As an entrepreneur email is a huge part of our lives. Many of us spend, I’d say, 5+ hours writing and reading emails every single day. That’s pretty normal. And it makes sense for us young entrepreneur to be using email like we do.
As founders of startups, it’s our responsibility to be constantly reaching out to people. Whether it’s explaining our business, talking to clients, seeking new clients, helping people out, or even approving comments on our blogs, emailing has become an important – needed – tool for the entrepreneur.
I’d be interested to know what other young entrepreneurs are doing with their time spent reading and writing emails. Personally, I find myself mostly using email for promoting my business and reaching out to other young entrepreneurs around the world.
Sure, the world wide web is great, but what really makes it amazing is the networking potential. By emailing someone you are instantly reaching out to them and making a direct connection.
This isn’t new to you — you know the importance of networking on the internet as a young entrepreneur. But I’m still surprised to see how many young entrepreneurs aren’t really taking the extra step to make a connection to someone just by sending them a simple email introducing themselves. That’s all it takes.
One of my favorite things about the web is how easy it is to reach out to someone and how readily available people are to spend time with you via email. That’s exactly what makes the web the second most powerful means of communication after spoken word.
How many hours do you spend writing and reading emails per day? What do you mostly use emailing for?
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I would say I must spend, on an average workday, 1 and 1/2 to 2 hours a day reading and writing e-mail.
I would say that a majority of the e-mails that I write relate to helping people with my sites.
Email is at the root of everything I do. But I use it for more than just communication, I use it for my task tracking and productivity.
My email is always open and always updating.
Hey Patrick, yeah that sounds pretty typical. I, too, focus a lot of my emails around helping people with my services.
Chris, yeah I use email for so, so many things. I actually organize many aspects of my business around email. Yup, my Gmail is constantly working!
I’m usually using my email about 2 or 3 hours per day.
I use it to stay in touch with business partners about projects, to make contact with past, present and potential clients and also to make initial contact with home sellers.
Also I may use email as a sales/negotiating tool while working on property deals that are not located in my city or state.
My home computer and blackberry have become my two best friends. Good article.
While email is great, I think it’s also important to remember that some of the most successful business people of all time lived in an era where the only form of instant communication was the telephone, and that this entire country was founded in an era when the quickest way to reach somebody was to send a letter. There IS a saturation point with technology where I think it hurts more than helps us. We “need” email, we “need” our Blackberries & laptops, etc etc… And while I understand that times change and successful entrepreneurs do need to adapt to them to stay afloat, I also understand that there needs to be a point where we get back to basics.
I just got a Blackberry back in July, after a ton of resistance. I realized I needed it to keep up, but still, I limit myself. It only syncs up every half hour (it does not push instantly), which allows me some breathing room. On top of that, I only answer THE most important emails on the spot. Everything else can wait until I’m back at my desk. Once I’m at my desk, I follow similar rules. My email syncs up once every 15 minutes, and I try to keep my correspondence to a minimum.
Anything I feel can be done over the phone, I do over the phone. Not only will you get instant responses/reactions & save both parties some time, but it’s also a lot more personal, which helps build relationships far more than some text on a screen.
I try to limit my email correspondence. I own a web design & development firm and spend an hour per day MAX on my email. I know that may seem ridiculous to some, but there is a point where you need to stop all the talk and just get some freakin’ work done.
Of course, I understand that for some people, emailing is their entire business. And I also understand that some days are busier on the email front than others. But on the whole, the truth is, more than enough relationship building and deal-making can be done in about one hour per day. After that, you are probably just wasting valuable hours that could instead be spent executing on all your talk.
Anthony, thanks for the awesome comment. Agreed, if spending time on email isn’t adding value to your business then you are wasting valuable time. However, if your business heavily relies on email or networking via email for 5+ hours helps grow your company, then, by God, I’m all for that!