You know that feeling of frustration you get when you open the refrigerator door at 5pm and wonder, “What’s for dinner?” How about that sinking feeling when you sit in front of an empty computer screen and have no idea what to write about in your next blog post? Or maybe that’s the excuse you give for not staying in touch with your email list – you just don’t know what to say.
There’s an old adage that says, “If you fail to plan, you plan to fail,” and this is wise wisdom can be applied to any of these three situations mentioned above. If all your food is still frozen at 5pm, chances are you’re ordering expensive takeout food for dinner, which can bust your waistline and your budget. If you have no clue what to write on your blog or send to your list, chances are you’ll put it off for another day, which is lost money for your business.
Failing to Plan = Failing to Make Money
If you’re in business then your goal is to make money, plain and simple. But are you really leveraging your knowledge to the best of your abilities without a plan? How many events or holidays have surprised you suddenly and you realized you lost an opportunity to create a product, offer special pricing, or hold a flash sale? If you sent a quickie email to your list, did it come across as you being professional or you being desperate to capitalize on an event to make a quick sale? Scarcity is a legitimate strategy when it comes to sales but not if it sounds desperate.
Improve Your Time Management Skills
Have you fallen into the trap of saying, “But I don’t have time to…”? Everyone has the same 24 hours in each day yet some people are ridiculously productive while others constantly feel behind, needing to catch up on their tasks. Throw in the task of business planning and the overwhelm sets in.
It’s time to analyze how you spend your time each day and what types of tasks fill up your days. How often are you on social media? Is it productive or do you get lost in your newsfeeds? Do you take coffee breaks? Do you shop online? Do family and friends call you during work hours to chat? All of these scenarios can be quick and productive or can turn into time suckers and your job is to figure out where you fall. If you can free up a minimum of 15 minutes a day, you just found 15 minutes a day to make a plan for your business.
Get Organized with Our 12 Month Marketing Calendar and Workshop
If you’re still overwhelmed at the idea of planning content, sales, promotions, and events for your business, check out our 12 Month Marketing Calendar Workshop. We walk you through each and every step of creating a marketing plan, plus we give you the calendar templates that you can mark up and make changes on. And once you get your marketing plan in order, you can teach others in your audience how to do the same thing. It’s a win-win situation where everyone will have a plan in place to make money.
