When it comes to being an entrepreneur, it goes without saying that we are busy people.  I often joke that we are free to work any 16 hours of the day we choose (there is truth in humor!)

But the question that requires total awareness and the one we should ask ourselves constantly throughout the day before starting any task:  Is this task helping me reach my goals?

You see, it is so easy to get caught up in 'busywork'.  Building a company is hard.  It requires focus and dedication and the ability to be self-motivated.  And, because each of us have different strengths, some aspects of entrepreneurship are easier for us than others.

For some people, it is easy-breezy to make a cold call or speak at a networking event.  For others, they would rather have their wisdom teeth pulled than do public speaking.  For some, writing a newsletter or blog or keeping current on social media is fun.  For others, a blank page can be both frightening and paralyzing. 

Therefore, it is imperative that we capitalize on our strengths and find our way around any weaknesses. 

Any successful entrepreneur will tell you the road to success is paved with goal setting steps.  And those steps are built from even shorter action plan steps.  You have to make a plan, then work the plan, then evaluate whether the plan is still propelling you toward your goal, make adjustments, work the plan, repeat... repeat.... repeat.... Until finally you reach your goal.

If you follow this approach, then non-value-added tasks become obvious.  Not only are you wasting time, but you're not furthering your goals either.  Likewise, non-billable tasks, while often necessary, are also not helping your company's goals (at least not the revenue goals).

No truer words were ever spoken than as they apply to record-keeping - the epitome of non-billable and non-value added tasks.  In this day and age of advanced technology, no one should be manually collecting data or incurring undue liability.  Especially if record-keeping is not one of your strengths. 

That's why we created Essential Elements™.  Our proprietary software houses all your clients, employees (even if the only employee is YOU) and your vendor relationships.   You can collect time, create online Activity Reports, process referrals (that's how you protect yourself from liability), and proactively monitor all sorts of management by exception information.

Some of this information includes vendor liability insurance expiration dates, client accounts that should be refilled (ie. Sell more time), and most importantly, Essential Elements™ provides transparency for your clients so they can see all their unique data.   

This visibility and your willingness to confidently share it promotes a sense of trust and that you are professional, organized, and detail oriented - traits that are crucial for our industry!

Most people in the Lifestyle Management industry who have 10 clients or more admit they spend at least 20 hours per week attempting to manually manage data.   

With Essential Elements™, we have eliminated all of that time for the administrator and moved some of it to the employee so the time collection can be rolled into the client effort and thus it becomes billable.  Don't have employees yet? No worries - you will enter the time into the system as a part of your billable effort. 

Sometimes billable versus non-billable becomes a matter of perspective.  Let us help you improve your data integrity, give you a proven sales feature (full transparency) and help you improve the professionalism of your company.

What would YOU do with 20 more hours per week?  Would you be out there doing new business development?  How much more income could you produce with just one new client per month?

If you utilize Essential Elements™ and you use the time saved to bring in new clients, then the return on the monthly investment is immediate.    If I'm going to work 16 hours per day, believe me, I want that time focused directly on the tasks that will help my company grow... How about you?