Simplify Your Business: Not Ten but a Dozen Secrets to Entrepreneurial Freedom by Stephanie Chandler

Finding balance between work and the rest of your life is not always easy, but it is essential. Your business cannot truly thrive if you are the center of everything, and your family cannot thrive if the majority of your attention is spent on your business.

Many entrepreneurs say they own a business because they want freedom and flexibility, yet when it comes down to it, these benefits are few and far between. Without systems and processes in place, the owner ends up like an over-worked dog trying to swim against a current. It becomes nearly impossible to get ahead.

You can make the choice to change the entire course of your business. By making a few important changes, you can remove the handcuffs that are keeping you chained to your business and rediscover the benefits of entrepreneurial life.

1. Step Away from the Electronics.  It’s easy to feel like the world might end if you couldn’t check e-mail for several hours or if you turned your phone off (gasp) all afternoon. But if you can break the electronics habit slowly, you will discover that the world continues to turn. Clients will still be there, problems will not put you out of business and sometimes, problems might even get resolved before you even knew they existed. Most importantly, you will gain back your most valuable commodity: time.

2. Schedule Your Time.  Jumping between various tasks throughout the day makes it difficult to focus and sabotages time management. Create blocks of time in your schedule with specific days and times for meeting with clients, working on your business, taking care of paperwork, updating your blog, etc. For example, you might catch up on paperwork on Mondays, attend client meetings on Tuesdays and Thursdays, work on business development on Wednesday afternoons and make cold calls on Friday mornings.

3. Get Organized.  A tremendous amount of productivity is lost due to disorganization. If you no longer know what the top of your desk looks like, it’s time to put some systems in place. If you need help getting there, hire a professional organizer. This service will pay for itself in multiple.

4. Create Templates. Anything you do repeatedly, such as developing proposals for new clients or sending sales letters, should be done with templates. Create an outline that you can update and reuse over and over again.

5. Develop Process Manuals. You can dramatically reduce training time and ongoing support needs of your staff by providing a procedures manual. Set the expectation with employees that they must check the manual before calling you.

6. Create a Price List. Too many service providers arbitrarily set prices. If you are guilty as charged, your business will benefit from a price list. The key is to be consistent, give some serious thought and analysis to your pricing structure and then stick to your prices. You don’t have to publish your price list unless you want to, but use it as an internal document.

7. Set up E-mail Filters. When I began creating filters for e-mail, my productivity shot up. You can set up filters to route non-urgent messages to various folders such as “Social Networking Requests,” “Discounts,” and “Save for Later.” Schedule a block of time on your calendar to deal with these messages once each week.

8. Manage Bill Payments. Put your bills on auto-pay and minimize the amount of time and energy wasted on this task each month. If you’re not comfortable with that, at least take advantage of online bill pay with your bank. This is a simple, effective way to quickly get the bills off of your desk.

9. Collect Payments Online. If you invoice your clients for payment, consider sending electronic statements. Most credit card processors (including Paypal) allow you to send electronic invoices. They’re quick and easy and as a bonus, can speed up the time it takes to collect payments. Many clients find it convenient to simply pay with a credit card or check online in order to move the item out of their Inbox.

10. Hire a Bookkeeper. If you’re doing your own books or worse, you are operating on the “shoebox” method of accounting, you are not taking your business seriously. This is why bookkeepers and accountants exist. For a reasonable fee, you can have a professional take care of the details while you focus on what you do best. You don’t have to hand over your checkbook, just your receipts.

11. Get a Filing Basket, Since filing is about as much fun as scrubbing a toilet, many busy business owners let this task slide. If this sounds like you, simply put a basket near your desk and toss in all receipts, paid bills, notes, etc. that need to be filed. Though the magic filing fairy doesn’t exist and won’t swoop in to help, it will help clear up your space. You can tackle the basket once each month and it won’t be nearly as painful as you imagined.

12. Get Help, One of the biggest mistakes entrepreneurs make is trying to do it all. Unless you have superhuman powers, there comes a point when you must admit that it is impossible to do everything for everyone every day. Decide at what point it makes sense to hire help. If you can’t afford an employee, consider hiring a virtual office assistant – someone who performs administrative tasks from their own home. You can also find subcontractors for all kinds of work through Craigslist.org, elance.com or rentacoder.com

© Stephanie Chandler.  Stephanie is an author of several business and marketing books including “LEAP! 101 Ways to Grow Your Business” and “From Entrepreneur to Infopreneur: Make Money with Books, eBooks and Information Products.” She is also founder and CEO of http://AuthorityPublishing.com, which specializes in custom publishing and internet marketing services, and http://BusinessInfoGuide.com, a directory of resources for entrepreneurs. For author and speaker details, visit http://StephanieChandler.com.

And to help you with your productivity you may be interested in the teleseminar Identify and Capitalize on Your Own Productivity ‘Hot Spots’. Throughout your days and your weeks, you have “hot spots” where you have the potential to be optimally productive. It is during these times that you can be “in the zone,” working at “Mach 10,” and getting things done that are of the most benefit to you and your company.