Let’s cut straight to it.
If you’re a business owner, you are likely wasting the most valuable resource you have.
Not money.
Not energy.
Not even opportunity.
Time.
And worse than that…
…you’re probably paying for it to be taken from you.
Here’s the reality: you didn’t start a business to become your own overworked, underpaid, under appreciated employee.
But if your calendar is rammed, your inbox is a war zone, and your days are filled with tasks that drain rather than build - then that’s exactly what you’ve become.
So let me give you a hard truth:
You’ll never grow a business that frees you… if you’re addicted to doing everything yourself.
But here’s the good news:
There’s a way to take back control.
And it starts with this simple question:
What would it look like if you could buy back your time?
Not delegate because you’re drowning.
Not outsource because someone told you it’s what “real CEOs” do.
But deliberately engineer your calendar to only include high-value work that makes your business stronger and your life better.
Here’s how that starts:
Step 1: Audit Your Time Like You Audit Your Money
For one week, track everything. Literally everything.
- What you’re doing.
- How long it takes.
- How it makes you feel.
You’ll spot the patterns straight away. Tasks that are low value, energy-zapping, and completely unworthy of your time as a business owner.
Step 2: Categorise Ruthlessly
Separate every task into three buckets:
- 🔴 Drain – Tasks that steal your energy and bring no strategic value
- 🟠 Maintain – Things that need doing, but not by you
- 🟢 Gain – High-leverage activities that grow the business or increase profit
Your job?
Get rid of as many 🔴 and 🟠 tasks as possible. Fast.
Step 3: Buy Back the Drain
Hire someone for £15/hour so you can focus on the things that make you £150/hour.
Stop telling yourself it’s quicker to do it yourself. It’s not. That’s a lie told by people who never scaled.
If it takes you 3 hours to do your bookkeeping, but you could pay someone to do it in 2… that’s not a cost.
That’s leverage.
You’ve just bought back 3 hours of your life so you can reinvest it in sales, product development, partnerships, or…shock horror…rest.
Step 4: Design Your Perfect Week (Then Build It Bit by Bit)
Start with this question:
What would my calendar look like if I only worked on what lights me up and drives the business forward?
Once you know that - build everything else around it.
Your team. Your systems. Your process.
Not to survive, but to scale without sacrifice.
This isn’t about automation for the sake of it.
It’s not about becoming distant from your team or robotic with your customers.
It’s about buying back your freedom so you can lead properly, live fully, and build something that works with or without you.
Because here’s the real cost of doing it all yourself:
You stay stuck.
You stay tired.
And eventually, you stop caring - because burnout doesn’t make great decisions.
But if you buy back your time?
- You buy back your clarity.
- Your creativity.
- Your capacity to lead.
So let me ask you:
➡️ What’s stealing your time right now that has no business being on your plate?
➡️ What could you outsource, delegate, or eliminate this week to buy back 5 hours?
➡️ What would change if you worked on your business instead of in it?
Start there.
Buy back your time.
And build the business you actually set out to create.
Please.
James