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How Can You Save Time?
Running a business can be hard work and take long hours. There is not a lot of escaping from that (or is there?).
You have all the different departments to run, from sales and marketing to finance to operations
and maybe manufacturing and or procuring.
Often in a small and growing business, this all falls on the head of the owner.
However, there are wise ways to set things up so you certainly minimise how much work you do each day.
Automate, automate, automate
It was business guru Michael Gerber who said you should be working on your business not in your business.
This means your business will grow much faster if you focus on how your business works, rather then running it yourself,
such as putting products into boxes to send to each customer etc.
Working on your business means working out things that you do repeatedly and designing a system to then
automate that procedure, so it works without you, or at least with absolute minimal input from you.
Working on your business
You are the creator of your business. As such you need to (as much as you possibly can) stand above your business and view it like you might a game of chess.
You need to think strategically about how you can transform your business into something that runs itself.
As you view your business in this way, you think about what repetitive tasks you can systemise and automate.
This might mean getting the task done in-house - or outsourcing the task to another company who specialises in this specific task.
Examples might be search engine optimisation, link building or email marketing.
One of the best places to locate companies to do these tasks for you is Elance at www.elance.com
Here you can offer a project and other providers will respond and state their 'bid price - that is, how much you will need to pay them to do that job.
You can then select whichever provider you are happy with, based on their price or expertise, or whatever factor you deem necessary.
An ongoing process in itself
Transforming your business into an automated system is a process in itself. It is not something you do once. It should be a thought process that goes through your head all day, every day.
And you should train any staff to think this way.
If you do a task or process more than once, think about how you could set up a system to automate the task next time.
Profitable Time
Consider when you are at your most profitable. This is when you are growing your business and bringing in more money than the last day/week/month etc.
Inevitably, when you have automated your business, you have freed up your time to move on to the next task or project.
The more you can think about working on your business, and automating repeated processes, the more profitable time you
have to create revenue in other areas - or maybe the same area, now that time is made available.
Automate Your Email
One of the biggest time-killer in a modern business is email. Let's be honest - most of us check our email far more
than is strictly necessary.
In a brilliant book called "The 4 Hour Work Week", Tim Ferris outlines how he outsources almost everything.
A key part of this lifestyle is how he manages his contact. For his email, he only checks his email twice a day, at 11am and 4pm.
He has an autoresponder (using the 'holiday' autoresponder that comes as part of Outlook) to automatically email back everyone who
emails him with a simple message ...
"I only check my emails at 11am and 4pm. I will personally respond to all emails then. If you need me more urgently, then
you can contact me on my phone at ..."
This way, he is politely letting people know how and when they can expect contact. This system is harder than it might first look.
Another key tip to manage your emails is to have a number of different email accounts, and set up your email client (Outlook
etc) to only check for the mail at set intervals.
Emails that are not important and do not need to be read often can be timed to check every 1440 minutes (24 hours); More
urgent email accounts can be set to check every 10, 20 or 60 minutes.
Begin the 'System State of Mind'
A system might not be sexy, but if you think about the concept of making money on autopilot, it is actually very sexy!
Train yourself to improve your ability to systemise and automate, and you will see your time and your money grow.
About the Author:
Duncan Elliott is a founding member and board member of 2u.co.uk. Since 2001 he has run the sales and marketing for
the companies within the 2u Group, including
INSTANT AutoPilot
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