If you’re like many successful small business owners, you have more tasks to do each day than you have time to do them in.

In order to be able to stay the course in your business, you need to learn how to change this situation. This column will show you how you can have more time each day and get more done simultaneously. You will learn the tips and best practices that other business owners are using to maximize their efficiency each day.

By incorporating these tips into your daily routine, you’ll be able to spend your time on revenue generating tasks (instead of on time-consuming administrative work), including working with your current clients, meeting prospective clients, or on creating new products.

Save Time When Using Your Contracts – Use a Template

Every business relationship begins with a written agreement or contract. Have you ever thought about how much time it takes you to fax (and get faxed back) your agreements with your clients?

These simple steps will save you at least 15 – 30 minutes per contract:

1. Create your contract in Microsoft Word. Leave blanks for the client’s name, address, signature, and date so that they can fill those fields in.

2. Put in the date at the top of the contract and by your signature so that it automatically updates each day. To do so:
   • If you’re in Microsoft Word, in the toolbar on the top of the page, go to ‘Insert’.
   • Then select ‘Field’.
   • Under the ‘Field name’ list on the left, select ‘Date’.
   • Select the ‘Date format’ you’d like, and then click ‘OK.’
3. Scan in your signature and put it in your Microsoft Word contract. To do this:
   • Scan your signature into your computer. (If you have a fax-to-email service, you can also fax yourself a copy of your signature.)
   • While looking at your scanned signature on your screen, minimize it so that it looks like the size you want it to be in your contract.
   • Then do ‘Print Screen’. On most key boards, this can be done by pressing the ‘Function’ key (on the lower left) and the ‘Print screen’ key (on the upper right).
   • Go to Paint. You’ll find this by going to the ‘Start’ button, then ‘All Programs’, then ‘Accessories’, then ‘Paint’.
   • Once you’re in Paint, cut out the signature. Then open and new Paint file and paste it.
   • Save this file. Make sure to ‘Save as type’ and choose JPEG.
   • In your Microsoft Word agreement, go to ‘Insert’ then ‘Picture’ then ‘From File.’ Insert the JPEG of your signature.
   • To make it so that the other text will wrap around the JPEG of your signature, when your signature is highlighted in your Word document, click the picture of the dog that says ‘Tight’.

4. To send over the contract to your client, either:
   • Convert your contract to PDF on the day that your clients wants to sign up with you (this will keep the automatic date accurate) for free by using PrimoPDFOnline.
   • Fax him/her a Word version of the contract by using a fax-from-email service (see below).

Congratulations! That’s it! You’ve just saved yourself a tremendous amount of time, yet accomplished the same task that you were doing before.
Save Time When Faxing Your Contracts – Use a Fax-From-Email Service

Many business owners are aware of faxing services (like efax.com) that enable you to receive faxes in your email. But did you know that you can fax from your email address, too? Here’s how:

To fax from your email (such as you@yourwebsite.com), you need to set up a plan with a service like http://www.ringcentral.com/. Once you do that, all you have to do is:

1. Go to ‘Compose Mail’ in your email account.
2. In the “To” field, type the fax # followed by rcfax.com. For example: 4155551212@rcfax.com.
3. In the “Subject” field, write whatever you want to be the cover letter. For example: Hi Bob. It was great talking with you today. Please fax back all 3 pages of the agreement, and then we can get started working together. Looking forward to working with you! Sarah Leah
4. Upload your client agreement as a Microsoft Word attachment to the email.

That’s it! You’ve just successfully faxed from your email address. RingCentral.com will send you an email confirmation when the fax has gone through.

By using these tips, you’ll be able to start working with your clients faster. It will take you much less time to fax them their agreements, which means you’ll have much more time to market to new clients!