Are you familiar with the constant lament about time being in short supply? A simple observation of daily life reveals an astonishing number of grievances centered around time. From the perennial complaint of insufficient time to the exasperated grumbling about excessive hours leading to sheer boredom – it's a narrative we've all encountered. But what if I told you that as a dynamic business owner, you possess the ability to rewrite this narrative? In this article, we will address these complaints head-on and equip you with invaluable time management tips tailored specifically to your entrepreneurial journey. Let's delve into the world of mastering time for entrepreneurs and discover how to make each moment count towards your business success. Why is it that we complain so much about time? In this article, I will be sharing practical observations about time that will help you put all time-related frustrations behind you and never complain about time again. “Time is what we want most, but what we use worst.” – William Penn The unfulfilled promise of time management training If you have been worried about time at a certain point in your life or career, then you have already done a course in time management. If not, you have at least done some research and read articles about time management on the Internet. Sometimes lessons learned from these courses or articles work when implemented, and sometimes they don't. More often than not, you will find yourself back on the drawing board with the same complaints like “I don't have time," "I am late," "I am under time pressure," or "I don't have enough time." This experience clearly explains that time management training is not the right solution to fix complaints about time. Shocking conclusion, isn’t it? I have completed several time management courses and read many books on the subject, yet I did not master time. Why do people often complain about not having time? Think about when you used the phrase "I didn't have time to…” ? Do you picture the moment? How did you feel? Think of a time when somebody told you, "I didn't have time to…." How did that sound to you? Credible? How did you feel then? In both cases, didn’t you have a vague feeling of something not being right? I used this sentence many times until I realized that when I said, “I didn't have time…”, I was giving an excuse for not doing what I needed. This realization was an eye-opener for me. I started observing when I used the phrase and when other people used it. I confirmed that in every case, it was just a mere excuse. Try it for yourself; think about any two moments described above when the phrase "I didn't have time" was used. Do you realize it was an excuse to cover for something else that was not easy to face? This excuse is so engraved in our minds that we find it normal and no longer question it.…

Recently, during my travels, I encountered an unexpected flight delay at Amsterdam airport that shed light on a significant issue: preventable profit margin waste. The scene was all too familiar – interminable queues at check-in counters, exacerbated by a glaring shortage of personnel. As a consequence, I, along with numerous fellow passengers, missed our flights. This setback led to a frustrating 10-hour wait before rebooking for the following day and prompted my contemplation about the avoidable loss incurred by the airline. Amidst the collective inconvenience, it struck me that had effective measures been in place to prevent profit margin waste; the airline could have reaped substantial benefits. By optimizing operational efficiency, not only could the original flight have taken off with a full complement of passengers, but the replacement flight could have accommodated additional travelers, bolstering profits in the process. This experience made me see how easily a company can lose profit and reminded me of a book I read long ago called Six Sigma Simplified by Jay Arthur. This book talks about a tale of two factories. According to Jay Arthur, every business has two “factories” running simultaneously: The "Good Factory" is where you focus most of your energy on producing goods and services for your customers. The "Fix-it Factory" cleans up all of the mistakes, rework, defects, breakage, returns, scrap, and other problems of the “Good Factory." The "Fix-it Factory," in most cases, is overlooked. This is where frustrations accumulate and also the area where valuable resources such as time, energy, and clients are lost. As a business owner, the “Fix-it Factory” can prevent you from sleeping at night and give you grey hairs prematurely. In other words, the “Fix-it Factory” consumes the company resources without any positive output. The cost of running a “Fix-it Factory” in any business is enormous and very harmful. Let’s illustrate the effects of the “Fix-it Factory” on the company using the following example. Jay Arthur says the “Fix-it Factory” costs 25 to 40% of every 100 Euros you spend. That means, for 100,000 Euros paid, a company could have saved 25,000 to 40,000 Euros; or for 500,000 Euros spent, they could have saved 125,000 to 200,000 Euros, and the saving could have reached 250,000 to 400,000 Euros for 1,000 000 Euros spent. The “Fix-it Factory” cost is even higher because you don't pay it out of the revenue but directly out of the company's bottom line. Let’s consider a company with one-million Euros in sales. Let’s assume they have only 3% waste. That means the "Fix-it Factory" will cost them 30,000 Euros. Considering this company has an 8% net profit before taxes, their profit will be only 80,000 Euros – 30,000 Euros = 50,000 Euros. The pain is even more significant when you consider that to get to the same profit level, the company has to sell nearly 400,000 Euros more to make up for this 30,000 Euros loss. Just imagine if the business can save a fraction of the money used…

Just like the goal of growing a fruit tree is to harvest the fruits, the purpose of starting a business is to make profits and create a positive impact. A business needs to navigate through challenges and grow to its full potential to maximize profits. The growth phase is not a walk in the park. It plays a significant role in the business's existence and often negatively affects the entrepreneur's personal life. This phase contains many challenges that are referred to as navigating business growing pains. The term "growing pains" refers to temporary difficulties and problems a growing company experiences during a particular stage in its development. This expression derives from the pains in the legs a growing child feels have no demonstrable relation to growth. In business literature, the term growing pains has always been perceived to have a negative and dramatic connotation. I have also perceived it with the same attitude for a long time, but after working with entrepreneurs for over 20 years, I changed my viewpoint on growing pains. In this article, I will share my perspective on the importance of growing pains to an entrepreneur, how to successfully sail through them, and how to get back in the driver’s seat during this phase when you may feel like losing control of your business. Why is navigating business growing pains crucial? If we observe keenly, growing pains are inevitable. For every goal we set, there come challenges and problems. These challenges are not pleasant, and some give a painful sensation. Isn’t that normal? When was the last time you accomplished something worthwhile without having to overcome a problem or challenge? The answer is never, correct? When we look at the growing pains from the above perspective, there is a clear indication that growing pains are an indication of progress. They can form a basis for reevaluating your decisions to avoid deviation from your original path. Overcoming the growing pains is the salt and pepper of any entrepreneur's success, joy, and happiness. Here are some simple examples: If you run short of time to deliver an important project, you put in more hours, and the project succeeds. You enjoy the fruits of putting in extra time. When you realize you need an extra employee, you hire one, and the problem is solved. It gives you the joy of solving the problem. If you detect a misunderstanding and disagreements in your team, you take time to sort them out, and the team starts operating with good understanding. You feel the progress. As we can see, the growing pains are intimately part of the company's growth. To handle them well, the entrepreneur has to consider them as their allies and use them to grow bigger and achieve their goals. The key concept here is to be able to handle the problem or challenge. If an entrepreneur can quickly control all the growing pains, they will have an evergreen and sustainable company, as the illustration below represents. From the above illustration, we can see a…

Is embracing the Great Resignation possible for business leaders? Lately, my focus has been on the remarkable phenomenon known as the Great Resignation, where many employees within the Western labor market voluntarily embrace change by resigning from their current positions or transitioning to new roles. Coined in 2021 by Anthony Klotz, an Associate Professor of Management in the Organizations and Innovation Group at UCL School of Management, this term encapsulates our transformative shift. HR professionals highlighted the common reasons people were leaving their jobs: wage stagnation, looking for greener pastures or a toxic work environment leading to burnout, etc. My thoughts on this new trend gave me a unique perspective I want to share with you in this article. The underlying hidden reason When I looked closely at the reasons for this critical movement of people towards other jobs and career alternatives, I realized that they all lead to a common denominator: an imbalance between what people invested in their jobs and what they get out of it. The input is far more significant than the return. The returns we are considering here are not only the financial compensation but things like fulfillment which varies for different individuals. Stated differently, people are leaving their current jobs and investing their energy in jobs that provide them satisfaction and not necessarily financial gain. I would say they have an “individual fulfillment bankruptcy." I don’t think people would leave jobs that are the source of fulfillment or meaningful jobs that bring them happiness. The surge in the number of people discovering the misalignment between their well-being and professional development is just an outbreak of a long-existing situation.  Three types of jobs Continuing in that line of thought, I concluded that jobs could be classified into three types: The assignments that energize you provide you pleasure and fulfillment: Green Jobs The jobs that suck your energy, drain you out, and frustrate you: Red Jobs The jobs that neutral. They lie in the middle where they neither suck your energy nor energize you: Yellow Jobs. You should avoid Red Jobs every time it is possible. External unplanned events can turn a Green Job into a Yellow or even Red Job. The danger connected with the Yellow Jobs A vast majority of the workforce is satisfied with a Yellow Job. One could say there is nothing wrong with having a neutral job that doesn’t give any fulfillment and doesn’t take a lot of your resources. This mindset is very dangerous in the long run, as they slowly decline towards the Red Job. There is a boiling frog syndrome associated with Yellow Jobs.  According to the boiling frog legend, putting a frog in boiling water will immediately jump out because it notices the sudden temperature change. When the frog is in lukewarm water, it will not jump out but adapt to the surrounding temperature as it does not detect the danger yet. If the water is continuously heated slightly, the frog does not jump and keeps adapting…

As John made his way to the driveway into the garage, he glanced at his watch and noticed it was past 11 pm. He parked the car and sat there thinking about the day's events. John felt dissatisfaction take over as he remembered he had promised to have dinner with his family that evening but failed again. He had not seen his son for the past three days. The frustration was even much higher when he thought about his parents who are in a period of their life where it was his duty to take care of and be there for them. As he got lost in thoughts about the reality of his current life, his attention turned to the big project for an important client to start tomorrow. He needed to be there by 7 am to coordinate and supervise the kickoff meeting. This meant he would wake up early and leave the house before his wife and son woke up. This was John’s schedule every day. His mind and every cell in his body was occupied with the business. It had been years of planning for a holiday and time off from the company, but something always came up at work that needed his attention. This was taking its toll on him, but he saw no way out, and the idea that he was doing something he loved kept him going. Nine years ago, when he started the industrial water purification venture, John was inspired and had fun daily making his idea a reality. Everything went as planned, and he succeeded in the business! Today he is one of the best experts in the industry worldwide. He works with about 30 people locally and has developed an important network of freelancers whom he collaborates with globally. His success in the business has made him travel from time to time for conferences and workshops around the world. The company is financially viable, and the more he is on stage, the more business opportunities keep opening up. John has become overwhelmed to an extent he cannot take on all projects that keep making their way to his table. This is one of his biggest frustrations. All he wants to do is help; the demand is there, but his hands are already full. When he got into the house, everyone was already asleep. As usual, he prepared for the next day by going through his calendar. He noticed he had allocated his evening the next day to an alumni cocktail event planned for months, and he had no intention of missing it. He wanted to take some time to cool his mind, and his best friend and roommate from campus, Eric, had confirmed attendance, and since they had not met for a long time, it was enough of a reason to take a few hours from work to attend the event. He rushed into the community hall; everyone was already there. The event had already started, and people were socializing when…