How Business Books Get Time Management Wrong for Solopreneurs

I just finished reading Buy Back Your Time by Dan Martell. It came highly recommended by a number of people. But there were a couple of problems with the book…the same problems I see with most business books.

First, it's not written for solopreneurs. It's for people who want to build big businesses; the kind of businesses the author has built.

It’s also written for less experienced business owners, in my opinion. I think it's another rote business book. It drops references to The Checklist Manifesto, Tony Robbins, and the big rock/pebble/sand theory. Ultimately, while it's called Buy Back Your Time, it should really be called How to Hire People for Your Business.

Because the truth is, hiring isn’t the only way.

Automation Gets Overlooked

This isn’t really a book review. But the book fails to highlight something crucial that business owners — especially solopreneurs — need to know: there’s more than one way to buy back your time.

The author doesn't touch on automation at all. He just focuses on figuring out what to hire for.

Automation is just as good — and in some cases better — than delegation. But in the book, automation basically gets a passing mention…and kind of puts it in a bad light.

The Power of Digital Assistants

I think part of the problem is that people hear the word "automation" and immediately think about either warehouse robots or marketing automation.

But I’m talking about spending $20-50 a month to have digital assistants, like Zapier and Make, do work for you. I will happily pay for Zapier and Make because the amount of work they take off my plate saves me hours per week.

I’m not saying my VA doesn’t save me time — she absolutely does. But for the people who aren’t ready to make that first hire, automation is their best option.

A Broader Definition of Buying Back Time

Buying back your time isn’t just about hiring people.

It’s about understanding how you work and what you do (which this book does a great job of explaining).

Then it’s about using that knowledge to improve your processes and systems. It’s about doing more process automation. And sometimes, it’s about removing things from your plate altogether.

You don’t need to build a giant business with a bunch of employees to be able to buy back your time. You can do it reasonably—especially starting out—with automation tools.

Then build out and iterate from there.

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