Managing Your Internet Home Business – Finding Time & Focus

Managing your internet business and finding time and focus can be a challenge for just about anyone at one time or another, it has been for me.

It takes planning, research and strategies to achieve success as a business owner, you’re responsible for making important day-to-day operating decisions as well doing the job of writing, selling, marketing, accountant, analyst, etc.

Having all those responsibilities, and a life too, can drain your time and energy.

Here are a few things that have helped  me that I think can help you too.

Save Time Writing  Content

We all know that providing useful content is important but creating great content takes time and isn’t easy for everyone.

It use to take me several hours to put together one blog post, add that to all the other writing I do and that can soak up a good portion of your day.

What I’ve realized is you don’t have to spend hours creating content, there’s an easier way.   

I often use PLR (Private Label Rights) content.  You might say, Liz that’s cheating!  Not really. This isn’t content I buy and just post all over the web, by the way, never do that.

PLR content and articles give me something to work with each morning when I write my first blog post or when I just can get the ideas flowing. You can find PLR for just about any topic you can think of, and it’s ideal for getting content written fast.

I’ll choose an article from a PLR Pack, rewrite the title and header, add my own voice, add a few of my own personal comments, tips or strategies to the body and then sum things up in the end.

I can have a blog post written and published in about 30 minutes; 45 tops, where creating a new post from scratch could take me hours just to come up with an idea.

You won’t want to use PLR for everything, but if you write articles to post to article directories, write guest posts, or have niche sites that needs fresh content added now and then, PLR is ideal for all of that.

Beware: not all PLR content is quality based.  These are the only PLR choices I use:

http://www.homenotion.com/blog/where-to-buy-plr-content-for-your-website/

Put your Email Autoresponder on Autopilot

One of my biggest marketing assets is my email list, but I don’t spend time writing to my list every day.  I do write personal messages every now and then, but for all my niche sites I make full use of my email autoresponder, which means I can load up my autoresponder with pre-written emails that automatically go out to my readers whenever I want them to get their next email.

It takes a bit of time to get the emails created but once they’re done, they’re done, I can move on to something else.

If you you’re overwhelmed with how to create all those email messages and don’t have days and days to create them all, I rely heavily on Lisa Rae Preston’s Instant Niche Emails.  Lisa gives you a year’s worth of emails that you can tailor for whatever your topic.

Simply customize them and toss them into your autoresponder. I’ve saved tons of time doing this.

Stay Organized and Plan

I’m not a natural born organizer but I’ve learned to be out of necessity.  If I can keep my business organized, I can save myself from wasting time and frustration.

But being and staying organized is a conscious effort, you might need to really work at it in the beginning, but once you form that habit, you’ll do it without even thinking.

Also planning and sticking to your plan is huge when it comes to getting things done.  You can’t wake up in the morning, scratch your head and spend 30 minutes deciding what you’ll do today.  Have a plan in place.  If that means planning your day the night before or planning it a week or month in advance, do that.

Have a to do list setting in front of you every day, not a wish list    Your list has to be things you can realistically accomplish in the time you give yourself.

If you have personal things to get done, work them into your list, but plan carefully, paying special attention to the things that are the money makers first, leaving the less important things for last.

So for example, if you’re working on writing an ebook that will be a large source of income when it’s finished, that’s something you’ll want to work on first before doing anything else.

Take a Break and Re-Energize

Believe it or not taking several breaks during the day can save you time and help with focus.

You lose brain power the longer you sit in front of your computer.  It will take longer to get things done if you don’t take a break.

I can be struggling for several minutes on writing a piece of content that I just can seem to get right, but if I get up, go outside take a few deep breaths, do a few stretches, pet my cat, eat a my yogurt or just do something that will take my mind of what I’m doing,  I can come back to my computer and crank out that next bit of content in just a few seconds, amazing how that works.

What things are time wasters for you in your business and how do you manage them?   I know there has to be a few social media complaints out there