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Freelance Couriers Article
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Importance of Time
Management for Freelance
Couriers and Owner Drivers
Article
By: Andre Hendricks
have a question for you? How is it that one freelance
courier can make between £750 and £980 from
courier jobs per week while another in the exact
same circumstances can only make between £150 and £250
per week? What’s the difference between them?
In this article I want to
talk to you about time management. One of the reasons
freelance couriers are struggling is because it seems
there is never enough hours in the day. While this is
not true, the real reason is a wastage of time.
You see time is the only real modern currency we have
today to trade with. You can’t save time and use it
later. So how you use your time is a great and direct
determining factor in your success a s a freelance
courier.
I believe it is more important to work smarter then it
is to work harder when both acquiring courier jobs or
doing courier jobs so the correct allocation of
your time is crucially essential to avoid having stress
as a result of having to do too much in too little time.
To give you a rough outline of what you should be doing
when you first start your freelance courier business,
should make it clear as to why proper time management is
so important:
1.
You have to survey your area to scout and identify
potential star customers. This includes customers from 2
segments initially namely private companies and courier
companies.
2.
You then have to present your business in a professional
manner to these companies to build credibility and
establish trust. This could be in the form of having a
smart universal outfit or uniform with a company
identity badge.
Large courier companies like City Link, parcel force
etc. all have their staff wear company close to
establish branding and professionalism in the minds of
customers. You should do the same.
3.
Now that you have researched and surveyed your target
customer base, created a professional image and
established some sort of brand in the minds of the
customer, you need to make contact with those customers.
This is where you’ll start making phone calls, send out
direct mail pieces, place classified ads and advertise
on Google’s search engine.
4.
Once you have some appointments with customers you need
to have a service agreement ready to show customers why
and how you are better then Tom, Dick and Harry
freelance couriers down the road.
Yes, as a freelance courier you will not be the only one
tendering for work so it’s important to understand what
makes you unique from your competition for example
you might offer a lower price, better support, faster
delivery times etc.
5.
Once you’ve bagged a number of customers it only make
good business sense to keep in touch with those
customers and that can be via phone or direct mail or
email. I recommend email because you can automate the
process – more on that in a later article.
As you can see just from the small list of activities I
have mentioned, there’s a lot to do, and wasting time
surfing the net or talking to friends on the phone will
severely detract from the time you need to grow and
market your business.
So how can you be more
productive and manage your time more effectively?
The first thing
you need to do is to list all the activities that is
directly responsible for bringing in the work. You can
start by making a detailed list of the activities you
need to do as mentioned earlier in the article.
You need to focus your time on
these activities above all things so prioritize your
list in that order of importance. The next you need to
do is to break that list of activities into segments and
focus your attention on one part of that particular
activity.
For example, if you need to make a list of star
customers in the private companies segment, don’t mix up
that list with courier companies.
Do one thing thorough and as long as it’s an activity
that directly contributes to your business growth, you
will immediately become more productive while growing
your business rapidly.
Next you need to assign times by when you need to
complete these activities as well as having a check list
to check up on yourself as you make progress. Check off
the things you have completed and immediately move to
the next activity on your list.
I find that by making yourself a poster with the words,
“ BACK TO WORK” generally helps when I’m sitting idle.
You might want to try a similar idea.
Remember not many people are born with perfect time
management skills so you have to practise it until it
becomes a habit. I’ve included a very useful piece of
software called Time Keeper that you can use to track,
how, and where you spend your time.
I Hope this article shed some light
on the importance of time management.
Until then I wish you much success
Andre Hendricks
Courier Jobs - Earn Between £450 -
£750+ P/W Using Your Car!
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