Build your Business 90 minutes at a Time

One of the most important lessons I learned is about procrastination, and I think accountants suffer from this more than most….our high intelligence can mean we miss the simple imperative to get the job done.  When I was at TDG PLC we used to joke about our ‘accountants piles’, which were stacks of papers on our desks, maybe up to 12 inches (OK 30 cm) high.  But it’s no joke in your own business, ‘accountants piles’ are in truth just piles of procrastination – to be avoided.

Here are a couple of tips to avoid wasting time

Your computer is your greatest tool to drive your efficiency, BUT it is also a games console on your desk, be really careful to monitor the time you spend on social media – it can get you business but it can also waste your time.

It’s so easy to ‘sit’ on your email and just spend too much time in email conversations.  Here are a few rules I’ve developed:

•             Try to check your email less frequently, 3 times a day is sufficient.  If something is really urgent they’ll phone you.

•             Just because someone sends you an email you don’t need to reply to it.  They have no right to hijack your time.

•             Minimise the number of emails in each email conversation by wording the email carefully.

I’ve also included a number of other top tips to save you time in the pack so please take a look.  But the greatest tool I use is my 90 minute sessions.  Each day from 7:30am to 9:00am I spend 90 minutes working on my business.  That’s 7.5 hours a week or 45 days a year.  Just think what you could get done working on your business for 45 days solid.  I use this time to:

Write these pages.

Write marketing material.

Write my Newsletter.

Write sales emails.

Set out forms and procedures.

Work out my avatars I want to market to.

Check the results from my marketing.

Pay per click review set up and management (that’s google advertising)

Draft adverts.

Write, review and update my websites.

My business is built in 90 minute chunks, yours can be too!