“What?” You may be asking. When this statement is presented to the most frugal of business owners and executives, the typical response is – “I think I would KNOW if I had $500.00 unintentionally running out the door.” 

That’s very possible, and as a savvy business professional you’re most likely finding ways to aggressively save on expenses and stretch the profit margin. If part of your “job description” involves revenue or any aspect of financial oversight for your company or business, you may even be actively pursuing options and opportunities that shrink your overhead and expand the bottom line. 

And of course, you should! That’s a key component of your core competency as a successful entrepreneur or executive (it’s an even more urgent activity during times of recession or slower economic growth…). 

So, back to the “accusation”…. As carefully as you monitor your day-to-day expenses, your overhead, the various department’s expenditures, budgets and etc. – where is it even likely that kind of revenue is slipping out the back door? 

Well, let me ask you a (seemingly unrelated) different question… 

How much do you pay your assistant? This could be your right-hand person, or Executive Assistant? (If you don’t have one, how much would you pay them?).  According to PayScale.com (http://www.payscale.com/research/US/Job=Executive_Assistant/Salary), the going salary is $36,254 – $54,632 a year. Since the medium is $45,000 a year, that works out to be about $21.50 an hour, which is pretty standard. 

How much does an average salesperson make? Now, these numbers are all across the board – so I recommend you look at your industry. What does a Top Producer make in your industry for sales? It is not unreasonable for a respectable sales professional to earn well over 6 figures, so we’ll be conservative and say they earn $100,000.00 a year. If they work a 40-hour work week, that’s about $48.00 an hour. 

Moving up the “food chain” – how much would you expect to pay your Chief Operating Officer (C.O.O.)? According to Salary Wizard (http://swz.salary.com/salarywizard/layouthtmls/swzl_compresult_national_EX05000002.html), a LOW PAYING C.O.O. brings in $329,827 per year. At that total annual income at a 40-hour work week, they’re looking at about $158.00 an hour. 

So, lastly – as an entrepreneur or business professional who is C.E.O. of your own life, what is YOUR hourly rate? Is it about $20.00 an hour? “Not very likely,” you may say! It’s certainly more than a meager $48.00 an hour as the highest level and decision-maker of your company or business and higher than the $158.00 an hour of a low paying C.O.O. 

In many business circles, most conservative business owner professionals consider their hourly rate upwards of $250.00 an hour. (This may STILL be conservative for some, but we’ll stick with a modest figure here). 

If you are the C.E.O. of your life and the executive decision-maker of your business – understand that because your time is so incredibly valuable, you need to be cautiously mindful of where and how you spend your time. 

An interesting survey was recently done by America Online and Salary.com which demonstrated the average working American wasted approximately 2.09 hours per day, not counting lunch. These respondents were asked to approximate how much time was wasted in an average workday, assuming a 40-hour (8-hour per day) workweek. 

As an entrepreneur or executive, there are countless areas where time (and money) is being wasted EVERY DAY. Do any of these look familiar? 

• Lack of prioritization
• Time thinking about problems at home that could be spent on your business
• Working on un-important activities
• Distracted time agonizing about employee, customer, contractor situations
• Wasted energies due to not working from a plan of action
• Focusing on low-level priorities
• Disorganization
• Not resolving problem areas
• Time spent “starting again” on important projects
• Worrying about unresolved problems at work that are brought home
• Wasted time from the aftermath resulting from poor executive decisions
• Time spent worrying about problems with no communication outlet
• Wasted opportunities because of no clear focus
• Constantly dealing with reoccurring problems 

As a busy business owner or career professional, any one of these profit-stealers consumes AT LEAST an hour of your day. And if you even deal with even two of these issues throughout your day, it’s almost guaranteed your time wasted and gone is two hours. 

Knowing that you are the driving force of your career, business or company – you cannot allow a rich fruitful ‘Golden Hour’ of your day be stolen or wasted. Yet, I see this continually with professionals who don’t have full control over their lives. They allow themselves to get distracted and bogged down, and their precious time becomes a tragedy of lost productive time. 

The above activities are merely a shortened list of common time-wasters that plagues most people attempting to gain control of their lives and their businesses/careers.  These time-wasters unfortunately continue in a cycle of repetitive habits that prevents the development of the individual – and the success of the business. 

Actually, you’re really faced with two problems! Not only are you LOSING an average of two hours of productivity every day, costing you $500.00 per day, but that’s two hours that SHOULD be spent on the “highest and best use of your time.”  In other words, that’s a minimum of two $250.00 hours NOT spent on critical opportunities to work on you, your business, your mindset -your real contribution to the day. 

You might not want to hear this, but $500.00 a day, five days a week for four weeks totals out to $10,000.00 per month! 

That’s $10,000.00 per month of potential income if you’re an executive or career professional…or $10,000 in revenue if you’re a business owner – that is not being mined from within YOU! 

If challenged correctly, and focused directly – you have the ability to out-earn and out-perform those professionals in your industry! Everyone has the ability hidden inside of them.  It’s just the extreme few who recognize what is at stake and make moves TODAY to get the assistance and accountability to achieve more than they ever thought possible. 

As an Executive & Life Coach, I am excited to help you tap into the amazing potential within you, allowing you to turn wasted time and energies into peak performance personally and professionally, more consistently. 

One thing to remember… 

Chances are your competitors are also losing $500.00 a day just like you – so it stands to reason that the person who invests in him/herself in order to change habit patterns and create and implement a path for success – WINS!

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About Kris Cavanaugh

Kris Cavanaugh, owner of Shift^TM, is a Speaker, Author and Coach who specializes in helping others cultivate a C.E.O. mindset in every area of their life so their businesses, careers, and personal lives thrive.  She is an expert strategist with an amazing ability to pull her clients through difficult challenges to obtain the life they truly want.

If you have a desire to live your life “on purpose”, so you wake up every day excited about the possibilities and maintain an unwavering belief that you will overcome any obstacles to achieve your personal and professional goals more easily, call Kris at 404-551-3601 or go to http://begintoshift.com/landpage/MakeTheSHIFT.htm to schedule your complimentary meeting today.