4-18: A Guide to Thriving: Time Management and Delegation Strategies for Entrepreneurs

Are your business responsibilities making you feel like a juggling act? Wish you could master the art of time management? Join us as we get up close and personal with Jennifer, an entrepreneur who's perfected the craft of wearing multiple hats while thriving in her business. 

In this insightful episode, Jennifer spills the beans on smartly incorporating small tasks into your routine, setting aside focused time for critical responsibilities like finance, and crafting an environment that promotes productivity. 

But the wisdom doesn't stop there! We also dive into the crucial role of delegation in effective time management. Learn how to identify tasks that are important, urgent, and necessary - and, more importantly, how to train your team to handle these tasks efficiently. 

We highlight the significance of keeping a comprehensive calendar and the indispensable role of proper planning in mastering time management. This episode is a treasure trove of practical insights to hone your time management skills. Tune in and take control of your time now!

Today's Nugget Alerts:
* Identify what is important, urgent, and needed
* Delegation is giving away things you like but that are not important to your business
* Put EVERYTHING in your calendar

Email us at: TwoDaughtersAndTheirDad@gmail.com

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Jennifer Faith Dempsey has been in the beauty industry for over 10 years. For the last 5m years, she has owned J. Faith Hair Studio. She brings her experience on how she balances entrepreneurship and motherhood. Check out Jen’s blog.

Staci Joy Dempsey is an insurance agent, a mom, and a busy non-profit volunteer. She truly understands what it means to be an entrepreneur. Staci serves as the podcast's host.

Jack Dempsey is the dad who heads up this busy family. He is a founding partner in Dempsey, Weiss & Associates, an Elmer, NJ-based insurance and investment firm that began more than 30 years ago.

Transcript

Staci Dempsey: 0:00

Hey there and welcome to the business of business podcast. Here we are, two daughters and their dad, seeking to inspire and educate you to follow your dreams of being in business by teaching you the business of being in business. The good, the bad, the humor are all parts of our unique perspective as an entrepreneurial family. Hey, everybody, and welcome back to the business of business podcast. Two daughters and their dad I'm your host, stacy J Dempsey, and the J is very important because it brings a lot of joy.

Staci Dempsey: 0:31

We are super excited today to talk about the endless battle of mastering your time, manage, how you can boost managing your time in the best possible way, and thankfully, I have two experts here that are just so perfect at doing this that they're just going to drop the bomb of knowledge on us and give us all of the secrets. Because I know many people that I come in contact with struggle with this. I struggle with it, for sure, at times, but thankfully, like always, I have the one and only dad, the one and only Jennifer here with us to talk about all of the ways that they manage their time for their business. So, jen, I want to start with you, because you wear many different hats inside of the studio there, everything from actually being behind the chair to all the behind the scenes office stuff interviewing, making, doing promotions, and I could go on and on and on of all the different hats that you wear. So let's start with you on what you can share with our listeners today about how you help with your time management.

Jennifer Dempsey: 1:46

Well, and don't forget Stacy. I'm in the middle of my eighth annual bookbag fundraiser, so don't, don't, don't leave out my fundraising skills too. Now, it's very important.

Staci Dempsey: 1:56

I was going to say absolutely Like we're throwing in. You know we're throwing in. There are good deeds that we're passionate about. So you know. You know we've got the plates. We had a little section there that wasn't quite, didn't quite have something in there, so we're just going to add a little more to the plate.

Jennifer Dempsey: 2:13

It's. It's so funny, even like my clients, my family, my friends they're always like you can tell when you get bored, because, like, once I get bored, it's like maybe I'll throw a fundraiser, like I don't have enough going on. So, but anyway, this, this is a hot topic, I think, for entrepreneurs because time management is is so important to all of us. I think that you know, sharing with our listeners today how we, you know, manage our time is going to look different, and I think that's important to point out. How dad manages his day today with everything he has going on, it's going to look completely different. On how I manage my time with my business day to day. So I think that's important to point out is that, you know, when it comes to time management, I think the biggest thing is just trying new things and figuring out what works and what doesn't work.

Jennifer Dempsey: 3:11

And what I learned early on when it comes to time management is that I do have a lot going on and I do, you know, manage the majority of my business.

Jennifer Dempsey: 3:22

So the question that I started to ask myself is how can I tie in these little tasks that I have to do? So you know, for example, I still run my own payroll and so every other Sunday I'm in the salon and I'm doing payroll, and so it's a special time because my business is closed on Sunday so I can be inside of my business it's closed by myself and I can really focus on, obviously, doing payroll. Another thing I like to do in that time is to pay the bills for that month. I know, guys crazy. I pay all my own bills inside of my business Comcast bill, rent, all of the things. Thankfully my insurance just comes automatically out of my bank account. I have to worry about my insurance. But you know those little tasks that can seem like, oh my goodness, I forgot to pay this, I forgot to pay that, because that was made early on inside of my business, I would forget to pay things, or you got so busy and you were paying things late.

Jennifer Dempsey: 4:26

So that was kind of like a system that I started for myself and my timing is to just cap those little tasks together.

Jennifer Dempsey: 4:37

So nothing is forgotten and it's a good time because I can be by myself. Another thing that I think about when I think about time management is the end of the month, and the beginning of the month is very important to me inside of my business. You know, we talk about systems and keeping track of things. I have, you know, excel worksheets and plugging numbers in, and so I really look at my business on a month to month basis and so I know at the end of each month I'm gonna carve out one day that's gonna be in my calendar and I'm gonna spend time looking at the previous month, looking at the sales, how much money the business brought in, how much money went out, how much did we spend on payroll and all those things. So I can really again for me, feel like I have control over my finances inside of my business, and so now that has just become a routine and something I don't have to necessarily think about inside of my business.

Staci Dempsey: 5:40

So your strategy is, you know, you kind of saw what the maybe the hiccup was, what was maybe falling behind, and then just decided this is when I'm doing this on this date, this time of the month, and also setting the parameters of it's quiet I can focus, I can concentrate, I don't have any distractions. So I think that's a great strategy in general, whatever the topic might be, or maybe the struggle might be, is that? Does this need my full attention? Do I need to make sure that I'm in an environment that has no distractions? And also what either time of the month, time of the day, whether it's early in the morning or mid afternoon, evening, you know when does this absolutely need to get done and where can I fit this in? Is that? Am I kind of thinking about what you?

Jennifer Dempsey: 6:33

just said correctly. You know, think about early on. I remember you know it's like let me go out and do a haircut and then I'm going back and I'm paying a bill, and then I'm going, you know, and I'm training a new stylist and then I'm coming back and I'm sending my rent bill, right. So it was just, it was just a cluster of everything was getting done but there was no system, no time carved out in the schedule. So I, just because I didn't have a system handling my time of when I was gonna do things, I just felt like I was going crazy. So to make myself feel more in control of my time is when I started to prioritize. You know what needs to happen when and, like you said, days to kind of happen. You know, on a day that we're open or should it, you know, should it take some time on the weekend when it's closed?

Jennifer Dempsey: 7:23

And I think that early on, starting a business that's exactly what it looks like and feels like is like okay, I have all these things I have to do and I'm just gonna do them, but as you kind of get going and get into a routine in the system in place and you forget to pay your rent, you know, one month and you're like, well, that's not good. Then you're like, all right, I need to, I need to tighten down on my time management, figure out when am I working inside of my business, when am I working on my business, and when and where does all of that need to be? You know, take place, and that will make you feel better and like you're in control of your time, and that's what we're talking about today.

Joel Dempsey: 8:06

Dempsey Weiss Associates is a multi-line insurance agency successfully meeting the insurance and financial needs of the landscaping, business, contractor and agricultural community in Southern New Jersey and Southeastern Pennsylvania since 1989. To learn more, visit us at wwwdempseyweisscom. J-faith Hair Studio. Centrally located in Southern New Jersey, J-Faith Hair Studio is the place to go to become the best version of yourself. Confidence in your appearance is always important and a great hairstyle is an absolute necessity. Visit J-FaithHairStudiocom to book your appointment today.

Staci Dempsey: 8:43

Yeah, well, I think that's an amazing example that you just shared, jen. I know for myself I live and die by the calendar. Everything must go in my calendar, and that also means that those that I work with closely inside of my business has full access to my calendar, and so that means that they can put things into my calendar whether they need to meet with me, if they're scheduling time for me to be with a client, and then it also means that I'm scheduling time out for me to work on things for clients when I can't you know, not physically meeting with someone, but that I need time to actually work on something, I need to make phone calls, and all of that goes into the calendar. And if it doesn't go into the calendar, then it's not going to get done. You know it will be missed, there will be a hiccup, and so the system is that put it in the calendar.

Staci Dempsey: 9:43

I've even asked those that, again, I work closely with. I can't keep track of when everybody goes on vacation or if you're out for the day. I need you to put that in my calendar, because I will call you on a Tuesday and start rattling off something we need to work on, just for me to find out that you're at the beach, and I should have just waited until you got back. And so you know, for most of us, we're walking around with our phones that have multiple calendars available to us. Nothing that you need to pay for doesn't have to be anything fancy, but everything goes into the calendar, and that's kind of the system that I use. That seems to work well, at least for the people that I'm working the closest with Now, dad Paul of Famer over here. He's got some incredible systems, one of which that I know we wanna talk about today for time management is also delegation. So, dad, I'll let you talk about how you manage your time and the art of delegation as well.

Jack Dempsey - The Dad: 10:49

Well, as we started the podcast, I mean, clearly, you know I'm in a different place after doing this for a long time. So, yeah, I'm in a place where, you know, I have people around me that I can delegate to, which is great. But I wanna go back to just one of the things that Jen was talking about and talking about going into the hair studio on a Sunday and doing payroll and it's quiet and that really works. That works for her. But if you're an entrepreneur and you're saying, wow, you know I'm using up my Sunday to do business when I could be doing these other things, whatever they may be, something fun, something with the family, and it's not a good place because you don't wanna be there on a Sunday, well, that's when you really need to be looking at, you know, okay, well, how can I shift these responsibilities to someone else? Is it worth it to pay a payroll service now to do my payroll and maybe have someone do some of the bookkeeping and bill paying on a part-time basis? Maybe, you know, the cost of that is worth the freedom of time to be able to, you know, do other things that you might wanna be doing on a Sunday. But again, for others, like Jen, that's a sacred time. It's quiet, she can get this stuff done, she can be thinking, she can be planning, and so it works on both sides. But certainly don't feel bad if you don't like doing it on Sunday, you know. Figure out how to, you know, do something else.

Jack Dempsey - The Dad: 12:29

The other thing you know when it comes to delegation is, you know, I think, is to first ask yourself you know, in your business, you know what's important, what's urgent and what's needed. So those are the three questions I mean because if you're not careful, the thing that you should be spending the bulk of your time on as the leader, as the business owner, as an entrepreneur, is working on the things that are most important to your business. There's always gonna be things that have a sense of urgency to it and can quickly overtake your time to where now you're not accomplishing what's important. So the question you wanna ask yourself is that something that you're experiencing where you end up saying I and these things are very important in my business, but I end up dealing with the urgencies of the day. Somebody calls in and has an issue, and now I'm dealing with that, or there's something just unexpected happening that needs to be dealt with. Now I'm dealing with that. And then you start to realize and you finish the day and you didn't touch any of the important things because you spent your day dealing with those things.

Jack Dempsey - The Dad: 13:47

You first of all making that assessment of do I get caught in the urgency and it prevents me from doing the important things? If that's the case, then you ask yourself who else can handle these urgent issues in my business. Is there someone else that can be doing that? Do I need to train someone to do that? The other question is what's needed? There's just things that need to get done every day. So the other question to ask yourself as the leader is am I the one that's doing the needed things every day to make my business go well? But that's crowding out me spending time on what's most important, really identifying those three categories and then trying to determine okay, am I an effective delegator? Do I have people that I can delegate the urgent and needed things to so I can focus primarily on what's important for my business to grow and to do the things that needs to get done for my business to meet its business revenue goals, its growth goals, all of those things that you've set out? So I think that's where you wanna start as an entrepreneur is really asking those three questions and then doing a inventory of your team. If you have people, employees, and being able to say, okay, I can start to delegate. Now, if you have people on your team that probably have the potential to do those things but they're not trained, well then that bubbles up to something important, right? You need to get those people trained so you can begin to shift some of those things over to them, so that again, you can be focused on what's important.

Jack Dempsey - The Dad: 15:40

And the other thing about delegation too and this is critical, maybe, I've said it before is delegation is not giving away the things that you don't like to do. That's not delegation. Delegation is giving the way, the things that you actually like to do, but they're not important, they're urgent. So again, making that assessment why am I hanging on to these particular tasks? Is it because I like doing them, I like getting my hands on them, I like to touch them, I like to know, but yet they don't fall into that important category. So, again, effective delegation is not giving away what you don't like. It's giving away what you like but not important, because that's true delegation. So that's what I always am, making that assessment when I'm asking people to complete certain things on my behalf.

Staci Dempsey: 16:51

Well, if we could stick that on a t-shirt, we would. Okay, how about it? Yeah, merch, coming soon, that's right, we'll get it on there. Okay, how about?

Jack Dempsey - The Dad: 17:02

it Somehow.

Staci Dempsey: 17:04

We'll figure it out. Somehow Might be two different shirts that you have to wear two different days, but we're here for it.

Staci Dempsey: 17:10

So, that's a whole nugget alert right there on delegation, but hopefully what we can impress upon you today is that some people haven't figured out because of trial and error. Most of us are figuring it out still as we go along inside of our businesses and it might change over time on how you manage your time, the systems that you use to get those things accomplished and as you grow your team. But it is an art in which you have to continue practicing your craft, and time management is always going to be one of those top, top necessities that we're all just doing our best at.

Jack Dempsey - The Dad: 17:56

So we hope that you wrote real quick. I don't want to go along here, but you know your point about the calendar, though I think is one of the most effective Planning tools and where you put everything in your calendar. If it's a if it, if it's an hour of planning, that you put that in your calendar, but it's an hour, you know. You put everything in so that when you finish your day and you look at the next day, you know, you know it shouldn't be something like, oh, I need to get this done, and you know, and you'll do it tomorrow.

Jack Dempsey - The Dad: 18:29

Well, schedule it if it needs to get done, and schedule it, you know, and put it in your calendar and block it out, so so that you know you, you have it scheduled because it does two things One, it keeps you on track. But number two, it also helps you make that assessment. Okay, you know, I can look back now my calendar, say on the last quarter, and kind of look at my daily, what's going on daily and find out all right, yeah, I'm doing a lot of things here that ended up. I could probably be effectively delegating, you know. So, again, it gives you something to assess in addition to keeping you on track.

Staci Dempsey: 19:11

Put that on another t shirt, stick that on a hat merch coming soon. Anyway, guys, we hope that you guys have found this super helpful. Stay encouraged. We're all trying to figure it out. Nobody's doing it perfectly, but we're all going to keep on trying. We'll see you guys in our next episode. Bye, bye. Thank you all for listening today. If you have questions you would like for us to answer on the podcast, please email us at two daughters, that's T w o, two daughters and their dad at gmailcom, and, until we can be together again, please be kind to each other and, most importantly, be kind to yourself. We want to thank you for listening today. Please subscribe so you never miss an episode. Leave us a positive review, and we want to say thank you to our sponsors, dempsey Ways and Associates and J Faith Hair Studio.