The Home Business Trap

Whatever your reasons are for wanting a home based business, there can be
no doubt, it is one of the most rewarding feelings in the world when you start
to see the rewards of your efforts paying off.

Whether you run an online or offline home business the sense of achievment
when your venture starts to turn a profit is immense.

You are in control of everything from choosing what time you start work,
to how you contact your customers, to how you choose to promote.

However, just take a look at the above sentence and it quickly becomes
apparent that the rise and fall of your home based business rests squarely on
the shoulders of one person................ YOU!

For some, the dream of starting a home business and being your own boss
can quickly be overshadowed by the day to day tasks that need to be
performed by every type of business, online or offline.

The most overlooked and underestimated problem for a lot of home
business owners can be time management.

You are in your own home surrounded by distractions that maybe wouldn't
be there if you didn't work from home. You may have a family, children, a
wife or partner, all these are equally demanding of you, and each deserves
as much of your time as your new home business.

So how do you divide your time between those elements in your life and
still find the time to run a successfull home based business?

Firstly, you need to develop a strong routine, maybe even set a few
ground rules for your family and friends during your working hours.

Let them know that between certain hours of the day you will be busy
working and the fact that you are at home doesn't mean that it's ok for
your friends to drop round for a coffee and a chat.

You will have plenty of time for that once you are established and at
the point where you can devote less time to getting your venture
up and running.

The next problem will be e-mail. I won't go into the benefits of automating
your business from the start right now, but believe me this is the only way
to go if you don't want to spend all day answering and sending e-mail.

Devote a certain amount of time in your day to deal with e-mail chores.

You should be spending most of your time promoting and advertising your
business in the early stages and e-mail will intrude on that very quickly.
So plan a certain time of each day to deal with e-mail and try to stick to
it unless it's urgent.

If you receive your e-mail through an alias at your website and you have
the option of sending an autoresponse to each e-mail you receive, then
I suggest you set one up to say something like:

_____________________________________________________
Thanks for your e-mail. Your request has been received and you will
receive a response within 48 hours.

Best wishes,

Your Name or Customer Support
______________________________________________________

Including an autoresponse like the one above will buy you some time
so that you can deal with your e-mail chores at your pace, without
irrate customers and prospects asking why you haven't sent an
immediate response.

You would be amazed at the number of e-mails I get asking why a
customer or prospect hasn't received a response to the e-mail they sent
two minutes ago.

So automation is vital. I use a combination of autoresponders and a
PC based software that I have found to be priceless.

Once you get e-mail and time management under control, you will
soon find your business running smoother and you will have more
time to relax and enjoy being a successful business owner.