You only have a finite amount of time and resources. If you try and tackle every single potential investment, every single client, and every single task equally, you’re not making the best use of said time and resources. One of the crucial abilities a business owner must learn is to set priorities. Let’s look at how to prioritize in four key areas of the business to get the best results.

Money

So, you’ve made some profit. If you’re a clever business person, you know that it’s not wise to just pocket it. Instead, you want to reinvest it, but where should it go? Sites like www.entrepreneur.com share some good ideas on where you should and shouldn’t put that money first. Some of the more sensible investments include spending on long-term strategies to build leads such as customer service or PR. Some of the less sensible include giving yourself a more expensive office, suit, or equipment that isn’t going to definitely return the value to the business. Those investments can come later. First, you have to focus on what will bring more money back in.

Time

Just as important is the time you spend working on the business. We all know the old adage. So, making sure that time is spent in the right place is essential. You and your employees need to identify the tasks within the role that perform most value to the business and prioritize them first. Linking with the first point, it’s always a good idea to pay into the investments that will help increase productivity and save time. The more tools you get to take on the busywork, the better.

Clients

If you’re in a business where you have to choose between clients, and you find you have more potential clients than people you can actually take on, it feels like a blessing. However, this faces you with some difficult choices, too. As www.bizzbeginnings.com suggest, you have to learn how to say no. Finding value between different clients is a lot easier. Some will ask to get more for their buck, including free extra services. Others might have a history of being difficult and costing you more of your time. Others will hire you to take care of jobs that offer little money and do little to help build the brand. Saying no to these clients so you can say yes to the ones that offer the most value is smart business.

Goals

This goes hand-in-hand with prioritizing how you use your time. All of the points above, however, have to help the business progress towards a plan. Without overall objectives for the business, it’s easy to keep business going as usual when you could be achieving growth instead. Setting goals for the business effectively also plays a big role in setting goals for your team which helps them get more motivated and productive.

Running a business is like spinning many plates at once and you have to learn when a plate needs a little more attention and when one should drop. The ability to define value between your choices will help you always make the right one.