Read this issue of the Inspiri Craft Business Magazine online.

Each month Inspiri Craft Business Magazine brings you current and in-depth information and resources to help you build and grow your own home craft business. If you have a friend who would enjoy this newsletter, please feel free to forward it to them.

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New at Inspiri

Share a Craft Business Article

I have a brand new feature at Inspiri, which will allow you to share your own craft business tips. If you have a great craft business tip that you'd like to share, I've made it very easy for you to submit an article to Inspiri.

If you sell crafts online either on your own site, on a blog or on Etsy, simply include your site's URL and a description of your business, with your article and you'll receive a valuable backlink to your site when your article is published.

You can find out more about how to share a craft business article here.

Newest Articles at Inspiri

Catchy Business Names
When you're trying to brainstorm catchy business names, consider throwing a business name ideas party.

The Importance of Time Management
You should not underestimate the importance of time management when you work from home. Use these tips on time management to achieve your business goals.

Sell Handmade Crafts Online
Guest author Kimberly Hart provides insight into what it takes to sell handmade crafts online.

Feature Article

Build Your Craft Business in Less Time

I've been reading a lot of books about time management recently. Working from home and balancing family responsibilities can be challenging, and although I set aside specific times during the day to work on my business, sometimes I feel like my time slips away from me, and I don't always know where it goes.

So, I borrowed a pile of time management books from the library to see if I could find any good experts who could help me feel better about the way I use my time. Most of them talk about organization strategies that can be helpful, but one author, Timothy Ferriss, who wrote The 4-Hour Work Week, has a completely different and, in my opinion, really smart way of looking at time management.

Timothy Ferriss talks about learning the difference between working effectively and working efficiently. Working efficiently involves doing a task in the quickest way possible. This is what most time management books emphasize.

However, working efficiently doesn't take into account whether your actions truly lead to achieving your goals. So you may be doing a task efficiently, and the task may appear to be productive, but if you spent some time analyzing what really works in your business, you might find that the task you are working on takes up 50% of your time and only generates 5% of your income. That is not working effectively.

Working effectively (not just efficiently) involves taking some time to step back and assess what is really working in your business. For example, Timothy Ferris suggests looking at your sources of revenue to determine where 80% of your business income comes from. Often you'll find that 80% of your income comes from about 20% of your effort (this is linked to the Pareto Principal that states 80% of results are generated by 20% of the effort we make.) So, instead of wasting time on activities that only generate 20% of your income, analyze those customers or income sources that create 80% of your income and spend your time working to attract more customers or sales opportunities like those that are already working for you.

It sounds very simple, but few people actually work in this manner. Too often we think of time management as a set of strategies that will allow us to cram even more work into an already over scheduled day. Instead, if you commit to working more effectively, emphasizing what works, and eliminating what doesn't, you'll be able to accomplish more with your business in less time and have plenty of time left over to pursue other interests.

Online Craft Business Resource

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