Which is more Scarce? Time or Money?

I get around quite a few SMEs in the London area and the two most common complaints I hear from business owners are that; 1) there never seem to be enough hours in the day and 2) there just isn’t enough money to go round.

This has been particularly so since the Big Freeze took hold in 2008. At the beginning of the recession many businesses experienced a downturn in sales and cut back on resources. So now the owners of those businesses spend more time doing menial tasks which they would previously have delegated to someone else.

But whilst both time and money may seem to be scarce there’s a big difference between them.

One of them (time) is a truly limited resource that you can never have more of no matter how hard you try. You can never have more time than you currently have. We’re all given the same 24 hours per day and nothing can change that.

As far as the other one (money) is concerned we are told that it’s scarce and hard to come by…particularly over the last five years, when all the talk has been of tough times and contracting economies. The belief that money is a scarce resource has spread through our economy like a nasty virus.

The reality is that many businesses have thrived and grown in these allegedly hard times. So what have they done differently?  Well, in most cases a number of things. But the starting point has always been taking time away from the day-to-day running of the business to plan and think about strategy.

In other words, they refused to accept the mindset that money is a scarce resource and believed that there were more customers out there for them if they could just come up with the right proposition. And rather than continuously running round in circles like hamsters on a wheel they invested time in doing so.

So perhaps it’s time to examine your own beliefs about money.

You may not realise it, but just outside your door is an entire world that people ready to give you their money. In fact, right now they are looking for people and businesses to buy from and they want YOU to fill that role.

The only thing that is truly scarce, the only thing that you can’t get more of, is time.

There are always more customers to be found, more markets to conquer, but you have to do it within the time allotted to you. Most people get about 3,800 weeks in their lifetime. How wisely are you using your allotted time to create wealth? And how many weeks of you got left?