In a group conversation with Robert Kiyosaki over 25 years ago, he said to us:

“If you are working IN your business, be there in it, 100%.  But if you are OUT working your business, be there 100% instead!  Wherever you are in your business, really BE THERE!”

What did he mean?

So many small business operators multi-task, and find themselves doing a whole lot of the operational tasks that they don’t enjoy and are often not good at, either because they don’t enjoy it, or because it is so removed from what they are good at!

They are most inefficient in these areas.  Hence the ‘opportunity cost, lost or gained’ title.

Let’s look at an example.  You are a technician in your business, but 5 hours a week, you do the admin. A common situation. But you are like me, and don’t like it and are possibly not good at it, or as good as you should be.  And it costs you five whole hours each week!  If you only billed your time at $100 per hour, it’s costing you $500…

Solution?

Outsource this, and you’ll probably find someone who works 5 times faster than you and will handle your admin at $50 an hour.

Suddenly, it’s all very different.  For $250 per month, your admin is handled, and you have 20 hours freed up – what could you achieve in an extra 20 hours?

Opportunity cost, lost or gained?

That 20 hours, if you only billed it out, it’s $2,000 extra income.  However, you might use it to generate new clients, quote on more jobs, create new business relationships and collaborations that bring in an absolute fortune in new business! So was it an opportunity cost, lost or gained, by investing in some additional talent and resources.

Think about a competition athlete, perhaps a swimmer, cyclist, car racer or marathon runner.

Why do they bring their head up after each stroke in the pool?

There are a few reasons, all very relevant to us in business.

Firstly, air is good and deep breaths are vital.  You need to fill your lungs with fresh air from time to time, instead of the air you get with your head down in the work all day.

Next, it’s good to check, see where you are going, whether you’re on track or not. Crossing the rope lanes in the pool gets you all tangled up and it’s easy in business to lose focus and get tangled up also.  So it’s to watch your direction.

It’s also to look at the competition, to see how you are doing in relation to them.  If you are way out in front and there is no competition in sight, are you in the right race?  There’s probably always going to be a competitor somewhere nearby.  Or are you looking at their wake, from a long way behind.  That’s valuable to know also.  It gives you something to aim for and to perhaps consider that a better strategy might assist you.

There is also your team to consider. You know, the ones who hold up the “Last Lap” board, or the sign that says “Pit Stop Next Lap” or “Dinner is at six!”  These are the people on your side, all the time, who keep an eye out for you when your head is down in the business.  You need to take time to check in with them often.

So many businesses have sunk into the morass of their problems, lost forever, when right next door, the solution to all their problems lay untouched.

Why?  How could this happen?

The business either:

1. didn’t know the solution existed
2. didn’t know it was available
3. didn’t think they could afford it
4. they didn’t take the time out of their business to look around and actually realise they had a problem!

Isn’t that a tragedy?  Opportunity cost, lost or gained!

With your new found 20 hours a month, how about investing a little into just looking around, taking some deep breaths and considering that there might be some things you didn’t know about, or didn’t realise you needed them and could afford them, or considered that a little objectivity and advancing your education might highlight for you some issues that were more important or critical to your business than you realised?  Even a couple of hours out to breathe could make a world of difference.  What could your opportunity cost, lost or gained be?

This blog will come out on a weekly basis from now on. It’s produced by Ray Jamieson, a corporate advisor with almost 3 decades of business experience, ranging from corporate rescue, to coaching, consulting, finance and financial planning, life and business coaching.

Ray delivers an innovative Diploma of Business program, a combination of advanced Diploma of Business curriculum along with almost a year of business coaching, giving you access to both a group coaching and individual business coaching environment, as well as access to a vast network of professional business problem solvers and collaborators, any or all of which could help take your business to a whole new level of results and profitability.

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Should you feel this is good value reading for the time you invested, please forward it to other business associates also – it might just be what they needed too!  Their opportunity cost, lost or gained!

Til next time, take time to enjoy the life you live,

Ray Jamieson

Business Coach and Trainer at Executive Mastermind