10 Things You Can Do in 10 Minutes Each to Move Your Business Forward – Guest Blogger Michelle Shaeffer (@MichelleShaeffr)

1. Write a quick blog post and promote it.

Jot down some random thoughts about something helpful for your readers.  Try a top ten list (like this one!) or top 5 list.  You can polish it later and use it as an article, in your newsletter, for a podcast, in a video, etc.  Take time to tweet your post and add it to your Facebook status.  If you’re using Networked Blogs, it will tweet/update for you.

If you feel overwhelmed at the thought of posting in 10 minutes, check out Michele Scism’s 10 minute blog post ideas: part one and part two.

2. Write a few thank you cards or emails.

I’ve brought notecards with me this trip to send handwritten thank yous to a few of my clients who’ve been with me for years (some more than 5 years, and close to 10!) and who refer clients to me consistently.  Only takes a few minutes but it’s nice to receive a thank you in the mail.  If you don’t have thank you cards or aren’t a handwriting type person try Send Out Cards, which lets you pick a card to send and personalize it, and then they mail it snail mail for you.  Or, send out a couple of quick emails or ecards.

3. Pick 2 or 3 blogs to comment on and leave a thoughtful comment.

Choose blogs that either you want to connect with and get known by the authors, or that reach your target market.  Leave a comment to let them know you appreciate their content, or that it sparked ideas for you or helped you in some way.

4. Hop on Facebook and do a super fast like/comment spree and update your status.

In 10 minutes you can hit like and leave short comments on a lot of posts.  Update your status, and your fan page status while you’re there.

5. Use HootSuite to schedule tweets and status updates for the next couple of days.

With HootSuite you can schedule your tweets and status updates and set what time you want them to post.  Very cool way to stay visible on the social networks without being chained to your computer.

6. Send a short note to your email list recommending a great resource.

What have you found lately (especially free or low-cost) that would be helpful to your mailing list?  Write up a quick review with how it’s saved you time, money, frustration or energy and share it with them.  People love being connected to helpful tools and services.

7. Pick one person you’d like to get to know and send a short, professional email introducing yourself.

No need to ask for anything or having a specific project in mind.  Just a note to let them know you appreciate their information, blog, articles, whatever you like, and send it.

8. Connect people.

Think of someone you know who could help someone else you know and introduce them to each other.  In 10 minutes you could come up with several sets of people to connect.

9. Go answer questions on a niche forum.

There are always people looking for help on forums.  Go find some that have questions you can answer and help with.  Save those answers – you can re-purpose them into articles, blog posts, etc later.

10. Take action on something to build your business.

Find a blog post, article, ezine or something else you’ve got filed or bookmarked that had a great idea you meant to implement but kept forgetting.  Implement it!  Most little tweaks and action steps take very little time, we’ve just got to focus and get them done.  Fast action!

And there you have it!  It’s now 7:16pm which means this post took me 13 minutes to write.  But to be fair, I stopped part way through to eat half a Hershey’s bar from the airport vending machine and was interrupted several times by kids wanting my iPod to play games on.  So close enough to 10 minutes for me.

Your turn! Take 10 minutes and go implement one of these ideas — positive action in our businesses always feels fantastic!

Michelle Shaeffer has been a work at home mom for more than 10 years and loves to share the tips and strategies she’s learned to help other small and home based business owners balance, manage, and market their businesses.