Sustainable time management tips for the self-employed & entrepreneurs: More money through efficiency & sustainability

Time management is only something for people who have too much time, many think, especially the self-employed - and overlook the fact that efficiency and sustainable management are essential to the success of a company Company contributes.

How self-organization and time management significantly contribute to the success of your business

You may have heard of time management before, but never had the time to explore it. But as a self-employed person you should, because time is of the essence Money – and it's your money and time that you're wasting on poor work organization, not your boss's money. The worldwide productivity study by the American management consultancy Proudfoot Consulting proves every year how this can affect:

In German companies, an average of 32,5 days a year are wasted - due to management errors such as too much administration, double work and endless conferences. Time is money: Germany loses 170 billion euros a year Economy through this. The Germans are still in a good position in an international comparison: Worldwide, 30 percent of the hours worked are spent unproductively.

Optimize processes: Work organization under control

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Maybe you're just a relatively small business, maybe even a one-man operation with a very manageable size Structure and a few more orders. But the higher the sales figures of your company, the more customers it has and the more orders you have to process simultaneously, i.e. the more your company grows, the more important it becomes that you have your work organization under control.

Because the bigger you get, the more work you have to do: The bureaucracy increases, for example due to demands from the tax office or hiring employees, you have to create more files, manage more projects, keep track of more appointments and much more. Then it is good if you have worked in a well-organized and structured manner from the outset, ideally right from the start of your project Foundation. Because once the wrong working techniques become established, it is all the more difficult to change this behavior afterwards.

Ecological business on the rise

An equally important aspect today is sustainable, ecological management: More and more entrepreneurs understand how important it is to actively engage in environmental protection and to take these activities outside. Because entrepreneurs are an important pillar of Society.

the environmentally conscious, efficient Organization of all work processes needs to be well planned and thought through. Use phases in which you have few orders to use time management techniques to practice and Sustainability to implement instead of just sitting around waiting for new customers. Then you are prepared when you are suddenly overwhelmed by orders and customers.

Work organization under control = company under control

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But even if you intend to remain a micro-enterprise, it's important to get your time management under control: the better you plan your time, the more you can achieve in the time you have available. Because the success of your company does not only depend on your professional competence: "Those who have their work organization under control also have their company under control", says a (light modified proverb. Not without reason: because what advantage do you have if you have a lot of orders but only get little money for them because you have not correctly assessed your time requirements and have negotiated poorly? Or what do you get if you earn well but have forgotten important dates at the tax office? And what's in it for you if you do competently and are committed, but important decisions keep coming back put off and thereby customers verlieren?

The health suffers

But not only productivity, but also yours Health suffers from poor time management. “Of course,” you will say, “everyone has Stress, it's totally normal these days. If you have time, you are doing something wrong”. In fact, it's fashionable, especially among business founders, to be rang several times a day by mobile phone or to complain about the constant stress. But does that make sense? The fact is: If you don't take regular breaks, you won't stay healthy and therefore productive in the long run. And that puts the company's success at risk again. So make sure you have a balanced one Balance between work and privacy and separate the two – as a self-employed person, this is not that easy, as you may have noticed. Only then can you be motivated and enjoy working in the long term.

As a self-employed person, you have a clear advantage when it comes to structuring your work organization: You are not dependent on the specifications of a supervisor, but rather yourself Executive and can organize the way that suits you best. However, this also has a disadvantage: you practically have to organize yourself, no one is forcing you to work and no one is stopping you from working too much. And you have to make all the decisions yourself. That can be stressful in the long run.

Organization helps to work more productively

After all, optimal work organization not only helps you to work better and more productively, but also to convince others of your qualities. Like an optimal Effect on others, be it Employees or customers, is practically also the result of good self-organization. Because: others People notice insecurities very much fast – whether the now missing Motivation and Set are or have poor planning and preparation of your work. The more motivated and convinced you are of yourself and the more organized and prepared you are to meet others, the more competent you appear to the outside world and the better you can convince others of yourself. And the more organized you work yourself, the better and more efficiently you can plan and carry out work processes with others.

You find time management techniques cumbersome and believe they have no time for that? This only seems to you at the beginning. Research shows that you have to practice a technique twenty-one times before it becomes flesh-and-blood. Then do it automatically! Your previous, possibly less effective way of working, you have learned at some point. Just try something new!

Steps to successful time management

Good work organization therefore affects the success of your company in several ways. Take a look at the following examples of typical self-employed situations. they do clearthat the optimal organization can significantly improve the success of a company and that reading this text will help you in doing so. Perhaps you recognize yourself in one situation or another.

Which work as a self-employed person comes to you

Above all, of course, you wanted to start your own business so that you could share your thoughts, creativity, desires etc. to realize. You probably haven't even thought of many other areas of responsibility. Many tasks are new. Occasionally you will feel overwhelmed feel. Because new Tasks usually do not run as routinely as what has already been done a thousand times. But that's exactly it Sinn of planning: You should practice certain work steps and movements. In addition, the equipment should be correct for this, ie it should be neat. Planning makes sense for this: To get routine at work.

Your actual professional activity

As a Adviser it is your background knowledge, as a hairdresser the ability to cut hair: The professional activity makes up the core of your company, you build on that. And that is also your main activity. But you must have yours Competencies also maintained and improved in order to prevail against the competition: It is therefore important that you continue your education regularly and exchange ideas with other experts in your industry and find out about current developments and future trends in the industry. After all, that's what you're building on and that's what it's all about Further Training in any form into your schedule.

Dealing with customers

In addition to your professional skills, your ability to convince others of your abilities is what matters most. This doesn't happen overnight, you need a little patience to gain the trust of your potential customers. Therefore, you should regularly invest time and money in appropriate advertising measures invest. What this looks like in detail varies from branch to branch: as the owner of a gift shop, lovingly designed advertising leaflets for the mailboxes make sense, as the operator of an Internet portal you should familiarize yourself with search engine optimization, eMails and actions in the Internet . employ

However, before you start your own advertising campaign, you need to find out what would be the most effective form of advertising, for example through the experiences of professionals, by asking potential customers, or simply by trying. The advertising measures must be planned, regardless of whether you place the advertising yourself in the Hand or hire experts: You have to prepare the advertising material, for example by designing handouts or defining content and determining the budget. Even if your promotion is just a phone call, you should write down and practice what you want to say beforehand. Only after planning does that come Implementation. The amount of time required for this varies greatly: If you carry out a special campaign at a trade fair, you will of course have to allow more time than if you want to place an advertisement in a newspaper.

It is important that promotions are carried out regularly. Especially at the beginning, the self-employed like to make the mistake of neglecting advertising once things are going well. This can take revenge if customers suddenly switch to the competition, because then you are under pressure to do something quickly and that often doesn't work. Better yet, schedule regular promotions to help customers remember you and win new customers, even when you're very busy. If you always offer good service and accept customer complaints as suggestions for improvement, then you will be able to maintain a customer base. And finally: In everyday dealings with customers, your knowledge of human nature is in demand. Without the ability to at least reasonably assess other people, especially customers, and you Behavior you will not be able to anticipate (which is not always possible) in the long term successfully be. There is also further training in this area.

Technical work

Even if you don't IT-Are a specialist: Nowadays, as a self-employed person, you should also be familiar with a computer or at least have someone on hand to help you – whether it is installing software or creating and maintaining websites. The more familiar you are with the device yourself, the more time you save in the long run, for example because you can update your website yourself. You also have to make the advance sales tax return online. So plan on familiarizing yourself with basic Features .

Accounting, costing and financing

Keep track of your earnings and expenditure. Especially when your Accounting If you submit an income surplus calculation to the tax office, you can easily do it yourself and should do so in order to keep track of things yourself. You need to know what your current expenses are each month. You should also calculate in such a way that you still have a nest egg for the unforeseen. This is how you set the prices. But you should also know what your work is worth so you don't come off cheap merchandise. That requires research into your competitors' prices. After all, you have to bring these prices closer to your customers or negotiate with them. And finally, if you cannot raise the necessary capital yourself, you should look for an appropriate one Financing take care of it, for example through state subsidies or bank loans.

Tax and legal issues

tax and legal issues are often so complicated that you cannot avoid consulting an expert in special cases. Of course that costs money. However, you should not rely unreservedly on experts, but rather on general ones Ask also keep an overview. Use appropriate information portals on the Internet, appropriate publications, further education or consulting offers, for example from your professional association. Above all, be on good terms with the authorities and always keep official appointments, for example with the tax office or the employment agency. In case of doubt, authorities can unexpectedly cause you great difficulties.

Planning and organization

You need to organize your own time in such a way that you achieve your goals. In addition, you not only have to organize your own work, but also coordinate it with customers, cooperation partners and employees. Therefore, you should thoroughly study the necessary techniques, and practice them. Because even if it takes time, in the long run you save time

How optimal time management pays off in dealing with customers and employees

You have now learned how optimizing time management has a positive impact on your work organization and productivity, and is therefore crucial to the success of your business. But having your business organization under control will also help convince others of your qualities. Because an optimal effect on others, whether employees or customers, is practically also the result of a good self-organization.

Just think of the motivation: If you do not believe in the success of your company and are not sufficiently motivated to enforce it, you will hardly be able to convince other people, because they notice uncertainties very quickly. The more motivated and confident you are of yourself and the more consistently you pursue your goals, the sooner you will affect others.

Optimal planning and preparation has a positive effect

And optimal planning and preparation of your work also has a positive effect: Just imagine you had to conduct a customer meeting or one Lecture and are not prepared at all: they would be terribly nervous and would not appear particularly competent. On the other hand, if you have thought through and prepared the work steps well, you can also Criticism react confidently to the way you work, because you know what's behind it. And the more organized you work yourself, the better and more efficiently you can plan and carry out work processes with others.

Being in control of your schedule will also make you appear more relaxed. Because what would you of one Seller who whirls around you frantically in the store or who snaps at you unfriendly with every question because he is stressed? You would probably find this person unsympathetic and run away. And would you, as an employee, be happy about a constantly annoyed boss? You would probably suffer from a bad working atmosphere and be less motivated at work. Since you as an entrepreneur do not want to achieve such effects with customers or employees, you should heed the tips for reducing stress, because relaxed work also contributes significantly to your company's success.

Implement goals consistently

Finally mean Objective, planning and implementation also that you act consistently, for example by sometimes “No” say or stand by your decisions. But you can only do that if you are aware of your goals and have thought through your decisions carefully. Consistency, however, provides you with customers and employees alike Respect.

As you can see, good time management is not only beneficial to you, it also makes a significant contribution to the success of your business. Because only if you have your organization under control do you also have professional expertise and can convince other people of your product or service.

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