For every business owner, down to a man, the greatest scarcity in their life is time. Every day ends with a longer to do list then the day before! This becomes a spiraling source of stress event that gets worse and worse — every day, every week, every month, every year. Once the business grows and becomes more successful, this problem actually accelerates!

So how can we get back control of time in our business?

The first thing to do is to recognize that time is our single most valuable asset. It’s more important than money, than product or service, than our customers and even our employees — because, the truth is, we can always get more of all that other stuff. But no one can ever get more time. So the question becomes: Are we really looking at time as an investment, like everything else in our business? Or are we ignoring it?

For 99% of CEOs, leaders, business owners, and entrepreneurs, they’ve never given this much thought. Which means it becomes a bigger and bigger stress and problem. Very few leaders think of time the way you’d think of an annual budget, or consider it the way you’d consider how you’re going to scale employees, or discuss it the way you’d discuss improving your product or service. Which means in our Portland business coaching programs, we see time and time again the same thing: the entrepreneur who might have a successful business, but who also has a mounting feeling of time stress — there’s burnout, there’s frustration, it shows up in poor relationship with employees, it even follows you home at night to your family and children! Whether you realize it or not, in your heart and soul there’s a clock ticking — and this clock stops for no business.

SO: What we love to talk about in our coaching is this: look at time as a tool. Actually think about it, plan for it, and ask the right questions. Start seeing time as the greatest asset in your business, instead of the biggest problem.

How you invest your time will decide the success or failure of your business five years from today. I’m giving some away for free right now — so click here if you want some support.