Sculpting Time: Creating A Schedule That Works For Your Home Based Business

Posted by Nick Niesen on October 28th, 2010

Whether you are interested in making money from home as a full time job or as one in multiple streams of income, it is important to focus on time management. Home businesses are enticing because, let?s face it everyone would love to cut their commute time from an hour to the two minutes it takes to walk into the next room. However, many home business owners fall into the trap of making every little distraction a priority over their businesses.

The key to creating a system of time management that works is to start by making a list of priorities. For many people, their families come at the top of the list ? obviously loved ones are important to life. Cut out time for kids, spouses, etc, but keep the time for your business blocked off. Just because you work out of your home doesn?t mean that you are available to be at the beck and call of others. The fact is, a home office is still an OFFICE, so be sure to keep it a place where you can work with minimal distractions.

Next, figure out how much time you will need to dedicate to your business in order to make the profit you are looking for. A full time home based business will probably require you to put in several hours each day. However, if you are using your home based business as one of multiple streams of income, then decide how many hours you will need to put in, and where they will fit in between other your schedules for other sources of income. Make sure that you are dedicated to the number of hours you come up with. Both too many and too little hours allotted will throw off the livelihood of your business.

Finally, write out a schedule for yourself. Whether this schedule is daily or applies to the entire week is dependent entirely on your life. For example, if your kids have sports practices at different times each day, then your schedule may change from Monday to Friday. You may even choose to work on weekends. While flexibility is a big perk to working at home, remember that you must still put in the appropriate amount of time that your business needs in order to make a profit. Carve out the time you need for work each day, and make sure that time remains uninterrupted. Remember to schedule time for meals as well ? hardly anyone works well on an empty stomach!