tackling it. Schedule in regular time to make sure you’re Getting … That … Done. Hmm …
Avonelle Lovhaug
November 5th, 2007 at 11:52 amLie #5: If I just tweak my website a little more, that will magically bring business to my door.
I’m a software developer, and sales/marketing are not my favorite things. So I find that sometimes I will waste time tweaking small things on my site, telling myself that because it is my website, these are marketing activities. Ha! Okay, no more of that for a while!
Thanks for a great post!
RT Cunningham
November 5th, 2007 at 12:26 pmHa! I didn’t click away!
Dave Navarro
November 5th, 2007 at 12:29 pmAvonelle –
Thanks for #5 and thanks for the kind words!
RT –
Glad you commented … now come back and let us know how you’ll use what you learned.
will bee
November 5th, 2007 at 2:55 pm…since I am still relatively new to this business it is always nice to have new things to work on to improve my output.
#2 and #4 are now my latest work-improvement tips.
…I am practicing #4 now :)
Thanks for the great tips!
Jon
November 5th, 2007 at 3:13 pmHey Dave, that’s a great post, I thought I’d apply what I learned from #4 :)
I’m with Avonelle on #5, I always tell myself those things are “important” when in fact they’re not ‘that’ important, and I could better use this time for something else… ok gotta go tweak something now :)
Dave Navarro
November 5th, 2007 at 3:18 pmJon –
Always move forward :-)
will bee –
Glad I could help!
JJ Loch
November 5th, 2007 at 6:47 pmGreat article!!! Great blog!!!
JJ :D
Michael Beck
November 5th, 2007 at 9:08 pmI’m definitely guilty of #4. I read so many blogs, gleam information from them but never take a moment to engage in the conversation or just stop to say “thanks!”
I’m going to try and change that starting today!
Erica Ross-Krieger
November 5th, 2007 at 10:05 pmNice list Dave! I’d add this as a bonus question:
“When it comes to what’s really important to my business, what am I pretending not to know?”
Thanks for holding up the mirror:)
Susan
November 5th, 2007 at 11:07 pmGreat article, Dave. I managed to avoid most of these, but I’ve had these thoughts and had to talk myself out of them daily since I started freelancing full time. :)
bob
November 6th, 2007 at 2:02 pmgreat article, thanks for the dofollow (lol jk)
I like the idea about outsourcing…
I want to outsosurce my job.
how would you recommend i go about replacing myself with someone better, more efficient and less expensive, smarter, younger, more energetic, more business and financial resources?
Viv King
November 7th, 2007 at 11:04 amI particlularly like the idea of bartering – anyone out there want an original painting in exchange for making my website profitable? Boy, would I be grateful for this!!
MattT
November 7th, 2007 at 1:13 pm“There’s a big difference between activity and accomplishment.”
Good to be reminded of this every now and then. I’m one of those who tends to confuse the two, especially lately.
Great post!
Jeffrey Kafer
November 9th, 2007 at 3:56 pmWhen I was intenring at a recording studio, I asked my mentor why he didn’t just clean the mixing board himself instead of bringing in someone esle to do it. He told me that cleaning the board would be an all-day project and hiring someone to do it would only cost him a few hundred dollars. During that time, he could be sending out reels, marketing, or scheduling gigs and make 3 times that amount.
Christine O'Kelly
November 9th, 2007 at 7:14 pmJeffrey – that is a great story – that is a perfect example of the difference between a “poor” mentality and a “rich” mentality – thanks for sharing!
BasketQueen
November 11th, 2007 at 9:51 amThank you for your post.
Quite frequently I am running around, trying to fill an order, thinking “I’m so busy”, but when in actuality, I’m spinning my wheels.
Thanks for the kick in the *ss.
Have a nice day.
Grace Smith
November 15th, 2007 at 4:58 amI use David’s Printable CEO and find it amazing for keeping my tasks organised on focused. I have been guilty of No.1 in the past, running around thinking your getting things done when in fact your really putting off the most important areas you need to focus on! Your basically conning yourself to make you feel better, if your running your own business you need to be very honest about your actions.
I found David Allens “Getting Things Done” to be fantastic, well worth checking out!
king
April 18th, 2008 at 11:10 amI’m guilty as charged of all of these
Jeff Adams
April 20th, 2008 at 6:04 amI agree with the post above, I’m pretty lazy when it comes to reading all these great articles and then not leaving even just a “great” comment.
I love your articles, and the Saturday links!
king
April 24th, 2008 at 7:41 amNice one. I’m going to spend more time in the office and send my boys out to do on site stuff with clients
chris
May 23rd, 2008 at 2:14 pmGuilty as charged! I’ll try to do better (this comment)
Trackbacks