Top 3 Reasons Why Small Business Owners are Too Busy

OBM Institute

Many small business owners seek out the services of a Certified OBM® because they are too busy. They are working too many hours. They spend most of their time putting out fires and trying to keep up with everything. They are having to say no to opportunities because there literally isn’t any more time to do more work. Their current team members are frustrated. They are tired, frustrated and demotivated because they can’t see a way to change it.

Before you can help a business owner make a change in this area - it’s important to first recognize this simple truth…

Being too busy is the result of our choices, it’s not the cause of our problems. It’s easy to think that being too busy is the problem, but it’s actually the symptom of the underlying causes that need to change. The good news? It's fixable!
The first step to helping fix your clients "too busy" syndrome is understanding the top 3 reasons why business owners are too busy.

1) They say yes when they should be saying no

In other words, a small business owner may be spending up to 80% of their time on things that don’t really matter. eek!

This happens when the business owner defaults to saying yes to everything that comes their way. Yes to every new project. Every new client. Every new idea.
Every time they say yes to something there is less of them (and the team) to go around. The business may end up making small progress in multiple areas, vs. measurable progress where it matters the most.

I love how beautifully Greg McKeown summarizes this in his book "Essentialism".

 “Once you give yourself permission to stop trying to do it all, to stop saying yes to everyone [and everything], you can make your highest contribution towards the things that really matter.”

2) Being the doer vs. leader

All activities in business can be categorized into Doing, Managing or Leading. The more time & energy the business owner (and the OBM) spends on 'doing' activities, the less time they have for leading and managing.

Doing is a habit. Many small business owners are simply used to being the doer because they've done it for so long. They may take pride in the fact that they are a doer and can ‘get it all done’! If they continue to identify as the ‘doer’ they will always be 'too busy', for the simple fact that they are not willing to 'let it go'.

One of the many goals of the OBM when supporting a business is to help each team member step into their sweet spot - including the business owner...

Business Owner >> CEO, Visionary
Certified OBM >> Manager
Team >> Doers

3) Not building a strong foundation of team & systems

Once a business owner embraces their role as the CEO and are ready to let go of the doing, the next step is to bring in the right people to do the work and build a strong foundation of systems for everyone to work from.

It’s not rocket science to say that at some point, a business owner will need to hire a team – specifically a manager. And yet many people struggle here because they haven’t hired this level of critical support in their business before.

Most business owners aren’t amazing at finding, hiring and leading a team - that’s OK, it is a learned skill! Which is why being willing to invest in hiring great people who are amazing at those things is what takes them out of busy and to the next level.

As a Certified OBM, you are perfectly positioned to help small business owners solve these problems. Even small changes in any of these 3 areas will make a measurable difference.