Productivity
Don’t Let Your Business Manage You
Do you manage your business, or does it manage you? If your answer is that your business manages you, there are things you can do to turn that around!
Time management is crucial for effective business management. Especially if you (like me) work from a home office. It’s so easy to work from the time you get up in the morning until you’re too tired to go any further at night. Set a realistic work/break schedule for yourself, and stick to it.
Set goals that are slightly challenging, but yet attainable. Don’t reach for the the impossible, or you’ve just set yourself up for failure. Try offering yourself an incentive–when you reach your goal, there will be some kind of reward waiting for you at the end.
Make a plan. There are numerous project management tools available online. If you’d rather keep it offline, you can use a spreadsheet, text editor, to-do list on paper–whatever works for you. If it’s laid out nice & neat, then you have a road map for your workday, rather than just going where the wind blows.
Enjoy what you do. If you don’t, then change it! It’s as simple as that. I speak from experience when I say that, even though you may feel like you’re stuck where you’re at, you’re not. We all have choices; we just need to exercise our right to choose.
Ask for help when you need it. Nobody is super human, although we all try to be at times. If you are to a point in your business where you simply can’t handle it by yourself anymore, hire help. I don’t know who first said “You have to spend money to make money.” but it’s true. If you are paying someone to take some of the workload off you, it frees you up to do what you do best in your business, which increases your potential to make more money.
I work as an Online Business Manager. As such, I take the administrative tasks off the hands of my clients. I’d be happy to have a short brainstorming session with you about some of the ways you can streamline your business. Feel free to contact me at charly@obmelite.com.
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Are you addicted to technology?
If you’re addicted to technology, what do you do when you don’t have access to it? Listen to this short audio post to find out how I dealt with it: (about 1 1/2 min.)
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Computer Problems? Start With a Clean Slate
If your computer just runs sluggish and slow, no matter what you do, it might time to reformat your hard drive and start with a clean slate. It’s not as hard as you might think. This short video offers some helpful tips:
(Click here if the video below does not display properly in your browser.)
Technology-Friend or Frustration?
Here’s a question for you: Is technology your best friend, or your biggest frustration? If you’re like me, your answer on any given day could be either, neither, or both.
I have to say that, although I’ve had some challenges the past few days, I am thankful for the technology that exists in our world today. I still think of it as a miracle the way the internet has opened up the whole world to us–the fact that I am able to sit in my home office and provide my services to people all over the world! I have clients in Singapore, Canada, UK, and of course the US. A few years ago, I never would have thought it possible that I would be where I am today.
So, technical challenges aside, this post is more of a reminder to myself to be thankful for what I’ve got.
Given that, I am going to reformat my hard drive this weekend. It’s a good idea to do that occasionally just to completely purge it of unnecessary files and baggage that you’ve collected and no longer need. It’s a bit of a chore to get it all set back up and reinstall all of your programs, but soooo worth it!
Stay tuned…
Time-Saving Tip
How can you utilize your available resources to your best advantage? This video might give you an idea:
(click here if the video below does not display properly in your browser.)
Using Project Management to Stay on Top of Thngs
I like to share processes or programs that help me to be successful in my business. Here’s a big one–project management applications. It’s not only helpful, it’s necessary to ensure thoroughness of a project.
Even projects that seem very simple can involve multiple steps and/or people.If you have a method of laying out a timeline which includes each of the steps involved, and who will be responsible for completing each step, then you’ve got a blueprint to refer to along the way. It helps to ensure you don’t miss anything that would cause to you have to backtrack, a possibly miss a deadline.
There are numerous tools available to help you with this.
Here are a few examples:
- Use whatever spreadsheet software you already have on your computer
- Use a Gantt chart. If you Google Gantt chart, you will find some free online applications.
- There are many online project management applications that are very good. Some are more expensive than others, and some have different functionality. You’ll want to do a little research to determine which one might best fit your needs and budget. Most offer a free trial–so you can really dive in and see how you like it. And some of them offer a somewhat limited free account. Here are just a few:
- http://basecamphq.com/
- http://www.aceproject.com/
- http://www.project.net/
- http://www.taskmerlin.com/
- http://www.centraldesktop.com/
- http://www.myintervals.com/time-tracking/
I’ve tried most of the programs in this list. For my own business, I’ve settled on the last one, at least for now.
Have fun with them, and good luck choosing the right one for your business!
Which Email Marketing Program Should I Use?
When I first started working virtually, One of the first things I was overwhelmed with was the many different email marketing programs available. Oh my gosh, which one to use!!
The first email I sent out for myself (rather than for a client), I formatted using MS Outlook. Needless to say, I had a very small list at that time. Well, it turned out to be quite an embarrassing disaster!
I know that everyone has their own preferences, and some people might like to switch, but it’s often easier to stay with what you are familiar with, and where you’re list already resides.
I’d like to share some of my own thoughts and observations on some of the email marketing programs available.
Some of the more basic programs, which are quite affordable (starting at about $20/mo), but limited in their capability, include:
- www.aweber.com
- www.icontact.com
- www.mailchimp.com (this one has a free account option!)
Take it a step further, to what is referred to as a One Shopping Cart. These range in price from around $30-$100/mo. Depending on which level you’re at, they can include email marketing, shopping cart, merchant account and affiliate program setup. Some examples are:
- www.oneshoppingcart.com
- www.practicepaysolutions.com
- www.3dcart.com
- www.zen-cart.com (this is a free one!)
And then there are the more advanced programs that help you really break down and target your specific lists with very targeted campaings. These can range in price from about $200-$1,000/mo. A couple of these are:
- www.salesforce.com
- www.infusionsoft.com
A couple of tips:
- Before you commit to any program, take a good look at your needs (both current and potential future) and try to settle on a program most likely to fit those needs. It really is a pain to try to switch everything over to a new program.
- Most of the programs offer a free trial period. Even though all of the features may not be available with a free trial, by all means, take advantage of it to see if it might be the one for you.
- Check with your web hosting company. Many of them offer free or very affordable solutions to their customers.
If you’re still unsure, Let me know. I’d be happy to do some brainstorming with you to try to narrow down the one that might be best for you!
You’ve Gotta Back Up Your Computer
Folks, I can’t stress enough the importance of having a backup system (or 2) for your computer; especially if you work virtually, as I do. My computer is my lifeline. If it goes down, I will be inconvenienced with having to spend money either on repairs or a new computer, and the time involved to get it working again. But I can go to sleep each night with the security of knowing my files won’t be lost.
If you don’t have a backup system in place, I encourage you to research your options. Here are some ideas:
- Backup all of your files to a flash drive. They range in price from about $10-40 depending on the size (the size being in GB). If you don’t know how much space you need, you can look at the properties on your C: drive and see how much space is being taken up. I have a lot of graphics, videos, documents, etc. on my computer, and a 4GB will easily hold all of the contents of the “My Documents” folder.
- Burn all of your files to a CD.
- Purchase an external hard drive. They range in price from about $60-$180, again, depending on the size. This is a good method of backing up your applications as well as your files. Most applications are too large to save to a flash drive.
- Use an online backup service, such as www.carbonite.com (very affordable, and does automatic backups), or www.myotherdrive.com (They have a free version but you have to manually backup files.).
You may use a combination of methods. For example, I have an external hard drive that I back up my entire system to once a week. I use this in combination with backing up my files to www.carbonite.com. I use my flash drive to backup my QuickBooks each day.
Only you can decide what works best for you. Just make sure you have something in place, preferably before you’re computer crashes and you lose everything–believe me, the cost of a backup system is much smaller than the cost of losing all of your files!
More on scheduling…
OK Folks, here’s the skinny (no pun intended). Since I’ve gotten my scheduling under control (see my earlier blog), I’ve lost 6–that’s SIX–pounds! How, you ask?
Well, here’s my theory:
- I’ve been able to schedule a regular time to get my daily exercise in, whereas before it was hit and miss.
- My eating habits have improved, in that they are more regular, and I’m paying closer attention to when I eat and what I eat. Before, I might work straight through until I was starving, and then pig out.
- I’m less stressed, because I’m more productive throughout the day. I’m not going to bed at night and tossing and turning for not being able to turn off my thoughts about what I didn’t get done through the day. I believe this has an effect on several physical aspects, weight included.
So there you have it-I’m am experiencing benefits I never even expected!
Good for me!
Scheduling Naturally
