The Veteran VA

We're all inundated with emails, right?  Not sure how to get control of your inbox?  Here are 3 easy tips.

1.     Create a Specific Time Daily for Reading and Responding to Emails

Part of not being reactive (and creating a great new habit): Set aside a specific time slot for dealing with email. Schedule it in! Give yourself a start and finish time: If you do, you’ll most likely find that you grow much more efficient at getting through them quickly.

And if you find yourself with time to spare after responding to the last one, reward yourself—go sit on the veranda with a glass of iced tea and smell the roses, or go for a walk round the block—whatever fun activity you can fit into the remaining time in your email slot.

2.     Make Email Templates

Do you send the same type of email, over and over? If so, take one of your sent emails (preferably the one that got the best response) and turn it into a generic email...

While there are common causes and reasons for procrastination, there are even more “cures”. Here are 7 ideas to find strategies that work for you.

1.     Banish Guilt

If you’ve been a procrastinator since childhood, it may have been made worse by overly-authoritarian parents or teachers. Procrastination can also be a type of avoidance behavior, where those who feel habitually feel powerless take back personal power in the only way known to them—procrastination on tasks they are ordered to do.

Along with avoidance-based procrastination unfortunately goes its offshoots—guilt and shame. We hear the voices of those authority figures telling us that we “blew it again”, “can’t be depended on”; even all-or-nothing statements like “you’re a complete failure” (usually accompanied by comparisons to a perfect sibling or neighborhood example)—long after we’ve grown up and...

It's really easy as a business owner to get so wrapped up with your clients work that you actually forget about your own business.  Starting up on your own is really exciting and full of promise but if you're not careful the business can soon take over your life, exhaust you and worse still, if you take your eye off the ball, financially ruin you. Poor cash flow is a renowned small business killer.

Here are 5 tips to keep you on track

1. Work out your Figures

You need to be clear exactly how much your overheads are and ensure the prices your are charging to your clients are inline to make you a profit. Produce a spreadsheet, write down all your overheads and look at your prices.  Have you included ALL your overheads? Here's a biggy - REVIEW.  Review your prices and overheads at least quarterly. 

2. Check Your Bank Statement

Are you paying out for something you don't use anymore.  Check your bank statements for regular outgoings and cancel...

Your business is growing and you’ve taken on one or more additional staff members – but are you really maximising their skills and getting the best out of them?

Or, if you’re honest, do you find yourself still doing some of the things you employed them to do?

Perhaps you’re still running round like a headless chicken and yet they seem somewhat under-utilised…. or they are not doing things the way you want them done…. or they are busy doing ‘other things’ …. or you’re so frantic that it is just quicker to do it yourself at the moment…. one day you will sit down with them and show them what to do (but that time never comes, right?!)

Well, help is at hand!

3 Reasons why business owners find it difficult to delegate

Firstly, we have to assume that you have the ‘right people on the bus’ to use that old cliché. If you haven’t, then no amount of delegating will help you. Take appropriate action...

Finding time to work on your own stuff as a business owner can be challenging. Whatever line of work your in, chances are you will still have emails to answer, invoices to raise, marketing your own business, the list goes on.   If you're not quite ready to take on the services of a virtual assistant, which you should seriously consider, here are 5 simple steps to help you get through your own business tasks.

Step 1: Block off 90 minutes every day

It doesn't matter when in the day you block off your 90 minutes, just ensure that that 90 minutes is only for you.  I find first thing in the morning is my best time.

Step 2: Stay focused

Do not become distracted with emails, text messages, phone calls or anything else. Switch all your distractions off.  If you're not planning on emailing, close your inbox down. Switch your phone to voicemail. Get it into your head that THESE 90 minutes are YOURS.  Barricade yourself into a room if you have to if you...