A small business owner needs to know how to manage time because it is one of the most important pillars for success. If you find yourself running late almost all the time, or missing deadlines and due dates, chances are, you will lose money.
In fact, your customers will find a reason to buy elsewhere or find another website builder if they are convinced that you cannot meet your obligations on time.
To avoid losing customers, you need to find the best ways to ensure that everything happens as planned. Some of the tasks that should be done on time include:
- Receiving and processing orders from customers
- Updating products regularly
- Scheduling meetings and other interactions
- Launching new products
To help you manage your time better, here are the top time management secrets that the most successful small business owners have been using in order to improve their productivity.
1. Create a to-do list
Coming up with a list of the tasks that you need to do in a day or a week is one of the easiest ways to manage time.
Take a moment and think about what you want to do. Create a detailed list while indicating the time when each task has to be completed.
The reason for doing this is because there are some tasks that you might not remember off the top of your head.
You will only notice later when it is already too late that you should have done something.
2. Follow a timetable
Following a timetable is one of the most important time management tools for every small business owner. This is more important for the tasks that you do on a daily or weekly basis.
You should indicate the time when each task should be done. For instance, if you often start off by checking and replying to mails and then contacting your customers to give new information before moving to distributing the ordered products, you should make sure that it is well indicated.
Your timetable should be dictated by the number of tasks you do every day and the number of hours that you work.
3. Prioritize your tasks
If you look at the list of your to-do tasks, you will easily notice that there are those that are more important than others.
There are tasks that are crucial to the running of your business so much so that if you forget them, the business will suffer.
Those are the ones that you should give priority to. They should be completed no matter the situation (whether there is no internet connection or even electricity).
If you fail to prioritize, you may just find yourself in a situation whereby you have spent too much time on things that do not matter while overlooking the crucial ones.
4. Create reminders
No matter how brilliant you may be, you are always likely to forget some items. You may forget to schedule an important meeting and this can cost you a lot. It is also easy to forget about a long term order that should be shipped.
To avoid this, you should learn to create reminders. You can use your mobile phone or any other device as long as you will be notified when the task is supposed to be completed.
Reminders can also be used to notify yourself when there are updates required to your marketing campaigns.
5. Work in timed shifts
Splitting your work in manageable shifts is another effective time management strategy for small business owners.
With smaller shifts, it will be easier to plan what you can do at a particular time. You might use the first shift to respond to inquiries and the second to send out communications to your customers and partners.
Because every shift is timed, you will automatically find yourself completing your tasks within the required timeframe.
Make sure, though, that the shifts will give you enough time to relax and refresh your mind before getting into another.
At the end of the day, time management for an online entrepreneur is all about commitment. You need to have passion to complete your tasks on time (e.g., as a website builder) and to see the business grow. Allocating more hours to work when there is too much to do can also help you to meet the deadlines.
Ready to take your business online? Use Bookmark’s sitebuilder to get you started.
Originally published at www.bookmark.com on July 5, 2016.
