I wrote earlier this morning about how keeping a daily diary can help you keep track of what you are doing in your home business, but I also wanted to share some information about how to categorize your work efforts in order to get a better grasp on WHAT you are doing, and whether or not it is actually contributing to the overall health of your home business. For me, I organize my work efforts into six categories so that I can keep a handle on what I’m doing and whether it is contributing to the overall health of my business:
1. Management and Administration: This category includes any of the work I do on filing, to-do-lists, record-keeping, shopping for supplies, etc. This is some of that “busy work” that Traci wrote about a few days ago.
2. Accounting: This category involves keeping track of my income and expenses, as well as sending out invoices, collecting on past due customers or clients, income taxes, banking, etc.
3. Promotion and Marketing: This is the category for networking, any public relations, marketing, cold calls, sending out brochures, résumé’s etc. I imagine in a direct sales business that any samples or entertaining you might do to promote your business would fall under this category.
4. Development and Pro Bono Work: Some may argue that this could really fall into the “promotion” category, but since I do often do pro bono work or volunteer work that helps to grow my business and is WORK not necessarily marketing, I’ve created a separate category. I also consider any reading of professional books, classes I might take and other training efforts to be part of the “Development” category.
5. Running Errands and Misc.: Gathering supplies, making purchases, and any other tasks that don’t fit into the other categories.
6. Paid Work: This is the category for the actual work that I do that generates income–grant research and writing, freelance writing, public relations campaigns, etc.
You’ll see that a big chunk of what I have to do in order to run my own business does NOT involve the actually work I do to get paid. I’m sure it’s the same for all of you. Breaking my tasks and efforts out into these simple categories helps me to be able to accurately track what I’m doing and see if I’m spending an unreasonable or unbalanced amount of time in one area and not enough in another!