At a talk I gave a couple of weeks ago about using social networking to market your small business, the inevitable comment was made “But I haven’t got time for all that!”. I had to bite my tongue because networking online can consumer a lot of time, especially when you first start out. But does it really take any more time than more traditional networking?
Obviously it depends how many groups you belong to and how often they meet up. When you add up travelling time, the time spent at the event itself, and then how long it takes to do the follow-up afterwards, there probably isn’t very much in it.
Another area where owners of small businesses plead time poverty is when it comes to marketing and development – the very activities needed to stay in business and move it up to the next level. Indeed I used to make the same excuses myself just a few short years ago.
Having studied what my own mentors did to find the time to grow their businesses, I found that I already knew the answers but they weren’t easy options! By getting up earlier, giving up watching TV and working longer hours, it’s possible to be much more productive. None of these ideas are rocket science but they do all involve making some kind of sacrifice.
How much time you have to devote to building your business depends a lot on your personal circumstances. The more time you can ‘steal’ from other areas, without damaging family relationships or your health, the quicker your business will grow.
What do you need to find time for?
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