For Home Business Entrepreneurs - Top Ten Time Management Tips

Carlos A Perez

 

Time is of the essence; time is money; so much to do-so little time. Time is a common theme among old adages and for good reason. What you do with your time determines everything you are and everything you have. Being a good master of your time as a home business entrepreneur is one of the best ways to ensure your success. With that in mind, the following list of the top ten time management tips for home business entrepreneurs is the key to your fortune.

1. Devise a plan. "Failure to plan is planning to fail", as they say. Both a weekly and daily schedule are vital. You should have a general plan of basic tasks that need to be completed regularly as well as more specific jobs. Taking a few minutes at the end of each day to plan the next day's activities will save a lot of downtime and greatly increase your productivity.

2. Prioritize your activities. It is all too easy to become busy working on insignificant (but often necessary) tasks and get to the end of the day without really accomplishing anything. Make a habit of completing the most critical tasks first and everything else will fall into place.

3. Find a use for otherwise lost minutes. Keep basic items such as your cell phone, a notebook and pen with you wherever you go. You will be able to take notes while in waiting rooms or other downtimes. This will also help you be prepared to write down ideas as the inspiration strikes you.

4. The early bird catches the worm. Getting up a little earlier will allow you some peaceful time to work before the rest of the family arises. Waking before everyone else will also allow you to collect your thoughts and feel more at ease while helping the rest of the family off to school and/or work.

5. Take time to rejuvenate. Regular breaks will help you regain your focus. You should get away from your desk and focus your mind on something else entirely for the duration of your break.

6. Keep your focus. Don't let life's distractions keep you from completing the things you have scheduled for your home business for the day. There will always be dishes and laundry to do, but putting off your home business activities will cause you to delay or prevent your success.

7. Create balance. Focusing all your energies on one aspect of your life will put all the other areas out of balance. This will ultimately hamper your success even if it brings temporary rewards.

8. Get rid of clutter. They say "cluttered desk is a sign of a cluttered mind" and while this may not be entirely true, a cluttered office and/or desk will result in a lot of wasted time and energy. A clean, organized office space will actually encourage your creativity and give you access to the tools and space you need to accomplish whatever tasks come your way.

9. Don't devalue your time. We often try to save money at the expense of our time and energy. Be careful not to make this mistake. The few dollars you save by doing everything yourself is not always worth it. Save money when it counts, but not at the expense of your time.

10. Keep your family and business separate. The danger of the multi-tasking myth is that you are never completely focused on any one thing and therefore you never achieve your full potential in any area. When it is your scheduled work time, focus your complete attention on work. When it is family time, unplug the business phone and give your family 100% of your attention.

These time management tips will help you achieve more in the same amount of time. You might want to take an inventory of how you are doing in each of these areas and make a commitment to improve in one area at a time.

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3 Simple Strategies To Build Your Home-Based Business Faster And Easier

Laurie Hayes

One of the biggest mistakes new home-based business owners make is trying to do everything from square one.

You can rest assured that whatever you are attempting to do or build, it has already been done.

Sure, it probably won't be a mirror image of what you're doing, but it will have many of the same basic ingredients.

The fastest and easiest way to get your business going and growing is by finding others who have already done what you want to do and learning and benefiting from their efforts.

A local business person recently told me he was in the process of building an autoresponder. Of course, this wouldn't be a strange thing to be doing if it was a service he plans to sell, but it has nothing to do with his business!

Instead of investing a few hours to explore those autoresponders already in existence, he is investing well more than a hundred hours trying to build one on his own so he can communicate with his customers.

By conducting only a couple of hours research, he would have discovered a variety of outstanding, affordable autoresponder services that are highly sophisticated and subject to continual upgrading and improvement to keep up with ever-changing technology and consumer needs.

Imagine the kind of business he could have generated for himself if he focused those one hundred plus hours acquiring new customers for his business and expanding and improving on his products and services!

Unfortunately, like him, many new home business owners are still of the employee mindset -- that they have to work relentlessly and do everything alone.

They haven't yet developed the entrepreneurial mindset that understands you have to work smarter, not harder.

Another time-consuming task many new business owners take on is spending hours, even days, trying to design the perfect logo. I'm embarrassed to say I spent DAYS searching the Internet for sample logos, looking for ideas, then sitting and drawing possible logo after logo.

Most people have more creative flair in their big toe than I have in my entire body, yet I thought that if I put enough time into it, even though it meant not focusing on increasing business, the perfect logo would reveal itself.

I eventually abandoned the obsession and as soon as I handed the project over to my web designer, I had a new, effective and eye-catching logo within 24 hours.

It was a costly mistake. I had spent so many years working in a support capacity that I didn't know how to make the shift to a leader capacity and delegate the task.

(Even more important, I later realized, having a logo is waaaay down on the priority scale and doesn't even have to be considered during the start-up period.)

As you are starting your business, consider the following tasks and ask yourself if someone else could be doing them while you focus on building:

- designing brochures and marketing material

- creating your web site

- setting up your voice mail and e-mail

- purchasing supplies and equipment

- stuffing envelopes and taking them to the post office, or delivering flyers

- market research

- hooking up your new computer, modem, fax and installing software

- trouble shooting computer problems

- writing articles, reports or white papers

These are not revenue generating activities and if you find them challenging or time-consuming, delegate these tasks to someone else like a family member, co-op student or part-time assistant.

For the more specialized items, seek the input of a mastermind member or business colleague on how they handle those responsibilities. Also, hire or barter with experts in marketing, web design and technology.

Another wheel you don't need to re-invent is that of processes, particularly in the area of marketing.

Marketing may not be your forté, yet it is the most important element of your business, and this is where many new home business owners bury themselves.

The good news is you don't have to develop your marketing process by trial and error.

Commit several days to studying other businesses both in and outside of your industry.

How do they promote themselves? How do they collect leads? How do they convert leads?

In other words, how do they catch the attention of potential customers, get them to express an interest to learn more, and how do they get them to ultimately pull out their wallets and buy?

The quickest and easiest way to create winning processes is to study already successful businesses, then model what they do.

Sign up for their newsletters and request additional information. Let them begin a courtship with you and pay attention to what they're doing. Buy a product or two and see what tools they use to keep inviting you back for more.

This doesn't mean copy them word for word or action by action, but assimilate what works, mould it to your specific business and add the essential ingredient of uniqueness that allows you to stand out from the crowd.

These are just three simple strategies you can start with today to get on the fast-track to home business success.

Again, here they are in a nutshell:

1. Uncover what has already been created or invented, then implement or install. Don't reinvent the wheel.

2. Think like a business owner, not an employee. Delegate, hire or trade.

3. Model the processes of others who have already achieved the level of success you're seeking. They've already made the mistakes for you and know what works.

Incorporate these strategies and you will shave hours and dollars from your start-up curve and begin reaping the rewards faster than you ever thought possible.

2007 © Laurie Hayes - The HBB Source

Laurie Hayes, founder and director of The HBB Source, helps freedom seekers cross the bridge from employee to home-based entrepreneur. Subscribe to her FREE e-zine for valuable tips and resources designed to create business success, at http://www.thehbbsource.com Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Laurie_Hayes