Entrepreneurs talk about and monitor ROI, the return on investment. Many of us use formulas and spreadsheets to determine whether our money spent on advertising, marketing, and education is worth the investment. Did it make us more profitable? Did it meet our expectations? Was it worth the money we spent?  If the ROI is disappointing, we take our money elsewhere.

While it’s relatively easy to measure ROI with investments of money, we need to become a lot more conscious of the ROI when spending our time. How much time are we spending on networking meetings, photo shoots, and meeting new vendors? It may be worth every minute of your time if you are newer to the industry but if you have been doing this more than a few years, really take a look at how you are spending your time and whether you are truly getting a return on investment from it.

If you are booked solid with great weddings and clients, does it make sense to spend hours and hours planning yet another photo shoot? Maybe yes. Maybe no. Are you still attending networking meetings that made sense when you were starting out but doesn’t quite fit your business at this point? Do you really need to say “yes” to requests to meet new vendors or are you already set with your recommended vendor list for now?

Think about the ROI for your time over the next month. You may be surprised at how easy it is to find more available time in your schedule when you really evaluate how you are spending your most precious resource. Your marketing plan needs to be as efficient as possible.