Do you have time to read this article?

Some entrepreneurs want more money, but the one thing they all want is more time. This might make Business Leader seem quite odd. When we invite entrepreneurs to join our membership, we are asking them to spend a minimum of eight half-days a year engaging with their fellow members. That’s basically a full working week, which is something no entrepreneur can afford to spare. Is this a terrible mistake?

Well, consider someone such as James Watt, co-founder of BrewDog. He spends four hours a week sitting on the floor with marker pens and a huge sheet of paper. He considers this is his most productive weekly activity. His top secret for business success is good time management. It’s because he manages the rest of his time so well that he can spend those crucial hours with no wi-fi, no technology and no distractions, fully focused on letting his creativity flourish.

He told us his secret at a recent Business Leader members-only event – an afternoon at BrewDog’s showpiece bar and restaurant in Waterloo, with a Q&A with him followed by a behind-the-scenes tour and free beer and pizza. Some of his time-management tips will end up saving the attendees, including me, around an hour a week for the rest of our lives – a pretty good exchange.

That’s the trouble with time. We all understand that you often need to spend money to get money. But we have a harder time understanding that you sometimes need to spend time to make time. It feels counterintuitive. Time is the one resource you can never replenish, so giving it away feels like a loss.

But when you spend time intentionally, whether learning from someone such as Watt, strategising with peers, or simply stepping back to reflect, you often create far more of it in the long run.

Most entrepreneurs treat time as something to fill. It’s tempting to pack every minute with tasks, meetings and quick responses, leaving no room for the activities that drive growth. Sitting in a peer-to-peer forum might feel indulgent, even wasteful. But it’s precisely this willingness to step out of the trenches and work on the bigger picture that separates good entrepreneurs from great ones.

When an entrepreneur takes half a day to share their challenges and hear how others have tackled similar issues, the results are transformative. Members leave with actionable strategies, a sharper perspective and often a lighter mental load, knowing they are not alone in their struggles.

 Chances are, you’ll save time in an area you weren’t expecting. It might be the marketing campaign that works first time because someone pointed you towards the right idea. Or the costly mistake you avoid because another member made it first and shared the lesson. Or the hour you reclaim every week because you finally have a time-management system that works.

We’re inviting you, the country’s most exciting entrepreneurs, to join Business Leader because we value your time so highly. And if your time is valuable, just think what the combined value would be of those nine other entrepreneurs who are there to help you grow your business. I would be more than happy to introduce you.