| A maze puzzle is symbolic to taking our | | | | 4. Personal - build this into your day to remind you |
| businesses on the path to reaching goals. From | | | | to break away from work, to eat lunch or go for |
| start (building), there is no direct route (growing) | | | | a walk with friends. |
| to finish (your goals) but rather twists and turns | | | | 5. Family - spending time with kids, pets and |
| and some backtracking along the way. Your | | | | family activities. This usually comes only at the |
| schedule is like your plan through that maze. | | | | beginning or end of my work day, but I like to |
| When you take the time to contemplate your | | | | have it showing on my schedule. |
| route and map it out, you get through your | | | | How you divide up your time will vary from |
| 'maze' with less backtracking. It's easier to stay | | | | person to person, but it's important to assign time |
| on course and reach your goals with that plan. | | | | to each category throughout the week and work |
| To help you apply this approach you must divide | | | | with it until you find a good balance. If you neglect |
| up your time into 5 main areas when organizing | | | | one area the others will suffer. Revenue |
| your schedule. Here is the list and some of the | | | | generating activities have to be consistent |
| items that fall under each category: | | | | obviously, as well as Personal and Family time, but |
| 1. Client Work - or the area in which you perform | | | | don't neglect Business Development and Home |
| your revenue generating activities. If yours is not | | | | Office time. You have to incorporate these areas |
| a service business, this area may be Product | | | | into your week in order to effectively grow your |
| Sales for example. | | | | business and prosper. |
| 2. Business Development - time spent working on | | | | And if you don't want to make the time because |
| your website, preparing marketing materials, | | | | you dislike these tasks and would rather be doing |
| proposals, making phone calls, correspondence, | | | | what you're good at or taking some more |
| attending networking events, planning, meetings, | | | | personal and family time, then outsource. Most of |
| reading/audio/video (resources for business | | | | the tasks that fall under Business Development |
| training), writing (articles, submissions, ezine, blog), | | | | and Home Office can be managed by a Virtual |
| social media activity, participating in forums. | | | | Assistant (VA). You don't have to do it all |
| 3. Home Office - tracking business expenses, filing, | | | | yourself. Like the saying goes, "Do what you do |
| invoicing, record keeping, managing emails, | | | | best, then hire out the rest". |
| scheduling. | | | | |