Be Your Own Boss - A Note Buyer

 

I am a private note buyer and if you're going to be your own boss, one of the most important things you have to focus on is man­aging your time well. In fact, I think organizing your time well is the number one most critical aspect of being your own boss. People who work for companies have a lot of their time managed for them. But people who work for themselves have to do it themselves. If they don't, who will?

By utilizing effective time manage­ment tools, you can keep track of your time and see where you're wasting your time and where you're making good use of it. When you manage your time well and keep track of it, you're able to govern yourself at a much more effective level.

I have a day planner that I use all the time. Each day I list the things that I need to do, and I try to focus on those things during that day. In addition to that, I have long-term and short-term goal lists in my day planner, and I try to review those every day, or twice a week at the minimum, in order to keep those goals in focus of what I do daily.

I don't think people can be truly ful­filled as individuals in our hectic, fragmented society unless they man­age their time well. When you take charge of your time, you'll be able to do those things that you really want to do, and do them well. If you are your own boss but don't have your priorities set right, you might be accomplishing tasks and func­tioning fairly effectively, but you won't likely be heading in the direc­tion you really want to go and get­ting those things done that are of true value to you.

I learned the importance of time management from my father. I've also learned that when it comes to man­aging your time, it's important to get one of the formal planning tools that are offered by some of the top time management companies that are out there.

Another trick to being an excellent self-boss is to delegate appropriate­ly. I'm not very good at delegating. I try, but it's difficult for me. People who are their own bosses need to continually work on this. In the cor­porate world, one of the main things bosses do is delegate. But for peo­ple who work for themselves, there's a real temptation to try to do everything yourself. You have to really be careful about that.

For self-employed real estate individuals, a big part of delegating is to make good choices about the ways they will use their time — what they will do and what they won't do; what they will do themselves and what they will farm out. You might say, "I will spend time looking for and analyz­ing new properties; but I will not spend my time fixing toilets and painting apartments when tenants move out. I will get someone else to do that."

Finally, good self-bosses surround themselves with good people who know how to get the job done and know how to do it well.