MAKE GROWING YOUR BUSINESS A HABIT

I was invited to speak about my Bonanzle business on the Monday Night podcast called Brainstorming Bonanzle, co-hosted by Auction Wally and Phaedra and was very honored to do so. This is a weekly podcast sponsored by Auction Wally at Talkshoe from 8:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. EST. We have so many participating members at Bonanzle, this is a perfect forum to put our heads together, share ideas and work on ways to build or grow our businesses at Bonanzle.

After the show, each podcast is stored, both audibly and in chat room format, and maintained by another Bonanzle member, DeDe of Brightest Blessings. When you visit the Brainstorming Bonanzle site, you will an wonderful Avatar for us, done by the very talented Bonanzle member, Jamiro. I just love the orange ideas popping out of our heads!

So, I thought I'd share a few of my ideas for time management with you, dear reader. As with anything offered up by anyone on the internet or elsewhere, take what you can and make use of it, but only if it works for you! How do you know if it will work for you? Try the idea out for a few days; try it on for size; adjust or discard to your needs. Okay, so here are some of the points I think are important.

MAKE GROWING YOUR BUSINESS A HABIT

First thing everyday I
- check my regular emails for sales or inquiries that need immediate attention;
- check my Bonanzle mail for the same things;
- update my booth message DAILY! Something simple, such as "Good Tuesday morning" is sufficient;
- blog - ideas, post, research, etc.;
- check other sites I may participate in.

MAKE IT FUN

If you're not having fun doing what you're doing, then you need to consider why you are doing it. Fun doesn't necessarily mean you are chuckling all day; what I mean is that you enjoy it (whether it's listing, doing research, gleaning info from forums and other social networking sites) and that it contributes in a positive way to what you want to accomplish in your business. Hard work doesn't have to be a drag.


ORGANIZE AND PRIORITIZE

I keep ONE steno pad by my keyboard. ALL NOTES of any kind go in this notebook, including new passwords, websites, etc. Even my grocery items I may need to add to the original list. (Later in the day or when I have a moment, I can transfer the info from the steno book into the appropriate place and cross it off the list in the notebook). The idea is to keep me on track, instead of going helter-skelter, chasing links and ideas until I totally forget where I started and where I was going. In other words, STAY ON TASK! Take a break, walk around, have a cup of coffee, but go back to were you left off and keep moving on with that task.

Note the things you would like to participate in. I would like to do more RSS feeds, more SEO optimization, learn more about Twitter and decide if it's for me, use the new promotion tools available at Bonanzle (awesome things like an auto Craig Lister tool and the Google attribute tool).

I know that my time is limited and I can't possibly do everything, but I try to spend some time each day or week looking into things that might work for me.

KNOW YOUR STRONG POINTS AND WEAK POINTS

And work with them, instead of fighting them. My strengths are organization, keeping master lists of everything, and being disciplined about the time I have. My weaknesses are many, the greatest among them is HATING TO FILE PAPER! Isn't that silly? Organized but doesn't want to file? Yep, but it's a biggy for me.


DON'T COMPARE YOUR EFFORTS WITH ANYONE ELSE'S

In the beginning days at Bonanzle, this was a real problem for me. I would read about all these great people who had six booths, two or three blogs, listed in Craig's List every day, belonged to every group available to them on the net and thought if I didn't do all those things, I wouldn't be a success! To this I say, NONSENSE! It took me awhile, but I finally realized that I needed to be realistic about what I COULD do, would be interested in doing and what would help MY business. As a result, I am a happier business person.


BE REAL ABOUT WHAT TIME YOU DO HAVE EACH DAY

I try very hard not to overload myself with expectations of what I can do for the business on days when I have to take my mother to the doctor, or I have appointments, or I'm not feeling well. Which leads to my final point:


READJUST YOUR TIME SCHEDULE IF IT'S NOT WORKING

And that means on the fly if necessary! There are just some days when the neighbor decides to visit for an hour, the water main breaks, the Internet connection goes down - we could go on and on. Life happens. Feel free to reevaluate and reprioritize as needed. Don't feel guilty; don't despair. There is a reason for everything!

So, that's my story and I'm sticking to it!

Make your business a fun habit, something you look forward to; organize and prioritize, know your strengths and weakness and let them work for you, not against you; temper your expectations with reality; and most important of all -

MAKE EVERY DAY JUST THE BEST IT CAN BE - IN EVERY ARENA OF YOUR LIFE!