Learn and Practice Time Management

Greetings from the frigid North,

Thanks first of all for posting another great comment!!

I have been listening to some tapes that discuss what it takes to be successful. It was taped in a room full of millionaires. They all agree on several things and one of them is that to be successful, you have to manage your time.

Yes, there are things that throw you off track, even if you have a plan. I wrote this blog two times already. I wrote it in an airport terminal in one part of the country, but it didn't save and I had to turn my Blackberry off on the plane. Then I tried again last night and it wouldn't post. I wasted time and it wasn't my fault. But I had it prioritized and came back to it when I could. I had a plan.

How many of you plan tomorrow the day before? How many of you have daily things that you do every single day before you go to bed that will help your business? Most franchisees I talk to don't have a plan. They know more or less what they will probably do. Never have I had one say that they will do "this at 7, then this at 10, then this at 11, etc" . Even the ones that are semi-structured during the main part of the day are not structured in the mornings and evenings. And then they wonder why they don't get things done.

I talked to a franchisee yesterday that said "I hardly have any customers right now, so I have lots of free time to slack off and do whatever I want to do until I get busy". What about getting busy getting customers? If you don't have enough customers to keep busy, then you need to be working on your marketing.

What takes up your time during the day and can someone else do it? That is what you need to ask yourself. If you don't have enough customers and you spent yesterday putting gas in your car, mowing the yard, going to the PO, checking E-mail, picking up the kids, etc, you are not using your resources wisely. Pay a high school person or someone to run your errands, and get some customers. Go to a business networking group or business social group and meet some new people to buy whatever it is you are selling instead of watching TV or playing fantasy football. If you have all the money you need and want and all the customers you need and want, then never mind. If you need money, you need customers, and they aren't going to come to your house and stop you while you wash your car and ask you if they can buy something.

If you own a business, you make a decision several times a day whether or not to use your time to grow your business or just cruise along. If you are thinking about buying a franchise, you have to be able to look in the mirror and truthful decide if you can focus on a business and make good choices with your time everyday.

Fran