So you quit your 9 to 5 just to work ALL DAY for yourself. Congratulations. Your hustle wont go unnoticed.
Now you have become your own team and you are a jack of all trades. You can go on twitter and state that you're currently #Hustling. Go ahead and Hash tag #Hustlenomics101 too, for good measure.
Between all you have to do in a day such as servicing clients, managing products, telephone calls , emails , changing diapers ... ( Okay changing diapers is me, but you know... such is life?) it may feel as if you do not have time to execute your marketing plan / strategy. Is it okay to set your plan aside for a while?
While marketing may seem like an unnecessary activity for entrepreneurs who are booked with clients or whose products are flying off the shelf, it is. Marketing is essential in terms of you meeting your monthly , quarterly and yearly goals. The economy changes in the bat of an eye. Don't be that guy ( or girl ) who didn't market and is now waiting for google to catch your drift because your money will drift away too.
I'm going to help you avoid repeating entries on your planner that you copied over from last week. Lets try to be more proactive, okay?
Here are five things that I personally do and recommend to all my clients.
(1) If you haven't already, create a marketing calendar. Schedule all of your marketing activities in the calendar according to how frequently you planned to do them in your marketing plan.
If you planned to do something monthly, enter it on the calendar once each month. Weekly? Enter it four times per month. Do this for every planned activity.
(2) Hang your marketing calendar over your desk on a bulletin board or on the wall. Make a habit of looking at it every morning. This way you won't have the problem of "out of site out of mind."
I can't tell you how many clients I've had whose marketing plans have ended up in a file folder in a drawer. You're certainly NOT going to grow your business that way!
(3) Try incorporating your marketing activities into your weekly and daily to-do list. Enter the activities as to-do tasks in your calendar or tablet just like all your appointments and other business activities.
I do this with all my marketing activities. I use Microsoft Outlook and a tablet and it's the only way I know I'll keep myself on track. If something is on my calendar, I treat it like any other meeting or appointment and I do it.
For example, every Friday, a little notice pops up to remind me to write my weekly newsletter. If that didn't happen I'd either be writing it on Tuesday's at midnight, or it wouldn't get done.
(4) Pick one day per month to review your marketing calendar in detail and to look three months ahead. What is coming up that you need to prepare for now? What do you need to transfer into your to-do list or tablet to make sure you don't forget to do it?
I usually do this at the end of the month when I'm doing all my month-end work ... things like running sales reports, doing billing, and updating my marketing tracking reports.
Make it a habit to review your marketing at the same time you do these tasks. After a few months you won't even have to think about it anymore, it'll become a habit.
(5) Consider hiring an assistant or support person to help. If they can take some of the tasks off your plate that really don't require your expertise, it will free you up to focus on what I call "revenue producing activities".
These are things like working with clients, creating products and services and marketing. I couldn't believe the difference it made when I hired some help.
I didn't think I could afford it, but now I don't see how I lasted so long without help!
When you find a way to get back on track with your marketing and you do it on regular basis, it really does become a part of the way you do business.
Suddenly it doesn't seem like marketing anymore. It's just what you do to run your business. That's when it becomes effortless.
And, that's when you know your business will be continue to be busy and profitable for the long-haul.
Riche Life Media | Hustlenomics 101
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