Map Your Time and Make Your Life Work (business leadership coaching)
No commentsBy Ben Needles
For women starting a small business — especially women who have a zillion other things to do like tend to children and home and partner — how you map your time is going to mean the difference between sanity and serenity or guilt and go nuts.
I feel like a phony as I write this. After all, I am no one to talk about time mapping or management as I still am in respond to crises as they come mode.
However, I have recently been introduced to Julie Morgensterns Time Management from the Inside Out, second edition: The Foolproof System for Taking Control of Your Schedule–and Your Life. What Ive gotten from this book is a new system and approach to time.
First of all, time is not to be managed nor saved nor even spent. Time just is. And it is our experience of it that creates problems! So I have adopted Julies time mapping concept and now have a general map of the day/week on the wall behind my desk. At any given time I can look up at the current time slot to see what kinds of activities I said I should be doing at this time. If its 7:45 a.m., for example, Im going to be having family time with my 3-1/2 year old son, my 9-month old and my husband.
At around 9:30 a.m. my work hours begin. I will work consistently until it is again family time around 12:30. My son and I will enjoy lunch together and perhaps read a book and snuggle in for an afternoon nap.
Mind you, I cannot always abide by the map Ive created for myself. It is evolving, a work-in-progress. But what I see as possible with this new approach to my business/personal life, is that while Im with my children, Im not feeling resentful or anxious that I havent gotten to my work. And while Im doing my work, Im not feeling guilty or frustrated that I cant spend time with my children.
This alone is the first major breakthrough Im experiencing because I had gotten to a point where my day was pretty much joyless because of all the angst. Now I know there is a time allotted for each activity and I can take a stand for each.
I can also see clearly where I have given minimal amount of time for myself — allowing myself some leisure, reading a book, taking a nap, watching Dr. Phil or getting a pedicure. Whatever it is. While Ive built a sliver of self time into my week, I can now see — visually — where there could be more.
FYI, I used a simple Excel spreadsheet to create this map. I used color formatting for the different cells to code the activities.
This week Im also having a breakthrough in fun and leisure. Im taking off one day to take my son to Sesame Place. I have — unbelievably — absolutely no guilt or anxiety over the fact that I wont be getting any work done that day. Pretty unbelievable. I give credit to my time map as I can see where there is plenty of work time scheduled in this week and I will get to it.
Im also thinking in terms of dancing close to the revenue line, another concept Morgenstern discusses in her book Never Check E-Mail In the Morning: And Other Unexpected Strategies for Making Your Work Life Work. Many successful entrepreneurs talk about this idea of putting your money-making activities first.
We are all so prone to getting into our email and the daily minutiae and wrapping up of loose ends, the real meat of our business often gets squeezed into the next time slot, and the next and the next.
Julie talks about doing the top revenue-boosting thing before 10 a.m. in the morning. That way, if your whole day goes to pot, you will be sustained by that productive and effective spurt you had first thing in the morning.
And after all, the reason were in business for ourselves is to enjoy our lives and experience freedom on a daily basis. Now then, Im off to enjoy my life!
About the Author (text)
After multiple layoffs Kennerly launched her first business in 2001. She now helps others recognize the entrepreneur within and launch their own home businesses. http://time-2-start-a-business-from-home.com
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Starting a investing plan doesn’t take a lot
By auctionsdir
One of the main reasons that people put off saving and investing is that they don’t think they have the money to do it. However, starting a savings plan doesn’t take a lot of money or financial knowledge. With a few easy steps, you can start investing for your future today.
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Step #1: Write down your goals.
If you are thinking about how nice it would to be rich, that’s nice. It may have gotten you to thinking about investing, but you will need something more to keep you on the path to success. You need goals.
A goal is what will keep you motivated. Sit down and identify your goals. You may only have two main goals: send your children to college and retire comfortable. These are the best goals you can have. But go ahead and throw a goal in that is purely selfish. You may want to go to Europe one day. Perhaps you want to buy a boat or a cabin in the mountains. Whatever your goal is, write it down. This is essential in savings. You have to know what you are saving for.
Don’t just write your goals down, work on making them come true. Look at your goals often. Put them on your computer, tape them to the refrigerator, put a post it in your wallet. Remember that every dollar you spend is taking you away from your goal. Every dollar you save puts you closer.
Step #2: Find the money to invest.
This seems to be the most difficult step for most people. That is because they just look at it and give up. You don’t need a lot of money to start investing, so don’t give up just yet. All you need is a few dollars a week to start. Look at your monthly budget. Where can you cut back a few dollars in order to invest. You’ll be surprised at how quickly a little bit of money can add up over time.
If you save $25 a month for 30 years, and earn a 8% annual return on your investment, you will have $29,346.47. Not enough to retire on, but certainly enough to go to Europe. If you can invest $25 dollars a week for 30 years, you end up with $127,953.53. The more you save and invest, the more interest you will earn. Think about it, by just giving up your morning coffee on the way to work and investing the money you are able to build a sizable investment.
Run an online investment calculator to see just how much you could save by simply cutting back on your spending. Investing doesn’t take a lot of money. You can invest a small amount and give it time to grow. Actually, you are better off investing a little at a time than letting it build up in your savings account for ten years and then investing it.
If you find that it is difficult for you to save, you need to pay yourself first. Set up an automatic withdrawal each month from your checking account to your investing account. This means that you pay your savings just as you would a bill. No more excuses. You can’t put it off just one more month.
Step #3: Manage your investments wisely.
I know that it is every person’s dream to make a fortune on the stock market. However, the greedy often fall hard. You have to manage your investments wisely in order to meet your goals. Investing for the long term is a wise way to mitigate the risk that is associated with the stock market. Over time, the stock market goes up and down. However, history shows us that it usually goes up a little higher than it goes down. In thirty years, you could see as much as a 10% return on your investments.
But that doesn’t mean that you invest and forget. You have to review your investments periodically to make sure that they are performing to your standards. What are your standards? That depends on your risk level and goals. Take the time to educate yourself on the proper way to manage your long term investments. Just a week or so of reading can give you the knowledge necessary to make your financial goals a reality.
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For updated information on investments please visit this site.
Its Important To Get Your Business Credit Checked
By Ben Needles
People also refer business credit check as commercial credit report. It is an account of the credit activities of small businesses and companies. It shows the credit facilities used by these companies to make them able to pay their debts. Various consumer companies produce business credit checks to lenders, who request for them.
Business credit check is an investigation executed in a private record. This database stores companies payment history concerning diverse loans available from various lenders. Business credit checks help in revealing late payments, NSF checks and other faults. This alerts the creditor about a potential risky loan to the business. The business credit checks regularly send a credit score reporting the companys credit worthiness.
Importance of Business Credit Checks:
Every company tries to have a good credit to increase the eligibility options to apply for more credit in the future. This creates a healthy relationship with their creditors. This good relationship is necessary for them, so that they can easily access loans from creditors to expand the scope of their business. Therefore, a company frequently checks its business credit report for any faults.
It almost becomes mandatory for lenders to investigate every companys business credit record before doing business with them. This reduces the risks involved in deals. Business credit checks give the background data, financial data and any other vital data of trade of the company.
It becomes crucial for companies and small traders to ascertain the contents of the business credit report. They need to check, if they are up-to-date and accurate. The business credit checks decide the level of business that an individual has in the market. Many lenders and prospective clients make use of this facility, before committing a possible transaction with a company.
According to various account professionals, 20 percent of the clients lend the amount that is equal to 80 percent of the turnover of the companies. These clients conduct business credit checks for such companies
There are numerous credit reference agencies providing business credit checks to trades. These agencies provide the client with data such as full legal company details, company accounts, court judgments, recommended credit ratings and credit limits. Client can also search for credit reference agencies with a full online database, which delivers instant business credit checks for them.
Small Business Owners and Business Credit Checks:
Many small business owners operate completely on faith of customer references as credit checks. The only problem with using reference as credit check is that the small business.
About the Author (text)
Dtranscriptors writes Articles on diverse topics ranging from Business to Health Articles and Real estate to Poker Articles. To find out more contact at http://dtranscriptors.googlepages.com
Saturday, September 27th, 2008 at 12:45 pm and is filed under business. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
