1. Create an email signature that states the times you check and respond to email so that your clients/customers know when they can expect to hear from you. Same for voicemail: when people call and receive your message, state when you will respond. Handling client expectations and keeping the lines of communication open, creates less stress for your clients as well as for you.

2. Handling your time management: keep track of your time – setting alarms on your computers will keep you on track. For example: if you’re writing a proposal for a client meeting in a week allow yourself an hour a day. Set an alarm so that you can focus just on that and your mind will be clear of other matters. When that hour is up you will have accomplished a lot and then can move on to other things.

3. If you are doing your own bookkeeping & invoicing, set aside a couple of hours to focus on just that. Again, you can set an alarm on your computer so that you are focused.

4.Set up a Project Management system that works for you. There are both online and offline systems. You need to find the system that works best for you. Are you the type that still likes to write everything down and work with a handwritten planner? Or does working online work best for you? Some online systems, such as ClientSpot have 30 day trials so that you are able to try them out first. They have tasks, projects, calendars, databases all within the tool.

5. Social Media can be extremely overwhelming to learn let alone keep up on your own. If you are not ready to outsource this yet, then I suggest starting out with the basics first: Facebook and Twitter. Set up accounts and start slow. Team up with someone you know already on these tools and ask a lot of questions. Watch and follow what they do. Choose people in your target market and follow them. See what they are doing and see what questions they are asking. If you can respond, start to interact with them. It takes a while to build the “like, know and trust” factor but it can be done after a few weeks. It’s all about building relationships. There are several experts that provide free newsletters with tips and tricks for building your Facebook and Twitter pages.

6. Again, if you are not ready for outsourcing, keeping track of all your meetings as well as your tasks is time consuming. Use what works best for you: an online calendar that syncs with your phone or a handwritten planner that is with you at all times. There are several online calendars – I use Google calendar and sync it with my iPhone. It works perfectly and keeps me on track at all times no matter where I am.

As a solopreneur it is important to have a business plan that details your business goals and strategies. However, keep in mind that your business plan is a work-in-progress, should be reviewed every 6 months as your goals may change. This helps to keep your goals in front of you and keep your motivation moving.

To start off, list the basics of your business.

Business Name:

Tax ID (may be your social security number or EIN):

Business Address:

Business Phone # and Fax:

Established Date:

Website:

Email:

Next, list your primary services offered to your customers.

Who is your target audience?

What are your target audience’s primary problems?

How do your services or products help your target audience?

After these details are worked out, it is time to consider how you will market your products or services to your target audience. How will you attract your audience? These details will spell out your marketing plan – an extremely important part of your online business plan. So what should be included in your marketing plan?

Primary Methods of Marketing:

Will you use direct mail, online marketing, social media, or a mix of several marketing avenues? Experience has shown that the best marketing is a mix – meeting your target audience from several different angles builds the “like, know and trust” factor. They will “see” you several places, know that you are not a fly-by-night operation and help to establish you as an expert in your field.

By specifying your key marketing efforts, will help to determine your budget for marketing and what methods to use to determine how effective your marketing is.

After seeing endless doctors and enduring ultrasounds, CT Scans and an MRI, doctors finally determined that the problem was my gall bladder and decided that it needed to be removed. I spent four days in the hospital after initially being admitted to the hospital due to severe dehydration from not being able to keep food or even water in my system for over a week. I could barely walk let alone function to work or do anything else. Thank God they finally figured out the problem and fixed it!

If I was still working in a corporate job this could have caused some serious issues in my “j-o-b”. Luckily, I am a small business owner and as an online business owner, I am able to work the hours that suit me best.
So, what do you do when something like this happens to you? How do you keep your business moving and growing, while taking care of your clients/customers so that you don’t lose them in the process of trying to take care of yourself? You create systems!

You put systems in place for many reasons, including during times when you are incapacitated. These systems also come in handy when you want to take a vacation or get away for a day. When systems are in place, your business can continue to function and grow without you even being there.

The first and most important system to have in place, especially in case of emergencies is your communication system. You must KEEP THE LINES OF COMMUNICATIONS OPEN with everyone – your clients, your team and your colleagues!
When I started feeling sick, I let my clients know immediately what was happening. I have an amazing support team!
Each of them knew from the beginning what was going on. Each member knew what they had to do in order to keep my businesses running. My Virtual Assistant (VA) knew what each of my clients needed; she knew my schedule and what needed to be canceled or postponed. I was the one that kept my clients informed, not my VA. I felt it was very important for the communication in this situation to come directly from me to my clients, not from my VA. I notified my closest colleagues. They are, after all, a very important part of my support system. Each one of them jumped right in and offered help, in whatever capacity I needed. They were there for me, just as I would be for each of them.

Consider what would happen if you were admitted to the hospital without little warning or had a family emergency that required a quick response – leaving little to no time for communication to your clients or team. You need a system in place for that type of situation too. I’m a Plan B person. I always have a backup plan in my back pocket for every situation. I can come up with something on a moment’s notice.

You need to be upfront with your clients and discuss the system you have in place for “emergencies.” If you work virtually, as I do, you need an email and voicemail system. Your email signature should state your response time (within 24 or 48 hours, for example) and your voicemail should state when you check your voicemail and when people can expect a return phone call. This is just common courtesy and great customer service. If you are unavailable, your team will know to check your email and voicemail as specified by your system.

If you and your clients do not speak daily, your system and backup plan should specify who would be responsible for contacting your clients. I had asked my husband, for example, to let certain people know (via email) if I ended up in the hospital and didn’t have time to notify anyone. He had a list of names with email addresses and knows how to get into my laptop and send email from my email system. In this situation, he would have emailed my VA and she would have communicated the seriousness of the situation to my clients.

You don’t want your clients or customers to think you’ve just vanished from the face of the earth or that you’ve (for whatever reason) stopped communicating with them. This does not bode well for you. They may understand later on when they find out what happened, but during the situation they will not be happy and you don’t want that.
If you don’t have a VA or online business manager, then you need someone you can rely on to notify your clients.

So, keep the lines of communication open as much as possible and always have a Plan B in the works – you never know when you will need it!

While we may not be superwoman, we can get a lot done with systems in place. Think for a moment about your morning routine. What systems do you have in place to get your kids off to school on time? We all use systems in some area of our lives, so why should our business be any different?

If you are currently an online business owner, how much time do you spend checking your emails? At the end of the day, do you feel like you haven’t really accomplished much? Time management is one of the most crucial systems to put into place when working from home. It is very difficult for many business owners to divide work time from family time and personal time; yet they are each vitally important.

My coaching clients and I often work on time management together. To return to my earlier email question, the majority of clients that I have worked with have had the habit of spending too much time checking and responding to emails. In order to address this, I suggest scheduling email checking times. For example, one of my clients online office hours are from 9am to 4pm. She had a very difficult time managing her time. After having her breakdown her day, we discovered that she was spending 70% of her time checking and responding to emails. So I suggested checking her email three times per day at 9am, noon and 3:30pm – right before her work day ends. I am happy to report that she is having much more productive days.

Another piece of time management is putting communication methods in place; not just email systems. Your voicemail should be systemized – on the same schedule as your email. Have a specific time for responding to calls. Let your clients know on your voicemail message what time you return calls.

Time management can be difficult to put into place at first, but it is crucial to your success; without time management you will find yourself spinning your wheels all too often. Next week I will focus on business marketing systems.

To your success,

Cindy Clark