3 Ways to Kick the Habit that Keeps Your Business Small

Life can get crazy at times, don’t you think?I mean, it feels like there is just SO MUCH to do to run your business, spend time with the ones that matter the most to you and then – oh yeah – to actually have time for yourself and time for planning so that you have a purposeful and meaningful life.As women, we try to do it all. We say that we can do more than any normal human being could accomplish because we don’t want to let anyone down. We want to take care of the people around us. We want to make everyone happy.And then we look up.We look in the mirror and we see that days, weeks, months have passed.And we haven’t really accomplished anything SPECIFIC but we have been really busy. Being “busy” doesn’t grow your business. “Busy” doesn’t ensure that your family knows how much they mean to you. “Busy” doesn’t really mean anything. It’s a word that somehow has become an acceptable state of being.It is often easier to keep going than to take a minute to reflect, plan, and to really look at what needs to change for you to create your version of a successful life.And, I want you to know that you CAN have your dream business and your dream life. In order to do that, I want you to get past the “busyness” and to avoid the most unproductive habit that I see in so many online business owners out there today. I want you to uplevel your business. I want you to make more money and work fewer hours.If that’s what YOU want, too, then please keep reading.

Time IS Money

So now, to kick the habit that keeps your business small.  What habit? you ask. The MOST UNPRODUCTIVE habit--the one I want to help you avoid--is this: Busyness that results in a failure to focus on revenue generating activities.Do you feel like you work way too many hours for the money that you earn? Is Facebook, social media, and getting your newsletter formatting just right more important to you than engaging in revenue generating activities?You can see if it’s more “important” to you if measure the amount of time each week that you devote to either revenue generating activities or non-revenue generating activities. The area which you esteem most important is easily measured by the amount of time you spend focusing on it. More time = more important.If you recognize that you aren’t spending your time on revenue generating activities, there are 3 ways to fix it.

1. Focus on creating an actual sales system or sales process.

Many online business owners don’t have a specific process that they follow for their sales conversations. This mistake not only costs tons of money in lost clients but it also wastes SO MUCH TIME.Your time is your most valuable asset and I don’t want you to waste it. Ever.So, let’s be honest here: do you have a sales system? (If not, don’t worry, I’ll share mine with you for free.)If you do have one, how often are you referring to it? How often are you practicing it, implementing it, tweaking it and learning what works best for you and your prospects?Time Saving + Money Making Tip: Take a class or training and document what you do during your sales conversations so that you can measure what works and what doesn’t. 

2. Invite more people to have a “free consult” with you.

I want you to go out and offer a free consult to every single person that you speak with that fits into your target market. Don’t ever assume that your prospects just know that they can grab a free call with you. TELL THEM. Over and over and over again. Put it in your email signature, include it in every e-newsletter that you send out. Offer it when you do a training class.Remember, without sales conversations, you won’t be making any money in your business. And if you don’t have much money coming in, then you have a very expensive hobby.Time Saving + Money Making Tip: Get into the habit of offering a free consult regularly. Set up your consultation schedule and have a clear process for follow up.

3. Allocate time solely for sales conversations.

When you allocate a certain time to work solely on your sales conversations, several things happen:

1. You become “better” at your sales calls when you have them scheduled together because you get into – and embrace – the sales mindset. This means higher conversion rates and it’ll be easier to schedule new client conversations.
2. Alarms will go off if you have NOTHING to do during your allotted weekly sales conversation time. You will become aware of the fact that you need to be generating more leads and more conversations to continue to have a steady flow of income.
3. You will feel relieved because you’ll have a scheduled time to check your notes and follow up with prospects that you spoke with previously. It’ll be much harder to avoid when you have time specifically set up for this part of your business.

Time Saving + Money Making Tip: Schedule a specific time block each week to dedicate strictly to your sales consultations and follow up.

Take Action Now!

Please take a few minutes and reflect on what you are doing well and notice where you can improve. Then write down 3 things that you can start implementing next week. Not five things, not six. Just three. ;)

Have you been guilty of the habit that keeps your business small?  Ready to take those first 3 steps toward kicking your habit?  If so, tell us in the comments what your first 3 will be!