A Question of Time
When starting up an online business you need to first ask yourself a few questions. Questions like:
- How much time do I have to give to my new business?
- How much money am I willing to invest in my new business?
- How hard am I willing to work to make my new business grow?
These are three pretty important questions. Today let's talk about the question of time.
Set A Time And Stick To It
If you have a full- or part-time "regular" job, the chances are that you may not have a lot of time to invest in your new venture. On the other hand, if you're unemployed, then you've got an advantage here! But even if you only have a small amount of extra time per week to devote to building your new business you need to make sure that you make a schedule and stick to it. Only time to work on weekends? Then make sure you work EVERY weekend for a set number of hours.
Get ONE TASK done and then reward yourself by doing something fun (although an online business can be a lot of fun too once you get the hang of it!). Got a little bit of time each day? Great! Find the best time for you to work and stick to that time every day. The key here is discipline. Once you establish the routine you can become more flexible, but in the beginning it's important to have a set time, as this is how habits are built.
If you just work whenever you feel like it you'll find that you start to procrastinate and pretty soon a couple of weeks will have gone by without anything being done. I see this continually with folks in my MLM downlines who just do a little bit once in a blue moon and then wonder why nothing is happening. The growth of your business is a direct result of how much time, effort and resources you put into it. Time comes first. So start by putting some regular time into your new venture.
There Is No Wasted Effort!
The important thing to remember is that you are on a journey. Anything and everything you do is part of the process of building your business, so there is truly no wasted effort, as long as you learn from your mistakes in order to streamline things for yourself.
If you used up too much time today doing some trivial task then make sure you don't get caught up in that same trap next time. Things happen VERY fast in the world of ecommerce. There's so much to be done and so little time to do it. So being efficient counts for a great deal!
The Email Sponge
Email can be a real time sponge, eh? Checking email and sending email can consume a huge amount of time, as you've probably found out. And the time flies by without your even noticing it! (it is fun though).
So try to take care of all your major business email things in one or two sessions. Replying to new incoming email can wait until next time unless it's absolutely urgent (but how much of your email is absolutely urgent?).
Your personal email is another thing, and can be managed separately. This helps to separate your business and personal lives, which is a good thing. If you start to mix your business and personal email lives too much you may soon find that you are starting to sound like a marketer when talking to your friends and family! And who wants that? :-) (Yes, I know that some of the MLM's tell you to work within your "circle of influence" when it comes to selling their programs, but you really only need an email signature file ad sent with a couple of your emails and you've passed the word on just fine...)
When Online...
The time factor is especially important if you have a dial-up connection rather than a permanent connection (such as ADSL or a cable modem) because spending too much time online can cost you a lot of money (I have a dial-up connection; you should see some of my phone bills!). So try to plan out what you're going to do while you're actually on the Web as well.
Rather than just surfing (you can do that in your personal time), have a definite plan as to which websites you are going to hit. Keep some kind of a notebook with a rough outline of where you're going to be going on the Web that day. I make a rough outline at the beginning of each week and then add things to it as I go along. It doesn't have to be anything fancy, just some kind of guideline to help you be more efficient.
Time is money and if you don't learn how to be time-efficient you'll get left behind in a hurry in the mega-speed Web world!
Educate yourself!
Learning more about the Web and ecommerce will pay huge dividends in the time department and help eliminate the "trial-and-error time wasting blues". Try to set aside a little bit of time each day to educate yourself about the world of ecommerce. This can be something as simple as reading a chapter or two from a free ebook that you have downloaded.
Try to select ebooks that deal with a specific topic rather than the general "Make A Million On the Web" kind. Unfortunately, ebooks usually only become free after they have been around for awhile, so the information in them is often dated. For that reason, you should try to budget a small amount of money each month for buying at least one newer ebook.
The Bottom Line...
You're probably sick of hearing the expression "time is money", but it still holds true! So give some consideration to how much time you have and how that time can best be put to use for building your online home business. You'll be glad you did! And your business will grow and grow and grow (but remember, you'll have to work hard and invest too).
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