Let’s look at some of the best ways on how to manage time and money as well as energy especially for the home-based entrepreneur.
‘how you spend your time is more important than how you spend your money. Money mistakes can be corrected, but time is gone forever.’
How To Manage Time And Money
Let’s look at ways on how to manage your time first. Although how to manage time and money go hand in hand, let’s look at each item separately.
How To Save And Manage Time
Technology
Make the most of technology. You can leverage your time by purchasing an iPod or MP3 player.
Now load all your courses onto them and listen to them with your headphones as you go about your day preparing meals, doing yard work, or driving.
You can multitask while you are learning from the greatest mentors and masterminds of our time.
Don’t Multitask Too Much
Multitasking is the quickest way to flounder when it comes to how to manage time and money.
Concentrate on one thing at a time. You may think that you can do three things at once but you can’t.
For instance, you can’t play audio and read a book at the same time. You will end up going back to one or both of them to repeat the process.
Also doing too many things at the same time actually slows you down.
Work on one activity at a time. Focus your attention on the task at hand and get the job done efficiently and effectively.
Trying to do two or ten things at once leaves a whole lot of unfinished work that usually results in less than ideal quality output. It also leads to confusion, overwhelms, and stress.
Touch It Once
Try the ‘touch it once rule.’ While it’s in your hand or on your screen, decide immediately what action to take.
Deal with it by either delegating it, doing it or dumping it on the first contact.
Delegate
Make a list of all your responsibilities from changing the toilet roll to writing proposals for your clients. Leave no stone unturned.
Once you have everything written out in front of you, select the responsibilities you can delegate to someone else, and then assign them.
If you are spending a good deal of your time performing business activities that aren’t making you money, re-assign the responsibilities.
For instance, if you are a professional photographer and you’re spending more time setting appointments, responding to phone and e-mail inquiries, or preparing quotations, or managing your books, you are going to have less time to perform the actual service of taking the photographs and molding them.
By enlisting the services of an assistant or bookkeeper you will be able to create more time for yourself to perform moneymaking activities.
If you are trying to sell a service all by yourself, try to enlist the help of others to help you extend your reach and take the weight off of you doing it all by yourself.
Delegate those pesky household tasks to family members or get a maid. Time is money and you can’t make anything if you are vacuuming your carpets.
Automate
Automating things like newsletters by using an autoresponder will save you hours each week as you can focus on other things.
Try building a funnel to help your customers through the buying process. This one works well for me.
If you are marketing all on your own by handing out flyers or business cards, consider building a website so that clients come to you rather than the other way around.
Dump
This one is sometimes difficult but if you’ve had something sitting on your desk for months and you haven’t done anything with it yet it is unlikely you ever will. Go through your stacks of papers and pages of emails and if they are not absolutely critical to your business, then get rid of them.
Create Systems
Create systems by dedicating certain times or days of the week to specific tasks. Starting each day with no direction results in lost time, wasted efforts, and ultimately missed opportunities and lost revenue.
Each minute you spend planning saves you nine minutes of execution.
Remember to give yourself a set time to complete each task so you don’t end up wasting time. For instance, give yourself an hour to telephone or follow-up with new leads. In this way you will be much more attentive to your time and more focused, thus increasing your efficiency.
Write a list of everything that needs doing then assign each one a number indicating its importance. Next, follow your list in priority sequence. It’s a good practice to take ten minutes at the end of each day to plan the next one.
Rest
Take a rest every 90 to 120 minutes. Your brain is craving a break by then according to time management experts. Do something fun for a few minutes and you’ll return to work rejuvenated and inspired.
Don’t Do It All
You are not bionic so don’t try to do too much. Learn to say no and stop accepting every invitation or try jumping on every opportunity. You will crash and burn.
Take a small step back, smell the roses and re-assess. You don’t have to do it all right now!
Working 14 hour days does not make you any more successful than the enlightened business owner who knows how to get the same amount of work done in 8 hours.
BackUp
Don’t forget to save your work often and remember to back up your computer. One unexpected power outage or a hard drive crash will ensure you lose it all and have to start all over again.
Try Speed Reading
The average person reads about 200 words per minute and a lot of entrepreneurs read anywhere from two to six hours a day. Imagine how many free hours you can add to a year by developing this time-saving skill.
Try this Speed Reading Course that you can purchase online.
Walk Don’t Run
Don’t rush through your work as this creates errors and oversights which means that you will have to go back to correct. Take your time and do the job right the first time.
Set Working Hours
Set up some ground rules, especially if you are working from home. Let your friends know your hours of operation and let them and your family know that you don’t want to be disturbed during these times.
Don’t pick up the phone every time it rings or read an email as soon as it hits your inbox. Plan time in your day for these activities.
Run an ‘interruptions log’ for a week. List every interruption as it occurs and rate its value on you. 1-crucial, 2-important, 3-little value, 4-no value.
After a week review the list and take action to eliminate those interruptions that rated 3 and 4.
The Four R’s
Be mindful of how much time you spend each day doing the four r’s:
- Redoing
- Repeating
- Reacting
- Repairing
What changes can you make today to stop this from happening?
Get Organized
Keep your paperwork, supplies, and workspace neat and orderly.
A lot of time is spent looking for things like pens or phone numbers, so sort your surroundings.
How To Save Money
Here are some great ideas on ways to save money.
To me when it comes to learning how to manage time and money, money plays a big role.
First, you need to learn to differentiate between what you need and what you want.
For instance, you need food to survive, but you don’t need that $150 designer sweater even if it does bring out the blue in your eyes.
Start small and then expand. You don’t need state of the art furniture for your home office when you start out. Start with the basic essentials and scale up as you grow your business.
Don’t spend lots of money printing up thousands of professional business cards or designing fancy stationery. You will change your mind about your branding a lot in the beginning so rather invest in things guaranteed not to change, like your education in marketing strategies.
Speak to your financial advisor about which type of business would serve you best in terms of tax reduction or personal liability.
Keep all your financial records organized, otherwise, you will be paying your accountant a pretty penny to sort through a year’s worth of receipts. The longer it takes your accountant to sort through the mess, the larger your bill will be. Take an hour or so a month to sort through yourself quickly.
In the beginning, don’t waste money on costly advertising. There are many cheaper ways to market yourself without breaking the bank.
Negotiate and always try to get the best price for products and services. More often than not, discounts are offered for early or cash payments.
Buy used or reconditioned equipment where you can. This can be a big money saver.
Do your research and compare costs, capabilities, warranties, and service. The cheapest isn’t always necessarily the best option.
Consider leasing. Leasing equipment is sometimes a great way to avoid depleting your cash flow.
Take advantage of freebies. There are numerous opportunities on the internet to secure useful information for free. You don’t always need to pay for things, just do a quick internet search.
Try using free software. Visit download.com to try out hundreds of free software products through trial downloads. There are both limited versions of the full product and freeware.
Hire your children. If they are at least 14 years old (depending on our country and or state) and pay their own taxes, it pays to take advantage of their lower tax bracket. You can transfer income from your business to them to save money.
Remember things like the mortgage, home maintenance, cleaning, and lawn care are all tax-deductible if you are working from home.
Get at least three quotes on everything. Even routine purchases merit shopping around. If you quote a competitor’s lower price, a supplier or vendor will often match that price to win your business.
Before purchasing anything, make sure that the seller assumes most of the risk by offering a money-back guarantee. I made a $4000 mistake by signing on with a marketing coach who didn’t deliver adequate service and didn’t refund my investment. Make sure to get a written full or pro-rated money-back guarantee. If the service or product is as good as they claim to be, they will offer risk reversal upfront.
Instead of hiring employees, consider outsourcing. In this way, you don’t have to worry about payroll contributions, benefits, workers’ compensation, or paying wages during a pandemic.
If you produce products, try selling them at a discount by offering incentives and early-bird reductions. This is a great way to improve your cash flow immediately.
In the next article, I will look at how to get more energy, so you can get more done.
If you have any more tips to add on how to manage time and money, please feel free to comment below.
