Mananging Your Time as a Business Owner 1
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It's ironic. One of the biggest attractions of self-employment is the opportunity it offers to free up commuting time and simplify life. Yet, rather than looking for things to do with all their spare time, people who start their own business quickly gain new insight into the meaning of words like "cope" and "juggle," particularly if they work at home. They become adept at talking to clients on the phone while simultaneously gesturing at squabbling offspring and mouthing, Cut it out or I'm going to wring your neck when 1 get off the phone! They also become the master of the white lie, being able to devise a plausible business reason for putting a client or customer on hold the instant they spot bubbles oozing out of the dishwasher and realize it wasn't a good idea to substitute laundry soap for the dishwasher detergent they forgot to buy.
Fortunately, there are ways to make time management easier even if you don't have any employees to whom you can delegate work. The following pages contain dozens of ideas for managing your time more efficiently and improving your productivity.
Why is managing time so difficult for the self-employed?
When you are self-employed you don't have the support staff you'd have in a corporation. There's no switchboard operator, no administrative assistant, no file clerk, and no bookkeeper. Neither are there salespeople, copywriters, or a public relations department. You do it all. You wear all the hats. To make matters worse you are likely to have to do it all in relative isolation. Without the benefit of daily contact with business associates, it is easy to lose sight of your goals and spend far too much time chasing rainbows or doing nonproductive busywork.
Most mornings I boot my computer before I start making coffee. By the time my neighbors are leaving for work, I’ve already been at work for an hour or more. And I'm still working long after they return home. What am I doing wrong?
Sometimes long hours are unavoidable, I was already working at 7:30 one morning when my business phone rang. Out of habit, I reached for the phone and answered it. Tom Gabrielli, a self-employed commercial artist was on the other end. Tom was doing a rush job for one of my clients and needed some information before he could send the work off to the printer. When he got me on the phone instead of my voice mail, he said, "Oh no, not you, too! I've been working since six A.M. What time did you start?"
As a commercial artist, Tom's work is somewhat cyclical. During the busy times of the year he is likely to start early and work late; but in summer, when his business tends to slow down a bit, he gets to travel or relax on sunny beaches while his corporate counterparts are watching the car temperature gauge inch toward hot in a rush-hour traffic jam.
If your business has busy seasons, you may find there are times when there is no good way to avoid long hours of work. But if you are regularly overworked or regularly behind schedule, chances are you need to gain control over the way you use your time.
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