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Unlock the secrets to business success and gain valuable insights from local industry leaders. Join us as we delve into the strategies, triumphs, and lessons learned of thriving companies, empowering entrepreneurs to elevate their businesses to new heights.
Sharon 00:16
Welcome to the It's Time for Success: The Business Insights Podcast. In today's episode, we're going to talk about something I wore proudly for a lot, I mean, a lot of years, and in fact, it still creeps up once in a while. We're going to talk about the “busy badge.” My business coach has been calling me out on this for a lot of years. The first time he brought it up to me, I was kind of set back. I'd never heard of it before. I didn't know it was an issue, and we'll talk a bit more about it, but he said, “Sharon, you're wearing busy like a badge of honour.” That's what he said to me. And I was like, “So…” but over the years, we got to realize that there is a reason that he called me out on it. There is a reason why he kept calling me out on it for a lot of years until it finally sank in.
If you're an entrepreneur, I know you know exactly what I'm talking about. The busy badge is that stupid, invisible metal you pin on your chest every morning, and it shines and glitters when somebody says, “How are you doing?” And your answer is “busy,” or when you ask someone, you're hoping that they're going to say, keep it busy… and you hope they're going to say, “Oh yes, so busy.” Like it's so crazy. Why? Why do we do this to ourselves? We're entrepreneurs. I get it, it's in our genes, but is it sustainable? That's what we need to know. I thought being busy meant I was doing well, that it meant my business was thriving, that I was important, that I was doing enough. But here's what I learned, and I wish I had learned it sooner and listened a lot earlier. Wearing the busy badge is not sustainable. It's exhausting, and it can actually hold your business back.
You know, I used to post things on Facebook, for example, be like, if I look back, it makes me want to cringe a little bit now that I know better. It would say things like, 12-hour days exhausted by grateful or, Oh, working on a Sunday, getting caught up. Thank you, everybody, like that kind of stuff. That's what I would post. Maybe you've seen posts like that too, or even shared them yourself, and honestly, I thought it showed how hard I was working and how dedicated I was to my customers. Looking back, that kind of post is a perfect example of wearing the busy badge without realizing you're wearing the busy badge. I should elaborate on that. The simple post shows you're grinding, you're in, committed, but it's also glorifying exhaustion and overwork like it's part of the game of being an entrepreneur.
I personally hope I can inspire and mentor other entrepreneurs and set an example for my family. I do not want to make others feel like they have to keep up with that level of busyness to be successful. You can be successful without keeping up that level of business. If we want to build or if we want to build a business that lasts and live lives that feel good, we have to change that story. We have to change our mindset. It's not about how long your work day is or how tired you are at the end of it. It's about working smarter, creating space for growth and making time to recharge.
Sharon 03:22
When I say creating space for growth, this is what it's all about. We have to work on a business. So in business, we're busy, busy, busy, busy, hence the busy badge, but if you create space and allow some hours in a day to work on growth, it helps, and then, because of that on growth, you're able to take time to recharge as well. So let's talk a little bit more about that. Yes, it's a mindset shift that we're going to be talking about today, and it sounds like it should be easy. It's not. Busy feels good. Admit it. We're entrepreneurs. That is part of the game, but it's also very familiar. It's what we know how to do. We know how to work hard. We know how to multitask. We know how to do that stuff. Busy is a habit, but it's not a strategy. When you're in your business, answering calls, packing orders, fixing problems, it's tangible. You see the results instantly. You get that instant gratification feeling. But here's the problem—if you spend all your time in business, there's no time left to work on your business. As you know, and I know, that working on your business, which is planning, strategizing, and building systems, that's where growth happens.
First strategy, I think, is a simple strategy for those of you like me who are focused on growing, focused on doing better, is letting go. So if you're stuck in a busy badge mode, maybe start by letting go of minimum wage tasks, maybe things like cleaning, simple errands, maybe routine paperwork, scheduling. I don't know what any of that would look like in your business, but find something that is basically a minimum wage that's easily trained, that you can let go. A couple that I started off with when I started implementing that back in the day, we filed everything in filing cabinets. So each of our customers would come in, they would have their order, say they ordered 12 hoodies, and they wanted a black hoodie, but they wanted yellow soap screening on these orders. Well, that was all done on paperwork, and that was put into their file and this massive wall of filing cabinets, and it had to be filed regularly and in order and dated properly, because if that customer comes back in a few months and they wanted to repeat order, but the same hoodie, but a different color, you had to be able to look back and see what they did before. So it's hugely important that these things were filed and filed properly. I would spend after-work days in the evening, I guess, nights or weekends, and just keep that caught up, is super important. So that's what I did.
So that was one of my first roles that we had started off with an after-school student, and that's what they were doing. But when I first started my business, I remember running it by myself, and I hired a girl just out of high school. She was 17 years old, and I hired her to do simple things like get the mail, wash my car when it was dirty, or even fill it up with fuel, maybe run and get Shana for me from school if I was with a customer, that kind of stuff. So basically a personal assistant. Well, that was 18 years ago. That lovely girl is Carla, who is still with me after all these years, and she quickly evolved from my personal assistant. She's very clever, and I recognize that right off the get-go and very, very sweet. So anyway, sometimes it may evolve to other things that they can do for you in that situation, and it was simply… just look for areas that would benefit you, let the easy stuff go, like filing was for me. Once you let go of those minimum wage stuff, you have more time for things that only you can do. That's going into your accounting software… that's like, analyzing dollar amount… that's like seeing where you're lacking… what department needs more focus on? Where do you need your marketing? Where do you need to… maybe you need to do things like an expense audit. What's going to help your company grow?
Sharon 07:13
Now I know, trust me, I know spending money sometimes on tasks you could do yourself quickly and efficiently, even if I go back to the filing cabinet thing, I could have filed what that after-school student took her four hours, I could have done that in probably 45 minutes. But it wasn't the right avenue, and after time, she did get faster, right? So, spending money on tasks, you cringe right up. We don't have a lot of money as entrepreneurs, especially when we're starting. You don't, you do not have that money. Cash is tight, but this is what I suggest: track it, give it three months… give it three months, and really focus your energy on work during those freed-up hours. I promise you, I promise you, it will pay for itself many times over. I recommend dedicating maybe two to three hours a week to start with, minimum on business.
Quick story for you. My business coach convinced me to create a special space for on business work, and if you're an entrepreneur, we love to work. We love to be busy. We love that badge of honour. We love that instant gratification. So being behind locked doors working on business is really hard for us, but anyway, he convinced me to create my office. So that's what I did. I created this office. It's a huge mind shift. If you've never done this, you're going to want to start doing it. I want you to reach out to me after your first day and let me know how it went, because on my first day, this is what it looks like. I hung up a whiteboard on the wall. I made a calendar. I printed on dry-erase vinyl. I applied it to Coroplast, went to find the drill, and I hung it up on my wall. It looked brilliant. I cleaned out my desk, which had years and years of stuff in my drawers that I don't even know what was in there. I just organized it, dusted it, I fixed my chair, which was one of those chairs, you know, I forget, but the ball, you know, the air ball that's supposed to be good for balance and healthy, whatever that I had one of those. It needed more air. It wasn't flat, by any means, but it was a little low. So I went and found a pump, and I pumped that up. I took out the garbage. Oh, and there was a closet in this office, so I cleaned out the closet, which really didn't have much in it, but junk, and I organized all that. I went across the road and bought myself some fancy dry-erase markers for my new whiteboard and my new calendar that I created. I even went and picked up a fancy pen holder for my desk. My office looked amazing, absolutely amazing. It should have been so efficient, but I didn't do any “on business.”
My business coach actually called me and asked me what I did, and I told them exactly what I did, which is what I just told you. And it was so crazy, how hard it was. It was so hard to shift over. Again. I was being busy in that room. I did so much stuff in a day, but it wasn't on my business. It was stuff I knew how to do. So if you just started out, try it a few hours, give yourself some grace. It's just tricky. Trust me, if you haven't done it, I know you're going to find it hard. It's a huge mindset shift to know that instant gratification, which you might not see for six months down the road because you're focusing on business, you might not see anything. Nobody will even know what you did until later, and even then, they don't even know what went on behind the scenes. It's really hard. It's hard as entrepreneurs, so because it's hard, I'm going to give you a cheat sheet of what to start with, because that first day, I went into my office to do “on business,” and I had no freaking idea what to even concentrate on. I had all these ideas. I shouldn't say I had no idea. I had too many ideas. They were everywhere. And I wrote some things down on my dry erase board, of things I wanted to touch on, and then, all of a sudden, the whole list, and then there's a squirrel that ran around the whole office all the time, bothering me. It was absolutely insane.
Sharon 10:58
So these are my wise words for you—take a couple of these out of these lists, and focus on one of them, and the next time, maybe focus on another one. Maybe pick out something that would be hugely advantageous to you, that might be a shorter return on it, because of our mindset as entrepreneurs, that we have. Okay, review your numbers and financial help. Do an expense audit. This is pretty easy for you to get into, and it would feel good instantly to deal with that stuff. Look for new revenue opportunities. It's up there. Build or refine your systems. Systems are hugely important. We can't function our businesses, we can't train other people without our system. Focus on that. Maybe pick one or two systems that are… you see that has a bit of grief that you want to focus on. Train… which system that you can focus on, systems that can help you train your team to get them to the next level. Another thing that I consider “on business,” which I never did before, is network. You got to get out. You’ve got to meet people. I'm very introverted, so it's really awkward for me, so I put it into “on business,” because it's something I wouldn't do naturally. So, network and build relationships with other business owners. For myself, we have a BNI group here in Lloydminster, which is huge for that. We get to go for coffee. We get to learn business. So anyway, find your avenue, whatever that be, and if you're not introverted like myself, maybe it's a matter of putting it into your schedule for “on business.” And another one is—find your marketing and promotions. Maybe there's software that you can put your marketing in if you don't have somebody doing marketing yet. And that is gratifying, because your calendar fills up, so little tweaks for you to get going on this route.
It is important, and I hope you take my words wisely and implement them. So, whether it's in your new whiteboard room or wherever you carve out this time, this is where your success is built. And very important—protect your time. Your team cannot come in and ask you questions, you cannot take phone calls, you do not get interrupted by customers, you are literally invisible when you're working on business. Work-life balance, business growth, whatever success means to you, it starts with this mindset, on business. Get rid of that nasty badge that we have pinned on our chest.
My business coach once told me about a client he had, and it's kind of clever, so like, I was able to have an office to create my “on business,” but he had a client who didn't have that, or maybe his business was just a different kind of business. But what he did was he put on a green hat. So whenever he was wearing his green hat, it allowed his mind to shift that he was doing “on business,” but it also spoke to his team that he was on business and to leave him alone. So find what works for you. It could be as simple as a green hat, or it could be a matter of redoing your whole office to make it beautiful. Whatever the case may be, find what works for you. Sketch out those few hours and make it work.
Sharon 14:08
The real badge of honour isn't being the busiest person in the room. It's having weekends off. It's having time for family and friends. It's taking a vacation without being stressed about what's going on back at work. Have you ever gone on a vacation and you're stressed, or you're getting these calls and you can't deal with it, and you're not really detached? You want to get to a point where you are detached and you get back to work after all that, you feel refreshed and like—Oh, that's good… like, good job. Like, whatever the case is… that is where the real badge of honour happened. In fact, I was just out in Manitoba for three weeks. I think I had… well, first of all, as an entrepreneur, you know, I'm still checking emails, that kind of stuff. But my first two days, I'm still kind of in work, like it takes me a while to shift out of it. So I was checking my emails regularly, checking the bank accounts, doing all that kind of stuff, forwarding things, coming up with ideas, as I'm driving, and then I'm gone, then I'm able to detach 100%, and then I get back, and it was like—oh, so and so was in or—oh, that's awesome you guys. Or you know, you look at the bank account, or you look at the orders going out, or the stuff that's happening—that's the win. That's the real badge of honour, and I'm so grateful to my team that they are there.
Now, when you take that step back, your business doesn't just survive, it actually grows. When you're able to work on your business, train your team, get those systems in place, make those connections through networking, or whatever that case is, or your expense audit, which is going to increase your revenue, whatever that is that it all boils down to is “on business.” You have to work on your business to get to that level, and you can't do “on business,” and you can't get to that level until you get rid of that busy badge. You have to throw it out once you have a business that runs without you, one that's profitable, predictable, and not dependent on you doing everything, you have a sellable business.
Whether you choose to sell it one day or just enjoy the freedom it gives you, that’s real value that you've built by doing “on business” and getting rid of that busy badge. So if you're wearing that busy badge right now, which I'm almost positive most of you are, I want you to ask yourself—is it really serving you, or is it draining you? Is it sustainable? How about this one?
Sharon 16:34
Where do you see yourself in five years? Is it doing the same hours, the same tasks, the same revenue, the same number of employees? If not, well, you need to toss out your busy badge. Remember, you can't do it all, and you shouldn't have to. In fact, there are people out there that can probably do some of your things, and they can do it better.
Letting go of that busy badge isn't a sign of weakness. It isn't a sign of throwing in the towel. It's not a sign of giving up, and with an entrepreneur, that's kind of what we're thinking. It isn't a sign of relinquishing that instant gratification. It is a sign you're building something stronger. It's going to take a huge mindset shift. It's going to take a huge discipline. You're building a stronger you. You're building a stronger business, and maybe you are inspiring others. Trade that busy badge in for something far more valuable—a business that works for you. You cannot get to that point until you stop pinning on that damn badge. Won't be long after you ditch the busy badge, but in a few hours of focusing on business, you will get weekends guilt-free, take relaxing holidays without stressing. You can make it happen.
Sharon 17:56
Quick wrap-up. Throw away your busy badge. Step one: get rid of it, and don't dig that sucker back out. You're going to keep… you're going to put your hand in the garbage and pull it back out once in a while. But train yourself to be aware of what you're doing. Hire—start with something like a minimum wage job, and start working yourself up from there. Create time for “on business”—this is non-negotiable. It has to happen if you want to step out of those things we just talked about, and when you're doing “on business,” zero interruptions. Train your team. Turn off your phone, get rid of all your notifications. Focus on business. You only have a couple of hours to do it. Create a positive mindset. It's okay to have some time off. It's okay to take a weekend if you need it. Please do it. Set a healthy example for your employees, family and any followers that you may have on Facebook. Set that example for others.
I love talking business, as you can tell, and I love to inspire and mentor others if I can. If you would like to talk, please reach out. I have done all the struggles. I have probably done everything the wrong way, so I may be able to help or even lend a listening ear. Sometimes it's all that it takes. So thank you again, from the bottom of my heart, for listening to It's Time for Success: The Business Insights podcast. Remember, it's your time for success. Go make it happen. Thanks everyone.