Episode Summary

In this episode of the Make Space for More podcast, you’ll learn the #1 way to save precious time as a business owner. Just remove it from your to-do list in the first place! Tune in to listen as Melissa Swink discusses removing unnecessary tasks from your to-do list and provides four specific areas to evaluate. Simplifying your business operations will allow for greater efficiency and alignment in the year ahead. 

Key Highlights:

• Removing tasks from your to-do list is the best way to save time.
• Evaluate your revenue streams for profitability and enjoyment.
• Consider discontinuing services that no longer serve you.
• Networking groups may need reevaluation as your business evolves.
• Team dynamics are crucial; ensure everyone on your team is a good fit.
• Trust your intuition when making these tough decisions.

About Melissa:

Melissa Swink, Founder & CEO of Melissa Swink & Co., has a team of virtual assistants who provide administrative and marketing support for small businesses and non-profits.

Since 2012, Melissa and her team have helped more than 100 businesses grow through the services they offer, and she is dedicated to helping entrepreneurs create profitable, scalable businesses they love.

Her work is all about doing what works (and eliminating what doesn’t) and driving real, measurable results. Visit www.melissaswink.com to learn more! 

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Hi everyone, welcome to the Make Space for More podcast where we talk strategies for growing and scaling your business in a way that's authentic and aligned for you. I'm your host, Melissa Swink, and in today's episode, I'm going to do a deeper dive into one of the concepts that I shared on a recent mini workshop that I did, which was three ways to save two hours per day. Now, if you were joining that workshop live and you're listening to us today,

Stay tuned because we are going to break this down into greater detail. We're gonna talk about more examples that we didn't have time for during the mini workshop. So don't think I've heard this before or Melissa, I've been listening to the podcast for a long time. I know what you're gonna say. I know there's multiple ways that I can save time. Go ahead and just hang in there with me because we're gonna talk about these things and it's always a good refresher. I know sometimes when I hear a concept over and over and over again,

depending on what I have going on in my life and my business, sometimes it's good to get that refresher because it comes in a new perspective or all of a sudden you have this aha moment going like, wait, now I understand this or you know what, that's a really good reminder. I really need to make some changes over here. if you've attended that mini workshop or if you've been listening to this podcast for a long time, stay tuned because this is going to be very valuable information.

when you hear me say exactly what that is. And that is remove it from your to-do list in the first place, right? Cross it off the list. I know, you know, I have this happen sometimes when I'm planning an upcoming trip and it's the night before we're gonna be leaving and I wanted to run to this place and I wanted to get that snack for the trip. And sometimes all the errands and all the things just aren't going to happen. You know what?

Maybe we don't need that extra snack from that one place that I have to drive halfway across town in order to get. You know what? We're just going to stop at the grocery store on our way out of town in the morning and that's going to be good enough. Cross it off the list. Erin doesn't need to happen. Fastest way to get it done. Now I gave you a very simple low hanging example of this concept, but I want you to stick with me because this concept has a lot of depth to it. And I can tell you that sometimes it can be

one of the hardest to actually pull off and implement when it comes to your business. So there are four key areas to consider here when we're looking at removing things from your to-do list completely and saving that time, that attention, that energy, that focus, resources, and pouring them in elsewhere. So the first area to consider would be your revenue streams.

Now, if you're in a business where you have multiple revenue streams coming in, maybe it's time to re-evaluate if you need to continue focusing your time, energy, resources on all of those revenue streams moving forward. So you can look at this from a perspective of profitability. Maybe it's also popularity where...

You know, we sell a lot of this type of service or we sell a lot of this type of product, but very little of this one or that product line or something like that. Maybe we're looking at it from a popularity standpoint versus a profitability standpoint. Another thing to consider here, is it difficult to create or to deliver? Maybe there's just certain services that you're offering that just are extremely time consuming.

There's a lot of nuance to them. There's a lot of steps. The team is never quite certain how to approach it in the best manner. Maybe it's just one of those things that you just decide you no longer want to offer, like we're just going to focus our resources somewhere else instead. Or just overall joy. I think that that's something that we can't take too lightly. Is it something that you still enjoy doing?

Is it something that you no longer enjoy doing and maybe you wanna shut down that part of the business? I'll give you a general example here. Like perhaps you're a business coach where you have been offering one-to-one coaching to your clients for years, but you're finding that you're getting really burned out, meaning on a one-to-one basis. takes a lot of active listening. It takes a lot of attention and focus and really energy from you.

Whereas you are really finding a lot of success in joint fulfillment and profitability and popularity and so on and so forth with group sessions or maybe there's a curriculum or a program you're going to develop instead and that's where you want to head and shut down the one-on-one coaching for the upcoming year. That is one example of that. Another example of that more specifically,

is I recently had lunch with a client of mine and she was going through some turnover among her team members and was just trying to figure out, know, what do we, who do we need to hire? What do we need to focus on? And she took a look at her revenue stream. She has two primary revenue streams and she realized that one was much more profitable and really successful than the other one, which was actually where she was having some of the turnaround with employees.

And so she decided that she's not going to shut down that revenue stream, but she's no longer going to actively grow that revenue stream. She's going to focus on the one that is most profitable, that she loves, that her team actually loves better. And then she's just going to kind of let this other one kind of grow organically on its own if that should be the direction that things go.

So what has that done for her time? It has reduced the amount of time that she's spending on actively marketing and scaling that part of her business, but it's also reducing the time that she's spending with interviewing team members and hiring and onboarding and managing team members who are focused on that side of the business. So she has freed up a lot of time energy resources to grow her, her preferred revenue stream instead. So

The second thing, and this is very, very similar to revenue streams. So when I say revenue streams, I'm thinking more high level, like maybe you have a service-based business and then you also have a few products or things that you've developed over the years. And then maybe you have like a coaching and training portion. Like maybe you've got various revenue streams where you want to take a look at where things are at and do you want to continue to pour?

your resources and most importantly your time into these things in the upcoming year. So I'm looking higher level going to a little bit of a smaller level right below that might be service offerings or products. So that's the second area to consider. Maybe there are certain services that still fit within you know your main revenue stream or one of your revenue streams that's doing well but you just

there are aspects or there are certain sub-services, if you will, that you no longer want to deliver. Or maybe there are certain products, even within a product line. We see this all the time, you know, as consumers is, you know, a certain scent of a candle might be discontinued or the certain, you know, print of this, you know, shirt that you love and you have like three of them at home because they're so awesome. Maybe that one shirt.

gets discontinued, that style of shirt gets discontinued. We see this all the time. So don't be afraid to take a look at your own business and figure out, you know, are there things that I would like to discontinue? And so one example of this is a former team member of mine. She ultimately decided that, you know, she loved VA work. She loved the one-on-one work with our clients and, you know, supporting them on a day-to-day basis. And then she just decided that she was going to no longer offer the day-to-day support.

and she would rather work on more of a project basis instead where she's working with clients, say, like she sets aside one day and she just knocks out and builds their entire sales funnel or she takes a day and she does drafts up all of their newsletters for the upcoming year or things like that. you know, she did let go of some of the services that she was offering, but she's focusing on things that are no longer

I guess time sensitive or require her to be available in real time for her clients. She has decided to go in a different direction with the services that she is offering. And we've certainly done this over the years as well. I know in the past, especially when I worked on my own in my business, I did a lot of corporate gift giving and gift giving around the holidays and things like that. And so my dining area would be filled with physical gifts.

and cards that had to be handwritten and everything like wrapped and packaged up. And you might be laughing as you're hearing this now, but I mean, it's true. And that is something that I realized that took a lot of time. It took a lot of space in my house. And I just was no longer able to offer that on a wider scale to our clients. And so we have scaled back some of the physical holiday gift giving that we're able to support clients with.

over the years. You may have your own versions of these things. I'm just kind of giving you examples off the top of my head of myself and clients and team members and vendors who have made some of these changes on their own. So really, again, the fastest way to get things done, remove it from your to-do list in the first place. And so we want to monitor and reevaluate what do we keep putting on that list. Okay, the third area to consider here

might be networking groups or collaborations. So, you I know that gosh, probably about seven years ago, I was part of a networking group for about a year. We met every week. That might be a few hints. A few of you might be able to figure out which networking group that is, what that networking group is affiliated with a broader international organization. And you know what? It was a great year. I got to know a lot of great people.

I still know many of them today. Some of them are still my clients, but it was just after the end of that year, I felt like my time in that group was complete. And so I moved on and I look back on that time finally, but grace and bless, it's time to do something else with my time and my energy. And I certainly have seen situations where clients have maybe hung on to

networking groups, or even collaborations that they're a part of, even when it wasn't necessarily a fit for them any longer. So maybe over time, your target market has changed where you are working with a different type of clientele than you used to be. And so the group that you're a part of, maybe they no longer work with or have connections to

a target market that you are interested in growing in the coming year. Certainly referral partnerships. Sometimes, I know that in the past I've had some really great referral partnerships and we've had a lot of fun with serving mutual clients together. And things change over the years where maybe there are services that you are no longer going to be offering that your referral partner is frequently sending

potential clients to you for, and maybe that referral partnership just needs to take a bit of a step back. Another example could be maybe you're in a coaching group or a mastermind where everyone is still working on getting to a six figure goal and you've moved on to multiple six figures or seven figures and beyond. And so it just doesn't quite feel aligned with where you're at and where you're headed. Now granted,

again gracefully, valuing the relationships that you've built over those years, but by no means does that mean that you need to quote unquote stay loyal and continue to give of your time if it's just not something that's in alignment with where you're headed in the upcoming year. Certainly return on investment is one of them. Like I know a dear friend of mine who spent a lot of time networking online and

Growing you know her relationships and again, it's not always about the bottom line here. I want to make that clear I think that Some of the greatest gifts that I've received in my business have not necessarily been monetary They have been you know friendships relationships that have grown over the years, but when we're talking about You know we're talking about how we're spending our time we're talking about investing you know money in some of these groups and

some of these collaborations where maybe it just doesn't make sense to continue doing it anymore. So we need to be honest with ourselves and figure out, I need to be spending my time and investing my money and putting my energy into this thing? If again, maybe you just feel it's complete or it's just no longer aligned for you. Okay, the last key area to consider here when we're talking about just...

crossing it off of our to-do list completely could be team members or vendors that are just no longer a fit. So for example here, I recently switched accounting firms this fall. So, you know, again, no hard feelings to the group that I was previously working with, but it just got to a point where I knew that they had been experiencing a lot of turnaround. It was difficult for me to get answers on things and I just decided that I wanted

to work with an accounting firm that was a little bit more advisory, a little bit more proactive in helping me reach my goals for my business or really understanding and helping me plan from a tax perspective of, know, here's where you're headed, here's where we recommend and things like that. I just wanted a more hands-on and collaborative working relationship in that area. And so I made that change. Certainly, you know, many of you can relate. There are team members that...

I've had in the past that they just weren't a fit for one reason. Maybe we weren't a fit for them or they weren't a fit for us. I know some just have preferred not to do work with clients that require meetings and real time support and they've just decided that they need to take a step back from the work that we're doing with the team. Totally understandable. These relationships sometimes will end.

Also things to consider when you're looking at team members or vendors that maybe are no longer a fit for you in the coming year. Are they easy to work with? Do you enjoy working with them? Has the quality of work maybe dropped off a little bit? Do they have the availability that you need? I know that can be something where somebody's capacity or their availability or their hours change drastically enough where it can be

difficult to get into, have a conversation with them, or it can be difficult to work together. Totally understandable. Again, we're all on our own journeys, and sometimes that means that things no longer align, and that's okay. But I think the number one thing that I want you to take in here with all of this is paying close attention to where you're spending your time and take a look at are there things that you just don't need to be spending your time on any longer.

Now that's different than automating, that's different than systematizing, that's different than delegating. These are things that we just need to maybe close the chapter on to prepare for greater things in the upcoming year. Now the thing that I wanna leave you with today is first of all, deep breath because I hope that I've given you a lot to consider and these things are never easy. So keep in mind that

as you're considering these areas or things that maybe need to be eliminated or close the chapter on, your gut will be able to answer these things and think through these things better than your head can. Like you might know, know, intuitively, I am no longer aligned with this particular group, or I no longer would like to offer this type of service, or I think I need to shut down this revenue stream because

I have invested all that I can in time and money resources and it's just not taking off. It's time that I need to move on." And then your head will go, but wait, but wait, but what about this and what about that? Try to just listen to your intuition here and also know that there are graceful ways to move ahead in new directions. If you're going to be discontinuing relationships, honor those, be grateful for the time that you've had and...

Also make sure that you're doing this in a way that honors all contracts that exist. Give a reasonable amount of time for transition and try your best to part on a high note. Don't burn any bridges, that sort of thing. There are also simple ways of doing this. For instance, if there is a service that you no longer would like to offer within your company, you could do something as simple as remove it from your website.

and no longer offer it to new clients coming on board. Maybe you continue serving the clients that you have and you're just not taking on any new work in that particular area. That's a really easy way to kind of move on and transition to something else and just not replace that work in the future. So all of that being said, I cannot wait for what's in store for each and every one of you and me and our teams and our families and

our collaborators and our vendors in the coming year. I think that there's a lot of wonderful things happening for each and every one of us. And I want to encourage you to share this episode with a business owner who just needs to simplify a bit. Maybe they're just trying to do all the things and be everything to everyone. And they just need to take a pause and really evaluate what's working, what's not working. Would be honored if you could share this episode with them.

And I just want to say that I'm so thankful to each and every one of you who listen to the podcast and I hope that this information has been valuable for you. And I will be back next week with another episode and tips and tricks and ways to scale your business beyond you. Have a wonderful day. Take care. Bye bye.