A hard concept to understand for a small business owner is the concept of time. When discussing my new book ( 7 weeks to increased profits) with small business owners, the biggest complain I receive is "I don't have the time to follow the process as outlined".
 
The reason I visit with these owners is to help them increase their profitability, however, they have a "lack of time" mentality. There is a law - Parkinson's Law  - works expands to fill the time available for its completion. Being busy does not mean being productive. As an example; I can write a letter to my daughter in about 15 minutes; my wife takes almost 5 hours to compose and think about a letter to our daughter. In other words, there are no rules for the amount of time a small business owner should work to complete a task, it depends on the individual.

If you are to busy to accomplish any more work and you are not increasing your bottom line then you have several choices:

• close your business
• find someone else to do your work so you can concentrate on generating income
• re-evaluate your priorities
• make a list of things that have to be accomplished today, allocated a certain amount of time to each item; allow at least 2 hours during an eight hour day to work on your business instead of in your business.
• put an alarm clock on your desk and set the time you allocated for each project, When the alarm goes off, if finished, go on to the next project, if you haven't finished, re-evaluate what you did in the allocated time and make the necessary adjustments.
  

I can't emphasize enough the importance of having a coach/mentor to work with you as a small business owner. In today's rapidly changing environment and economic climate, having someone to challenge you and hold you accountable for reaching your goals is of utmost importance.

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If you don't know what you are doing, you don't know when to stop!

Have a great day!