One of the traps that solopreneurs can easily fall into is believing that being busy is the same as being productive! Today being busy is often worn as a badge of honor but it’s not the same thing as doing activities that actual help get more clients or make more money! Entrepreneurs spent way too much time on activities that don’t generate a dime!
Although increasing both your profitability and your productivity (they go hand in hand) are huge topics, and people have written big books on those topics, I’ve only got a couple of hundred words here so I’m going to boil it down to a couple of actionable essentials!
READY…..
1. know what you want
Steven Covey says – begin with the end in mind! I believe if you know what you want, then you’ve got a better chance of actually achieving it. So what do I mean.
What do you want? I hear clients say things like MORE money; more clients; etc. But what does more look like – 10, 100, 1000? Be specific.
Why do you want that? It goes back to asking yourself what type of lifestyle are you trying to build with your business. YUP – I believe that your business should support your lifestyle, not the other way around! Are you clear on what you want your lifestyle to be; what you will have; and more importantly how you will feel when you’ve reached that goal?
When you have clarity on the type of lifestyle you want, then each and every business decision can be aligned and you focus on achieving it.
INSPIRED ACTION: If you’d like more help to get clarity around this topic, please download a copy of Lifestyle Clarity Map here. I guarantee it will be time well spent!
2. focus on revenue generating activities
Not long ago, I shared a blog and a FB live about 5 core entrepreneurial tasks (administration & operations; customer service; client fulfillment; marketing & sales; and business growth & development).
Some of those tasks are revenue generating – others not. The important tasks that you should focus on daily are sales & marketing – they generate revenue. In fact, the majority of your time should be spent on these two activities.
Here are some examples of revenue generating activities:
Networking
Speaking
Sales conversations
Follow up
Writing content
These are non-revenue generating:
Endlessly tweaking your logo, your tagline, your website
Being on social media for hours
Answering emails or phone calls
Doing your bookkeeping, sending our invoices
Yes – some of these non-revenue generating activities are essential! And when we first begin in our businesses, we wear all the hats and we have to do all the tasks. However, the goal is to become the CEO in your business – to delegate those non-revenue generating activities in order to free up your time to do what you do best!
It’s time for you to figure out WHICH of your revenue generating activities actually gives you the biggest return on investment? Which one of your marketing strategies leads to more sales conversations? Which one leads to more clients?
INSPIRED ACTION: Do a review of where your clients actually came from and do more of that activity with purpose! Beware of the ‘busy’ trap.
3. block time in your agenda for everything
The truth is …. scheduling gives you freedom! Freedom from chasing bright shiny objects; freedom to spend time with loved ones; freedom to be creative and grow your business.
I used to be a paper agenda kind of gal; however 3 years ago I shifted to Google Calendar and it was the best thing I ever did! Not only does it give me access to my agenda on my phone (no need to carry around a paper agenda), but I can color code my activities. Revenue generating activities in one color! I immediately know when I’m looking at my agenda at the beginning of the week that there needs to be 80% of my time on revenue generating activities!
INSPIRED ACTION: If you aren’t currently scheduling ALL of your activities in your agenda, try this:
1. block out family time or me-time in both the morning & evening and your vacation time.
2. block out time for client fulfillment (attempt to get all your client work lumped together)
3. block out time for big picture planning weekly.
4. block out time for content creation
5. block out time attending networking, travel to & from, follow up
6. block out time for invoicing & bookkeeping & admin if you have to
By grouping like activities with like activities, you’ll already be 20% MORE productive! Congratulations!
How about you? Do you struggle with knowing which revenue generating activities you should be doing? Do you struggle to block off time in your agenda? Do you struggle trying to figure out which activities you should be doing at your stage of business growth?
If so – then I invite you to SHIFT – the money event where we are going to talk about how to become more profitable and more productive. I’ll share top 3 pricing mistakes guaranteed to hurt your business as well as go into depth how to be more productive using my Model Agenda Formula that will help you be more profitable & more productive.
Being more productive doesn’t mean you work longer, harder hours! That’s a myth! Let’s take the hours that you have and get the greatest impact for the time you do invest in your business!
Diana
