Archive for the ‘Entrepreneurs’ Category

The past few weeks have been very busy for me as I complete client work but also prepare to head to a conference for nearly one week. It has made me appreciate the systems and processes I have setup for my business. These systems help when interruptions, new contacts and other things not written in my daily planner happen during my workday, I can easily deal with most of them and not get off task.

Staying on task for me is vital, I have many different things in my daily work that must be completed for each client. If I get backed up or behind then it is not affecting only me, but my clients.

What can get you off track? When you work from a home office, it’s a myriad of things and not just clients. For me it can be the dog, the kids, my home phone as well as contact from new clients, new requests from present clients, computer issues, internet issues … the list goes on and on.

What systems help me? The main ones are:

• New Client Inquiry procedures/info packets
• A 10 minute per hour break time
• My own business scheduled time each day

How do these help?   The new client inquiry packets save me time in that I have the info ready when someone asks for it. The hourly break time allows me time to grab some laundry, a coffee, check on the dog or deal with other items that happen. Having time for my own business allows me to stay on top of my own social media tasks and blog writing and other marketing efforts for my business. This time also gives me space in my day to deal with the unexpected that may take even more time.

All of this helps keep my stress levels lower as I have time set aside to deal with the planned and the unexpected. When things are on a roll and your hours are filled every day it is important to be able to deal with new business/contact or other tasks that pop up, and deal with them in a way that does not adversely affect your day.

What is your top tips to handing the busy-times of your workday?

Technorati Tags: busy, Time Management

Here it is the end of December and I am in the organizing mode again… happens every year to me.
Through the busy-ness of the year there are some things that keep getting left on your to-do list and they build up.  You get to a point where you HAVE to deal with them so they are no longer a distraction.  Time on Task surpassed my expectations this year, my first full year in business and now I find that I will use my time over the next couple weeks to take stock of ME!
It might be an out of date expression – taking stock, but I am definitely one of those Year-end, gotta get everything in order – types of people.

My plans are to:

• Look over my business plan – which is about a year and half old now and make changes and updates. I know I have moved into a couple different areas than when I wrote this plan, plus I will look back at what I projected for the first two years and see how I did. Hard to move forward unless you know where you have been.
• Brainstorm some new ideas for business and changes that I want to make, in a week I will be launching an eBook I wrote – Talking on Twitter – meant to help people learn to use Twitter themselves.  I have another book in my head waiting to get out on paper as well as several other ideas that need to be written down and logistics worked out. New plans!
• I clean out my filing cabinet, shredding what is no longer needed and filing away my taxes and other files that must be kept for a certain amount of time.
• and this year, I plan to torture my husband (hehe) and work through a plan together for the future.  I bought a book earlier this year from Dr. Ron Arndt, a Dental Management Coach who has a Couples Planning Kit.   As a couple, we rarely sit down and talk about finances and plans for the future – personally, for business and for the family.  This year we are going to do just that using Dr. Arndt’s book as a guide. I have already peeked through it and it covers almost anything you would think of to plan for your lives together.

Well, those are my plans… what have I missed?  What areas of your life do you find yourself taking stock of at this time of year?  Leave a comment here so others can get ideas from you!

All my Best to my readers for a Happy and Prosperous Year in 2010!

Technorati Tags: business plan, Entrepreneurs, Organization

Last year I wrote an article on how to better manage your inbox so it does not take control.  Yesterday I realized was not following my own advice lately and was reading this again to refresh my memory on what I should be doing.  Here’s the article for those who may not have seen it…

Is your email inbox, or inboxes, as many of us have more than one, full of old received and sent emails?
There are a few easy steps anyone can follow to help take back control of your inbox and emails.
Before you get started, make a point of setting aside a specific time each day to check your email.  It is so easy to become distracted by dealing with emails you lose time for dealing with other projects or work.  Three times per day is plenty; unless you are in a Customer Service role and as part of your job, you may require doing this more often. A good schedule is and hour after the start of your day, an hour after lunch and an hour before quitting time.
So, what’s the system, the simple steps?  We like to refer to it as:

1. Dump it, if it’s junk, or not fitting into one of the following categories.
2. Archive it. This means file it away if you will need to refer to it later.
   
3. Not now, later. If you’ll need time to deal with this email later, then flag it for followup and enter a reminder, so you don’t forget.
4. Get it done, now. If you can deal with it, then do so, immediately.
   

Sounds easy, but in order to make this work you have to follow a few simple rules of picking which category the emails fit into. Read the rest of this entry »

Technorati Tags: efficient business, email management

I have been taking a course from Coach U – Building Personal Foundations  – and one thing that has really been a key topic is how important it is to take time out of every day for me.

This time is meant  strictly for me – not my work, my kids, my husband, friends. But me and me alone.

I made a goal of starting with 30 minutes every day and this past week I have managed to be successful with this.  My biggest struggle working from home is juggling work and family schedule. Being able to optimize my time with family is big for me – after all that is the reason why I started a home-based business.

This class has really made me think about many aspects of my life – family and work life.  I realize now more than ever how important it is to actually schedule in time for me.  Life is hectic and busy for everyone and taking a timeout can help re-energize and rejuvenate you.  It will also help motivate you in many ways – breaking away will do that.  It may seem difficult at first, but you mind, body and spirit will thank you in the end.

What strategies or plans do you use to set aside ‘your time’?  I’d love to hear them.

Technorati Tags: Entrepreneurs, motivation, virtual assistant

Soooo… Sunday I had a big scare from one of my Google Alerts.  The one that got me was one for my own name.

Yes,  I have an alert setup for me and my name as well as my business name.  I’m not egotistical or anything, I actually recommend everyone have these types of alerts setup in order to keep tabs on when and where your name comes up in the online world. An alert, for those new to this term, is an email update of the latest Google results (web, news, etc.) based upon the search parameter you setup. It’s an effective way to keep on top of mentions out on the Web of you, or even your company or clients.

Anyhow, Sunday I open the Alert for “Kathy Colaiacovo” and come to find it is a link to a website under construction.  I click on it and the fear sets in! Why?  The website was www.kathycolaiacovo.com !!  It was me!  And I didn’t own it! Crap!  That’s all I could think was “Crap!”, and how dumb I had been because I had not bothered to take the time and $10 to book the darn domain name – my name.

I was so mad!  And there I was looking at the screen and reading the message that said how this website was the home of a future website. I was fuming at my desk and my stupidity – sorry no better word could describe what I was calling myself at that moment!

I decided I had to see who owned the domain name, I knew there could be another Kathy Colaiacovo out there but, OH!  I was so mad at myself.  I head over to the Whois registry website to lookup the owner of this fine domain name – only so I could yell at them in my mind.  They had every right to buy it, since I dropped the ball.  Read the rest of this entry »

Technorati Tags: promote business, virtual assistant, website planning