The Home Business Trap
Whatever your reasons are for wanting a home based business,
there can be no doubt, it is one of the most rewarding feelings
in the world when you start to see the rewards of your efforts
paying off.
Whether you run an online or offline home business the sense of
achievment when your venture starts to turn a profit is immense.
You are in control of everything from choosing what time you
start work, to how you contact your customers, to how you choose
to promote.
However, just take a look at the above sentence and it quickly
becomes apparent that the rise and fall of your home based
business rests squarely on the shoulders of one
person................ YOU!
For some, the dream of starting a home business and being your
own boss can quickly be overshadowed by the day to day tasks
that need to be performed by every type of business, online or
offline.
The most overlooked and underestimated problem for a lot of home
business owners can be time management.
You are in your own home surrounded by distractions that maybe
wouldn't be there if you didn't work from home. You may have a
family, children, a wife or partner, all these are equally
demanding of you, and each deserves as much of your time as your
new home business.
So how do you divide your time between those elements in your
life and still find the time to run a successfull home based
business?
Firstly, you need to develop a strong routine, maybe even set a
few ground rules for your family and friends during your working
hours.
Let them know that between certain hours of the day you will be
busy working and the fact that you are at home doesn't mean that
it's ok for your friends to drop round for a coffee and a chat.
You will have plenty of time for that once you are established
and at the point where you can devote less time to getting your
venture up and running.
The next problem will be e-mail. I won't go into the benefits of
automating your business from the start right now, but believe
me this is the only way to go if you don't want to spend all day
answering and sending e-mail.
Devote a certain amount of time in your day to deal with e-mail
chores.
You should be spending most of your time promoting and
advertising your business in the early stages and e-mail will
intrude on that very quickly. So plan a certain time of each day
to deal with e-mail and try to stick to it unless it's urgent.
If you receive your e-mail through an alias at your website and
you have the option of sending an autoresponse to each e-mail
you receive, then I suggest you set one up to say something like:
_____________________________________________________ Thanks for
your e-mail. Your request has been received and you will receive
a response within 48 hours.
Best wishes,
Your Name or Customer Support
______________________________________________________
Including an autoresponse like the one above will buy you some
time so that you can deal with your e-mail chores at your pace,
without irrate customers and prospects asking why you haven't
sent an immediate response.
You would be amazed at the number of e-mails I get asking why a
customer or prospect hasn't received a response to the e-mail
they sent two minutes ago.
So automation is vital. I use a combination of autoresponders
and a PC based software that I have found to be priceless.
Once you get e-mail and time management under control, you will
soon find your business running smoother and you will have more
time to relax and enjoy being a successful business owner.