It's occurred to me lately that I don't feel like there's enough 
time to do everything I want to do in my business. Between 
working with clients, writing books and articles, 
teaching/training other professionals, marketing, and just 
living a good life, there seems to be less and less time in each 
and every day.

As I was thinking about what to write about for this article it 
occurred to me that, perhaps, writing about time management for 
entrepreneurs would be a good topic so here we are.

If you, like me, are feeling a bit crunched by everything you 
want to do, here are some tips and strategies I've used to help 
things move along:

1) Do a life assessment and get clear on your top priorities for 
each day/week/month. I tend to do it daily, and then check it 
again weekly to make sure I'm on track - you might find some 
other combination works better for you. In this process, you get 
clear on where you want to focus your energy and it can help you 
make decisions more quickly if an event arises that is not a 
life priority.  You can more easily decide how or whether to 
focus on it right now.

2) Use the 80/20 rule to your advantage. By now, you've probably 
heard something about this principle which states "80% of your 
success comes from 20% of your efforts" so you, as a small 
business owner, want to figure out where YOUR most profitable 
20% is and spend the majority of your time in those activities. 
For me, my most profitable activities are working with clients, 
creating multiple income streams and creating time each day to 
be inspired. What are yours?

3) Ask for help. If you are a person who feels that you need to 
do everything yourself, this tip might make you uncomfortable. 
I'd encourage you to try this anyway. I've found that, by hiring 
assistance, I'm actually able to produce much more in much less 
time. It's wonderful to feel like my projects are moving ahead 
without my having to follow up on each and every detail. 

4) Automate. As much as possible use technology to your 
advantage. This might mean getting email access on your cell phone 
(if you are in the car a lot) or taking the steps to get your 
website up and running with important information or it might 
mean learning how to use autoresponders or packaging your 
knowledge in such a way that people can purchase it at any time. 
Whatever it is for you, automation is a great way to multiplying 
your efforts. The biggest complaint I hear about this is the 
time involved to set it up. However, the great thing about 
automation is that you set it up once and it runs from there.

5) Simplify. I'm finding that, as I get busier, it's more 
crucial for me to simplify my efforts.  The more I do this the 
easier my business is to run. For example, I've just recently 
moved almost entirely to accepting payments by credit card which 
diminishes the need for frequent bank trips to deposit checks. I 
have also put clients on recurring billing so this saves time 
and effort of invoicing each month. Simplification is a great 
tool for finding more time.

6) Consolidate. You might know, by now, that I run several 
websites and several newsletters. It's becoming more evident to 
me that consolidating some of my efforts would help my business 
run more smoothly. Where are places in your business that you 
could consolidate your efforts and get more return on your 
investment? 

7) Leverage. This concept refers to obtaining multiple uses out 
of materials you've already created. It takes a certain amount 
of skill to do this well, but once you get in the habit, you can 
exponentially multiply your returns from a one-time investment 
of your effort. In creating new materials for your business, 
continually ask yourself, "how can I use this again?"

8) Vision. By staying connected to the big picture/big vision 
for your business, you will be more often inspired and find 
yourself more in "flow". During "flow", you can accomplish great 
things in less time so spending time each day being inspired by 
your vision will help you save time.

9) Chunking. This strategy refers to completing similar types of 
work all at the same time. You might implement this in your 
business by making a running list of calls to return and then 
setting aside a block of time dedicated to accomplishing this 
(or, even better, having one of your assistants accomplish this).  
It's more effective and a better use of energy, where possible, 
to accomplish similar tasks all together. Same goes for writing, 
scheduling clients, etc.

10) Analysis. Keep track of what's working really well in your 
business - what are you feeling proud of? What are customers 
complimenting you for? What should you be doing more of? Also 
keep track of where you feel things could be done better? What 
are customers complaining about? Analyzing your business and its 
progression over time will often point out places where you can 
simplify, consolidate, or change in order to save more time and 
work more easily. 

I hope, after reading this, you've come up with some inspired 
actions that you can take, today, to find more time and create 
more joy in your business. 

Make more money and have more fun!