In many young businesses, the founder is the best salesperson in the company. They also tend to be the most expensive one, not because of salary, but because of everything else competing for their time.
Where the time actually goes
Ask a founder how much of their week is spent selling and the answer is usually generous. Log it honestly for a week and the picture is different. Customer delivery, hiring, finance, internal meetings, fundraising and admin take big shares, and selling happens in the gaps.
Why it matters
- The founder's selling time is the scarcest and most valuable time in the business.
- Selling in the gaps means conversations get less preparation and follow-up is slower.
- Every hour spent on something someone else could do is an hour not spent selling.
A simple audit
- For one week, log what you do in half-hour blocks.
- Put each entry in a category: selling, delivery, hiring, finance, meetings, admin.
- Mark whether it genuinely needed you.
- Add up the selling share, and the hours that did not need you.
What to do with it
Pick one or two things to hand over, delegate or stop. Protect selling time in the diary as you would a customer meeting. Re-run the audit in a month.
Selling in the gaps is not a sales strategy.
The Founder Selling-Time Audit below gives you the log, a selling-share summary and the hours that did not need you.