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A Home-Based Business Online
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Practical home business ideas, opportunities
and solutions for the work-from-home
entrepreneur
Issue 157 : October 28, 2002
Sent to 13,844 Opt-In Subscribers
Editor: Elena Fawkner
Publisher: Fawkner Publishing
http://www.ahbbo.com
Contact By Email
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IN THIS ISSUE
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1. Welcome and Update from Elena
2. Home Business Idea of the Week
3. Feature Article - Managing Time to Accomplish More
4. Surveys and Trends
5. Success Quote of the Week
6. Advertise with AHBBO
7. Subscription Management
8. Caveat Emptor
9. Contact Information
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1. Welcome from Elena
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Hello again and a warm welcome to all the new subscribers
who have joined us since the last issue.
Time management is one of the greatest skills any home
business entrepreneur can have -- particularly if you're
juggling a J.O.B. at the same time. This week's article,
"Managing Time to Accomplish More" shows you how to
allocate your "must do" activities according to your
concentration patterns to ensure that you do the right
things at the right time so that everything that needs to
get done gets done. It's at segment 3.
As always, thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy this
week's issue.
Remember, AHBBO is for YOU! If you have comments or
suggestions for topics you would like to see addressed, or
would just like to share your experiences with other
subscribers, I want to hear from you. Please send
comments, questions and stories to Contact By Email .
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2. Home Business Idea of the Week - Cleaning Broker
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I'm the first to admit cleaning house is definitely one of my least
favorite activities. Couple that with a chronic lack of time and
you're describing a huge segment of the population. One that
isn't going to be shrinking any time soon.
As a cleaning services broker you can tap into this market. A
cleaning services broker basically brings together people wanting
cleaning services performed and those prepared to perform that
service for a fee.
Start out by advertising for cleaners. You'll need to check
references and test their skills. You may also want to consider
bonding them. Once you have several cleaners on your books
(as independent contractors, not employees), you can then start
advertising your services to prospective clients.
A Yellow Pages listing is a good place to start (although this
does require quite a bit of forward planning) as well as classified
ads in your local newspaper. Professionally produced flyers/
brochures that can be distributed in a letter box drop in the
geographic area you are targeting will also generate good
enquiry.
You should set yourself up so that you bill the client for the cost
of the service and you pay your cleaning contractors. The
difference between what you pay your contractors and what
you receive from clients is your commission.
You can gradually expand your business too by adding more
services over time. Logical extensions include window washing,
garden maintenance, carpet cleaning and pet sitting, to name
just a few examples. And don't forget to think outside the box
when targeting clients. Consider, for example, real estate
agents who need cleaning services for rental properties between
tenants.
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This is an extract from just one of over 130 ideas from the new
"Practical Home Business Ideas From AHBBO" e-book. Find out
more at http://www.ahbbo.com/ideasbook.html .
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3. Feature Article: Managing Time to Accomplish More
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© 2002 Elena Fawkner
Time is inelastic. Despite what some of us persist in believing,
it will NOT magically expand to accommodate all we have to
do. So, in order to maximize the time we have available, we
have to spend it wisely. Here's how to do that.
STRUCTURE YOUR TIME
The very first thing to do is understand the structure of your
time. If you think of the time you have available as some
amorphous dimension, you will fritter it away on this and that
without any real consideration of what is the best use of the
time available. How many times have you got to the end of
your day and felt like you'd accomplished nothing even though
you'd been "busy" all day.
All time is not equal. If you're a morning person, your
morning time is worth more in terms of productivity than your
late afternoon time.
So think of time as variable in terms of potential for
accomplishment and identify your most valuable time. Do
the same for your intermediate-value time and your lower-value
time.
Reserve your most valuable time for your most intellectually
demanding activities. Your intermediate value time should be
spent on important tasks that don't require quite the same level
of concentration. Finally, reserve your low-value time for
activities that don't require much in the way of concentration.
Now, obviously, if you have a full-time job away from the home,
the decision of how to spend your 9 to 5 hours will largely be
out of your hands. So, the best you can do if you're a morning
person is to try and take care of some of your intellectually
demanding activities first thing in the morning, say between
5:00 am and 7:00 am. On the other hand, if you're a night owl,
working a full-time job probably won't be much of a problem for
you.
If you run your own business from home, however, effectively
structuring your time in terms of peak, intermediate and low-
concentration blocks can make a profound impact on your
productivity if you use that time intelligently.
IDENTIFY WHAT YOU HAVE TO DO
Now that you have some sense of how to best structure your
time, you need to turn to what, exactly, you're going to spend
that time on.
That means identifying what you have to do. And that means
identifying what you don't have to do as the flipside.
When identifying what you have to fit in to your schedule,
think about all areas of your life. Making time for yourself is
not something that you get around to only if there's time left
over. Making time for yourself is as much a priority as anything
else.
A good way of identifying activities that should be included in
your schedule is to test them against the criteria of furtherance
of an objective. If the activity does nothing to further any
objective, why are you even doing it?
So start by identifying objectives for your life. Consider categories
such as health, finance, business/career, spiritual, family, social,
intellectual and so on. Establish objectives for every area of your
life that's important to you.
Everything you do should bring you closer to an objective. If it
doesn't, again, why do it?
ALLOCATE YOUR ACTIVITIES
Now that you know how to best structure your time and what
activities are going to lead you closer to your objectives, it's time
to allocate those activities against the time you have available
and in accordance with your various concentration levels.
Begin by estimating how much time each activity in your day is
likely to take. Be realistic about what you can really accomplish in
one day. If you overload yourself you're only going to stress out
about what you're NOT doing and that makes you less effective
in what you ARE doing. So pace yourself. Just don't WASTE time.
Assign your most intellectually demanding activities to your peak
concentration time. This may be writing a chapter of your ebook
or writing an article for the next issue of your ezine. Assign your
less concentration-intensive activities to your intermediate
concentration time. This may be redesigning a web page or
reading and responding to email, for example. Finally, assign
your truly "no concentration required" activities to your low
concentration periods. If you've allocated time to exercising, this
would be a good time to do a workout.
GROUP LIKE TASKS
Grouping like tasks will allow you to accomplish more in the same
amount of time. It is much more efficient to run three errands
while you're out and about rather than making three separate trips.
Similarly, it's more time-efficient to run one large load of laundry
rather than two separate, smaller loads. So give some thought
to these mundane sorts of activities too. There's always a way to
shave off a bit of time by grouping similar activities and doing them
in one hit. Email's another prime example. Far more efficient to
check and respond to mail twice a day than to read and respond to
each message as and when it comes in, thereby distracting
yourself from what you were doing in the first place.
By thinking about what you have to do and scheduling those tasks
in conformity with your concentration levels as well as grouping
like activities, you will naturally make the most effective use of the
time available. Your productivity will increase proportionately.
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** Reprinting of this article is welcome! **
This article may be freely reproduced provided that: (1) you
include the following resource box; and (2) you only mail to
a 100% opt-in list.
Here's the resource box to use if reprinting this article:
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Elena Fawkner is editor of A Home-Based Business Online ...
practical business ideas, opportunities and solutions for the
work-from-home entrepreneur.
http://www.ahbbo.com
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4. Surveys and Trends
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© 2002 Ryanna's Hope
The following is an extract from the current issue of Larry
Wack's excellent weekly, "Surveys and Trends". Subscribe
using the link below for the full issue.
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HOW THEY WILL SHOP THIS HOLIDAY SEASON
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The Atlas Institute, through surveys and research, give us all a
picture of what the holiday shopping trends will be this year:
Weekdays are the most active online shopping days, with
Wednesday being the most active, compared to offline, where
weekends are the most active shopping days. This reflects of
the trend of shoppers at work, who continue to drive the
majority of online sales during the holiday season.
Peak online shopping occurs from noon to 3 p.m. EST, with
1 p.m. EST being the highest.
In 2001, online shopping tapered off seven days before
Christmas, unlike offline, which is steady right up until the
holiday. This "wait for shipping" lull shrank from 10 days in
2000, indicating that consumers believe that the difficulties in
the shipping processes are being eliminated. The lowest daily
online shopping volume occurred two days before Christmas.
The two days after Christmas are extremely active online,
and nearly as strong as the pre-Christmas peak.
Online shopping remains very active all the way through
February.
The month of January is equal to the strongest pre-Christmas
week in terms of activity.
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SUBSCRIPTION INFORMATION
Subscribe to "Surveys and Trends" with an email to:
mailto:rypublish@sprintmail.com and say 'survey' in the
subject line.
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5. Success Quote of the Week
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The secret of getting ahead is getting started. The secret of
getting started is breaking your complex overwhelming tasks
into small manageable tasks, and then starting on the first one.
-- Mark Twain
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6. Advertise With AHBBO
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online today. This is because the ezine's editor has already
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readers highly motivated by the subject-matter of the
ezine itself.
Therefore, assuming you place your ad in an ezine with
a subject matter that fits with what it is you are
marketing, you can be confident of reaching a select
group of highly targeted prospects for your product or
service.
AHBBO offers four different advertising packages:
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To learn more about advertising in the AHBBO ezine,
visit http://www.ahbbo.com/advertising.html .
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7. Subscription Management
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8. Caveat Emptor
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Although all of the information presented in AHBBO is
published in good faith, I accept no responsibility as to the
accuracy or otherwise of the information presented. By making
use of the information contained in AHBBO the reader assumes
all risk that certain information may prove to be incorrect.
**I do not endorse any advertisements unless stated to the
contrary. Your money, your decision, your responsibility.**
All advertisements are accepted in good faith. However,
advertisers are solely responsible for the content and
accuracy of their classified advertisements and I give no
warranties, nor accept any responsibility, in relation to any
classified advertisement appearing in this publication. ALWAYS
carry out your own due diligence! Remember, if it sounds too
good to be true, it probably is.
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9. Contact Information
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Elena Fawkner, Editor
A Home-Based Business Online
Contact By Email
http://www.ahbbo.com
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All Rights Reserved