More Free Time
A story: The wife of an owner felt he needed to spend more time with the family. She persuaded him to take her and their three children to Disneyland for a couple of days. The owner liked the idea of getting away from the office. There was anticipation of having fun with the family at the park. The day finally arrived. The family entered the park and was soon at Treasure Island, waiting behind a long line. The owner's cell phone rang. There was a cash crisis at the business. The owner signaled to his wife to take the children on the ride without him. He sat on a bench in New Orleans Square to talk with his staff about the problem. The problem took several hours and about a dozen different phone calls to resolve. His wife and children went on the rides without him. They saw him a few hours later, stressed and still on the phone. The family was upset and left for California Adventure. One of the smaller children was crying and the others were upset at his lack of attention to them. The owner, sitting alone, finally hung up the phone. He muttered, "It would have been better had I stayed and went to work at my business."
Free time: Business owners need free time to reenergize and to enjoy life doing activities outside of the business, such as time invested in:
- Family
- Exercising
- Charities
- Church
- Travel
- Hobbies
- Relaxation
- Etc.
Finding time: Creating free time for an owner takes work. It takes planning and creating processes within the company to allow an owner to escape the company for free time activities. This often requires the hiring of professionals that have the experience to create the necessary processes.
Finders: Our process of Finders, Minders and Grinders™ is one that can be used to identify the key roles within the company to allow the owner to delegate important functions.
A team: Creating a process to help the Finder discover free time usually requires creating a responsible team within the company. Experienced and mature help is often needed to build the team and to help manage the team while the owner is away on free time activities.