Setting Business Hours

Whether or not you are working on your business along side a full time job, or it is your full time/only job, you need to set business hours. One of the dangers of having your own home-based business is that you can get sucked in to working 24 hours a day. Because most of the work can be done online or from your phone, it's always within arms reach.  But that's dangerous for many reasons.

1. It tells your customers you are always available to them and they will continue to expect an immediate response.
2. There is no work/life balance. The whole reason you started your business was for some freedom right?
3. It's harder to be present with your family and friends. It's very distracting to be "on" all the time. You need to learn to turn it off.
4. You will get more done if you have set time to work on your business and be productive. The busier I am, the more focused I am during business hours.

HOW TO DO IT

Working a Full Time Job:

• Get up 30 minutes early to get a few things done before going to work
• Use your commute time to work for personal development or conference calls
• Lunch Hour - use your lunch hour as your "Power Hour" (I will do a post about that later this week) and get as much work done at one time
• TV time in the evenings - go through your DVR and remove all of the shows you don't even really like. Use that time to work on your business.

Working Your Business Full Time:

• Decide what hours of the day you will work - for me that's while my kids are at school
• Don't work outside those hours
• Communicate those hours to your colleagues and customers and team members

In both scenarios, be sure to communicate to people when are you available for phone calls, and don't be a slave to emails or FB messages. Tell people I only check messages/emails once a day at this time of day so if you need something urgently, don't email it to me.  The people who are important to you should have your phone number or a way to reach you if it's urgent.