Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
There's a fine line between being distracted by the Net andactually being addicted to it. Either way, your productivity--andbusiness--suffers. "With a start-up business, there's athreat of playing rather than working," says Kimberly S.Young, owner of the Center for On-Line Addiction in Bradford,Pennsylvania.
Young says the warning signs of Internet addiction are similarto those of other addictions: "a preoccupation with theInternet while offline, a constant anticipation of the next onlinesession, lying about the extent of use to others. For compulsiveusers, their whole life becomes the Internet."
Bellingham, Washington, entrepreneur Heather Martin says thedepth of information available online cut into her productivity."I would research articles [online] and start surfingcompletely unrelated sites," recalls the 30-year-old writerand marketing consultant. "Hours later, I realized I had noarticle, but my butt was sure sore! Suddenly, I was working nightsand weekends [to make up for time wasted online]."
The first step toward breaking this destructive pattern is tokeep track of what you're doing with your online time. Youngsuggests estimating time spent on essential versus nonessentialuse. Note your results: What are you accomplishing? Are you workingproductively or unproductively?
Next, put time-management skills into practice. "Structurehow you work. If you spend two hours per day [online] for work,allow yourself 15 minutes just for fun," says Young."Plan the time very specifically. This is abehavior-controlling approach. Be mindful of the addictive activityand regulate the behavior."
Martin used these strategies when she realized she needed to cuther online time and concentrate on running her company, SuccessWorks. "Now I actually structure playtime into my day where Ican read, watch TVor . . . yes . . . evenmindlessly surf!" she says. "It's made a hugedifference."
Shannon Kinnard (shannon@ideastation.com) isthe owner of Idea Station, an editorial services company inDecatur, Georgia, that specializes in e-mail newsletters. She isthe assistant editor of digitalsouth magazine (http://www.digitalsouth.com) andis working on her first book, which deals with marketing viae-mail.
Get The Fax Straight
"What's your fax number?" asks your biggestclient.
"Sorry, don't have one," you--the homebasedentrepreneur--reply.
It's a familiar scenario if you work from home and arealready divvying up one phone line for voice use and Internetaccess. To get the most from a fax machine, it needs its own lineso faxes can be received at any time. Of course, when you'retraveling, you can't get the paper faxes that are sent to yourhome office.
Here's a solution: Get an account with an online servicethat provides you with a fax number so you can receive and accessfaxes via your e-mail or Web site, and a mechanism for sendingfaxes from your e-mail program.
New York's .comfax (http://www.comfax.com) lets you receivefaxes for roughly $10 a month and send faxes for $4.95 per month.(Access fees are 10 cents per minute.) The company also offersbroadcast fax services.
Ipost (http://www.ipost.net)and JFAX (http://www.jfax.com)offer unified messaging, which consolidates voice, e-mail, pagerand fax messages, and sends them as e-mail or pager messages. Bothcharge about $13 per month for basic service.
Ira Pasternack, 29, owner of Internet marketing firm ClearlyInternet, uses JFAX. "It lets me get faxes easily whentraveling, it's much cheaper than having a separate fax line,and it helps me stay organized because all my faxes are saved on mycomputer," says the Providence, Rhode Island,entrepreneur.
The drawbacks are minor, he adds: "If something I'mfaxing needs a signature, I need to fax from a regular fax machine.Large faxes can take a while to download; that can be slightlyinconvenient when traveling--but no big deal otherwise, now that Ihave a cable modem."
Warning Signs
Need help monitoring your own (or your employees') Internetuse? Several software programs can help. Scout 2.2(surfCONTROL, $99 for 20 users, http://www.surfcontrol.com) andFullControl (Bardon Data Systems, $49.95, http://www.bardon.com) both track sitesvisited and time spent online. In addition to recording online timeand sites, WinGuardian (Webroot Software, $29.95, http://www.webroot.com/chap1.htm)tracks everything you do on your computer, including programs runand keystrokes typed.
Contact Sources
Center for On-Line Addiction, ksy@netaddiction.com, http://www.netaddiction.com
Clearly Internet, (401) 274-2575, ira@clearlyinternet.com
Heather Martin, c/o SuccessWorks, heather@successwks.com
