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5 Home Business Strategies (Part One)

Guest post by: Sheryl Nicholson

Article Overview: One of my children asked me the other day....."Mom, do you dream about having a big impressive office downtown one day?" It only took me three seconds to think and reply "Never!" I LOVE working out of my home! More times than not, I feel unproductive....but the reality is (because I kept a log for a month) I have learned how to steal time and be very effective! You already know about the unproductive guilt trips.....A trip to the kitchen...."Well I'm already in the kitchen for lunch so I might as well wash these dishes." "I think I'll take a coffee break" (only to find a very good movie on television that sucks you in for the next 2 hours). A trip to the mailbox..... "I'll just open the mail (now you're writing checks out to be paid or you're on the phone disputing a bill). A trip to the laundry room..... "I'll throw these clothes in t

5 Home Business Strategies (Part One)

(Part 1) One of my children asked me the other day....."Mom, do you dream about having a big impressive office downtown one day?" It only took me three seconds to think and reply "Never!" I LOVE working out of my home! More times than not, I feel unproductive....but the reality is (because I kept a log for a month) I have learned how to steal time and be very effective!

You already know about the unproductive guilt trips.....A trip to the kitchen...."Well I'm already in the kitchen for lunch so I might as well wash these dishes." "I think I'll take a coffee break" (only to find a very good movie on television that sucks you in for the next 2 hours). A trip to the mailbox..... "I'll just open the mail (now you're writing checks out to be paid or you're on the phone disputing a bill). A trip to the laundry room..... "I'll throw these clothes in the washer".....(and while you're at it fold the others, iron one and mend one. Yes, working at home includes alot of "guilt trips".

There is a better way, so here are 5 of the 15 tips I suggest when I speak to audiences about working more effectively.

1. GET A TIME MANAGEMENT TOOL.

Your TMT (time management tool) isn't something that you'll want to rush out and purchase at an office supply store and here's the reason. There's nothing magical about the paper you'll be purchasing, but rather the education of how to use that paper. So get your yellow pages out and look for companies like Franklin or Time Text. There are several others....ask the people you respect, that manage their time well and carry aTMT to give you the name and number of their product. Usually it's a 1 800 number printed right there on the front cover of their book. You can find out when the next class is coming to town, the cost, and some places even offer video or audio training if you can't sign up immediately.

No mater what daytimer you have, it must go through the USE analogy:

U = User Friendly

Daytimers comes in all sizes. The first one I ever used was about 5" X 7". It didn't take long to realize just about everything we get in life comes in the 8 1/2" x 11" size. So I was always shrinking down the paper and

carrying a magnifying glass around my neck. BOY! That'll make you feel OLD!

So I went back to the larger size.

S = Simplify

Every daytimer comes with paper garbage that most of us don't need. i.e., metric system conversions, miles from Chicago to San Francisco, currency names from all over the world. It's a rare and traveled individual that would be using those sheets on a real basis....so gut it...trash it....simply it.

Each time you look at that page to determine you don't need it, you've spend pennies of time which well add up to Dollars of time at the end of the year.

E = easily accessible

Another rule....

WITHER THOU GOEST, THERE GOEST YOUR DAYTIMER

Uh huh, that means into the restaurant during your lunch break and at night into your bedroom. Why? Ever take notes on napkins during lunch? Now you've created clutter and you have a good chance of losing that piece of paper. Do you ever get some great ideas while your tossing and turning at night? Well, if they're not x rated...capture them on paper. My son-in-law is a patent attorney and he told me that it is predicted that over the next two years there will be more patents and inventions approved than in the past 150 years! People today aren't inventing the wheel, they're re-inventing the wheel. Think about it.

Remember what the old baby bottle use to look like? Someone put a whole in it so a baby could hold it and WHA LA...that person is a millionnaire today. Ever seen a product advertised on television and said to yourself "Wait a minute...that's MY idea!" Sure.....well it might have been your idea but someone else captured the idea on paper, met with a patent attorney and made it a reality. You can too if you keep your book easily accessible!

In my daytimer, each daily page has a space called Creative Ideas. I never lose the idea and on rainy days or when I'm stuck in an airport I can glance over those ideas and get exctied again about them. I've been able to put several of them into reality. SO GO CREATE!

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Article Tags: home based business, home business, sheryl nicholson, strategy, tip



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