Category: Time Management

Fast response rate key to winning new business

All homeworkers know that email can be a double-edged sword. On the one hand you need it to keep in touch with clients, but on the other hand it can be a massive drain on your time.

New research has indicated that a fast response to an enquiry is now being demanded by more businesses, and what’s more, slow responses could cost £18,840 per business. It seems that businesses now demand a response to a query within 30 minutes these days. Location also seems to play a part. In Birmingham one in five now expect a response within half an hour. Other cities where the 30 minute time-bomb is becoming increasingly normal are Manchester (18%), Newcastle (18%), Cardiff (17%) and London (17%).

How fast do you get back to clients that have sent you a query? Personally I have tried to stop checking email too regularly. I used to have Outlook set-up to do a send/receive every 10 minutes. But as you can imagine, I was distracted by the desktop pop up that appears when a new email arrives. I’ve now switched this off and check for email just three times a day. This I think is plenty.

New contacts will get a response within a few hours. And if their query is really urgent, most people pick up the phone and call me. One thing, though to watch out for is messages getting stuck in your spam folder. I always scan this every day before I delete its contents just to make sure a new client hasn’t emailed me, but BT’s servers not knowing their email address has marked their message as spam. How fast do you get back to your clients?

Still Working Long Hours?

The latest research from the TUC indicates that we are still working longer hours than every before. The news comes as part of the TUC’s The Return of the Long Hours Culture report that shows that An extra 180,000 people across the UK are working more than 48 hours a week in 2008.

In the first quarter of 2008, the total number of people working long hours increased by 0.5% (180,000 people) to 3.3 million. The sharpest increases in long hours working occurred in the East of England (up 2.1%) and London (up 2%). Between 1998 and 2006, the number of people working more than 48 hours was reduced by 3.7% (707,000) from 3.8 million to 3.1 million.

The TUC report argues that the recent increase in the number of people working long hours is due to the challenging economic climate, which has made employers more reluctant to recruit new staff and instead work existing employees harder.

The analysis also finds that 85% of new long hours workers are male. The TUC believes that this trend, in which senior jobs are increasingly reliant on long hours, could hamper efforts to close the pay gap, as women with childcare responsibilities are likely to be excluded from these roles.

In order to reverse the growth of long hours working, the TUC is calling for a stronger the Working Time Directive (WTD) to protect employees. Since its implementation in 1998, the WTD has helped to reduce excessive long hours, although the UK’s opt-out has meant that this progress, in the TUC’s view, has been too slow.

TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber said: “After slow but steady progress over the last decade, long hours working is making its way back into Britain’s workplaces. Employees across the UK already work the longest hours in Western Europe and the recent increase will mean lower productivity, more stress and less time to have a life outside the office with friends and family.”

I’ve blogged about long working hours before. All homeworkers seem to work extensive hours as they run their businesses, but homeworkers in the UK in particular seem to put more hours in than anyone else.

Personally I’ve never worked longer hours than after I started my own business and started to work from home. But I think it’s all about perspective. I don’t mind putting in those hours as I know that I am the only person that will ultimately benefit. When I was employed silly hours was the norm, but of course my salary was fixed. These days the more I work, the more I earn.

Many people have blogged about the idea that you need to look at how much money you need to earn each week, and once you’ve achieved that, it’s time to down tools and do something else. I’ve always liked the idea that my standard of living is in direct proportion to how hard I work. It’s very motivational to know that you have to put the hours in to cover your mortgage etc.

But inordinantly long hours can of course be a symptom of a wider problem. Ask yourself if you’re working longer hours because you aren’t working efficiently? The old buzz phrase of working smarter and not longer definitely rings true these days. So take a look at the systems you use to run your business. Look for ways to improve them as in the end you’ll benefit. A four day week could be your ultimate reward.

How do you track your accounts?

Doing your accounts is the less sexy part of being self-employed. But as homeworkers we need to keep on top of the paperwork to ensure our accountants can keep the Revenue happy. But how do you keep track of your income and expenses?

I had tried computerised accounting packages over the years including Quicken and Microsoft Money. Microsoft’s Office Accounting 2008 is also an option, but you know, they all seem like overkill to me. These packages are great if you want to track your entire households budget, but for my business I find a one sheet spreadsheet is all I need.

On the left I list all the invoices that have been paid, divided into clients. Each is subtotalled with a formula, with the grand total at the bottom of the sheet. I can then see at a glance exactly how much has come into the business.
On the right are my expenses. These are divided by type. So a column for stationery, hardware, postage etc. I then total these columns at the end of the year to give me overall expenses.

I also have two boxfiles. One for invoices and one for expenses. My accountant then gets these boxfiles and my one sheet spreadsheet that he simply pulls the figures he needs off to complete my tax return. If you update the spreadsheet whenever money comes in or out of your business, you can generate your end of year accounts in about five minutes.

How Long Do You Work?

Ever since I started Nexus Publishing near six years ago, I have certainly worked more hours than I ever did when I was employed. I sometimes think about the years when a fixed 40-hour week was the norm. But I still rushed back home, eat my food much faster than I should so I could get on with developing my business that I hoped would give me the chance to work for myself.

These days I wouldn’t swap the job I have now for an office-based existence now that I have escaped cubicle hell. But my working week these days averages at least 55 hours and often moved past 65 in the blink of an eye. Long hours yes, but they are all for me and my family. I’m typing this blog entry at 10.40pm. But I wanted to get a new entry on my blog for everyone that has taken the time to subscribe to my feed, so the hour is irrelevant to me.

I did, however, come across a feature on the Personnel Today website that looks at workaholism from a human resources perspective. The feature mentions research by the TUC that states: More than one in eight of the workforce now works more than 48 hours each week, with as many as one in six employees in London putting in 48 hours plus a week. And the number of employees working unpaid overtime increased by 103,000 in 2007, bringing the total to nearly five million.

More telling, however, is the next comment that says: Paul Sellers, working time policy adviser for the TUC, adds that one in five of those working overtime does not want to cut back their hours. Of those working more than 48 hours per week, one in four does not want to scale back.

I think the UK workforce is the most overworked in Europe, but it would seem that we like it. Now don’t get me wrong. I like to laze about when given the chance, but I don’t think I would actively seek to work more hours. In fact I am trying out several time management systems to try and save time. More on that in a future post, so stay tuned.

Over work does, though, seem to becoming chronic as Gina Gardiner, a former school principal who regularly worked 16 hour days founded Recovering Workaholics to help those lost in work. I’m not ready to sign up just yet, but I can see that if you don’t keep a check on yourself, it would be easy to become a workaholic.

As a freelancer, it’s hard to say no to every job that comes along. But I have learned the art of saying no when I simply don’t have any more time in my schedule. Bryan Robinson, a psychotherapist and author of the book, Chained to the Desk says: “They sit at their desks and think about skiing. The workaholic is on the ski slopes thinking about work.”

Personally I have a great system for telling me when I am over working. She’s called Joanne who is my wife. She knows when I’m pushing a little too hard, or it’s time to switch off my Mac and come to bed. Family are part of why you are working for yourself in the first place. Don’t lose that essential part of your existence by working too hard. So, how many hours did you work last week? My tally was a 60.