Building a Business Takes Three Things; DISCIPLINE, EFFORT & COURAGE!
When I started my first business I was 21 years old. Looking back, what was I thinking? What was this young, Mother of a toddler, non-college graduate thinking? I didn’t have the first clue how to run a business let alone how to build one. What I did have was DISCIPLINE, EFFORT and COURAGE . Sometimes in your life ignorance is bliss, truly. I didn’t know what I didn’t know, therefore proceeding towards reaching my goal was done without an ounce of fear and tons of courage. A blessing in disguise for sure.
One thing I quickly learned was the importance of utilizing each and every second of my work day. When I began my entrepreneurial journey I was a wife and mother of one, I knew I had to be disciplined and maximize every moment allocated to business and maximize every moment while fulfilling the other roles in my life. My first business was started out of my home. This took DISCIPLINE! I established specific business hours and worked on my business during those hours, my children when to day care from 8:30 AM to 5:00 PM Monday through Friday. Trust me, it was tempting to throw in a load of laundry and get dinner started early. But I remained true to myself and had so much respect for my dream that I used those hours to work to make my dreams to come to fruition.
I want to roll out to you a very INTENTIONAL (my word of the year if you remember from a previous blog) daily, weekly and monthly schedule that is focused on your specific goals. What are the things that you have to do everyday to build and manage your business? Take time to Analyze and Review everything that fills your schedule, it takes Discipline and Effort to create an efficient and effective system. Check out a couple of examples below, I have focused on Daily Emails and Social Media. Enjoy!
Daily Task: Check Email - Analyze and Review
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What does your inbox look like?
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Do you receive too many emails that are unimportant to your business? If that is the case you need to take time to unsubscribe any junk email that is stealing precious time needed to focus on your business.
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Do you spend too much time on your emails? Track how much time you spend on email everyday and see where you can cut the time down.
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Is the time you are spending necessary in moving your business forward? If you find yourself getting sucked down a rabbit hole while taking care of email you must adjust.
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Do you need to learn how to do that yourself or will you delegate that to support staff?
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Can you create templates for the same emails you typically send? If you find you are repeating the same email response over and over create a template to streamline.
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How can you limit your time spent checking your email? Schedule yourself time daily to focus on email. Force yourself to be disciplined and efficient.
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Do you need to delete the app on your phone? If having 24/7 access to email is hindering your efficiency, consider deleting the app on your phone and only respond while in your office.
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Do you want to hit “Inbox 0” every single day? How about at the end of every single week?
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When will you intentionally have no messages in your inbox? Set hard deadlines for yourself make it happen!
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How can you organize your client communication better? Establishing a Communication System for your email business is VERY important.
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Do you need to set better ground rules?
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What time specifically will you be answering email? Allocate time everyday to respond and take care of email correspondence. Same time, everyday, twice a day if your business model requires.
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Can you keep it consistent so your clients know when to expect you? Your clients need to be able to depend on you. Establishing a Communication System will give your client the comfort and confidence to know that you will get them taken are of.
Daily Task: Social Media - Analyze and Review
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What social media platforms do you need to write content for? Make a list of all of the social media platforms you have a presence.
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Are being on all of these places helping your business or taking up your time? Take stock of how much time you are spending on each platform. Analyze how you are using your time while on a platform.
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Which social media platforms seem to actually be working? Base this on target client response and how well you are building your community of followers.
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Which social media platforms aren’t working? If a platform is essentially taking a nap on your business, you may need to eliminate this platform.
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Are your ideal clients consistently showing up there? Once you establish “who” is showing up on your social media, make sure you are reaching your ideal client and those people that fit your client avatar/profile.
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How can you create a way for your social media platforms to grow? Create a strategic outline for you social media marketing ensuring that you are maximizing your time and getting the proper return on your time investment.
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What will you need to do? Create a task list of what and how you are going to maximize your investment into social media marketing.
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Are you being strategic about where you’re posting content? You MUST have a strategic plan in posting to social media and growing your social community and fan base. Make sure you know “why” you are doing everything within your posting. If you don’t know “why” than figure out the why or drop a particular posting type.
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Is your content bringing people to a specific place so you can serve them? Filtering content onto your social media platforms that do not connect you to your client and give you the opportunity to serve them is a waste of time. Make sure you are reaching your potential clients and have the chance to serve them.
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Where are the places that you are visible to your target client? If you have defined your client avatar/profile properly you will know the answer to this question. You don’t want to cast a big net and hope to catch a few good fish, you want to cast a small net onto you target client and reap the rewards of a good catch.
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Where do you need to improve? Once you have analyzed all of your social media platforms, create a strategic task list, be very specific and intentional as to improving your overall social media presence.
I have given you two examples (Email and Social Media) of how to make your daily schedule within your business to be more specific and efficient. ANALYZE and REVIEW every daily task you have and create a plan. Once you have all tasks working properly, then work on planning out your weeks and months. This will put you ahead of the 8-ball not behind and ultimately avoid being overwhelmed with everything you have to do.
Be prepared, organized and move forward with COURAGE! This will lead to reaching your goals and seeing your dreams come true! Moving forward with Courage and overcoming your fear is key to your future success! Click on the link below for a free download of A NEW LIFE Daily Task forms to help you get started!
A NEW LIFE DAILY TASK FREE DOWNLOAD
Don't forget, BE DISCIPLINED, PUT FORTH THE EFFORT AND MOVE FORWARD WITH COURAGE!
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