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So you finally took the plunge! You counted your money 23 times. You went to the bank and got a line of credit. You changed your health insurance over to your spouse's employer, and you quit your old job. Even before you opened the door to your new business, you carefully set up a tight budget for both home and business. You did this because you knew that nothing could mess up your plans faster than carelessness with your finances.

Actually, you have another resource that is just as precious as money. Frivolous use of your time can devastate a business just as quickly as overspending. There are three principles that you need to adopt as you plan your time budget.

First, being "at work" is not the same as "working." If you are accustomed to working for someone else, you were probably paid for the time you were at the office. Some days you worked yourself to death. Other days, nothing seemed to come together. Either way, on payday you got your check. When you are self-employed, you are paid for results. It is very easy to spend 16 hours at the office and never do anything that brings you positive results. On that day, you earned nothing, and your paychecks will soon reflect this.

Second, all tasks are not created equal. While it is important to keep a neat filing cabinet, making calls on potential customers is much more likely to promote the long-term success of your business.

Third, no day will ever go the way you planned it. If you can average completing 80% of your plan, you are doing well.

So where do you go with this? Start with figuring out what has to happen for your company to make money. Generally, this is at the heart of the reason you started the company. In most businesses, the owner starts with identifying potential customers, gets in touch with them (either electronically, by phone, with paper, or in person), and convinces them to purchase the product or service. Directly from this comes the necessity to process orders, assure prompt delivery, solve customer problems and follow up to insure customer satisfaction. Activities that promote these processes are automatically priority one.

Then, there are all the other things that have to happen to keep the business going. Bills must be paid, office supplies ordered, floors swept, personal phone calls returned. These are priority two. The most successful entrepreneurs spend little, if any, time on priority two activities during the prime work hours. They either hire someone else to take care of these things,

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