The £10,000 Per Hour Question Every Business Owner Should Ask
Many business owners work extremely hard.
Long days.
Constant emails.
Problems to solve.
Customers to look after.
Admin that never seems to end.
Yet despite all that effort, many businesses feel like they are running fast but not really moving forward.
Why?
Often the problem isn’t effort.
It’s how the business owner spends their time.
The £10,000 Per Hour Guide
One useful way to think about this is the £10,000 per hour rule.
Imagine that every task in your business falls into one of four categories:
- £10 per hour work
- £100 per hour work
- £1,000 per hour work
- £10,000 per hour work
Each level represents the value that activity creates for the business.
The problem is that many business owners spend most of their time on the lowest value work.
£10 Per Hour Work
These tasks keep the business ticking over but rarely move it forward.
Examples include:
- Running errands
- Cleaning, sorting and organising
- Responding to emails
- Fixing small things on the website
- Basic admin and bookkeeping
These jobs are necessary — but they are not where growth comes from.
£100 Per Hour Work
These activities are more connected to customers and marketing.
Examples include:
- Talking to qualified prospects
- Writing emails to customers
- Producing quotes and proposals
- Managing advertising campaigns
- Customer follow-up
Important work, but still not the highest impact use of the business owner’s time.
£1,000 Per Hour Work
Now we begin to move into strategic activities that build the business.
These might include:
- Planning and prioritising the business direction
- Negotiating with qualified prospects
- Building your marketing or sales funnel
- Testing new marketing ideas
- Training and coaching your team
This is where businesses start to grow more effectively.
£10,000 Per Hour Work
At the highest level are the activities that truly shape the future of the business.
Examples include:
- Creating new and better offers
- Improving your message and positioning
- Negotiating major deals
- Selling to high-value customers
- Establishing values and culture
- Developing powerful new ideas
And one of the most important activities of all:
Thinking properly about the business.
Many business owners rarely get the space to do this — yet it’s where some of the biggest breakthroughs happen.
Why Many Businesses Stay Stuck
The challenge for most business owners is simple.
They become trapped inside the day-to-day running of the business.
The emails, the admin, the small problems and the endless list of tasks slowly fill every hour of the week.
Before long there is no time left for the work that actually grows the business.
This is why many good businesses stay stuck at the same level for years.
Not because the owner lacks ability or effort — but because they lack thinking time and strategic focus.
A Simple Question to Ask Yourself
Think about your last working week.
How much time did you spend on:
- Admin and emails?
- Fixing small problems?
- General day-to-day tasks?
And how much time did you spend on:
- Improving your offers
- Developing marketing systems
- Creating new opportunities
- Thinking about the future of the business
If most of your time sits on the left-hand side of the table, your business may be working harder than it needs to.
Creating More £1,000 and £10,000 Hours
Business growth often starts with something very simple:
Stepping back and thinking differently about the business.
When business owners create even a small amount of regular time to focus on strategy, opportunities and growth, the results can be significant.
Sometimes the biggest breakthroughs don’t come from working harder.
They come from working on the right things.
Business Coaching Manchester
At Business Coaching Manchester, I work with local business owners who want to create more clarity, focus and growth in their business.
Together we look at:
- What is really driving the business forward
- Where time and energy are being lost
- How to build stronger systems and structure
- How to create space for higher-value work
If you are a business owner in South Manchester and you’d like to explore how this might work for you, feel free to get in touch.
📧 manchestercoaching@gmail.com
Sometimes a short conversation can create the thinking space that moves a business forward.