Profitable Hours vs. Not-So-Profitable Hours

In March of 2017, I was enjoying a sunny day, waltzing through a small list of tasks. Then I got an unexpected email from a friend.

CC’d on that email was a guy named Taylor, who was looking for Facebook ads for a new product launch. We sent a few emails back and forth over the next 15 minutes, then we jumped on a call. After chatting for 5 minutes, Taylor asked what I was up to and invited me to swing by the office right then. 

I got in the car, arrived at his office 30 minutes later, and after poking around on facebook for 45 minutes, we launched our first campaign.

In matter of a few hours, we had gone from not knowing anything about each other at all, to working together. 

That was a profitable few hours. 

But if we contrast this with what could have happened that day, we’ll see a big difference. I could have circled back with a couple leads who weren’t responding, I could have over-analyzed a couple campaigns, I could have gone to get coffee. 

Not a very profitable few hours.

So how do we have more of those profitable hours? We’ll, if I knew the answer to this I’d be writing this blog from a yacht in Greece with a mimosa in hand. Alas.

I do have three ideas, however. 

First, we can first put ourselves in digital situations where we’re likely to meet people who will hire us. It’s very rare for someone to just stumble on our work if we’re sitting around waiting for exactly that. We need to exist online in as many places as possible so people can find us. Let’s write more, post more, film more, contribute more–you get the idea.

Second, we can put ourselves in social situations where we’re likely to meet people who will hire us. Who do you want to reach and work for and how can you authentically connect with them? Let’s throw more parties, play more golf, volunteer at more events, and go to more conferences with the people we want to work with.

Finally, I think we can have more profitable hours by outsourcing and streamlining the unprofitable hours. How can we try to accomplish our maintenance tasks even quicker? Who could we hire to help with the simple things that aren’t main profit centers for us? Chances are, there’s already an internet company ready to help with our least favorite tasks.

Here’s to more of those profitable hours!

Hope this was helpful for you, share it with a friend who you think will find it valuable.