Nothing like Jury Duty for a little Clarity!

Do you know where you next paycheck is going to come from? Do you have the funds to pay the bills that are sure to come in the next mail drop off? Can you pay the suppliers and partner invoices that have arrived?

Like many business owners those are things that can keep me up at night when I do not have clarity and focus on my business. When I forget to plan and execute on what revenue opportunities are in the works, what new leads I have to follow up on, or what marketing efforts I should be doing to get my name, product, or service out there, I begin to feel out of control, swirling with uncertainty of how I am going to pay for my business this month. I absolutely hate that feeling.

And, it doesn’t matter if business is swift or if it is dried up, those things have to always stay top of mind for a business owner. Get behind or lax in considering those things and you can bet there will be surprises coming at you from right around the corner.

So, you can imagine my stress at the mere thought of having to go and do my civic duty in Jury Duty all day. All I could think about was, even if it is only one day, it is one less day I have to generate revenue for my business this month.

Do I sound extreme? Well for me on this Monday morning, heading to downtow
Atlanta, I recall the original schedule I had for this day; a client meeting, a prospect meeting, ten to twenty warm calls, and a networking event that had a potential for two or three new leads.

Considering my hourly rate (which I use to prioritize) and my service rates, I quickly calculated that I was going to lose a good part of my monthly revenue objective, all because of this one ‘admin’ (non-revenue generating) day. More importantly, getting those prospect meetings rescheduled are now at risk. The two or three new leads I would have obtained from the networking event are gone.

As I sat in the jury room reviewing all of this, initially swirling by the negative impact it would have, quite a bit of clarity was created regarding how severely monthly goals and plans can be impacted by the slightest distraction (planned or surprised). I decided that I could not allow it to deter me but I would have to find other means of utilizing this full day of ‘admin’ time.

So instead of stewing on what I had lost, I analyzed what I would need to do to make up the lost prospecting activities, researched additional networking events to attend, identified alte
ative leads to schedule meetings with, planned 20 additional warm calls for the week, and ensured the firm sales call was rescheduled. At the end of the day, instead of feeling as if I accomplished little I felt great, not only because they released me from duty, but because I was able to optimize my time and get some entrepreneurial planning and goal setting done. Not bad!

A call to action for you:

Calculate your hourly rate and use that when considering any non-revenue generating activities in your work day. If the activity is not as valuable as your hourly rate; delegate it, outsource it, or hire it.

When you have unexpected, unavoidable administrative distraction come up, like jury duty, focus on how you can optimize that time by completing one of your high priority non-revenue generating tasks. But remember, if there are no distractions or excuses, administrative activities have to be scheduled outside of revenue generating hours. You have to be completely available to pursue revenue generating activities during peak hours. Leave all of the admin and personal appointments to after hours OR delegate it.

You have to love jury duty though to provide you the clarity you have lost as a result of that distraction!
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