Do you feel like the days are shorter? The fact is that they are now that we’re getting closer to the winter months. It also may be that the responsibilities of running your spa or massage business are piling up so that no amount of daylight is enough to get everything done. Making matters worse, you may have difficulty managing your time, which is not uncommon when you’re in charge, and everyone comes to you to make decisions.
The good news is that you can make changes to become more efficient in your use of time to accomplish those tasks that impact your business. It starts with changing your mindset about the way you approach your day. Here are some tips for doing that:
Prioritize: Don’t treat everything as a priority. Decide what needs your immediate attention and what can wait. When you identify what is important and what isn’t, you can manage your time more effectively.
Set daily goals: Each day, set a series of goals that have specific milestones. Breaking down goals into specific steps can make it easier to accomplish them. For instance, If your goal is to set up a new retail display in the front of your spa or massage business, identify the steps that it will take – product displays, merchandising items, pricing, and promotion -- and determine how much time to allocate to each.
Delegate: You can’t do it all. To be more efficient, you must learn how to delegate. Learn the strengths and weaknesses of everyone on your team so that you can delegate effectively. The delegation also makes everyone on your team more accountable, which makes them more invested in the future of your spa or massage practice.
Learn to say no: Decline requests that are not a priority and or throw off your day. If you are in the middle of a project and someone on your team asks to talk, it’s OK to ask to defer the meeting and schedule a more convenient time. If you have clients that repeatedly call last minute and ask you to squeeze in a massage, politely but firmly offer them an optional time when it’s better for you and your business.
Get organized: The organization's goal at your spa or massage business is to set up whatever systems are necessary so that anyone who needs something can conveniently find it. For example, you may have one person who handles ordering products, but it helps if everyone knows when products are reordered and what new products are being considered, and why.
Still, despite all your best efforts to manage your time more efficiently, things are not always going to go as planned. When that happens, go with the flow. If you manage your time right most of the time, you’ll have plenty of it to catch up. And that’s the long and short of it.