Time management is crucial if you want to be a successful business owner, especially if you’re buying into a small business opportunity, distributorship, franchise or licensee opportunity where you may be the only person running things, at least for the time being. It involves creating an environment that is conducive to obtaining your goals, including being able to set priorities and reduce the time you spend on non-essential tasks.

But not everyone is hard-wired for maximum efficiency when it comes to time management. Far too many of us are prone to distraction, especially when we work at home or out of a home office, which can lead to our downfall. Not to worry. Time management skills can be learned.

A great place to start? The University of Georgia’s FREE eBook and our selection for March’s FREE eBook of the Month, Time Management: 10 Strategies for Better Time Management.

This easy-to-read and user-friendly guide outlines ten key areas you can work on to improve your time management skills quickly and easily, but before it does so it kicks off with one very important point that we’d all do well to remember: You cannot manage time. Not really. In fact, the whole concept is a bit misleading in that time cannot be bought or sold, let alone managed. All we can do is manage the events in our lives relative to time the best that we can. Time marches on uninterrupted—reminding us at every turn that it is a finite resource just like any other.

Time really IS money.

Putting it in that context, it’s easier to understand why learning to manage your time as a small business owner is just as important as, say, managing the books or creating a strategic marketing plan. All of these things are critical to your success and overall profitability.

It’s just like the eBook authors write, “(Time) must be protected, used wisely and budgeted,” just like any other resource at the small business owner’s disposal. For those that take the time to get it right, the payoffs are significant and may include, among others:

• Increased productivity

• More energy to accomplish tasks

• Less stress

• More free time, and

• An overall feeling of enhanced well-being.

To read and/or download Time Management: 10 Strategies for Better Time Management, this month’s recommended FREE eBook of the Month, simply click on the title now!

Let us hear from you! Did you find this recommendation helpful? As a small business owner, what are your time-management secrets? How has time management or the lack thereof affected your small business? Any advice you’d like to share?