What Are Your Monthly Numbers?

I know in business there's a lot of focus on the financial numbers, and rightly so, as I see many RTOs being run as expensive hobbies rather than profitable businesses – simply because management are not on top of their finances.

But that's not what I want to talk about in this blog.

Instead I want to understand how you're doing so I'm wondering...

When did you last look at your calendar and see the numbers attached to your workload versus days or even hours away from your RTO?

The reason this topic is high on my radar is because it seems the years are going quicker and quicker; and we don't know where our time goes each day but we know we've been 'busy'.

Now we all know we have the same amount of time as anyone else, but it's how we utilise it or schedule it which makes the difference.

To illustrate this point, I've reflected on one of the busiest months I've ever had in my business which was back in May 2016 when the culmination of writing and publishing 2 business books in less than 5 months (crazy I know) was coming to its head.

Here's why:

I had 1....
• RTO Book launched
• New Author Contributor Acceptance (Smallville)
• Workshop presentation developed and delivered
• Day of judging as part of Queensland Training Awards

I had 2....
• Books typeset, printed and published
• Conference presentations developed and delivered
• Webinars developed and delivered

I had 3...
• Articles written and published
• Blogs written and published
• Trips to the printer to proof and collect books

I had 5...
• Plane flights
• Nights interstate
• Hours driving to and from conference

And a total of 28....
• Books sold

And that's not counting hundreds of emails, and the numerous phonecalls, meetings and client work in between.

Oh and May also included going to 2 Mother's Day gatherings, 1 family wedding, 2 Hawks AFL games, coaching 5 junior netball training sessions and 4 games, and playing 2 netball games myself.

So looking at your numbers for your biggest month this far in your RTO, how do they compare to mine?

Do you have your own 1-10 scale (1 being overwhelmed and 10 being great) which includes a 1 for working 7 days a week?

As I knew May was going to be a huuge month for me, I deliberately blocked out the first week of June as a 'no meetings' week because I knew I needed time to not only tidy the office floor which slowly disappeared as the month went on; but to allow myself time to recover from both the physical and mental exhaustion I had gone through to not only publish my two business books in such a short timeframe, but also to recover from an amazing but very full on May.

As anyone running or working in an RTO knows only too well, we all have full on months.  Sometimes they're in succession, sometimes at different stages across the year, and sometimes we get on that roll of 'I just have to do...' 'I can take a break after...' and so it never seems to end.

And yet, if we stay on that runaway train, without giving ourselves (or our staff) even a day off in between, not only are we at risk of burning out physically; but when we push through and continue regardless of everything else, we often make very poor business decisions which sometimes costs us a lot more than money in the long run.

So will this month's workload reflect the same crazy numbers as last month's or will you do something now to ensure you end the month better than you started?

If it's been so long that you're not even sure how to approach this, here's my Top 3 Questions for you to ponder:

1. When was your last real holiday or even recharge day when you put the phone and laptop away to simply relax?

2. Have you blocked out time each month to get out of the office to think about nothing (which will surprisingly also lead to some great 'what could be' ideas for your RTO)?

3. Are you serving you, your team and your RTO as well as you serve your students/clients?

And here's my final thought:

The many lessons from 2020 should include doing things differently by challenging the status quo and focusing on what's really important in business and in life.
Remember: Students and clients want to work with a healthy, vibrant and energetic YOU; and not someone who is tired, rundown and looks like death warmed up.

So please consider the famous Socrates quote Beware the barrenness of a busy life the next time you choose to burn the candle at both ends.

P.S.
If you want to take your RTO from Overwhelmed to Optimised, then why not join me inside Coach In Your Corner – the only membership program designed specifically for anyone running (or aspiring to run) an RTO.

Dedicated to making your RTO life easier

Tamara