Every time you watch Superman, you probably identify with him (minus the cape … and the super powers). You do a plethora of things, you are underfunded, understaffed, and somehow people always expect more. I know how you feel, I’ve sat on the board of Downtown Provo since 2013 and I’ve seen the amount of pressure and what’s expected from you.
That being said one of your mandates, and probably your main mandate, is to drive foot traffic to your Downtown or Main Street. Today I want to share with you 3 easy things to help you prioritize your time and make the most out of it so that you can focus on driving foot traffic:
- Limit your event load: The year has 365 days and half of those you probably have an event that you are in charge of, or that you are helping with, or that you need to be at. Some of them are worth your time and involvement, while others are a real time suck. Don’t be afraid to say no or find other ways to help: like publicizing the event on your website, mobile app, or any other print media you have available.
- Activate your board: Your board is probably all volunteers, and with the rare exception, the majority of your board just shows up for a monthly/quarterly meeting and that’s about the extent of their involvement. Get together with a couple of the members of the board that you think could help you, and develop a strategy where the board at large has assignments (don’t go to crazy on them, but put them to work). If you don’t have committees, get them started and have members of the board lead them. Ask them for SMART (specific, measurable, actionable, realistic, time-related) goals and have them come back and report on those. You’ll find that many hands and brains will make a huge difference on tasks that otherwise you would have to take care of.
- Use technology: With the advent of cloud computing and mobile devices, you can work pretty much anywhere. There are time saving tools designed for Downtowns and Main Streets that can save you all kinds of time, money and effort. One example is Maestro, which is a hybrid customer relationship manager and project management tool, and then there is us: ProsperWalk, we help you drive foot and web traffic to your Downtown and Main Street through your very own website and mobile app. Explore our website for more information and schedule a free 20 minute demo of our product to see it work.
Time is your most valuable resource, and we hope that these three tips can spark new ideas on how to better administer it.