Something that’s challenging for all good restaurateurs like us is where do I get more time to do the things I need to do to better my business, take time off for myself and for my family.
Where do I generate this time from?
I’m doing everything I can, and I’m as organized as I can be. I know I can be better, but I’m doing a good job overall.
It’s a challenge that we all face as we do better and as we grow our business.
The truth is there are only 24 hours in a day, and we’re not going to be able to create time. BUT what we can do is knock back on things that we aren’t supposed to be doing. And yes, no matter how organized you are, I bet there are things that can be cleared off your plate.
You must be laughing now because that’s easier said than done.
We all have to do the important stuff as owners. We have to make sure that everything is going on track, and in the manner and way it should be done because otherwise, we wouldn’t be where we are today. It’s our personal attention and time that we give to our business that makes it the way it is.
And I understand that. My advice isn’t about reducing your personal attention. It’s about increasing the quality of your attention so you can add the MOST value to your business.
What I’m going to share with you is something that I’ve personally experienced and implemented in my business. This process gave me a lot more free time to focus on profit-oriented activities because that is the maximum value I can bring to the business as an owner.
How did I do this? By creating a ‘Rhythm’ in my business.
Before I can share how I created more time for myself, it’s important to understand what is a ‘Rhythm.’
A ’Rhythm,’ is a repeated pattern of sound beats. The key here is “repeated pattern.” If the beats are all over the place without a pattern, it’s painful to hear. But, if the beats are organized in a repeated pattern, it’s very pleasing to the ears. It’s smooth, easy to listen to, and catchy.
Similarly, you need to find that rhythm (repeated pattern) that fits for you in your business.
The #1 repeated pattern that I recommend to start with is a communication rhythm with your employees.
How is this beneficial?
For me, my communication rhythm aligned everyone to my page/my goals and brought more accountability. I listened to my employees, engaged with them, heard them out, and shared with them what they needed to do—all within a repeated pattern.
This back and forth within the communication rhythm gave me a chance to encourage them, educate them on what mattered most to me in my business, understand them and their challenges, and at the same time, empower them to take decisions that were usually made by me.
By creating this communication rhythm, I created a two-way highway of trust. In doing so, I created a stress-free way of delegation, a drastic reduction in training and re-training, firefighting, and created more free time for myself.
It’s within this newfound time that I did my best work and brought my best profit-oriented ideas to life.
I teach my detailed communication rhythm and system in my course, but I share specific parts for free here and here, that you can begin to implement right away.
Now, I want you to think about:
How can you apply a rhythm to some part of your business?
How can you create your own communication rhythm?
Or how can you improve or tweak your existing rhythm to free up your time?
Go do that.
