Run Your Business From Home? Here's 10 Ways to Be More Productive

A business associate of mine, Alexandria Brown, recently sent me a newsletter on the top 10 ways to be more productive. It resonated so much with my own home-based business that I wanted to share it with all of you.

until next time...

Jema Watts
E-ssistance.com

"Run Your Business From Home? Here's 10 Ways to Be More Productive"
by Ali Brown

Ah, working at home sweet home... Visions of leisurely days, conference calls in comfy sweatpants, increased productivity with fewer interruptions. But the distinctions between work life and home life soon blur. You really should throw some laundry in the wash before you write that proposal. You have an hour before a meeting: Should you balance your books or clean the kitchen? And remember to call that client back right after you empty the cat box.

Welcome to the real world of the home office: unforeseen distractions, a lack of structured time, and sometimes a perceived loss of identity. But don't give up the dream just yet! By putting into place a few simple ideas, you can reap more of the rewards of staying home-bound. Based on my experiences and those of my clients, here are 10 simple ways to help you stay on track.

1. Separate Your Space.

Keep a separate, distinct work area in your home. Very important. (This is especially difficult if you're living and working in a shoebox apartment, like I was when I started my business in New York City!) If you don't have a separate room, at least define an area, and know that when you're in it, you're in "work mode."

2. Structure Your Time.

As your business and personal time mesh, it's more important than ever to structure your day. For example, if you regularly take a walk or go to the gym, try to do it every day at the same time. Value that personal appointment with yourself -- even when you're very busy. It will actually help you keep your business on track! I like to get up early and work until 1 pm, then I take a few hours off to enjoy lunch and go to the gym or jog on the beach. Then I'm back at my desk at 5:00 until who knows when!

3. Outsource All You Can.

When I began my business, I made the mistake of doing all my own administrative work. Whenever you start thinking, "Well I can just do that myself," STOP. Streamline your business, making everything as automatic as possible. Use outside services to stay focused on your *real work*. Get accounts with an overnight delivery service, virtual assistant, messenger service, errand service, bookkeeper, etc. Save your time and energy for your brilliant ideas!

4. Use Technology to Your Advantage.

In-person meetings are very valuable when appropriate, but schedule them sparingly. Try to do most of your business via phone, fax, and e-mail using the best equipment you can afford. For most of us, when we're out of the office, we're not bringing in the bacon! So it's important that you can communicate flawlessly from where you are. PLEASE do us all a favor and get separate lines/services for your phone, fax, and Internet! No one likes getting a busy signal or having to call first before faxing.

Get separate lines for home and business, or ask your phone company about getting "distinctive ring". Also, voicemail is better than an answering machine, because if you're on an important call and don't want to be disturbed, other callers can still leave you a message.

5. Group Your Errands.

Try to group your meetings and errands together to minimize your out-of-office time. Make a list in the morning of all the outside tasks you need done for the day, and attempt to complete them in one fell swoop. Even better, do what I used to do and designate just one day a week as your "blitz" day for errands and meetings. Plus, then you only need to get dressed up one day a week! : ) (Nowadays I use an errand service to run around for me.)

6. Stay Focused.

Make your workspace off-limits to other roommates or family members when you're working. For you animal lovers, this may go for pets as well. (My dear old cat Francine would get extremely jealous when I wasn't giving her complete attention!) Keep all personal paperwork such as bills, magazines, and to-do lists out of sight, so they won't distract you from your work projects.

7. Beware of Yappers.

Many of your friends and family will be immediately delighted when they learn that you're now home-officing. They picture you lounging on the couch, eating potato chips, and waiting for their calls. When they call you simply to chat, politely remind them that you're working, and ask them if you can call them back after your day is over. It may take them a while, but they'll eventually get the idea.

8. Work With Your Moods.

Keep track of your moods and productivity compared with the time of day. For example, if you find you're more alert in the morning, use this time to make important calls and do your creative work. Take advantage of your natural cycles. If you feel better after an afternoon nap, go for it! (I'm a BIG proponent of the catnap. In fact, I may start a support group.)

9. Suit Yourself.

To bring out your best work, make your environment perfect for YOU. How do you work best? With plenty of breaks, or with no interruptions? In silence, or with some light music in the background? On a cushy couch and coffee table, or at a business desk in an ergonomic chair? (My friends thought I was nuts when I spent $750 on my Herman Miller Aeron chair, but they quickly understood why I did once they sat in it! It will last forever and my spine thanks me every day.)

Also, find some places you can do work when you need a change of scenery. How about the library, the park, or your neighborhood coffee shop? When I need to do serious reading, thinking, or editing, I take my work outside to the beach. The sea air, sunshine, and soothing waves help me think much more clearly.

10. Break for People.

Feeling sluggish, lonely, or moody? Arrange for at least one social break during the week. Schedule breakfast, lunch, dinner, or even just coffee with a client, vendor, or friend. Join a business networking group, or sign-up for social activities such as dance class or recreational sports league. Don't go into hermit mode -- it can be self-destructive!

© 1999-2009 Alexandria Brown International Inc.

Online entrepreneur Alexandria K. Brown publishes the award-winning 'Highlights on Marketing & Success' weekly ezine with 36,000+ subscribers. If you're ready to jump-start your marketing, make more money, and have more fun in your small business, get your FREE tips now at www.AlexandriaBrown.com

Great Reads

Ready to reach for the next book, but find your bedside table bare? No worries. Here is a website that can help you decide what to read next - www.whatshouldireadnext.com. Just type the name of the last book you read into the space provided, and get a list of recommendations for what to read next. Register to build your own favorites list and build the database to provide better answers for everyone who uses the site.

until next time...

Jema Watts
www.E-ssistance.com

Economy got you down?

Has the economy affected your business? The economy has not hit my business as of yet (knocking on wood). Matter of fact a lot of businesses are seeking virtual assistants to help them even more. So many entrepreneurs have had to cut staffing because of the economy but still have a need for assistance with special projects. Are you one of those entrepreneurs? If so, I'd like to hear from you on how this current economic crisis has affected your business, large or small.

until next time...

Jema Watts
http://www.E-ssistance.com/

Did you know...?

Have you ever searched for something on Google and the results just didn't come back as you had hoped? This little tip may help with your efforts. Instead of searching Google for just, example, Jema Watts, which could return results with the words Jema and Watts in any part of a web page, try putting quotation marks around "Jema Watts". This will give you results where these words appear side by side in any given web page. Try it out.

until next time...

Jema Watts
www-E-ssistance.com

If You Want To Increase Revenues, You Must Bring On An Assistant

My good friend Fabienne Fredrickson wrote the article below on the importance of a virtual assistant. Enjoy.

until next time...

Jema Watts

www.e-ssistance.com

If you want to grow your business, hands-down, you need an assistant. And by "grow," I really mean "make more money." Oh, I know what you're thinking! "I don't make enough money to hire an assistant yet. That's just not something that I can do right now."

I know you're thinking this because I thought the same thing too, at first. I resisted working with a Virtual Assistant (VA) for over a year. Then I tried it because I didn't have any other choice. I was so busy working on client projects and actually seeing clients that I didn't have time to market my business.

But once I hired a VA, I nearly doubled my revenues. I finally had time to work on getting more clients and taking care of the aspects of the business that actually MAKE me money.

Here's the deal about Virtual Assistance. You can have someone work for YOU out of their OWN office, on their OWN computer on YOUR stuff, at a drastic fraction of what it would cost you to hire an assistant full time, or even a part-time college student. Here's why: VAs are highly experienced professionals who have been executive assistants in corporations and have chosen to go out on their own and work from home (can you blame them?)

They work with several clients at the same time and have an hourly rate. The best part is they only charge you for the actual time worked, keeping track of the time they spend on your work. Which means that, if they only spend 64 minutes working on a project for you, then they pro-rate the hourly rate to just those 64 minutes and that's all you pay.

Because they are highly experienced and own their own businesses, you can expect a much higher level of quality than you would with a student who generally doesn't have any experience in the business world. Because of this, VAs often become PARTNERS in the growth of your business, rather than simply someone you delegate work to.

They care, and it's in their best interest that you grow your business. The more successful YOU are, the more work you'll be giving THEM (win-win situation). So, it's almost like they're INVESTED in your success…

Your Assignment:

Isn't it time you thought about focusing on what matters most (the money-producing part of your business) and start to delegate the other details to a real professional?

Start writing down the things you want to start delegating and what your business goals are. You can also do a search on www.Google.com for "Virtual Assistant" and you will get leads for different organizations. Once you start collaborating with an eager-to-take-stuff-off-your-desk professional, you'll start seeing results soon thereafter.

I hear this a lot: You may not be sure how to use ALL the time you'll gain once you hire a VA. My advice? Marketing! But many solo-entrepreneurs aren't sure what to focus on first: ezine? Teleseminars? Talks? Networking? articles? No worries, I was there once too. The step-by-step Client Attraction Home Study System™ will show you everything you need to do first.

Not only do you get clear on what clients you should be targeting, how to create the marketing message that will have them WANT to work with you and seek you out, but exactly WHAT to do with your marketing time and HOW. It's everything you need to know to fill your practice quickly; no matter how long you've been in business. All the tools, scripts, templates, and examples are handed to you on a silver platter. So, you do step one of the system, and when you're done with that, you move on to step two, and so on. So easy. That's why my customers have gotten such great results from it.
© 2008 Client Attraction LLC. All Rights Reserved.

Fabienne Fredrickson, The Client Attraction Mentor, is founder of the Client Attraction System™, the proven step-by-step program to attract more clients, in record time...guaranteed. To receive your F.R.E.E. Audio CD by mail and receive her weekly how-to articles on attracting more clients, visit www.ClientAttraction.com.

Just Words

From time to time I'll post cool gadgets and websites that are not related to Virtual Assistance or Transcriptions and today is one of those days. I ran across a cool website for you to play with. It's www.Wordle.net. It was created by Jonathan Feinberg who is a senior software engineer at IBM. Here is one that I played with today.



until next time...

Jema Watts
www.e-ssistance.com