Small business owners are working to grow profits and grow their business. They have issues around finance, payroll, marketing, technology,and visibility – not to mention customer acquisition, sales, and customer service issues.

Sales professionals may be solely focused on their sales territory – but if they take on the “CEO” mentality of owning and developing that territory, they have sales quotas. They also have customer satisfaction, accounts receivables, and other issues.

How to get it all done?

That is a trick question – you’ll never get it “all” done. You need to strive to get what is most important handled. Here are some of my tips – I handle 30 projects at any given time – and while I am far from perfect, I have learned a few things (the hard way, often) and will share some of my most favorite “a-ha” moments:

1. Focus on your vision, mission and objectives first. By knowing these, you can make quicker and easier decisions about how and where to invest your time.

2. Keep things simple. Projects and people who are complex don’t fit well into a busy innovator’s life. Insist that projects are clarified and clear – and tasks are created and agreed upon when working with others. Choose people to work with that inspire you and who are optimistic and innovative. When you leave a meeting with them, you feel invigorated, not drained.

3. Keep a running list of tasks that need to get done. Track projects separately. I’m a huge fan of David Allen and encourage you to check out all of his books and his methodology with Getting Things Done, or the GTD movement, as it is affectionately known.

4. Limit interruptions – create blocks of un-interrupted time for prospecting or for completing a project. Honor those time blocks.

5. From my Franklin-Covey days as a facilitator, focus on what is IMPORTANT, not URGENT. Set blocks of Quadrant II time – if you are familiar with that concept – if not, read about it. It will change how you spend your day

You cannot get back the time you waste. This is one of the greatest areas in which you can have some control to grow your revenues and your business. Think today on how you can shave off fifteen or twenty minutes of time that you are spending poorly at work – and that will give you  at least an extra hour each week – which means more than 36 hours per year – just saving 15 minutes a day! What could you do with an extra 36 hours? Post your thoughts – it helps others. Share your tips and “lessons learned” – the best tips will be shared in a future post.

Lori Richardson is on a “Fabulous 50-50-50-50″ tour around the U.S. and parts of Canada. If you know of a town she should visit, or a local expert she can co-present with, drop her a note. Set your big audacious goals and post them for the world to see – then take action on them. More on Lori and the tour at Score More Sales.

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