Last week I gave a talk on this subject to the student leadership at our college. Students are crazy time-stressed just like small business owners are.
One thing I figured out a while back is that small business owners always act like money is limited and time is limitless. In fact the exact opposite is true.
If you manage your time well, the money is, theoretically, infinite. Think about it. You only have 24 hours in a day. Money? There’s plenty of it out there.
Everyone has exactly the same time constraints. For people in service businesses, it becomes mission critical you squeeze every bit of billable, profitable hours out of a single day.
Four Time Management Tips
1) Set Right Priorities. This is not as obvious as it seems. Decide on measurable goals for the end of the day. Then plan your priorities according to those goals. Don’t overload yourself; just choose three meaningful, measurable goals for each day. Set them out the day before so you’re not scrambling.
My goals? Draft one blog post. Develop one lecture. Reconnect with one person from my network. These get scheduled in between the conference calls, lectures, conferences and meetings.
2) Budget Your Time. Don’t just schedule tasks, budget them. Know how long it takes you to do key activities including billing a client, creating a blog post, sending out email blasts etc. If you do a task each work day and you save 5 minutes each time doing it, you’ll save 2 hours a month or the equivalent of one whole day each year. Do this for two tasks and you’ll double your time saves. No, I’m not kidding.
3) Beware Time Vampires! We’ve all got these. Surfing the web (in the name of “research”) or spending time on Facebook can drain precious time. You want a break? Put the timer on for five minutes, then surf. When the timer goes off, change the channel. Keep the discipline. You’ll be rewarded.
4) Don’t Break Up Time. One contiguous twenty minute effort towards an objective will always be more productive than two ten minute, interrupted efforts. Tell your staff, your kids, colleagues, employees, you need twenty minutes to complete an effort, you’ll be available afterwards.
You’ll be more proud of your final product and you won’t get to the end of the day and ask, “What did I accomplish today? I worked so hard and have nothing to show for it!”
Plan your schedule at least one week in advance. Don’t let a day hit your broadside. It won’t be perfect, but you’ll feel so much more in control of your destiny. That’s why we’re here.
We’ll show you how to double your profits with the same effort in any economy. Take our short course, you’ll never be the same.
Here’s a note from one of our entrepreneurs:
“Dawn, I can’t thank you enough!! I can finally read my profit and loss statements! For ten years I’ve felt so inadequate not understanding such a key aspect of my business. In five minutes you clearly explained in detail how to use this invaluable tool; in a language I can understand! Thank you! I can’t wait for the next class!”
It’s all there for you in our training videos. Quick, easy and fun.
Need more help? Don’t Panic! Ask Dawn!
We’ll get back to you either online or via phone. Your choice. It’s the only live help desk online for small businesses.
And it’s free for now.
We don’t like to drive a car with our eyes closed. Neither should you run a small business without knowing the basics. We make it easy.
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Download Cash Flow Management Whitepaper
If you haven’t done it already, download our cash flow management whitepaper.
It’s free. I wrote it because no one else was talking about this stuff.
If you run a small business, you need to read it. Fast and easy.
Tell everyone you know who runs a small business they should read it too.
In your corner as always,
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