Posts Tagged ‘efficient business’

We are in the process at Time on Task of switching to 1 Shopping Cart for our newsletter and auto responder system.  That has meant checking into our list of subscribers and cleaning up the names and information to import to the new system.

I had been thinking that this is a task to do regularly with an email list – check your reports – especially after talking to a new client and discovering she had been using an automated newsletter system for a few years now and never once checked her bounce/delivered reports.  One quick call determined she had many errors, current clients on the bounce list and many old and out of date ones as well.  She also had no idea how many were getting opened every month and if anyone was clicking on the links in her articles. Keeping this list up to date is important for a few main reasons:

1. When you are paying a different fee with different subscriber levels -you will want to ensure that invalid emails are not going out every month – causing your numbers and thus your fees to be higher.
2. Knowing if there are entry errors on your list and that people who should be getting your emails are not.
3. You are investing time and money into creating your newsletter – what if not one soul was reading it? Would you change things around with your content, try something new or maybe even stop altogether and use your time/money elsewhere?

You would not know the answers to these questions if you are not checking your reports.

It is important to take a few minutes and review your bounce list each month and see if anything is out of place. Bring it up to date, fix the errors and get rid of the invalid emails. Sometimes you will come across emails you are uncertain what to do with.

Mickey.... one of my email Subscribers

Which brings me to the point of my post today… Mickey Mouse is on my Newsletter list. Yep – Mickey Mouse. The big-eared one himself… and I am sure it is him because of the email address – mmouse at a Disney domain name (I can’t publish full email addresses you know). An interesting dilemma…

I was going to delete him, but then realized his email was being delivered and opened – I checked my reports, again the importance of checking these reports comes out.

Curiouser and Curiouser…  I think for now I will leave Mickey alone and be happy I have such a celebrity on my list.

What would you do? and more importantly, do you regularly check your reports/list?

Technorati Tags: Business planning, efficient business, newsletters, Organization

Everyone works differently; personality plays a big part. Finding an effective way to finish your daily tasks will depend upon your personality, the tasks and you.
Whether you use a paper planner, your email calendar, online calendar or wireless phone; you probably have a method to keeping track of your tasks. If not, and you are finding that you are not completing tasks and forgetting items; then you may want to figure out a task list or to-do system.
If you have system in place, does it work well? Do you get to cross off items; or are they continually added to tomorrow’s calendar? Are items forgotten and missed completely?
You may not realize it, but simply having a to-do list does not guarantee everything will get done. You need to back up your list with a system to help you complete what is on your list.
Here are the Top 5 tips I follow to get my to-do list completed and crossed off.

1. Update your List. Set aside time at the close of day to update your list for tomorrow. This way you will start your day knowing what tasks must be done. Add in new tasks as assigned and their deadline.
2. Block off time to work on tasks.  Most people are more productive early in the morning – so it is best to do this first thing.  Even before you open your email – emails are one of the biggest procrastination machines out there!  You also will fare much better if you work on the more intensive tasks first.
3. Order Tasks by time and priority. This will help you manage your time by knowing what is high priority and the time required.  If one task has a medium priority but will take 5 minutes and the high priority items will take 1.5 hours.  List the 5 minute task first. One more crossed off.  Sorting your tasks on your list will allow you to cross off more as completed. Also you can break up longer tasks into chunks of time allowing you to complete more in between.
4. Spread tasks out over the week, allowing for other aspects of your work to be fit in. Meetings, client calls and other time – takers are reality; allow and plan in time for them as well.
5. When this week’s list is complete; let it be.  Having some free space in your daytimers.  If all is done that needs to be; adding in more work will mean your list will never be completed. Not to say that if a task must be done that you don’t tackle it.  More to say – it’s okay to have a finished list with an end and new work can wait until next week.  Use the time for development and be happy with the accomplishments you have made.

What tricks do you use to help you complete your work? I’d love to learn your methods… maybe I can improve on mine?

Technorati Tags: efficient business, Time Management

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 realized the other day after finishing a consultation with a new client, that my business has grown almost 40% since completing a certification course this past April.  It was kind of a wake up call on how important training is to growing your business.

Of course training is always beneficial in that you gain new knowledge and skills. As small business owners,  we sometimes forget that it is these very items that make us more valuable to our clients.

Bringing in new ideas and abilities helps clients, and in my line of business the primary goal with any client is to help them get their work done, no matter the task and doing so in a way that saves them time and money.  For most the goal of having a virtual assistant is to free up time to devote to generating more revenue or in some cases to having more time for family and life.

What training did I complete? A Certification course for Social Media Marketing. The course from VAclassroom gave me deeper insight into this type of work. Social Media Marketing is quickly turning into my niche, or niche, as some people say (…sorry, I couldn’t help that, so many people pronounce that word differently!)

This training taught me how to focus on my clients, their targets and goals; creating a strategic plan for them.  It helped me clarify and define a process and system with my work in social media. I discovered how to be as efficient as possible for my clients and to be always thinking of new ways to use social media in order to help my clients grow their business.

Will I stop at this course? No way, as more opportunities to learn arise, I will sign on! This past year I have taken a bookkeeping course, have taken weekly seminars at VAnetworking and joined in many other courses that saw me making improvements in how I  manage my own business or work for my clients.  I’m even going to lead a class myself on July 16th as part of a Summer Speaker Series. I will be teaching others – exciting and scary at the same time!

There is always more to learn to improve yourself, your work and your business – and by doing so you will  grow and prosper your business.

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If you’d like to partake of 28 Seminars for $27 this summer, please check out the VAvirtuosos site. The topics are varied and very applicable to many types of businesses.

If you are interested in taking VAclassroom’s Social Marketing Training, it is a self study and open to anyone. If you use the coupon code SUMMER09, you can save $100 off the course.

Technorati Tags: efficient business, Small business, Social Media, social networking, virtual assistant

I have been attending training workshops with CEED every two weeks; workshops aimed at giving small business owners support as they start their businesses.

Tonight, the workshop “Becoming Dispensable”, was presented by Rick MacLennan of MACINK Consulting-Coaching.   I went to this workshop not quite clear what it would be about, and find myself leaving, having retained one very important question that all business owners should consider…“What is the best use of my time right now?”

The intent of this question is to keep your business plans and goals on track – whatever they may be.  Whether your goal is to grow your business to turn it over to family, or to sell it, or even to shut the doors when you decide; you need to be constantly planning how to get to your desired end result.

Read the rest of this entry »

Technorati Tags: busy, efficient business, Entrepreneurs, Small business, tasks, time