“Don’t mistake activity with achievement.”

John Wooden, Legendary college basketball coach

As small business owners, it’s easy for us to get trapped in a cycle of hard work…followed by hard work…followed by more hard work.

But, as John Wooden and many other successful people know, hard work does not automatically mean that you are getting high-quality results. Simply being active does not mean you are achieving. For business owners, hard work does not automatically mean you are making more money.

At Nufire Marketing, we experience this just as much as any other business. We can work long hours building websites and creating in-depth for clients, but at the end of the day we may not have actually made any money. In fact, we could have lost money.

Spending Too Much Time:

This is probably the most common reason that your hard work is not bringing in more money. If you spend too much time on a project, you’ll be doing fewer projects in a day, week, month, and year. In the end, this means less money in your bank account.

Budgeting Incorrectly:

Another likely culprit is simply budgeting incorrectly. At the beginning of a project or task, it’s common to assume that it will be done quickly and seamlessly, with no hangups or delays. But then reality sets in and you spend more time, use more resources, and hire more professionals to complete the task. You have to work harder to complete the project, but in the end you have little to show for your efforts.

Not Charging Enough:

Tied heavily to budgeting (and arguably the same thing) is the simple fact of not charging enough. If you constantly work hard yet don’t bring a steady profit, it may be time to charge more.

Letting Clients Control the Scope:

Clients and customers have expectations, and this, on its face, is perfectly reasonable. But you are the expert. In our situation, we know building websites; we understand that seemingly small site changes often take days to complete, which means they require hard work that may not result in more money.

To go back to the Wooden quote, all of these reasons may cause you to be extremely active while not actually achieving anything.

Fortunately, there are a variety of solutions to this issue.

To go back to the Wooden quote, all of these reasons may cause you to be extremely active while not actually achieving anything.

Fortunately, there are a variety of solutions to this issue.

Create a Schedule

Perhaps the best way to create better results for your day, to ensure you are not just working hard but also achieving, is to create a schedule for your day. This schedule will help you stay on target, allowing you to focus on exactly what needs to be done.

Destroy Distractions

Okay, “destroy” might be a little over the top. If a chatty employee is being a distraction, it’s probably not a good idea to “destroy” him! But it is a good idea to stop the distractions they are creating. In this case, a simple explanation that you need to focus on should do the trick.

Hire Out Tasks that Kill Productivity

We can’t be good at everything. We all have skills and strengths, so why waste time on things that take too long? For example, if marketing efforts are gobbling up hours, and the results are not great, it may be wise to hire a fractional CMO.

Try a “To-Don’t” List

We all know about the “to-do” list. But what about the opposite, a list the reminds you what not to do. This is simply a list of things that you should avoid, small-time wasters that are best left to others or not done at all.

Depending on your business and situation, items on your to-don’t list might include:

• Check email more than once an hour
• Accept project changes without additional fees
• Stock inventory (leave this task to employees)
• Work on tasks that are already delegated to others
• Try to fix equipment (leave it to a professional)

Leverage Technology to Your Advantage

Technology can force you to work harder with fewer results, or it can increase efficiencies, resulting in more money from fewer hours on the job. Technology can be used by a business to schedule meetings, track inventory, communicate quickly, access documents, post-marketing material, and more. The key is to use technology that makes you more productive and avoid technology that makes you work harder while earning less money.