Tips for Creating and Maintaining a Realistic Schedule.

One of the hardest parts of being a contractor and performing services for others is creating and maintaining a realistic schedule for work and life. Most people start their business believing they will have at least 40 hours a week available as "billable hours" but soon learn that nothing could be further from the truth. {But, you can organize and craft a schedule that allows you to make the most of the time you do have.|You can organize and craft a schedule that allows you to make the most of the time you do have.}

Know Your Audience.

Like with most things to do with your business, it's imperative that you know who you want to work with. What types of client will you get along with best and what services can you realistically perform for those people? Start with the client, and then solve a problem for them with your services.

Know Yourself.

Are you an early riser or do you like to stay up late at night? Most of the time people are one or the other. If you are a person who doesn't like to keep to a particular schedule, you'll need to develop tasks that are deadline focused instead of time centric. {For instance, if you don't want to have to do a task at 8 a.m. each morning, don't offer that service.|If you don't want to have to do a task at 8 a.m. each morning, don't offer that service.}

Know Your Family.

What kind of schedule does your family have and how much can you rely on other members of the family to take your work seriously? Even if they don't take your work seriously right now, you can still create a business around your family's schedule. Just go into it knowing up front what is expected of you within your family and what you can expect from them.

Know What Hours You'll Do Client Work.

Taking all the things into consideration, it's important to develop a set schedule of when you will be able to perform your clients' work. Even if the time you come up with is midnight to 6 a.m. it's still possible to have a business servicing clients as a contractor. There is no wrong answer; you just have to match the work you will do with the time you can do it.

Know Which Hours You'll Do Business Work.

Don't forget that you'll need to save some of your working time for working on your own business. You will still have email lists to maintain, content to create, sales pages to craft and so forth for your own business. Not to mention billing, invoicing and bookkeeping.

Understand What Your Service Offerings Take.

As you work on creating the services you'll offer, go through what they take in your mind and then match them to the other things that you've figured out about yourself, your family, and the type of schedule you can maintain. Knowing what goes into providing a specific deliverable will go far in ensuring you create a business that works for you.

Schedule Everything in a Calendar.

Don't assume you'll remember something, much less everything. When you have multiple clients you need to have a calendar. Not only will you need to calendar the work you are doing for yourself and clients, you also need to include in your calendar anything you really want to make time for - including date night.

Use a Project Management System.

Don't skimp on purchasing and investing in tools and software that will help your business run more smoothly. Tools like Basecamp.com, FreshBooks.com, and QuickBooks.com as well as others can help you do more in less time.

Maintaining a realistic schedule requires you to be realistic about the time you have available and the type of work you really like to do. It might sound great to be "on the clock" 8 to 5, but it's quite different in practice when working from home as a contractor.

Working with the press in a positive manner is an essential skill for a smart business owner to learn. It doesn't matter if you have a small "from home" firm or a large bricks and mortar business. The press can make you or break you when it comes to getting the word out about your products and/or services. Here's how to create a positive relationship with the media.

1. Know Their Deadlines-- Learn the different deadlines that your contacts work under and always seek to meet them. The press works under very stringent guidelines and if you want to be involved you'll need to know them.

2. Return Their Calls-- If they contact you and you miss it, always return calls or emails. Even if you can't be of help at that particular time, sometimes just being willing is all it takes to get quoted.

3. Build Relationships-- Don't just reach out to contacts when you want them to do something for you. Reach out when you can do something for them too and sometimes just to socialize and have lunch.

4. Answer Their Questions-- When the press does call you about something, be sure to answer their questions or send them to someone who can so that you can be known as someone who is willing to be available to them.

5. Be a Willing Resource-- Humans are typically lazy and the press is no different. They like to take the easy way to get the information they need to do a story. Be the resource that is always open to giving them the information they need.

6. Do Your Research-- It's important to do enough research about the press to know exactly who to talk to and when. Plus, it's important to understand how they like to get their news and the right people to send the news to.

7. Learn Sound Bites-- The trick to being quotable is to learn to think and talk in sound bites so that the press can easily package your quotes and use them. The less they need to edit what you say, the more likely they are to use your quotes.

8. Don't Exaggerate or "Spin"-- While some puffery is expected in marketing and advertising, it is not something you should participate in with the press in terms of building a positive relationship with them.

As long as you seek to make yourself a resource to them, rather than to seek to use them for your own benefit, the press will be there for you when you need them. Creating a positive relationship with the media requires very little additional work on your part and will pay off in big ways. It's worth it to do all you can to work with them in every way that you can.

Improving productivity is a necessity for a contractor who services multiple clients. Without a system in place that establishes good workflow, it can be really difficult to keep up momentum and take on enough clients to earn a good living. {But, if you can establish a good workflow for the type of work you perform you will be able to take on more clients, work faster, smarter, and make more money.|If you can establish a good workflow for the type of work you perform you will be able to take on more clients, work faster, smarter, and make more money.}

* Develop Package Rates-- One of the best things you can do for your business is to try to develop, as much as possible, package rates for your work. {Then, you will avoid, most of the time, having to track your time.|You will avoid, most of the time, having to track your time.} Time tracking for multiple clients can be a big interruption that you don't want to have to do if you can avoid it.

* Create Checklists for Each Project-- When you do the same types of project over and over again, creating a checklist to help guide you and others who work with you through each project will help keep you on task and avoid forgetting aspects of the project. Remember, pilots use checklists every single time to avoid forgetting something. You should too.

{* Deliverables First-- Before crafting your workflow, focus on your deliverables first and then work your way backwards to today to figure out what needs to be done first.|* Deliverables First-- Before crafting your workflow, focus on your deliverables first and then work your way backwards to today to figure out what needs to be done.} {Then start with first things first, using your checklist to ensure you don't forget something adding what you need to do to the calendar.|Start with first things first, using your checklist to ensure you don't forget something adding what you need to do to the calendar.}

* Draw Your Workflow - Seeing a workflow visually can help you identify areas that you left out or forgot. You can actually use the checklist for a generic project to create a workflow. {For instance the workflow for publishing an eBook might look like this: Research the niche > Develop a topic > Craft a title > Outline the book > Write the front matter > Write the end matter > Design a book cover > And so forth.|The workflow for publishing an eBook might look like this: Research the niche > Develop a topic > Craft a title > Outline the book > Write the front matter > Write the end matter > Design a book cover > And so forth.} When you draw it instead of write it, you can more easily see the things that can be done simultaneously and what has to be done in order.

* Use a Project Management System-- Using a project management system like Basecamp.com, Asana.com, or Teamwork.com is a good way to get yourself and your clients organized from day one. The system already has some ways to organize the work so that you don't have to actually create everything from scratch.

* Use Other People's Workflows-- Do a quick Google search for "workflows" and then fill in the topic such as self-publishing, writing an eBook or writing and publishing, and you can find workflows that are already written. While you can not sell those, you can use them and modify the ideas for your own use privately.

* Try Out Your Workflow-- Before considering a workflow set in stone, try it out from step one with a real project of your own to ensure that you didn't leave something out. This is your chance to improve it before asking someone else to try it.

* Ask Others to Try Out Your Workflows-- Send the workflow to someone else that you know also works on the same type of projects that you do, whether it's someone on your team or a colleague, asking them for feedback.

* Refine and Improve-- A workflow is actually never set in stone. As technology improves, and clients' needs change, your workflows will evolve. That's what's great about drawing them out and creating them in the first place. Your workflows, over time, can only get better.

Workflow design is essential to your success as a contractor who takes on the projects of multiple clients. Ensure that you develop your workflows based on the services that you offer so that your project management practically runs itself over time.