Designated home office and business development time are essential for a small business owner. This is the time when you can focus on your business: plan ahead for the week, learn new skills or software, and in fact, it will allow you to better serve your customers and run your business more efficiently and profitably.
If you feel stuck in your business, this may be the solution to help you build or expand your business and thrive.
Try to set aside a half hour a day, consistently, and focus that time only on home office and business development tasks. If you work better with large amounts of time, then set aside one afternoon a week for this purpose. Or if you can, do both!
Can’t afford the time? You can’t afford not to. We spend most of our time serving customers and often forget that our business also needs us to thrive and grow.
Here are 3 reasons why you need this time and suggestions for things you can do in the allotted time to reap the benefits:
1. Achieve more. To enable you to run your business more efficiently, please plan for the coming week. Clear your head of your tasks by putting them all on a piece of paper where you can examine them. Create a daily schedule by marking blocks of time in your planner, or create your own calendar and customize it as you go. Tasks always take longer than expected, so plan for this. When you have a realistic plan to follow for your day, you can focus on the task at hand without getting distracted. Remember to schedule in your home office and business development time! Check things off your list as you go.
2. Enjoy less chaos. Go through your paper piles gradually and recycle/shred, archive or take action as needed. Control your business expenses on a daily or weekly basis. Whether you use a simple Excel spreadsheet or keep track of your records with accounting software, there will be less headache for you and/or your accountant at tax time if your records are well documented. . Take inventory and order any office supplies you may be missing. Throw away thoughts that don’t work and sharpen your pencils. When things flow in your office, so does your business.
3. Serve your customers better and attract new business. Learn a new skill that will improve your offers. By being proactive and optimizing your use of technology, you are delivering more value to your customers. Use new software that will also make things easier for you in your business. Technology is constantly changing and will keep you up to date with your competition. There are many web-based training courses that you can attend from the comfort of your own home.
This is pretty basic stuff, but if you start doing this in your business, that’s a good start. We often need to get back on track to move forward. Give it a try and let me know how it works for you!