subject: How To Start A Bookkeeping Business, Your Time Management Skills [print this page] It is amazing how some people who are usually great time managers go into business for themselves and suddenly find they do not have enough hours in the day, or work in crisis mode, slacking off for weeks and then working all night to get jobs finished on time, or worse constantly asking for extensions! If you are setting up a bookkeeping business, good time management skills will be essential.
If you do find yourself in your pjyamas at 9am, make it a point of being ready for work at 9am. If you have set up your business to be flexible and work around other commitments, that's fine if you don't start at 9am, but make sure you start when you have it on your schedule. As part of our prior processes you understand how many hours you need to work to meet your budgets or income targets. Even if you don't have clients at this stage, you can be following up prospective clients, writing letters, making calls and attending to business queries. Start working the hours you will be when you do have clients. Developing your business will take time and effort and you need to start managing your time.
Conversely, many people who set up their own business find they work very long hours in the early stages. If this is the case you also need to be careful about your time management. Stick to a to do list or schedule so you can get all the tasks achieved, but be realistic about what can wait until tomorrow.
If you are working from home and find you are constantly going back to your office space during family time, or down time, be ruthless. Lock yourself out of your office, get someone to take your lap top or go out and leave your mobile at home. If something is really urgent, fine attend to it, but know what constitutes urgent or are you just obsessing about what needs to be done?
It is important to ensure you have a work life balance especially in the early stages. Draw up a schedule for the day or week. Block family time or friend's time, client work time, client follow up time and importantly, your own administration time. Stick to your schedule when at all possible. After all you stick to it for clients, so make your time just as important.
It is also important to remind yourself why you went into business in the first place. It may have to do with a work life balance, time with family or flexibility. If so you need to remember that your own time management will assist achieving these types of goals.
Find ways to work smarter not harder. If you use public transport to get to clients, you can use the time by reading publications or accounting or bookkeeping newsletters, business magazines or the business section of the paper. Any spare time you have that would usually be wasted you can use to your advantage. Make phone calls, if appropriate, or even pay bills to stay in track of your own paperwork. Your own time is very valuable and you need to treat it accordingly.
