Many company owners and managers complain about working too many hours. While speaking at industry conventions, I surveyed attendees about their work life habits. How do you compare?
Typical Work Week for Business Owners
- 10% work forty hours or less per week
- 55% work up to 60 hours per week
- 35% work over 60 hours per week
The average Fortune 500 company executive works between 50 and 60 hours per week. Unfortunately, the forty-hour work week isn’t the norm in business today. Construction business owners appear to work about the same amount of time as their peers in the corporate world.
Do You Take Work Home with You?
When I was building my construction business, I usually arrived at the office or jobsite at 6:00 AM and didn’t get home until around 6:00 PM. I would take work home every night such as plans to review, projects to bid, invoices for approval, or subcontracts to prepare. On weekends, I often worked between four to eight hours as well. The time pressures of starting and growing a business never seemed to end. How do you compare to other contractors?
Average Take Home Work per Week
- 20% never take work home
- 40% take home 10 hours of work
- 40% take home 15 hours of work
I became used to doing certain tasks at home like take-offs and estimating. When work hit my desk at the office, I put it into three piles: “Do It Now”, “Do It Later” and “Take This Home”. I wasted time doing the less important things and took home the important things. At home it was easier to close the door and dig into my work uninterrupted. But, I was often tired and not as efficient late at night.
I finally realized important things should be done at the office during normal working hours. To make that happen, I had to rearrange my daily priorities and get focused. My top priority was keeping the pipeline full of new work. To stay on task, I learned to shut my door and not take calls if I was working on a bid. To accomplish this, I had to delegate and trust others with the less important tasks and decisions. This reduced my take-home work to almost never.
Several years later I rearranged my schedule again to be even more efficient. This now allows me to work less than forty hours a week if I choose to. My early mornings are spent at my home office from 6:00am until 9:30am working on “important” tasks. I then go into the office around 10:00am ready to meet with my staff and handle everyday requirements and tasks required to run a busy construction and development business. This schedule works and I usually can go home around 4:30pm or 5pm without taking more work home.
As I rearranged my schedule and priorities, I learned how to focus on the important things first. I scheduled regular weekly meetings with my direct reports, management team, estimating, and accounting manager. I made sure to delegate doing project management, scheduling crews, ordering materials, negotiating subcontracts and micro-managing field issues. This allowed me to be more efficient as a manager, build a better team, and develop strong loyal customer relationships. With additional time available, I committed to play golf at my private country club with successful friends on Friday afternoons. Spending time with like-minded business peers expanded my vision and helped me open my eyes and look for new ways to grow and improve our company.
Time Off for Good Behavior
I always dreamed of taking lots of vacation as a reward for being a business owner. This seemed impossible while building my business. My mistake was not trusting my people to make good decisions. I realized I wasn’t really as important or as smart as I thought I was. I had great people, but I made them rely on me to make all the “big” decisions. Finally, I tried an experiment and took a one-week vacation without calling the office. Upon returning I discovered my managers had done a better job than I would have if I had stayed home! With my eyes opened, I realized my management style was the real problem. I had to learn to delegate and let go of as much as possible.
The survey of company owners and managers shows that sixty-five percent take less than two weeks off a year. They must think they are too important to leave. Only thirty-five percent take more than two weeks per year off and must realize time off is good for their business and personal life. How do you compare?
Vacation Days per Year
- 15% take 1 week or less
- 50% take 1 to 2 weeks
- 20% take 2 to 3 weeks
- 15% take more than 3 weeks off
I have been in business for over 40 years and now realize the value of time off. When I work too much, I make mistakes, tend to micro-manage, make less money, and miss great opportunities. Now, when I head home for the weekend or off on a vacation, I have two purposes in mind. First, spend time on family, faith, friends, fitness, or fun. Second, work on improving my business by reading business books or magazines on topics I need to work on. When I come back to the office, my mind has been focused on solving problems or seeking opportunities, I am filled with new ideas and refreshed and excited about the future. To help draft your vision and goals, email GH@HardhatBizcoach.com for a copy of ‘BIZ-VISION Worksheets.
Ask people who work for you, “What’s the vision of our company? What are we trying to accomplish? What are our top three priorities? What specific targets are we shooting for? What results are important?” You’ll get 37 different answers if you have 37 people working for you. To get the results you want, get everyone on the same page from top to bottom. Leading and getting the results you want starts with you. Change, innovate, and try new ways of doing business. Communicate your clear exciting vision. Define specific targets with expected results. And make it happen!
George Hedley CPBC is a certified professional construction business coach, consultant, and popular speaker. He helps contractors build better businesses, grow, profit, develop management teams, improve field production, and get their companies to work.
He is the best-selling author of “Get Your Construction Business To Always Make A Profit!” available on Amazon. Watch his educational videos on YouTube.
To get his free e-newsletter, start a personalized BIZCOACH program, download online courses, or utilize his contractor templates, visit www.HardhatBizcoach.com or email GH@HardhatBizcoach.com.