You know the saying, “if you don’t know where you’re going, any road will do.”
The fact is many business owners are in motion, but they’re not making any real progress.
They open the doors every day, then cross their fingers and hope something good will happen.
They have no real plan and their focus is scattered across a never-ending list of things to do.
Unfortunately, most of the things on their list are the WRONG things. As a consequence, they are forced to work long and hard, but they enjoy little reward.
If this scenario sounds all too familiar to you, then let me tell you how you break this cycle.
The essential first key to accelerated success is to place your focus on the RIGHT things.
And the RIGHT things for you, the business owner, to be focused on are your 3 Primary Money-Making Activities.
Go ahead, grab a piece of paper right now and write down the 3 things that you do really well and that, if you were left to do ONLY those 3 things, it would have the BIGGEST impact on your business.
If you can’t write down the answer to this question inside 30 seconds, it tells you something.
The first thing it tells you is, you don’t know where your attention should go.
When you aren’t clear on what your primary money-makers are, then it’s highly likely you’re not spending much time on them and that’s a big problem.
To give you an example, let me share my 3 primary focuses:
- Speaking: I do the speaking because that’s what I’m good at and it is one of the most common ways people come in contact with me and join the Marketers Club community.
- Marketing Education: I do the marketing education of all our clients because that’s what I’m good at. I know how to teach an entrepreneur how to package, position and promote a compelling marketing message.
- I do the Marketing. I am responsible for the marketing of the Marketers Club because that’s what I’m good at.
If I’m not focusing my energy on one of those three things, then chances are my business is wasting one of its biggest assets.
So, what are your 3 Primary Money-Makers?
Once you’ve written them down, let me ask you another question.
In any given week, what percentage of your time is dedicated to doing one of those three activities?
If you’re honest, you’ll likely find that it’s less than 20% of the time. Most of your time is being eaten up by non-revenue producing activity or what we used to call, ‘the $10 an hour work’.
As long as you are relegated to being the doer of everything, then the less time you will have to do the things that have MAXIMUM IMPACT. The things that drive revenue.
If you want to grow your business faster, you must first identify the right money makers and then do all you can to protect your time and delegate the lower level work.
Pay close attention this week to where your time is going. Catch yourself doing the low-level work. Notice just how often it happens.
And every time you’re contemplating doing something, ask yourself this question…
For What Purpose?
If you can’t give yourself a satisfactory answer, then perhaps you shouldn’t be doing that task.
Awareness is the first step – once you recognise how often you get drawn into working on low level activities, only then can you begin to forge a plan to outsource some tasks and keep your focus on the things that drive income into your business.
So if you want to stay truly vigilant, create a little sign that reads like this…
What have you done to earn money today.
Then place the sign next to your computer or somewhere you’ll see it regularly. This simple exercise can have a profound effect on refocusing your attention.
Try it and see what happens.
I’d love to hear your feedback.