The Secret Time Management Question You Need to Know as a Woman in Business

Women Business Owners: What’s the Secret Time Management Question you need to know? Are you like most women who struggle with “TIME MANAGEMENT”?

As a Money Coach I ask women to check in when feeling unfocused or stressed about work, with this SECRET Time Management Question “Is the activity I’m doing right now REVENUE producing?”  Boom! Don’t ignore your answer or make excuses or answer that text to distract yourself. Just listen to your answer. That’s right – If you’re not able to stay focused and keep your attention on revenue producing activities during your workday – why are you in business? Remember the saying? If we’re not making money, we have a hobby business. Yikes.

Financial Coaches and experts say that, depending on our profession, we want 20-30% of our time each day spent on specific revenue producing activities. Do you know how much of your time is going exactly where? If not, do you know how to figure that number out? See Bonus Discovery Session below and I’ll personally help you.

3 Time Management Ground Rules:

Do you have any limiting beliefs about your time and money? These ground rules in place for answering emails and attending to work related social media? The first rule is to keep to business only during the workday. Second Rule: Turn off automatic pings or alerts for email or texts -TOO DISTRACTING. I never have them on.

Rule Three: Have regular times you call people back or answer emails. I suggest first thing in the morning, mid afternoon – just after lunch - and evening before you quit for the day. Try these  simple rules for the next 30 days – they will make a big FOCUS difference for you.

BONUS: I am now offering a Complimentary PowerUP Your Money & Your Business Discovery Session to get at the heart of your money & business challenges to be able to manifest breakthroughs. This session is all about helping you know what’s working with your money & your business and where the breakthrough is for you. There’s no obligation or pressure.

Guarantee:  I will help you answer the Revenue question – how much of my day – EXACTLY – is Revenue Producing. And, I guarantee you will get an answer to the Revenue question or one other burning money or business question during the Discovery Session.

Call Lynn at 209 492-8745 to set up your personal appointment now, or email at lynntelfordsahl@gmail.com  

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Certified Money & Business Coach, Professional Speaker & author, Lynn Telford-Sahl, writes the weekly PowerUP Your Money blog for women in sales and small business. If you’re ready to PowerUP your Money, your Business & your JOY get your FREE Strategy Session with Lynn at www.joywithmoney.com

Women in Business 3 or More Years - Assess What's Working - What's Not?

If you're a woman in business and you've been in business 3 years or more January is a great time to assess how it's going. You're hitting the crucial 3 to 5 year mark where, I'm sorry to say this, most businesses fail. Or, your business may bump along, more in the way of a hobby than a real business.

First assessment question: Are you making money?  If not, then your business is a hobby. If that's true, don't despair.  This is when you get serious about how to make your business profitable, or decide you're ok with a part time business that's fun, but not necessarily making money.

Here's the big question: What's Working and What's Not Working about your business?  Now, sit down and make a list first of what's working. Really, right now. Give yourself credit for what's going well and the Not Working list tells you where you need help. Keep the not working list short and those become your goals to fix in 2014.

One area to assess is your  Power Team. Do you have a CPA, bookkeeper, Attorney, Assistant, Coach on your team? Here's a hint - in the beginning you can do your books yourself - but it takes time away from being in front of clients or prospecting. As soon as possible - DELEGATE that task to a bookkeeper. Not a CPA - use the CPA for your tax preparation and any questions you have. That's a good use of your dollars and will make you money. When I did that my income went up.

Other areas to assess include:  Sales, sales follow-up, systems including time management (watch out for email, Facebook time wasters), bookkeeping, bill paying, procedures and polities, forms or templates particular to your business. For example, I have templates set up for new clients where I insert information and send. My assistant can do this work also.

We've all heard the phrase that most of us work too hard IN our business with the daily activities and don't spend enough time working ON our business, which is the planning and strategizing for success.  In our business is the small picture  -  ON our business is the big picture.  

At the heart of my business I want to make money, of course, but my goal is to have FUN. I totally agree with Colleen C. Barrett, American Businesswoman that “Work is either fun or drudgery. It depends on your attitude. I like FUN."  

Check out Lynn's FREE monthly Webinar: Step on the Gas Pedal 

Want to use this article in your newsletter or website? 

You can, as long as you include this complete blurb with it:

Certified Money & Business Coach, Professional Speaker & author, Lynn Telford-Sahl, writes the weekly PowerUP Your Money blog for women in sales and small business. If you’re ready to PowerUP your Money, your Business & your JOY get your FREE Strategy Session with Lynn at www.joywithmoney.com

More Money Will Make You Happier?

More Money Will Make You How Much Happier?  There is so much pressure in our society to always go after MORE, more, more money. Addictive, anyone?  

But, research shows that after someone’s earning $75,000 a year, more money, even a lot more, doesn’t make them any happier. Well, a little bit happier – about 9% happier.

So, if it’s not true that MORE money will make you happier, what is the truth? According to Happy Money authors Elizabeth Dunn & Michael Norton, (two Harvard professors), there are 3 keys to being happier with your money: 

1) Buy experiences vs. stuff. When students were asked to think about 4 material purchases and 4 experiential purchases and to draw circles and place those circles around a larger circle called SELF - depending on how closely linked each purchase was to their sense of self, the experiential purchases won hands down as being more important.

2)  Make it a treat & SAVE money. If you go to Starbucks every day and spend $5.00 it’s expensive and it’s less of a treat than 1x a week. Try this:  Try limiting your visits to 3x a week or 1x a week for that special latte. and drink regular coffee the other days.  I tell my 5 year old granddaughter Shelby that she can have 2 Hershey kisses after her nap – she looks forward to those and enjoys them thoroughly and rarely asks for more.  Treats have Value. Bonus: How much $$ can you SAVE a week with just that simple adjustment?

3) Buy Time:  One stressed, over-working mother of two children, hamsters and hubby bought a Roomba to help with housework. The $300.00 purchase saved this household time in cleaning and stress. 

Time Affluence: Everyone feels overly busy and you may be shocked, as I was, to hear this bit of research, but the time crunch is due in good part to financial prosperity. In general America is wealthier now than 50 years ago. “Wealthier individuals spend more of their time on higher stress activities shopping, working and commuting." 

”TIME SCARCITY”: increases the value of what’s perceived as scarce: As incomes rise, time seems more valuable!!

The authors recommend not using money to get more time, but to value happier time as an end in itself. Switch the focus from making more money to having more time. Ah...feel better?