Archive for the ‘Time Management’ Category

By Tammy Embrich

Are you often scrambling to find an important printed document? Or are you having trouble finding a simple item such as a stapler? Is your desk so piled up that you can barely see the top of it? More importantly, maybe your child’s homework is buried under the shuffle of papers that seem to be growing in front of you?

If you answered even one of these questions with a “yes” then your office needs some tender loving care organization.

I know when my desk is piled up and I can’t find anything, I sure don’t feel very productive. I find I have a much more productive day if my desk is nicely organized and tidy. I always feel better about my business when I get up in the morning and find everything in it’s place. I mean it just makes sense, an organized office is a successful office.

The following tips will help you have a more productive business

* Always clean your desk off at the end of your work day. For example, put all those papers in their proper place, preferably in a file cabinet. Put all the pens/pencils in the little cup that’s supposed to be holding them. Make sure you have a schedule made out in front of you for the following day.

* Create a home business environment for yourself that will encourage work and motivate you rather than make you want to go out shopping. If it means redecorating your home office to achieve this environment, then do it.

* Organize your documents on your computer and consistently do backups so your information is safe. Make a separate document for your income and your expenses. Keep these updated daily, weekly, or monthly. This way when tax time arrives, you won’t have to do these tasks for the entire year. You can even save these documents to a disk and keep it updated if you want to be extra safe.

* Keep your important printed documents in organized file cabinets. If you don’t own any, invest in some. With a home business, a filing system is essential, just like any other business.

* Always eat your meals at the dinning room or kitchen table with your family. Don’t eat your meals at your desk. By doing so, after your meals you will return to your work area refreshed and ready to take on the rest of your tasks.

* Establish some rules for your home office. If your work day doesn’t evolve around your phone, let your answering machine pick up those calls during the day, unless they are emergencies of course. If you have a busy household, shut your office door and tell your family to knock before entering. If you feel the need to, place a sign, “do not disturb” on your door. Just these two office rules will decrease distractions considerably.

The less distracted you are, the better your focus will be on your work each day. With the help of the tips above, try and create a method for organization with your daily tasks. While doing so, you will most definitely increase productivity, thus generate success for your business.

Article Written By Tammy Embrich

You can find more articles and other business resources at Work At Home Articles.

Also visit Tammy on her Work At Home Forums, where you will find free job leads, work at home articles, home business ideas, and more. A place to get to know others and network.

By Shelly Hill

As a Direct Sales business owner, I am often asked, “How do you find the time to work on your business?” My answer is always the same, “You need to have a work schedule.”

When we work out of our homes, we often get distracted. There are soccer games, cheerleading practices, grocery shopping, meal planning, school functions and so forth. Don’t get me wrong, these things are important, but so is your home business.

A common mistake I see in network marketing is that people ‘think’ they can work their business around family time or other things. This type of schedule rarely works. If you worked outside your home in a corporate job, you would be working a minimum of 40 hours per week and have a set schedule.

I recommend that you sit down and come up with a business plan. Figure out how many hours you can spend working on your home business, then split those hours up into 4-5 working days. Another thing to consider is…what time of the day will work better for you? (morning, afternoon or evening hours.)

Example: Let’s say you want to spend 20 hours a week working on your business. You could work 5 hours per day for 4 days or 4 hours per day for 5 days.

Your next task should be scheduling in specific blocks of time that you want to work on advertising, marketing and networking your business. I recommend that 1/2 of your working time be spent on those 3 business tasks. (half of 20 hours would be 10 hours per week) If you are working a 4 day work week, 2 1/2 hours of your day should be focused on achieving those tasks.

The other 1/2 of your working time should be spent on: taking customer calls, filing paperwork, submitting customer orders, registering new team members, mailing out catalogs, demonstrating home parties and assisting your teammates.

Once you come up with a business schedule that ‘fits’ into your lifestyle, you will find that you will become more consistent with working your home business. The more hours you put into working your business, the more successful it will be.

About The Author

Shelly Hill has been working from home in Direct Sales since 1989 and is a manager with Tupperware. You can contact Shelly at: Web: www.classybusinesswomen.com and my.tupperware.com/Ravish30.

Article Source: http://www.wahm-articles.com.

By Corrie Petersen

Most moms that decide to work at home do it for a couple of reasons. The main reason is because they want to be at home with their children or they want to be there for them if needed. That’s a pretty good reason I think.

Now, if your children are older they may have homework after school that will keep them occupied for an hour or so and this will give you time to continue to work your business. If your children are not of school age or they are younger, you may need to come up with ways to keep them busy while you work.

You have a couple of options to choose from when deciding what to do. Let’s start with the babies first and then move on to the older children.

• Babies

When your child is young, he may sleep a lot during the day, so you will have plenty of opportunities to get your work accomplished. Making the most of your day during nap times can be tricky, but you will learn how to use this time wisely after a few days.

Once the baby is older, he may not sleep as much and this is where you have to plan very well. Naps may be sporadic throughout the day, so appointments may be a little more difficult to make. You might consider taking your child to a family member for a few hours so you can make appointments or work your business. If your baby is on a schedule, the best thing is to take your baby during the hours they will be awake so you can work while they are asleep and while they are gone.

Another option is to change your schedule and work in the evenings when your spouse is home and can help. This will limit the hours you can work, but if you use your time wisely, you should be able to get a lot accomplished in a few hours.

• Toddlers

Toddlers are a little harder to work with, but it’s still possible. Bring your child into your office and surround him with his favorite toys. Another option is to put a TV in your office or move your office to the family room so you are in the same room as your child. You can purchase educational DVD’s for your child to watch while you work. Another option is to purchase color books and crayons and put your child to work drawing you pictures for your office walls.

• Tweens and Teens

Once your child is over the age of 10, they should be able to entertain themselves for hours. During the school year, they can complete their homework and read books. During the summer they can ride bikes, play basketball, and play with their friends. This will give you more time to focus and get your work accomplished.

Setting business hours and sticking to them is a top priority. At first it may be difficult to stick to them, but you need to try or you are defeating the purpose of working at home. Using creative childcare options will help you stick to your hours and you will be able to get a lot accomplished during these times.

About The Author

Corrie Petersen runs a successful Virtual Assistant business. She enjoys helping others reach their goals and dreams. Check out her website at www.virtualfreedom4you.com.

Article Source: http://www.wahm-articles.com

By Roger Moody

It is natural to question your home business mentor but in order to gain success in your home based business, you must have faith. The easiest way to gain faith in your upline is to score and score soon after beginning your home based business. My name is Roger Moody, I operate our national business from home in Indianapolis, Indiana. In this article I will share the importance of goal setting to your success.

Until you have done something, you may not truly believe that it can be done. Once we’ve shown you success then your faith will get stronger. When you get in the habit and set daily goals for yourself, you develop the habit of getting things done and reaping the rewards.

Let me reassure you, even I feel procrastination almost every day. When that demon appears, I know how to defeat it. I am able to push forward in my home based business activities because I have personally experienced success in doing so.

Working your home business is like practicing a sport. Let’s say you are a golfer would you agree that going to the driving range would improve your game on the course? Of course it would improve your game! Achieving simple daily goals in your business is just like practice except its better because instead of a score on a score card our score is in our bank accounts.

If you begin to lose the battle against procrastination, your going to have to force yourself to knock out goals everyday. Once you experience financial victory in your home based business it will become easier and easier for you.

I mentioned earlier that I operate my home based business in Indianapolis, Indiana. The only reason I mentioned it is because it does not matter but I want you to understand that real people win in the home business industry from anywhere.

No matter if you are in Indiana or elsewhere, set daily goals, and force yourself to achieve them. It’s easy to get discouraged when your projects don’t seem to be going anywhere. If you have faith in your mentor and your system, I can personally guarantee success in your home based business…if and only if you stay committed to your daily activity.

For some of us, we need a long-term vision to guide our day-to-day efforts. Your long term vision should be set so high that you realize it will take all out massive action to achieve. But you also need shorter-term vision that can be realized by cashing some checks.

The more goals you achieve, the more positive your attitude will be. It will become easier and easier for you. Your biggest fan is right between your ears and you’ll become much more positive when you see positive results. Also, your home business will thrive when the people around you become more supportive.

In addition to daily goals, set weekly and monthly goals too. Your short-term goals are milestones that keep you moving toward long-term goals. They help you know if you’re going in the right direction.

Breaking down a large project into smaller segments makes it easier to stay focused. Reward yourself when you achieve daily and weekly goals, and give yourself a really special reward when you achieve a monthly goal.

It’s vitally important to experience rewards of successfully completing jobs. It will make it easier to force yourself to keep moving until you finish the next goal and then it’s easier to get started on the next one. Procrastination is natural and kills most home based businesses so learn to beat the urge.

All successful home business owners learn how to identify the procrastination monster, and they know what to do about it when it threatens:

- Successful people use their time well. When something comes up that seems more attractive to you, ask yourself: Which of these two things is higher on my list of priorities?

- Successful people turn off the phone from time to time. Can you get more accomplished by turning off the ringer on your phone during certain periods of the day? I think about it this way, as a parent are your kids more productive on homework when they are on the phone or off? If that’s true for them it’s true for you!

- Successful people keep a log of how they use their time. If you miss a deadline, they plan how to finish it before changing direction.

- Successful people develop a routine. They set an objective to accomplish every morning and every afternoon.

- Successful people leave time in their daily schedule for contingencies. Every home based business owner that is also a parent knows you must plan for the unexpected but do not allow it to derail you.

- Successful people always think twice before postponing a task. Always keep in mind that the procrastination monster is always looming. Recognize it and whip it!

Accomplishing daily goals will help you become more successful in your home based business. Get with your mentor no matter where they are located and set these goals and remain accountable to them.

I hope this article has encouraged you to reach your goals and dreams. If you are ever in need of a new mentor for success do not hesitate to visit ChristianFaithBusiness.com and contact Roger Moody at home in Indianapolis, Indiana. Goal setting is a crucial component in one’s success in the home business industry. Begin building your successful home business no matter where you live, even in Indiana. 317-357-8689.

Article Source: http://www.wahm-articles.com

By: Kimberly Christensen

1. Create a business plan. In order to achieve your dreams and goals, you must first write them down. If you don’t know what you’re working towards, how can you measure your progress? On average, approximately 67% of people have specific goals. Of these 67%, approximately 10% actually have those goals written down as a business plan. Surprisingly, only 2-3% of them go on to achieve their goals.

What did the 2-3% do differently? Their written plans were more than a simple statement of their end goal. You must go beyond that and break it out into the steps required to achieve your goals, including deadlines and benchmarks. Once you determine what steps need to be taken, you also need to decide which tasks you can do yourself and which ones are better suited for outsourcing to a virtual assistant or some other resource. You can’t do it all yourself.

2. Organize your workday. Work in blocks of time rather than jumping from one thing to another throughout the day. Multi-tasking has its virtues, but your entire workday shouldn’t be a juggling act. Too much of a good thing can actually decrease your productivity due to errors and back-tracking.

How do you decide how to structure your day? Keep a journal of your daily work activities for at least one week. At the end of the week, sit down and review your notes to see which activities can be grouped into categories (e.g., writing blog articles, answering emails, social networking, etc.). If you work with multiple clients, you can group the work you do for each of them into a block of time as well.

3. Find your target market. There are literally thousands of marketing programs floating around online for entrepreneurs… it can be overwhelming. Before you spend your hard earned dollars on the “latest and greatest” marketing plan on the web, do some good old-fashioned research.

Think about your target market – write it down. Who are you selling your products or services to (include age range, geographic area, etc.)? How does it help them solve their problems? Do they belong to certain groups or forums online? How do they find out about your product or services? Who else is offering a similar product or service? What makes your product or service unique?

4. Build trust and credibility. Easier said than done, right? The best way to accomplish this is by becoming an expert in your field. Learn new skills, read articles, attend teleseminars and workshops. Once you are confident in your own knowledge and skills, it’s easier to convey that confidence to others. Write helpful articles, design your own teleseminars and workshops to educate people and share your insights. Create and give away some free ebooks that have real value. Communicate regularly with your customers through a blog or newsletter. All of these things build trust through familiarity and by providing useful information to the people who need it.

5. Be patient. Making a quick buck is always nice, but it shouldn’t take the place of your long term strategy. If you try to “trick” people into buying second rate products or services just to rake in a few dollars, it will come back to haunt you. It’s much better to slowly build up your customer base with people who like and trust you – they will reward your efforts by being repeat customers who refer all their friends and family to you. Being a successful WAHM takes time, hard work, and persistence (Rome wasn’t built in a day!), but the long term benefits are worth the “blood, sweat, and tears!”

To find out how more about creating your own successful WAHM business, download your free ebook, WAHM IT! The Masters Course. Kim Christensen is the owner of Virtual Admin Pro, providing cost-effective administrative and online marketing support to entrepreneurs and small businesses. Visit Virtual Admin Pro to learn more.

Article Source: http://www.wahm-articles.com