Business121 Small Business Newsletter #33

In this week's Business121:

1. How to make more effective use of your time and the heavy price of perfection
2. How to create and promote a Web site that works
3. External linking - Why linking out is good for your small business website
4. 18 e-Bay Listings Tips: It's Not What You Sell, It's The Way That You Sell It!
5. Top PR Tips and Advice for Small Businesses
6. World Cup Fever could lead to workplace discrimination claims
7. Coping with the peaks and troughs of seasonal business
8. Fresh Business Thinking at B2B London
9. £52 million funding for business-focused universities

How to make more effective use of your time and the heavy price of perfection
As anybody running a small business will tell you, time is a precious commodity. Trying to balance the demands of daily tasks that have to be done and the long-term projects that really drive your business forward, is a constant battle.

With so many URGENT matters competing with IMPORTANT jobs you can easily find that all your time goes on fire-fighting, leaving you with very little time to spend on the projects that really determine the long-term success of your business.

When you're running a business time is your most precious resource. Many people will tell you that money is the most important factor, but I don't agree - time is.

If you need money, you can get a loan, use factoring, sell some equity or use any number of ways to get your hands on some cash - but you can't create time. Once time has slipped through your fingers, there's no getting it back. Well, not unless Google have launched that Google Tardis!

There are short term answers to the, 'not enough hours in the day' problem. You can sleep less, spend less time with your family and friends, you can even work 24 hours/day for a short time. But these aren't long-term solutions. To run a small business well, it's crucial you make the most of the time you have available to you.

ANALYSE WHERE YOU CURRENTLY SPEND YOUR TIME
When you set about trying to manage your time more effectively the first thing you need to do is to analyse where you currently spend your time. Over the course of a few days, or preferably a week, keep a diary and make a note ofwhere your time goes.

When you tot up at the end of the week you'll probably be quite surprised and you'll immediately see a few areas that you can address straight away.

FOCUS ON WHAT'S MOST IMPORTANT
With time being so precious, it's critical that you spend the majority of your time working on the factors that are important to the success of your business and eliminate the time you currently spend on less important matters. Focus on the 'must-do' jobs and leave the 'nice to do'.

Sure, in an ideal world we'd all get everything done. But when you're running a business it's important to be realistic, and it's not realistic to think that you can get everything done all of the time.

PLAN EVERY DAY
During the course of a day it's easy to be deflected from the tasks you initially set out to do. The phone ringing and a constant stream of emails are common distractions for most of us.

The best way to keep yourself focused on the IMPORTANT jobs is to make a plan for your day. Planning your day gives it structure, breaks bigger and more daunting projects down into more manageable chunks and means you set yourself a good number of short-term goals.

If you give yourself an hour to complete a job, you'll be far more focused on completing it in that time. If you don't give yourself that deadline it can drag on for hours. Of course, you need to learn to give yourself a realistic amount of time for each task in the first place!

BEWARE THE HEAVY PRICE OF PERFECTION
Finally, when you're trying to maximise the effectiveness of your time you should be aware of the heavy price of perfection.

Striving for perfection is a laudable aim, for many of us it's ingrained in our psyche. But when you're running a small business, perfection is often an unrealistic and ultimately damaging aim. It makes more sense to consistently aim high than to try and achieve perfection every time.

The time you spend on progressing a task from 'high quality' to 'perfect' is rarely time well-spent. The return you get for investing your most valuable resource in making such a small gain, means it's a relatively poor use of your time.

Once it's good enough, stop and move on to the next job on your plan. It will be time better spent.

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How to create and promote a Web site that works
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Before designing your web site, you need to develop a good understanding of your customers. Remember, your aim is to develop a site your customers will find useful and purchase from;
http://snipurl.com/_website_works

External linking - Why linking out is good for your small business website
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Some small business owners try to avoid linking out to other sites for fear of losing visitors. This article explains why external linking is a beneficial thing, both to your visitors and for the search engine benefits it can bring;
http://snipurl.com/_Linking_out

18 e-Bay Listings Tips: It's Not What You Sell, It's The Way That You Sell It!
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How you describe your goods is vitally important to your chances of making money from your eBay listings. These tips will help you list more products, create better listings and eventually make more money;
http://snipurl.com/_eBay_listing_tips

Top PR Tips and Advice for Small Businesses
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We've previously highlighted this article in Business121 and it's proved to be hugely popular. It's easy to understand why, it helps you to get valuable (free) press coverage - just perfect for new business startups.

Follow these timeless PR tips to get free publicity, make people excited about your business and learn what you can do to really get your small business noticed.
http://snipurl.com/Small_Biz_PR_Tips

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SMALL BUSINESS NEWS
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World Cup Fever could lead to workplace discrimination claims
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Despite the good intentions of employers who allow their staff to watch the World Cup during work time, they could be laying themselves open to discrimination claims;
http://snipurl.com/World_Cup_warning

Coping with the peaks and troughs of seasonal business
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If your business cycle is determined by seasonal fluctuation, adopting flexible planning can provide the solution to see you through the lean periods have a read of this article in The Independent;
http://snipurl.com/_Peaks_and_Troughs

Fresh Business Thinking at B2B London
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B2B London, the event for owners, directors and entrepreneurs running small and medium- sized businesses will take place on the 27th and 28th June at Earls Court.
http://snipurl.com/_B2B_London

£52 million funding for business-focused universities
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The DTI has awarded £52 million to a range of higher education institutions. The aim of the awards is to help build closer ties between business and higher education institutions.
http://snipurl.com/BizFriendly_Uni_cash

** For the latest Small Business News, visit http://snipurl.com/Bytestart_News **

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(c) Business121.co.uk 2006