The Productive Entrepreneur

Answering the Phone

Here’s something we all encounter. We’re trucking along pretty well, making progress on a project, building motivation, and actually getting something accomplished, and then the phone rings. It’s always an interruption, but when you get especially chatty people on the phone, it can really kill your productivity. It consumes your time and pulls your attention in other directions.

When you are an entrepreneur, you may not have the support people in place to answer the phone for you, but this doesn’t mean you have to answer the phone. Here are some great tips to help increase your productivity by managing your time on the phone:

1. Get caller ID. For a relatively small monthly fee, you can always know who’s calling before you answer the phone. It’s a great way to screen your calls and allows you to prioritize the issues and questions you will handle during your day.

2. Use voicemail. This may seem like a no-brainer – who doesn’t have voice mail these days? But you may not be using it productively. It is not only useful when you aren’t in your office, but it is just as valuable when you don’t want an interruption. If it’s important, callers can leave a message. By allowing calls to go to voice mail, you can avoid being pulled into lengthy conversations that may be interesting and entertaining, but saved for a better time, nonetheless.

3. Use an answering service. There are a number of services that will answer your phone without a physical presence in your office. Callers hear a personal, customized greeting from a live voice and you avoid interruptions from a ringing phone. Try CallRuby.com, Front Office Staff, PATLive, or OneBox.com.

4. Turn off the ringer and let your voice mail answer. If you’re one of those people who just can’t let the phone ring without answering it, remove the distraction. You won’t know you’re missing calls so you won’t be sidetracked by thinking about who might be calling. You can simply check messages later and return phone calls at a later time.

5. Designate a time to return phone calls. Rather than return calls throughout the day, spend 30 minutes to an hour calling back those who left you messages.

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Joy Duling is a business strategist and creator of The Productive Entrepreneur ProgramTM.  If you enjoyed this post, we invite you to explore the resources available at www.theproductiveentrepreneur.com. Each month, Joy presents resources and educational opportunities aimed at helping self-employed, entrepreneurial business owners increase their personal productivity so that they can accomplish BIG goals.

Tips for Managing Your E-mail (Part 2)

As promised, more tips for managing your e-mail:

• Review your inbox and delete as much as possible during a quick run through. File other messages that you can read later. Then go back and open the important messages, responding when necessary.
• Set up your inbox to automatically file messages. Most e-mail servers allow you to direct messages from specific people or concerning a certain subject to a separate folder. For example, if you receive e-newsletters from many sources, create a “Newsletters” folder and direct messages from those addresses to this folder. Read them at your convenience without having them clutter your inbox.
• Unsubscribe from newsletters and promotions you don’t read. It may have seemed like a great e-publication when you signed up, but if you don’t have time to read it, unsubscribe and forget about it.
•  Have one e-mail address specifically for business. Use a different address to sign-up for promotions or free offers, and yet another e-mail address for personal notes for/from friends and family. This will help you sort your mail and decide which messages are most likely business-related and important.

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Joy Duling is a business strategist and creator of The Productive Entrepreneur ProgramTM.  If you enjoyed this post, we invite you to explore the resources available at www.theproductiveentrepreneur.com. Each month, Joy presents resources and educational opportunities aimed at helping self-employed, entrepreneurial business owners increase their personal productivity so that they can accomplish BIG goals.

Tips for Managing Your E-mail (Part 1)

When you open up your e-mail, is it instant information overload? There’s no shortage of people, businesses, and of course, spammers, who want your attention by sending you an e-mail. There’s no doubt – it’s an indispensable tool. But sorting through and reading e-mail can also be a major productivity killer.

If you check your e-mail every time you receive a new message, you greatly compromise your focus and concentration. Not only are you interrupting your train of thought for the project you are working on, but you also risk getting pulled of course from that project. Before you know it, you will have 4 or 5 projects started but nothing complete.

If this sounds familiar, consider these tips for taking control of your inbox before it takes control of you:

• Use a spam filter. Directing junk mail to the trash before it even hits your folder will help keep your inbox clean and reduce the amount of messages on your screen. You will also reduce the risk of opening a message with a virus or spyware attached.
• Turn off automatic sounds or pop-ups that tell you “You have mail.” When you know you have a new message, it’s hard to resist the temptation to check it out. The message will wait! By turning off new message notifications, you can avoid unnecessary interruptions.
• Schedule a specific time and adhere to a time limit. Try checking it twice a day for 30 – 45 minutes. Once that time it up, move on to the next project. Set an alarm if you need the reminder.

I've only just begun! I have more tips to help you manage the time you spend with e-mail. Check back to read more...

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Joy Duling is a business strategist and creator of The Productive Entrepreneur ProgramTM.  If you enjoyed this post, we invite you to explore the resources available at www.theproductiveentrepreneur.com. Each month, Joy presents resources and educational opportunities aimed at helping self-employed, entrepreneurial business owners increase their personal productivity so that they can accomplish BIG goals.

My "Duties" as a Business Coach

In the past couple of posts, I’ve tried to give you a taste of how I approach goal-setting. Granted, it’s been a broad discussion of sorts, applicable to both your personal and professional life. But that’s exactly my point – my approach works for any goal in any circumstance.

 

As a business coach, I concentrate on business goals for my clients, many of whom are entrepreneurs looking to reach the next level. Things are going pretty well, and they are convinced that they are on to something. They’ve found their niche or at least see the possibilities, but they need a little help getting to the next step. That’s where I come in.

 

We start by taking stock of where they are, assessing what has worked and what hasn’t, evaluating current strategies and recognizing accomplishments, and probably some failures. Then, we start figuring out where they want to be. What’s the “endpoint” on our map. Once we have that figured out, we determine what it will take to close the gap.

 

Closing the gap involves planning and strategizing about activities that will build a business and attract the right customers and clients. This is where is really gets exciting for me! I am passionate about helping professionals find the focus, systems, and accountability they need to achieve their goals.

 

Keep checking back for more tips, tools, and resources to create those systems and supports and for motivation and inspiration. And if you ever need help setting you goals and perfecting the process to reach them, I’m your business strategist and coach!

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Joy Duling is a business strategist and creator of The Productive Entrepreneur ProgramTM.  If you enjoyed this post, we invite you to explore the resources available at www.theproductiveentrepreneur.com. Each month, Joy presents resources and educational opportunities aimed at helping self-employed, entrepreneurial business owners increase their personal productivity so that they can accomplish BIG goals.

Your Legacy

Have you ever thought about your legacy? What DO you want to hand down to future generations?

It's another one of those personal assessment questions that will help you see how your goals relate to your larger view of yourself and your role in the world. Your reflections to this question and the others we've discussed in recent posts will provide the context to the assessment and planning work that you will undertake as a goal setter.

When faced with challenges, it's incredibly easy to forget about what you want your legacy to be. But, when you set goals that connect with a greater purpose and to the people and priorities that you care about, the goals that you need to set will clearly emerge, the motivation will be ever-present, and your efforts will be rewarded.

When you set goals and make decisions within the context of what is truly important in your life, it' easier to see what really matters and what doesn't. And it will be much easier to set goals that you CAN achieve and that WILL help you move in the right direction.

Think about your legacy, and jot down some thoughts. As you do, you'll be mapping out a path and a plan that will help you set priorities - for yourself and your business.

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Joy Duling is a business strategist and creator of The Productive Entrepreneur ProgramTM.  If you enjoyed this post, we invite you to explore the resources available at www.theproductiveentrepreneur.com.  Each month, Joy presents resources and educational opportunities aimed at helping self-employed, entrepreneurial business owners increase their personal productivity so that they can accomplish BIG goals.

What would you learn?

If you could learn anything, whether by taking a class, engaging in a one-on-one coaching session, spending a day with your mentor, or actually having time to read and study on your own, what would it be?

It’s one of those self-assessment questions I mentioned in my last entry. What do you want to know more about?

Your answer to this question indicates a true interest, a fascination, a real passion in your life. After all, if you would invest time, money, and energy to learn it, it must be important and valuable to you.

Answer this question truthfully and be specific. You can list a number of things, and they can apply to your personal or professional life.  Then prioritize your list. If you really followed through, which one would benefit you the most at this time in your life? Identify it, and you have the makings of a great “goal.”

You know where you are right now. You have a passion, and a desire to know more about it. And, you have an end in mind – an increased knowledge that will benefit you. Now, you just need to fill in the gap.

Here are a few additional personal assessment questions that are intended to initiate thoughts about goals that you want to set for your life:

1.       Who are the most important people in your life right now?

2.       Describe your ideal day.

3.       What would you like your legacy to be?

Close the Gap

Entrepreneurs have many goals in life, or they wouldn’t be setting out on their own to build a business and a way of life. Successful entrepreneurs know what those goals are and have a plan to reach them. As a business coach, I help entrepreneurs ensure success by guiding them through the process of identifying goals and creating plans.

The very thought of “goal-setting” worries many people. It may seem like a big undertaking or require a life-changing epiphany.  If this is you, let me try to simplify it. Think about it this way: Goal-setting is about closing the gap between where you are now and where you want to be. Focus on minimizing the space between your current position and your ideal place.

To think about goal-setting in this way, you must have an accurate understanding of your current situation. You must know what it is that is not working the way you want.

And then, logically, you have to know what you want to be. You have to know exactly what you want to achieve. So, you need to know where you are starting, and you need to know when you have reached the “end,” your goal.

Think about using an Internet tool, such as Mapquest. You cannot map a route without entering both a starting point and a destination. It’s the same way with setting goals.

So where are you at? If you’re ready to start setting goals and bringing about productive, meaningful change, you have to start with a personal assessment of yourself. And it has to be an honest measurement. Here a few questions to get your started:

1.       What roles do you currently play, both personally and professionally?

2.       What’s going well for you now?

3.       What feels like it’s missing?

Stay tuned… I’ll have more personal  evaluation questions in future posts.

June Lunchtime Teleseminar - How to Make Your Competition Irrelevant

As part of my "Productive Entrepreneur Program", I’m doing a series of lunchtime teleseminars about business issues and challenges that you face everyday.

The next teleseminar is Wednesday, June 11th – Noon to 1:00 pm (Central Time).

The topic - “How to Make Your Competition Irrelevant”

If you are available and interested in participating in this call, you'll find all the details here. No RSVP is necessary

If you have specific questions about this topic, please email them to me - joy@a25hourday.com and I'll do my best to address those issues during the call!

Members of my “Productive Entrepreneur” program get free access to the audio file for 30 days following the call. This program gives you a personalized “coaching” section with areas to set your goals, track your progress, find great resources to increase you productivity and earnings, and keep in touch with your personal business coach – me!

Check out my Coaching Console tool by following this link.

I look forward to YOUR participation during the telesemninar!

Tracking Your Activity

Sometimes to be more productive, we have to spend a little time considering what makes us unproductive. Identifying the things that "get in the way" throughout your day will help you decide how to work around them and create a better plan to handle them.

If most of your time is spent on the computer, start tracking your activities. You could install a free clock with a stopwatch and time yourself as you do different tasks. There are number of free stopwatches and time trackers out there on the Web - just try searching for one. If you use Google Desktop, there are also timers that you can add to your side bar or desktop.

You can also try a couple of tools that "almost" automatically track your computer-related activities. RescueTime is a free, web-based program that installs a small tracking device on your computer. Once you create an account, the program will keep track of which applications you are using and how long you use them. Then, you can log in to get all the statistics about how you used your computer, and even have daily or weekly reports sent to you via e-mail. There's no data entry, and you can't forget to stop the clock because RescueTime does that for you. It also features goal tracking and categorizing capabilities.

Another program to try is TimeTraces. TimeTraces installs on your computer and works like a stopwatch.  When you start working, you select the accompanying activity and click the "Start" button.  When you stop, click the "Stop" button.  You can use it to keep track of your working hours and get a better idea of which tasks are consuming the most of your time. It is capable of managing multiple projects and provides up-to-date statistics.

Once you have this data, you can start to analyze your work habits and focus on increasing your productivity. Stay tuned to this blog for more tips on how to do this - we have some great suggestions for delegating and automating!

Joy Duling is a Business Strategist and Managing Director of A 25 Hour Day, LLC.  If you enjoyed this post, we invite you to explore the resources available at www.theproductiveentrepreneur.com. Each month, Joy presents resources and educational teleseminars aimed at helping self-employed, entrepreneurial business owners become more productive and more strategic so that they can accomplish BIG goals.