Put Top Priorities First

After attending a time management workshop several years ago, I made a commitment to take charge of my construction company, put my priorities first and focus on building a business that works. Now, I focus my time on activities that produce the biggest return, delegate as much as possible to my employees, spend 33 percent of my time with customers and go home at a decent hour.

Before, I prioritized my tasks into several categories: must do, should do, could do and don’t have to do. At 7:30 a.m., I began getting calls and urgent emails, which put more immediate demands on my time. I had meeting requests, customers had issues, project superintendents were having problems with subcontractors, one of our crews was sitting around waiting for concrete to be delivered and one of our delivery trucks had broken down.

When I finally got back to the office at 4 p.m., my desk was piled with 25 new requests, notes, faxes, invoices and demands—all requiring my immediate attention. If you are like most business owners, this happens to you often. You want to change the way you operate every day, but you just can’t make it work. Ask yourself:

• What’s my top priority?
• What’s my main focus?
• What will make our company successful?

A profitable company can’t be built with good intentions. Growth happens when you focus on what really matters to ensure long-term success.

Harry is the successful owner of RPM Construction, a $40 million general contracting company. RPM is continually recognized for providing the best service, fastest schedules and quality workmanship. He surrounds himself with a top management team. He makes loyal customers his top priority because his business is based on strong customer relationships. He is living his priorities. and his personal and business bottomlines are doing well as a result.

When you put day-to-day details, outside priorities, deadlines, construction project crises and other problems before your top priorities, you don’t have time for the important things that make the most money and give you the greatest return.

Find YOUR Top Priorities

Business owners make the most money when they spend 33 percent of their time building loyal customer relationships, 33 percent of their time leading their management team and 33 percent of their time (or less) actually doing work. If you put your long-term priorities first and focus on what will give you the biggest return on energy, you’ll have lots of time for the important things in your business and personal life. What will give you the greatest return—taking loyal customers to a baseball game or sitting at your computer and ordering the materials needed to keep your employees working on the job?

You can delegate ordering materials, but you can’t delegate building relationships. The reason for having employees is to meet company needs, help grow your business and make more money, which allows you to work on your top priorities.

Roger owns Green Landscape Contractors, a landscape construction and maintenance company he has built up to one foreman and three crews. He is now having trouble getting all of his jobs completed on schedule, finding needed help, doing the required paperwork, paying the bills on time and finding time to take a few days off. His personal duties include sales, estimating, proposals, customer contacts, project management, scheduling crews, visiting every job to make sure the work is being done properly, performing extra work when requested by customers and supervising all the special installation and custom projects. He works 70 to 80 hours every week. He asked me to help him figure out what he can do to stop this insanity.

Roger said he wanted to be more organized, find a field superintendent who could take over his crew supervision duties, take weekends off and take at least two week-long vacations a year with his family. He tried to hire another foreman, but couldn’t find anyone he liked for a reasonable price.

He thought he might be able to find a little more time to train his foreman to get the sprinklers and planting installed correctly, make a checklist for the crews to follow and hire a part time bookkeeper to help him with the paperwork.

So, why hadn’t he done it? As the business owner, Roger decided he was the only person he trusted to talk to customers or make field decisions. He was too busy to train crews and didn’t know how to hire a construction bookkeeper. He kept working harder and doing more, rather than getting his act together and putting his priorities first.

Start Delegating

It’s time to change how you manage your time. Only you control your time and manage your day. Stop taking work away from employees and start making them accountable for results.

Start delegating as much as you can by finding the right people, hiring, promoting and doing what you need to accomplish first. Make a list of your top priorities, what you will let go of and what actions you need to take to get your work days organized, focused on your priorities and headed toward exactly what you want.