(Time to read this Blog is about 4 minutes)

Before we get to the main topic, here are a few things to get you thinking or smiling:

1. My Biz Quote of the week:
   “High turnover of staff is their emotionally healthy response to your emotionally unhealthy business culture.”
   …Donald Cooper.
    
2. Quick Biz Tip:
   Be #1 or #2 in your market, or get the heck out!

   Back in the glory days of GE, their mantra for each of their Divisions, globally, was, “Be #1 or #2 in the market…or get the hell out of the business!’

   Here’s another example of the truth in this.  Uber Eats and Door Dash are now the two dominant meal delivery apps in the U.S., with Uber Eats earning $13.75 billion from delivery in 2024 and DoorDash earning $10.7 billion.

   Grubhub, #3 in the market, seems to be becoming less relevant. It was acquired by Just Eat Takeaway Inc in June, 2021 for $7.3 billion and sold in January, 2025 for $650 million. A 91% loss.

   Where are you in your market?  If you’re #1 or #2, with a sustainable strategy to stay there or improve…‘congrats’.  If not, what must you do to be #1 or #2…and when will you start?
    

3. ‘Fun Fact’: Canada has more lakes than the rest of the world combined.
    
4. Traffic jam in Low Earth Orbit. Elon Musk’s satellite communications company, Starlink, has almost 7,000 satellites circling the globe, serving millions of customers worldwide.  The company has plans to deploy 5,000 more satellites. 

Now, to this week’s important topic:

On what are you spending your time?  Take a few minutes to fill out your ‘Time Sheet’:

Sadly, many of us spend way too much time working ‘in’ our business…and not enough time proactively working ‘on’ it.  We spend much of our time doing $20, $30 or $40 an hour jobs when we’re paid to do $200, $300 and $400 an hour jobs.

Many of your ‘front-line’ people probably have to fill out Time Sheets to get paid. So, perhaps it’s time for you to honestly fill out your ‘Time Sheet’ to focus on what you should be doing less of…and what you need to be doing more of.  Fill in the blanks on your ‘Time Sheet’ below:

My Time Sheet:

1. On average, how many hours a week do I work in the business?  ____ hours.
2. Approximately how many hours each week do I spend:
   1. Doing non-management work.    ___ hours …or,
   2. Dealing with ‘day-to-day’ management problems or emergencies.  ___ hours. 
3. Approximately how many hours each week do I devote to the 14 key Leadership & Management tasks listed below?
   1. Creating a clear Vision for the 3-to-5-year future of the business (what we commit to become). Note: Involve your key Team in this important process.  
   2. Planning how we’ll get to that extraordinary 3-to-5-year future (internal growth and/or acquisition?). Creating our annual ‘Strategy, Decision, Activity and Financial Business Plan’ for the year ahead.  Complete this two months before the start of each fiscal year.  For help with creating an ‘Annual Business Plan’ that works, Click Here for my Biz Tool #B-35.
   3. Proactively financing that growth.
   4. Listening to my Team. Our people know stuff and they hate it when we don’t ask.  When we listen to our Team, two things happen.  First, we learn from them…and, second, we honour them.
   5. Delegating tasks and projects (with completion commitments) to our Team members and following up make sure they’re completed, on time, on budget, with the agreed outcomes. Note: The world is run by those who follow up.
   6. Thanking and encouraging my Team.
   7. Making the required Strategy shifts, including possible Business Model changes required to be relevant and sustainable. Note:  Fine-tuning an unsustainable Business Model is a complete waste of time.  
   8. Big-picture innovation and technology changes.
   9. Market positioning and pricing.
   10. Customer value and experience improvements.
   11. Creating world-class operating efficiency in every part of the business.
   12. Improving our Culture to attract top-performers and improve engagement, efficiency and retention.
   13. Creating a Talent Pipeline. Staff planning, key person recruitment and Team development.
   14. Creating a Succession Plan for me and our key Team and an Exit Plan for myself.     

Approximate # of hours that I devote to the 14 key Leadership and Management tasks listed above.    ____ hours a week. 

Note:  All of these 14 key tasks are much more challenging than the day-to-day stuff that you can do so easily…but they are what you’re actually paid to do.  If you’d like help with this, I’m easy to find at donald@donaldcooper.com

That’s it for this week…

Live brilliantly and be kind to each other!       

Donald Cooper 

Donald Cooper speaks and coaches internationally on management, marketing, and profitability.  He can be reached by email at donald@donaldcooper.com in Toronto, Canada.