Internet Business Guide

Small Business Time Management

Mar 10 by Leisa Watkins | Posted in Business, Tutorials

This is the second time I invited someone to write a guest post for my blog. This time it is Leisa Watkins, a passionated teacher, home-business expert and self-improvement coach. I encourage you to read and bookmark her post. It’s an excellent tutorial on small business time management.

Time is precious. Time is scarce. Time is money. One of the biggest challenges facing today’s internet professional and small business owner is time management. Online time management in particular.

Perhaps, like many small business owners and internet marketers, you waste valuable time on the internet in the name of business.

Many small business owners and internet marketers love the fact that we have a world of information at our fingertips. We love the fact that we can gain a world of business knowledge twenty-four hours a day in the comfort of our own home.

We search and study, looking for that edge, that trick, that tidbit of information that will help us drive traffic, monetize our website, and allow us to “have more time.” And we spend our time learning the tricks of effective time management.

For the small business time management means freedom. Freedom to do what we want when we want to. We love the fact that our time is not held hostage to a set work schedule and that we have control of our time, as we should.

But there in lies the problem. By combining our intense desire for time freedom and our sensuous appetite for information we become painfully aware of how much we don’t know.

We buy into the fear that what we know isn’t good enough. We fear that we will fail because we are missing that one piece of vital information that will make all the difference in the world.

So we try to eliminate the fear with more knowledge. After all we don’t fear what we understand, and we understand what we know. We believe the more information we have the more profitable our business will be. And the more profitable we are, the more time we will have.

It’s ironic, because in the end we’ve usually wasted the time. It’s wasted because we don’t take the time to quickly implement what it is that we learned. Perhaps it’s because we “lack the time” we just wasted away. Perhaps we gained more knowledge than we can act upon and now reside in a state of confusion.

It’s our actions that determine our success, not the information itself that determines our success. Success doesn’t come from a vast amount of information. Success comes from gaining some knowledge, comparing it to our experiences, and taking action.

Ask Yourself:

Are you attempting to become business wise by studying the same thing over and over again?

Are you spending to much time looking for that magic traffic bullet, and missing out on actually taking the action steps to drive the traffic?

Or are you the type of person who can quickly filter the information, and then act on what needs to be done?

With an action plan, your thirst for knowledge and the desire for freedom can fit into your daily life. The key is to decide on a daily course of action and stick to it.

Here Are Some Time Management Tips For Online Entrepreneurs:

• Select a couple of business mentors you really like. Visit their sites daily, check what’s new and then move on to the next task.
• Select a couple of forums to work. Limit the amount of time spent in them each time you visit. Keep a tally sheet. Once you’ve made a set number of comments, perhaps five, get out of that forum. Do the same thing on some blogs.
• Resist the urge to check your email fifteen times a day. Set a specific time, or two, to check your email each day. Quickly handle what needs handled and dump the rest.
• Stick to a couple of online business networking sites. Limit the amount of time you spend there and then move on.
• To satisfy your curiosity set a time limit on the amount of time you’ll spend surfing the web, and discovering new sites. Set a timer. Quit once the timer buzzes.

About the Author

Owning her own business at age 16, Leisa Watkins knows the ins and outs of developing a home-based business. Being known for her ability to teach in a fun, exciting, and easy to understand way, Leisa receives great satisfaction from helping others create and begin to recognize within themselves some of the creativity she believes everyone possesses. Visit her blog at http://blog.LeisaWatkins.com for more inspiring and captivating advice.

Tags: internet business, time management