Time management is a topic that we usually think of when we look at our daily 9-5 job. Most companies today in an effort to manage their resources have devised ways of accounting for time as a resource. You have scheduling tools such as time sheets and planners that are used to account for time spent at work. Time is unfortunately a resource that is in high demand and low supply. When we move to our own home-based online business it's easy to forget the time management lessons learned in our previous [or current] profession. That is why it's so important that you establish some kind of template to manage your time as you embark on building your business.

Build a Plan

A good starting point for building this template is to consider three things. First, how much time do you have that you can devote daily? By looking at your schedule [sleep, family, current job etc?] you should be able to get a handle on the amount of time you can give to the business. Second, what tasks are included in setting up and running an online business? Depending on the type of online business you're running these may include:

- Developing site concept

- Picking a site to host your site

- Picking a domain name

- Managing your website

- Advertising [online / offline]

- Marketing Strategies

- Contacting leads [as in the case of MLM's]

- Responding to emails

- Shipping product

Any one of these items can be broken down even further. For instance the advertising step may include placing brochures at different locations in your city, writing and submitting online [or offline] classified ads. The marketing part may include taking time to write or purchase articles and reports that you can brand with your own website information. Be sure to document the different components of your business. Next, you will want to get some type of online or offline scheduler that you can use to write down these items which you will be endeavoring to complete on a daily basis. This will achieve several things. The first is that you'll be accountable. The second is that if done right you'll end each work day by entering what you want to accomplish the next day [i.e... you'll have your schedule pre-written which saves time!] Fourth, you will take the total amount of time that you have to devote to your business on any given day and split that up between your different tasks.

The Business Changes and So Does the Plan

Fifth, you should consider your management of time across the varied tasks of running a business as ?work in process?. It will grow and change as your business grows and changes. As your business moves forward more or less time may be given to different areas. You might also be adding or deleting things from your ?to do? list.

Time Wasters

An important point to bring up at this point is prioritization. For instance let's say you're starting from scratch trying to develop a concept for an online business. It's safe to say that a large part of your time in the beginning is going to be devoted to completing the concept phase; then setting up your website. But as the business grows so will the chance for diversions that can take your attention away from the business [hint: even a task that is part of the business can become a diversion]. For instance it's not unusual for an online business owner to get a larger and larger quantity of emails. For instance when I started one of my businesses I was getting over 100 emails to start. It's easy to spend a large block of time on this task alone so you need to be honest and ask yourself which of the senders is key to the success of your business. Another diversion is the offers from different business owners and affiliate programs [which are usually part of the email that you receive]. It's very easy to accumulate a large quantity of stuff that may or may not help your business. You might find yourself building a large collection of web page tools, articles, reports, search engine optimization [SEO] tools etc.., but aside from testing, if these tools aren't helping your businesses to grow then they're taking your attention and time away from the business. For this reason you might want to include a section in your planner/scheduler where you devote x number of hours per week to finding useful tools and software for your business.

Conclusion:

If you manage your time the right way you [and your business] will benefit in the following ways:

- You'll know what to expect of yourself each day

- You'll know what you've accomplished

- You'll be able to track your progress in the various areas of your business

- You'll be able to pick up on areas that you may be spending too much or not enough time on

? Brett Schaefer 2008

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