Would you like more time in your day?

Would you like to get everything done that you want to get done? In your life? For your business?

Whether you work a day job or not, Indiepreneurs think that they never have enough time. I bet you do, too, right?

What if I told you there’s plenty of time for what you really want?

Over the next series of posts, I’m going to try to help you with time.

I say TRY, because grabbing control of your time is damn hard. I say TRY, because I can’t force you to give my method a shot and I can’t guarantee that it’ll work for you if you do.

All I can do is teach you the steps that I took that radically changed my life.

TRADITIONAL TIME MANAGEMENT LESSONS
The old way says to make goals, write them down, keep a to-do list and block out time for this and that. Blah, blah and yadda, yadda.

We know what happens to that old to-do list, right? You have great intentions when you make it, but before long the list gets a mile long and every time you look at that damn list your breathing gets shallow, you panic and with panic comes procrastination and avoidance. Scrubbing the toilet is less stressful than facing the dreaded to-do list. That. Damn. Never. Ending. Effing. To. Do. List!

THROW IT OUT
Go ahead. You have my permission to rip your to-do list into tiny pieces. Slip it in the shredder right now. I’ll wait.

Seriously.

Do it!

You’re going to start over and you’re going to start over with a whole new mindset. That new mindset will change what you put on your list. And your list is going to get a whole lot shorter.

THERE’S A BETTER WAY
All the to-do lists and all the Get Things Done files in the world won’t help you unless you first change the way you value time.

There are axioms like:

• time is the most precious thing on earth
• you cannot stop the march of time
• time is something you can never get back

You’ve heard some version of these, right? You probably even agree with them. Yet for some reason you can’t get control of your time.

Each year you realize that you’re no closer to your goals. Each year you wonder what the hell happened. Each year you’re disgusted with yourself because you got nothing of value done. You just wasted the last 12 months – again!

I was the same way. Until I got past the woo-woo philosophical words of all those time axioms. I needed a pragmatic slap upside the head. If you do, too, keep reading.

$1 A MINUTE
Step one in this method is to force your brain to really understand the value of every single minute.

Forget setting life goals, yearly goals or even monthly goals.

You’re going to value every single minute of your time.

This is kind of radical. And you might feel a little foolish, but here is what I want you to do for the next few weeks.

I want you to imagine paying a dollar for each and every minute of your life.

Picture a giant parking meter in your head. From the second you wake up in the morning until your head hits the pillow at night, it ticks down. You’ve got to feed your meter of time to keep it ticking.

No matter what you’re doing while the meter ticks, it’s costing you a buck.

• Do you really want to feed the meter and argue politics on the internet for 20 minutes?
• Was that TV show really worth $60?
• How about the $160 you just spent at a big three-hour family get-together? Depends on what your family is like, right? LOL.

You are literally $pending your time.

GETTING STINGY FRUGAL WITH YOUR TIME
I hope that this little exercise really helps you see time in a more pragmatic way. When you picture that giant parking meter ticking away the minutes in your head, the phrase “time is money” comes to life and you finally really get it.

It really makes you think twice about how you spend every precious minute of your life.

When I’m with a person, I picture giving them a $1 for every minute I spend with them. If the meter maid of life were holding out her hand, would I really whip out my wallet and spend the money on this person? If the answer is no, I stop spending time with them. (I’ll teach you gentle ways to say no in a future post.)

Would I really whip out my wallet and pay good money for the task I’m doing? If the answer is no, I immediately stop what I’m doing and never do it again.

IT’S UP TO YOU
No one rates the value of your time better than you. I can’t tell you who or what is worth the minutes ticking away on your parking meter. It’s your meter, not mine. What is worth your time is your call to make.

And that, right there, is what it all boils down to, right?

Your minutes are yours to spend.

Picture the giant parking meter.
Hear the cha-ching of a cash register.
See your dollars disappear into a vending machine slot.

Whatever imagery works for you, do it for the next few weeks.

Then report back. I want to know if this made you think twice before wasting a minute on something stupid.

Next time we’ll get into how to divide your valuable time between stuff you want to do and the stuff you have to do.

Are you a cybersquatter?

Do you rely on borrowed or leased bandwidth to run your business?

Be honest.

If Etsy shut down your shop tomorrow,
how screwed would you be?

Lisa got the answer the hard way when Etsy suspended her jewelry shop. Gut wrenching to read, she shared her story on Handmadeology.

It’s great that Lisa found a way to set up another shop — except any returning customers had no clue what happened or where to find the new shop. It’s not like Etsy would let her leave a note on her old shop page, right?

Getting her own URL was a great step.
However, there’s a more effective way to build your business.

BUILD YOUR CUSTOMER LIST
Your customers are your business, the most valuable part of your business. Making sure you never lose contact with them is the smartest business tactic you can use.

Your list is YOURS.

• You own it
• You control it
• No one can shut it down
• No one can take it away from you

Use your list to announce new product launches, specials collections, sales or any thing you’d like your customers to know.

And if Etsy ever pulls the plug on your shop, you can contact your customers and let them know where else they can find you.

BONUS: IT’S EASY MARKETING
Just as you sign up with your favorite companies to get their product and sales updates by email, your customers (current and potential) will sign up with you.
This is the most effective marketing you can do.
Email marketing is the most cost and time effective marketing there is.

Think about it. You’ll be talking to people who told you that they want to hear about your products or services.
Perfect!

Build your customer list with a professional email service.
It will:

• keep your emails from landing in your customers’ spam folders
• provide forms to copy-and-paste where you want them
• easily send 1,000s of emails instantly
• give you stats on how many customers opened your email
• give you stats on how many customers clicked on any links you included in your email

There are several email services available. Some services will restrict the content of your emails. Some services have rates that go up as your list grows or if you want more than one list. Some services suck at staying out of spam folders.

That’s why I recommend Aweber* to build your list. For a little less than 20 bucks a month, you’ll have the peace of mind knowing that your customer list is safely in your hands.

With Aweber, you can have as many different lists as you want, for as many businesses as you want and send to as many people as you want. Their prebuilt forms come in handy for HTML-challenged people like me.

No matter which email service you choose, sign up with one of them. This is really important! An email list is the most valuable investment you’ll make in your business. Hands down.

Once you’re signed up, everything you do from that point on should funnel customers to your email list. Every. Single. Customer.

Put sign-up forms on:

• your blog
• your website
• your Facebook page

Put an invite to join your email list on your:

• business cards
• thank you notes
• packing slips
• sales tags
• boxes
• signs at shows
• your email signature
• and any other business correspondence you do

A QR code is great to electronically send customers right to the form.

HOW TO USE INCENTIVES
Incentives are little bonuses for customers who sign up for your list. Right now, I’m offering a free copy of a soon to be released ebook as a way of thanking people who opt-in to the Indiepreneur list.

You may not need an incentive for your business, but it’s still a nice thing to do for your customers.

A discount on their next purchase would be nice. Or give your customers exclusive access to a special collection at low member-only prices. Use your imagination to come up with incentives that fit your business.

PROTECT YOUR LIST
Customers trust you with their email addresses. Please respect that and them by not inundating them with emails. Don’t sell or lease their address to other companies. You may, from time to time and at your discretion, recommend another business your customers might enjoy. But don’t over do it.

Be sure to download your list from your service on a monthly basis — just in case something happens to the main server. Aweber has a one click back up and export button that will email you a spreadsheet of your customers.

CYBERSQUAT THE RIGHT WAY
Cybersquatting is using someone else’s bandwidth to run your business.

The harsh truth is that you don’t own your shop on Etsy. That digital space belongs to them. Tick them off and your shop is outta there.

You don’t own your page on Facebook or your Twitter account. Should your favorite social network shut down or your account get hijacked, you will lose all those followers, likers and potential customers with no way of contacting them — unless they’re on your list. (Facebook’s solution to a hijacked page is to delete it and have you start over. How much would that suck?)

Etsy, eBay, Facebook, Twitter, Google+, etc. are free and easy marketing tools. Absolutely take advantage of them.

But never forget that you don’t own those tools. Making them the foundation of your business is not a sensible Indiepreneur tactic.

Be smart.

Invest in and build with tools that you own and you control.

Make sure any screwing by Etsy won’t cost you your business.

My Grams was the smartest person I ever knew.

One day, when I was about six, my dad responded to a mistake I made with the old “You made your bed, now lie it in.” 

Walking by with a load of laundry (she was always doing laundry), Grams quipped, “Hog Hoo (she used that phrase a lot). Just get up and remake your bed, kind*. No sense putting up with lumps.”

Formerly Amish, totally Pennsylvania Dutch, quiet, reserved, yet opinionated as hell, Grams was a woman who didn’t take Hog Hoo from anyone, especially her 16 children. Uh huh, I said 16 kids! No weak minded, lily-livered woman, Grams was healthy as can be and died at the age of 86. Her funeral was held in the fire house, because it was the only building in town big enough to hold the entire family. Think about it – 16 kids translates into dozens of grandchildren, great-grandchildren and great-great grandchildren. Every child of hers was married, so were most of the grand kids and the older great-great grand kids.

Anyway, back to Grams being the smartest person I ever knew.

She didn’t say much, but when she did speak, golden bits of wisdom often came out of her mouth … like the advice to remake a badly made bed.

Another nugget I took in and have lived by ever since she taught it to me is her Popeye Method to Life.

I am what I am.

The Popeye Method to Life is the ultimate simple secret to living an authentic life.

The Popeye Method to Life means you accept who and what you are – good, bad and hideous.

“Live like Popeye, kind*. It’s too much work fighting who you are. No sense tearing your hair out over yourself,” Grams said.

Accepting everything about yourself – good, bad and hideous, is the ultimate key to the self confidence you’ll need to do well in whatever you decide to take on in life.

Self confidence isn’t about ego. It’s about telling yourself the truth.

When you recognize what you do well versus what you don’t, it helps you set realistic goals and dream realistic dreams.

Reaching for what you want in a realistic way, you’re more apt to experience success and success is what makes you feel good. Success encourages you to keep going and try something else.

As you chalk up success after success, you’ll develop the courage to stretch out of your comfort zone even more, and not fall to pieces when something doesn’t work out.

That doesn’t mean you give up on those parts of yourself that need improvement. Being aware of those flaws is an advantage in that you’ll know when to get expert help and when you need to educate yourself.

So, the next time you realize you’re not perfect I want you to say “I am what I am” to yourself. No more beating yourself up. The next time you do something awesome I want you to say “I am what I am” to yourself. No more downplaying your talents.

Got it? Good.

And take a good look at the bed you made for your life. Don’t like what you see? Get up off your ass and remake it into what you want.

The wisdom of Grams, it ain’t no Hog Hoo!

* Kind means child in German.