If you are like most entrepreneurs, you likely struggle to save time. You know you should be working “on” your business, and not just “in” your business, but it's hard to find the time. Every morning when you arrive at work you get right to putting out fires for the first couple of hours. Customers are screaming for your attention. Staff needs to be managed. Banking needs to be done. There are a 1000 tasks that are demanding your time.
Here are some great time saving techniques to help you get more done in a day and reach your goals for success.
#1 Use A CRM To Save Time
A Customer Retention Management system (like Keap or Hubspot) is a huge time saver. How many times do you answer questions from clients in a day? And how many times are those the same questions? Wouldn't it be great if you could write that answer out one time and save it some place where you could just instantly send that email to a customer when they're asking that question? Do you see how that would save time? A good customer retention management system will allow you to do that. It will also allow you to have a lot of other systems created for your business. This looks after those repetitive tasks that you continually do. How much time do you spend searching for something? You know that a prospect told you that you should call him in 3 months. But you can't remember how many months ago it was when he said that. A good CRM allows you to create a task that will remind you later what you are supposed to do to save time. You stop forgetting things and you make the money that was coming to you without missing a beat. The CRM not only saves you time, it also makes you money. It should be able to coordinate with an email campaign that keeps customers coming back and another one that brings new leads into your marketing vortex. It is earning for you as you are learning how to use it.
#2 Time Blocking To Save Time
You know that you need to get the content written for the website designer to get it up on the website, but you never have time to get this job done. You know that writing a book would be good for your business but you never have time to get the writing done. You really wanted to start a project where you call all of your previous customers but you haven't even had time to figure out who should be on that list and what kind of a script you're going to use. You know that you need to create an automated system to reach out to your new customers and educate them about what you do and give them tips to keep them interested in you over the long term. All of these things are projects. Projects take an hour or more. Some projects like writing a book will take several hours, weeks or even months. The way to get these projects done is to time block.
At the beginning of each week look at your calendar and see what spaces you should be booking phone calls to customers or prospects. If you pick an hour twice a week to be making phone calls and you write it in your day timer or block the time you will considerably increase the amount of sales calls that you make and that will increase your revenue. Then look for a period of time that is 2 to 3 hours long that you can use to work on a larger project like writing a chapter of a book, or figuring out who needs to be called for your latest updates.
Mark that time out in your calendar and consider it a date with yourself. It is of the highest priority and therefore should not be bumped for any reason. If somebody calls you and asks if they can see you during that time, you need to consider it as an appointment that is already booked. Another time has to be worked out. When you are working during a time block you don't take phone calls, and you don't answer e-mails, and you don't respond to notifications that are coming in on your phone or your computer. This is how you get a lot done in your designated time.
#3 Use Online Networking To Save Time Marketing Your Business
All businesses need to be marketing. Without it you run out of customers. Networking is an extremely cost effective form of marketing where you can be in control of your outcome and it will save time. If you need face-to-face appointments in order to make money there is no better place to get face-to-face appointments than being part of a weekly ongoing networking group. A live group where people meet in a restaurant takes a lot of time. There is driving time to get there and driving time home. Volunteerism is required in these groups. Meetings are had before and after the actual meeting which can be an hour and a half in length. Since time is money, consider online networking instead. You stay at your desk and log on 3 minutes before the meeting and are back at work at the end of an hour. The cost savings is also thousands of dollars less each year. The return is generally 10 times what you put into it financially and the connections you make will save time as you meet professionals that help you get things done faster and more profitably all around.
Save Time With Kerry George
As the CEO at CIBN Connect, Kerry George inspires business owners with vision and passion and allows them to thrive in every circumstance.
Kerry is a professional networker who has attended over 6000 networking meetings and has been a keynote speaker for hundreds of online and live events.
As you can imagine, a few things have gone wrong in running that many events. Kerry always keeps a sense of humor during the chaos, which has allowed her to continuously be in good spirits to help other entrepreneurs work through their stuff. (linkedin.com/in/kerrygeorge)