Julian’s Business Tips: Free Money
Imagine you have a friend who credits your bank account with £500 every day! Now that is a good mate!
But this friend takes back any unspent money at home time. What would you do? Draw out every pound, of course!
Ah, but there’s the problem – you can’t withdraw cash, you can only spend or invest the money – or lose it. Now what would you do?
No, this isn’t the screenplay for a remake of ‘Brewster’s Millions’, it’s a metaphor for time.
Every 8-hour working day, you are credited with 480 minutes. And every night, whatever of this you have failed to ‘invest’, is written off as lost. It carries over no balance. It allows no overdraft. Each day it opens a new account for you. Each night it burns the records of the day. If you fail to use the day’s deposits, the loss is yours.
What I like about this analogy, is the notion of investing your time, rather than simply spending it.
Here are seven suggestions for good investments:
• Planning – know what you’re going to be doing, and why
• Preparing – being ready for those planned events will save more time later
• Practicing – take time to perfect the things that really matter
• Skills – life-long learning is never a waste of time
• Health – never forget to look after #1 – you’re no use to the team if you’re sick
• Relationships – your business (and your personal life) is built around relationships, invest in them!
• Career – where is your work life going? No-one’s going to hand you opportunities – invest time in making those opportunities happen for you, and being in the best shape to take advantage of them!
And, may I say, I think that the time you spend in reading ‘The Listing’, is an excellent investment!
