The Keys to Effective and Efficient Communication

The following is a guest post by Nicole Taylor of Home Business Online Opportunities.

Working solo from a home business can definitely have its moments, usually expressed in the form of “Too much work – Not enough time!”

If you’ve ever experienced this sinking feeling, it’s time to free up some time and begin to breathe again. Stop cringing and cussing every time the phone rings… these keys to effective and efficient communication are for you!

Declare Email Bankruptcy

Regardless of what you may have heard about this rapidly growing craze, one thing is for sure – it works! If you’re like many home business owners and have heaps and bounds of unread emails piled up in your inbox and bringing you down, it’s time to declare email bankruptcy.

Just send out a mass email to your entire address book and let them know you’re deleting all previously received emails and if they’ve sent something that’s truly important or requires a reply, they’ll kindly need to send it again. Then delete all. Starting fresh has never felt so good!

Establish Email Freedom

Once you’ve finally caught up with your emails once and for all, don’t allow yourself to get stuck in the same rut all over again. I know it’s not quite as easy as it sounds, but as home business owners, we must have complete control over our inboxes.

Try checking your email only once a day. Don’t be afraid to be heavy handed with the delete button… after all, way more than half of all messages received are just junk anyway. If you need to receive important work-related emails as soon as they’re sent, try configuring a separate business email account specifically for this purpose. Also, keeping a separate account just for personal email from trusted friends and family is helpful if you can convince them to use it only for actual correspondence or for sending photographs or other items especially important to you.

Create a Communication Hierarchy

Okay, I know a home business is not some crazy dictatorship or anything, but it is important to make your favorite means of communication known to your clients, family, and friends.

If you’re best with email, tell them to try you via that method first. Maybe you prefer to receive text messages for brief notes that require no reply. Whatever suits you and your home business best – just pick your poison and share the news. You’ll find communication ends up being incredibly less distracting.

Develop a Phone Policy

When the phone rings every time you’re totally immersed in your day’s big project, it’s easy to begin to resent phone calls altogether. All it takes is one brief call to break your creative process or train of thought. If the ringing phone is making your ears ring and your head pound, it’s time to establish set phone hours.

Try using caller ID to screen calls and only take and return calls during a predetermined time frame. On your outgoing voicemail message, briefly explain your new phone policy. People will generally understand as long as you return important calls without letting too much time pass. And even better – they’ll eventually get the hint that trivial calls are distracting to you and stop the non-essential phoning completely.

So to recap, these keys to effective and efficient communication might be just the medicine needed to bring your home business to life and allow you to finally start breathing again. At the very least, embracing these keys will add precious time to your day!

Photo by RichardAM.

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