7 Quick Tips to Create More Free Time in Your Business
Renée’s Business Building Tip of the Week
1. Automate your marketing
Marketing is something you have to do consistently to keep your business going strong. The good news is that technology makes automating your marketing easier now than ever before. You can set up automated systems to deliver your messages to thousands of customers with a quick click of a button. Setting up a keep-in-touch marketing system that runs in an automated way through an email marketing tool is essential to saving you time and keeping you top of mind with prospects and existing customers. The eZine I send regularly is an example of automated marketing whichsaves me hours each week.
2. Minimize your e-mail time
E-mail can easily drain hours out of your day if you allow it to. I suggest that you respond to e-mails only twice each day. If you make yourself readily available throughout the day, regularly responding to e-mails as they arrive in your inbox, you will waste precious time and energy with this distracting habit. Instead, begin each day with your most important ‘to do’ items, and check your e-mail only after you have completed your most important tasks. Then check it again, later in the day. When I changed the way I handle my e-mails, I saved myself up to 2 hours every day.
3. Let calls go to voice mail
You cannot allow the flow of your day to be disrupted by answering unscheduled incoming phone calls. Allow the call to go to your voice mail, and select a time each day to listen and respond to messages. One tip that works well for me is to respond to a voice mail with an e-mail. This way, the caller has to clearly express what he or she wants. Chances are, I can answer with a short written reply, rather than spending 15–20 minutes having a conversation on the phone. Better managing incoming phone calls saves me 1–2 hours a day.
4. Create leverage in your business
One strategy that I teach my clients is to leverage their products and services by creating packages. If you want to be profitable without working too much, you must stop working hours for Euros, one-on-one with your clients, and create valuable packages and programs that get results for your customers over a longer period of time. Expanding the value you provide for your clients allows you to slow the sales process down, so you are not constantly scrambling for new business. Conservatively, this saves me 8 hours per week.
5. Sell products online
One important way to make more money in less time is to create products to sell automatically online, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Of course you put in time upfront, but once you make the investment of time to produce, post, and properly market the product, you can continue making money while you are having dinner with your family, sleeping, or even while you are on vacation. Examples of products you can sell include audios, videos, books, eBooks, and more. This is an infinite time saver!
6. Outsource
Many times when I speak to entrepreneurs about outsourcing, I am met with resistance. You may think you cannot afford to hire a bookkeeper, housekeeper, virtual assistant, technical assistant, etc. But have you ever calculated your own hourly rate for the work you do? I will bet that your billing rate is much more than it would cost to hire in these services. Go ahead and pay for qualified support to free up your time and energy to do the things you love, that you are good at, and that make you money. Outsourcing saves me more than 8 hours each week.
7. Schedule non-negotiable YOU time
Go to your calendar and schedule some time for yourself each and every day. To thrive in your business, you have to make yourself a priority. Remember, you are your #1 asset. Honor your personal goals. Whether that includes learning a new language, meditating, exercising, or spending more time in nature, it is critical to recharge your batteries. You will notice increased energy, focus, and better results in your business. You will also save your sanity (what’s left of it!).
If you truly want to be successful, healthy, and happy in your business over the long run, I challenge you to start now. Select at least 3 tips from this list and commit to them over the next month. You will create new habits that will lead to a thriving personal life and a booming business.
