Flexible Time Boundaries For At Home Business Success
If you're beginning an at-home business or looking to expand your at-home business, you might have to increase your flexibility in terms of your hours in order to attract new customers. Use the suggestions below for increasing your flexibility in business hours to increase your at-home business success.
Determine whether it makes sense for you to answer your business phone rather than letting messages go to voicemail, even if several calls come after your established business hours.
Before you let a phone call go to voicemail consider that casual inquiries about your business can often be answered when a potential customer calls, which means that you'll save time in having to sort through messages, take down numbers, and return calls after already listening to messages. Another reason to answer your phone when it rings is that potential customers frequently will forget to leave their contact information which means that you'll be unable to return the call.
Prioritize your business activities in terms of servicing customers, managing your business, and selling to new customers and allow your priorities to dictate your office hours. For instance, if you're getting information to your accountant for a tax deadline, it doesn't really matter what time of day you assemble your paperwork. On the other hand, if you're running a webinar to get new customers, then the time is based on what works for potential customers. While you want to have "business hours," your at-home business provides you with an opportunity to change those hours based on need.
Distinguish between appointments and scheduling. When you're in your at-home office it's likely that you plan your business day ahead of time, this is your business scheduling which can also include appointments with other people. While it's very important to be reliable in terms of business meetings, the flexibility of working at home frequently can leave you room to shift your at-home obligations and at-work obligations if necessary.
Continue to gather information about your customers throughout the year in order to determine whether your at-home business hours should be changed to accommodate customer schedules. Your data gathering does not have to be formal where you require constant customer input that might result in customer annoyance. You can establish common times you make contact with customers by allocating a period to fill in time for order placement, or for determining when phone calls or emails are received.
If your at-home business tends to be busy in the mornings and the evenings, use the flexibility of an at-home business to work part of the day in the morning and part in the evening, leaving your afternoons or later evening free for your personal life. The ability to split your hours up can be a great way to put in your workday hours while accommodating your customers.
One of the reasons you chose an at-home business was likely to be able to make your own hours. Use the suggestions above to make sure you use your ability to have flexible hours as a selling point to increase business success.
