After reading Donna-Marie’s ‘8 Time Savers‘ over at the Small Business Diva, I thought I would share some of my own time management tips.
- Set limits - you already set limits: on your children, on your spending, on your food intake and so on. This basic life skill can be applied to time, too. Decide, in advance, how long you want to spend on a phone call or a visitor, shopping or cleaning, and stick to it.
- Do the worst task first - every day, at the office or at home, do your worst or most difficult task first. At the office this could be writing a complex letter or making a phone call you’ve been dreading. At home it may be the ironing or scrubbing the grouting. Getting the worst out of the way as soon as possible gives you a sense of achievement plus relief. It also frees your mind to concentrate on other tasks.
- Sacred hour - award yourself a regular hour, every day, when you can work uninterrupted. Let phone calls go to voicemail and leave your emails, unless this is what you plan to work on. One hour of uninterruped work will usually achieve much more than five constantly inturruped by phone calls and visitors.
- Grocery shopping - utilise online shopping and saved shopping lists, particularly when buying the staples. Alternatively shop early in the mornings or later in the evenings when there are less shoppers and shorter queues.
- Regular coffee and meal breaks - this gives structure to your day and helps you keep focus. By having breaks it can help you clear your mind, and refresh if getting a little tired from looking at the computer for the past hour.
- Make appointments - by writing them in your diary, you are blocking out time in the day for your client meetings and while you’re at it, block out some ‘you’ time. 30mins for a mini manicure or pedicure will not only pep you up but make you feel good too.
Do you have any favourite time saving tips?
Relate Posts
As a ’wannabe’ artist currently learning how to paint, I’m always in awe of talented artists.
Tara, my journal business partner has been busy painting. We are in our final stages of designing our next journal, Journal for the Pregnant Goddess. This journal has five different images with the fifth image going to be part of our third journal, Journal for the Mother Goddess.
I’ve loved watching Tara’s paintings evolve because I can actually see where she’s come from to where she is now, and every now and then I get a glimpse of where she is going. You can see a sneak peak of the journal cover painting on our website, Journals for Empowerment.
Tara has not only been painting for our journals, but she has also been painting for her business, Nirvana Visions. I love one of her recent paintings of her daughter, aptly named ‘The voice of the toddler‘.
Another artist who has been busy is Jenny over at Jenni’s Papercraft Designs. Jenny is a keen cardmaker and in between running her business and making cards, she has been learning to paint. She has combined her cardmaking and artwork to offer a set of 4 notecards in her online store.
In my post, Business Success Factor #1 one of the factors is to evaluate your personal goals and consider if they suit the lifestyle of a small business owner. What these women have in common is that they’ve successfully combined their passion with business.
Looking for something that you enjoy or are passionate about is a step in the right direction forumlating a business idea. Of course there are other factors, but doing something you love is a good start.
What are you passionate about?
Relate Posts
While reading a recent post by Annette over at Annette Piper’s Handmade Jewellery she reminded me how important it is for businesses to send newsletters. She said she hadn’t sent a newsletter for a while and when she did, someone bought from her.
An important lesson can be learnt from Annette’s situation. For businesses who have a blog and blog regularly, blogging is only a promotional tool out of many. One of the others is the old fashioned newsletter.
Blog readers may not be subscribed to your newsletter and your newsletter readers may not be blog readers, therefore you have to remember that you have a whole other audience out there waiting to hear from you. If someone has subscribed to your newsletter it means that they have an interest in your product or service. They may not have bought from you yet, but with regular contact via a newsletter, they could buy from you in the future.
With that in mind, here are some newsletter tips I thought I would share:-
- When sending a newsletter make sure you’ve got something interesting to say - introduce new website content, offer a special that you are not offering anywhere else, profile a product or service or introduce a new product range.
- Do not send newsletters more than once a week and no less than once a month. Today I unsubscribed to a newsletter because the owner sends an update 3 or 4 times a week. Instead they could easily compile all the small paragraphs and send one out each Friday.
- Build the relationship between you and your readers but sharing a little bit about yourself. You do not need to share your life story but just enough for them to get to know you and feel safe in buying from you.
- If you are publishing articles from article banks, be careful as your readers may have read it elsewhere.
- Every now and then reward your readers with a special give-away just for them.
Can you add any other tips?
If you are a little shy about sending out a newsletter on a regular basis, work up to it. Start quarterly if you feel that once a month is too much, once you’ve got the hang of it, start sending newsletters every second month and then monthly.
Good luck!
Relate Posts
In my previous post, Women in Business, I wrote that there is no perfect recipe or formula for small business success. However, research and expertise have shown that if you consider and act upon certain basic factors of small business operation, then your chance of success will be greatly improved.
I then listed 7 key success factors and the first success factor is your suitability as a small business owner.
Not everyone is suited to having their own business and, a realistic and honest self-assessment of your personal suitability right from the start could help you to avoid the problems and costs associated with small business failure.
To help you assess your suitability you need to ask yourself four basic questions:-
- Compatible with Personal Objectives - Evaluate your personal goals and consider if they suit the lifestyle of a small business owner.
- Essential Personal Qualities - Do you have the energy and drive, commitment and involvement, confidence, decision making skills, communications, responsibility, initiative, patience etc?
- Basic Business Skills and Knowledge - What skills will you need for your business? What skills do you not have? What do you feel you need to brush up on?
- Accepting the Risks - What are the risks to your business? Are there any natural hazards?
Entering into small business is similar to being place in a job. Not everyone will be suited to a job because it will require a certain personality, knowledge, training and/or experience. The same applies to small business.
What do you think are the basic business skills and knowledge?
Relate Posts
Small business and business generally does not operate in isolation from the society in which it exists. In fact, most businesses have an impact on the local community or the wider society where it conducts business activities. This ‘impact’ may vary depending on how the business engages in business behaviour and practices.
Either way, individually and collectively, businesses have a social impact on the community through a number of ways:-
- environmental issues
- public safety and health
- exploitation of workers at home and abroad
- human rights issues
- business behaviours and practices
These ’social responsibilities’ contribute towards the improvement and welfare of the local community and the wider society. Whether a business is online or face-to-face, you do need to consider how you are being socially responsible.
In the Academy of Management Review, volume 4, number 1, it defines social responsibility as covering three different areas:-
- Social Obligation - minimum compliance; only enough to comply with the law.
- Social Responsiveness - a business which will engage in socially beneficial activities because there is a pragmatic benefit for doing so.
- Social Responsibility - a business that is willing to pursue long-term objectives that benefit society, even though there may be no individual gain for doing so.
As a person who has a couple of different sites and businesses, and is classified as a micro business; being socially responsible as described in point 3 is difficult, particularly when I need to consider the four key areas of my operations - the workplace, the marketplace, the community and the environment.
The resources available to businesses are more relevant to larger businesses, and there is not a great deal of government support or incentive for small businesses to adopt social responsible activities.
In a consumer driven, over crowded marketplace, many companies strive for a unique selling point and being social responsible is definitely one option. However, aside from the cost of producing a product or service, the majority of small businesses do not have the funds to market themselves as strategically as larger businesses.
Consumers are becoming more aware of the environment and social implications of their day-to-day purchases, however many consumers are also price conscious and unless they see the value in purchasing a socially responsible, higher priced product, they are likely to purchase the cheaper version.
In writing all this, I must say that I have been doing a lot of research on how I can be more socially responsible through my online store, Modern Goddess Gifts. My product range is slowly growing and according to Michelle from My New Shiny Shoes, online shopping is on the increase.
In her article about online shopping she talks about the advantages and disadvantages to online shopping. One thing that she didn’t mention was that shoppers can shop from all around the world, whether it is by visiting many online stores or through one store. While reading her article a light bulb went off… I can be socially responsible by including a Fair Trade range of products from all around the world. I travel a fair bit and I can create opportunities whereby I can connect with Fair Trade businesses that also support women in business.
This has gotten me excited! As I prepare to head off to South America, I am exploring such opportunities. I hope in the near future that I will not only be providing unique gifts just for ‘you’ but unique, socially responsible gifts just for ‘you’.
If you are in business, why don’t you start looking at ways of being socially responsible. Explore your options before dismissing it entirely.
Relate Posts
As the Balance and Lifestyle Editor of the WE Magazine for Women I thought I should share with you an opportunity to be listed in the Who’s Who Directory of Women in eCommerce.
Heidi Richards Mooney, Publisher and Editor-in-Chief is compiling this amazing directory and here’s your opportunity (if you are a woman with an online business) to get your details into the directory.
Read more about it at the WE Magazine for Women’s site.
Relate Posts
In my previous post I quoted statistics and listed the key success factors for small businesses. In this post I’m going to quote some more statistics as I feel it is important to know these.
Reseach into small business failure has shown that all new small business start ups approximately 30% will cease business wihtin one year; after two years this rate will increase to 40-45% with some 58-60% of these start-ups no longer in business after three years. After five years, about 70% of these firms will have failed or closed their businesses voluntarily. (Stats from the Australian Bureau of Statistics)
Not all small businesses that cease operation can be considered failures. Some business owners close their businesses voluntarily for a variety of reasons. However, the number of involuntary closures are far too high and many could have been avoided by being aware of the success factors, and avoiding the pitfalls and causes of failure.
The major causes of failures have been documented as:-
- poor managment skills
- lack of business ability, judgement or skills
- poor financial management and under capitalisation
- external factors
This is not to be regarded as negative, but rather by understanding the reasons for failure, as well as the essential factors for success, the intending new small business owner can avoid the pitfalls and concentrate on the positive factors leading to success.
Here’s to your business success!
image by chefraden
Relate Posts
Did you know that small business makes a significant contribution to the Australian, the United States and the United Kingdom economy?
The Australian Bureau of Statistics defines a small business as one that employs less than 20 employees. Micro businesses are those employing fewer than five employees.
In Australia there are approximately 1.88 million private sector, non agricultural small businesses (including the micro businesses). The estimated small businesses in the United States is 25.8 million and in the United Kingdom, there is an estimate of 4 million. Big numbers!
In all countries, women make up about one third of small businesses and not only is this number on the rise - yay for the girls - but many mums are taking the plunge and going into business for themselves as well.
There are many and varied reasons why people decide to go into business, and there is no perfect recipe or formula for small business success. However, research and expertise have shown that if you consider and act upon certain basic factors of small business operation, then your chance of success will be greatly improved.
The key success factors are:
- your suitability as a small business owner
- your business idea or concept
- preparation of a feasibility study
- development of a business plan, including a marketing plan, financial plan and operational plan
- seek outside help
- develop basic management skills
- develop entepreneurial skills
Over time I am going to discuss these aspects in a bit more details and for those of you who are in business, it would be great to discuss your thoughts as I progress through each success factor.
No introduction to small business can ignore the problems of small business failure which causes a great deal of legal, financial and personal trauma to small business owners on an ongoing basis. However, I’ll leave that topic to discuss a little later.
In the meantime, for a little bit of inspiration, stop by Beauty Banquet, read about all the ‘Mothers in Business’.
Enjoy your day!
Image by Lex in the City