As entrepreneurs, we all know that marketing is our #1 job!
But without creating time to market, people often fill their days with unimportant tasks and activities that get in the way of their big goals!
One of the greatest things you can do for yourself while building your business is to “Clear the Decks”!
This is a concept I first learned from my mentor Fabienne Fredrickson! It seemed like a no brainer, but I quickly realized that many people are NOT effective at creating the time necessary in their daily schedule to make marketing a priority.
Whether you’re starting a new business or ramping up the one you currently have, the idea is to eliminate time wasters during the day and learn how to say NO to disruptions.
Building a business is NO easy feat! So it’s imperative that you are purposefully creating a structure in your life and business to focus on client attraction and business development.
A process you can do to evaluate yourself, is to take the time to look over your schedule and see where you can make improvements. Schedule in the necessities and put a pause on all non-essential tasks that are robbing you of valuable time.
Here are 5 ways you can create time for marketing and business growth:
• Block out time on your calendar daily for all marketing efforts
• Make networking a priority several times a month and be sure to schedule these events in advance (especially while you’re in the “building” phase of your business)
• Schedule in necessary “follow up“ time for after networking. Most people NEVER follow up! But if you schedule it in advance, it’s a reminder to yourself to be sure to make it happen.
• Create monthly business development days to focus solely on business growth.
• Schedule quarterly business reviews to make sure you’re staying on target to reach your monthly/yearly goals. If you have a team, be sure you have quarterly meetings with them as well! Your team can help you get there as long as they know where you’re going!
In order to create this type of consistent structure in your life and business, you’ll have to be very diligent as to how you spend your time and what activities you say yes or no to.
When I first started my business, I would take 2 hours in the middle of the day to exercise and shower! Now, exercise and showers are truly necessary… But doing so before my “work day” was an easy way I could recapture 2 hours every day to focus on my marketing efforts and grow my business faster.
What activities can you say no to? At least while you’re ramping up your business? Are you volunteering several times a week at other functions or in the kids’ classroom? Do you take a break in the middle of the day for TV? Do you squander time on social media (totally have been guilty of this too!)
In addition to cutting back on volunteer efforts, put a pause on family tasks and other non money generating activities. Instead of running out to the grocery store in the middle of the day or waiting in line at the post office find other resources or outsource these tasks.
If you put these tools into place, how could you be more focused and diligent with your marketing efforts?
