ENEWS > FALL 2008

Your Business in Mind
Manage Your Time and Results Will Follow

Time. That most precious of resources for small business owners. If you could add hours to a 24-hour day to get more done, you probably would. Here are a few tips on how to work more efficiently in the time you have:

• To see exactly how you spend your time, track every minute for several days or a week. You may be surprised by how little time you are actually spending on building your business.
• Once you know how you are spending your time, see how many administrative tasks you can do after business hours. Likewise, make sure you are spending your main business hours interacting with prospects, customers, and vendors.
• Set your priorities for each day and each week and then stick to it.
• If possible, do your biggest task or project first to get it out of the way.
• Plan ahead for the sales timeline for your product, keeping in mind holidays and the end of month and end of quarter.
• Don’t get distracted by every meeting request or phone call; stay focused.
• Maintain consistent and timely follow-up with prospects, customers, and vendors, and make sure it’s documented.
• Be sure to plan breaks to refresh yourself and keep work in perspective. Avoid burnout.

Use all the time-saving functionality in ACT!, combined with these tips, to help you get the most out of each day.

Source: MaxPitch Media, Inc., Richmond, VA on www.justsell.com; “Time Management for Sales Pros,” Ray Silverstein, on Entrepreneur.com; “Making Time,” on www.sba.gov.

Joyce Ethridge
Senior Copywriter
Sage Software

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