I am busily working on-line today, my normal Sunday morning.  I try to get up fairly early to start work, and spend most of my day on-line, drumming up business.  It occurred to me today that I was beginning to find my balance.  Between reviewing sites and blogs, I started the laundry and tidied the kitchen.

I talked to my daughter about balance awhile ago, and she told me that for the entrepreneur, there is no balance.  I began thinking about that and decided that there had to be some sort of balance or the business wouldn't work.

I asked myself some basic questions:

What did I need
What time did I have
Who am I and how do I work
What were the priority of the needs.

It was a good place to start and I found that had to include personal needs as well as business needs.  The other thing I realized was that I should concentrate one one or two needs at a time.

I work is a busy college in Ontario coordinating the academic records area.  This encompasses a lot of different things from transcripts to graduation.  In my day to day work I see a lot of needs analysis and had to put the concept in to practice when staffing was short or changes elsewhere had an impact on our jobs.

I approached my business in the same way.  I took my business needs down to a basic level which also became my priority list

I need:

• To craft - this is my most basic need and is both business and personal.
• To sell

Who am I and how do I work:

• I am easily bored
• I can be incredibly focused  when engaged
• I am very detail oriented
• I demand the best from myself
• I am solitary

What time do I have:

• I have two days on the weekend
• I have about two hours each evening
• I have one hour for lunch
• I have a half an hour before I start work.

I set a schedule and wrote procedures - it was that simple.  I limited the tasks to less time than the scheduled allowed and did not overlap tasks within the schedule.  In other words, the same time of the day, regardless of the day, I do the same thing, and I kept a time sheet.  Each day before work, I focus on up-dating a website to enhance visibility.  I discovered that I could make some improvements to the site that generated visibility, by taking an analysis of the site and making targeted changes.  A quick spreadsheet (including calculations) of my products, the views I received, helped me to see what was being viewed, and how often.  I now had a target of what needed to be up-dated or enhanced.  I also keep a list beside me when I am doing the up-dates, of what products should have improved photographs, to help me keep track of what I need to do in the future.

I decided that I would spend all day Saturday crafting, whatever I wanted.  No schedule, no task list, I just craft.  The result has been two custom orders, one of which will appear for sale in the future.  I keep paper beside me for design ideas, as well as having at least two additional projects on the table that I don't necessarily work on but let ideas perk through as I am working.

I discovered that little I scheduled could be done at lunch during the week.  That time was for me will only do work on my business on a whim.

I constantly keep track of how much time it takes me to do something so that I can estimate how many hours I will need to complete a project.  I was able to complete a custom order this week in two evenings, and deliver it to the customer on time.  Keeping track of your time is important.  I was able to work stress free and come up with the finished product with time to spare.

I give up my Sundays to on-line work, search engine optimization, website maintenance, and analysis of the weeks efforts.  There are days I start and 7 am and end at 7 pm but it is worth it.

Knowing that I get bored easily means that I will have up to 7 sites open at the same time, bouncing back and forth between them, posting, analyzing and improving.  I write a lot of my blogs, and save them in draft for future posting, read blogs I am interested in and post responses when something catches my interest.  I look for craft shows, I add to forums, and gain and pass on knowledge.  In between, I take care of the personal side, doing laundry, dishes, tidying, cleaning, when I need to think of what I want to write.  I rarely get bored now.

I now create a meal plan for the week and double up the cooking in the evenings where possible.  What can be cooked ahead of time goes into the fridge and freezer, and I when I bake I double up on everything.

As I become more proficient at something and am able to reduce the time it takes, I add other things into the mix, and stop worrying.  I took the time to organize my computer, especially my bookmarks, to find things easier.  If I find a site that interests me, I will bookmark it under on-line leads for something to go back to.  I have found lately that I have extra time on Sundays to craft as well, although I think that I will turn this time into further research time and planning for craft shows.

Take the time to do the needs analysis.  If you think of something that will assist you, determine the expense, or the time it will take, and factor that into what your next step will be.  Sometimes, it is the little things that we keep putting off that will help us the most.  I realized that the the small portable external jump drive I wanted would really be better than the the large portable external drive that I hate carrying around for storing key data for when I was not at home.  I now do the occasional data analysis at lunch.  I just have to figure out how to transfer the data from one portable drive to the other on the ancient lap top that I have.

I used my ability to focus when engaged to accomplish this.

I would love to here about what you have done to help you achieve your balance as an entrepreneur.

Happy Crafting

Crafty Lady Liz