Business and life is tough. Unreliable employees, unethical competition, greedy customers and don’t even get me started on government regulations!
However, as an entrepreneur your most valuable business resource is your time. So your biggest challenge is… Fooling yourself into believing you are being “productive” while frittering away precious time on non-essential activities! I call this dangerous diversion…
Displacement Activities: ‘Displacing’ an important (but disagreeable) business task with more enjoyable ‘fun stuff!
If you don’t control these insidious Displacement Activities(D/A’s) they will stunt or even doom your business growth. Far too many cleaning and restoration contractors lie to themselves by complaining, “Oh, I’m so busy!” when in fact they are just “hiding out” with their cherished D/A’s!
Now we all engage in D/A’s and that’s OK- as long as you view D’A’s for what they are- a “well-deserved treat” in the middle of your urgent quest for business success.
Your Displacement Activity solution? Every day simply ask yourself one question: “What is my highest and best use TODAY for my business success?”
NOTE: IF you ever want to “get off the truck” then you personally cleaning carpets every day is NOT your “highest and best use”! Instead, you actually doing production is likely just a “fun Displacement Activity” for you! Sorry!
Commercial HINT: Commercial work invariably involves weird hours. So please hire high quality, part-time employees to run your late night/weekend commercial routes. As a business owner or manager pushing a wand at 3:00 AM is simply NOT your “highest and best use”!
Restoration HINT: With the feast-or-famine nature of restoration develop reliable Strategic Partners so that you can sub-contract tasks and/or losses to them.
WARNING: One of the biggest (and most destructive) Displacement Activities I see is cleaning and restoration contractors trying to develop their own website. This not only wastes time but a hacked together, amateurish web site can turn off countless potential customers. And even worse you’ll never even know! I’m just saying …
Steve