Making Small Internet Business More Efficient

In business today time can either work for you or against you. If you have a small business this can be very evident in the way that you run your meetings. If you have a partnership or have employees that you meet with on a regular basis, you might be interested in a unique approach.

Before every meeting starts I sit down with my partner and we ask each other what agenda items we need to discuss. We then break those items down into two categories:

• High value activities
• Low value activities

The reason why we do this is because it can be very easy for us to get sidetracked and start talking about stuff that really is not important. We start with the high value activities or subjects first and then move onto the low value ones if there is time remaining.

The definition of a high value activity is anything that is of an urgent nature or anything that is directly related to our money pages. I want to get the most bang for my buck. I know there are certain things that are my bread and butter items. Those items are what I want to make sure run smoothly and are tended too. Knowing what you do best will help you determine what high value activities really are. For me, anytime I can allocate to developing new products or marketing new or existing products is a high value activity. New products or sales are an important matter and one that we all work for. I know that my time is best spent on formulating plans and building systems. New products never have a system to them yet because they are new. (duh) Making those systems on paper and planning for the crisis modes always minimize the time it takes to work in the business verses working on it. In the Internet business world we all know content is king. If you can plan your content and then plan your system around that, the business runs more efficient and makes more money. Now that is what I call high value.

High value also includes urgent items that need tending to as well. Be careful not to let crisis mode items seep into your valuable planning times. Looking at conversion of a particular web site or page even is another good example of high value activities. Knowing what your statistics for particular pages and/or items is a necessity. It allows you to directly address changes that you need to make and also helps give you data in which you can split test ideas.

It would be easier for me to say that everything that was not listed in the high value activity section is a low value activity. This may not always be true since you cannot possibly say all business is same. Every business has its nuances that dictate you figure out the differences between High and low value. The key here is actually figuring it out. Once you do that you will have a huge head start over your competitors. Generally I can say that if you can outsource something like shipping or labor that is a good idea. Anything that keeps you working in your business instead of on it is a low value activity. If you are so busy working in it, you have just created a monster that demands all your time. It's kind of like working for someone else since you do not get the time and freedom that owning the business should give you.

The next meeting you have, try this exercise. Write down the items you want to accomplish and assign them their values. You will find that you will be more focused and actually accomplish more things. Even if your meeting is just with one other person, you can avoid the pitfalls of discussing items that do not move your business forward. I like to think of things like: getting more links, marketing the site and creating video, as things that move the site and the business forward.

It would be silly to close out and not give some good examples of high value activities. I simply refer to any high value activitiy as one that helps me generate income. Developing systems is a good example, so are these.

• Finding new products
• managing your help to increase production
• writing promo copy for site
• working on the SEO for individual pages
• adding video
• Planning out monthly growth goals for the business