(Please enjoy this guest post from Vitaly Grinblat)
Believe it or not, as a new entrepreneur—whether you’ve started an online business or offline business—one of your biggest hurdles is time management.
Now, I personally don’t like to call it that, because I’m an “A-type” personality and I don’t like to be managed…
However, here’s the challenge:
When you first start out in business as an entrepreneur…
You are not conditioned to manage yourself.
From the moment you go to school and then enter the workforce, you’re always TOLD what to do.
You go to school, show up at 8:00am, stay there till 3:00pm, follow your class schedule, do your homework, move to a ringing bell, and so forth.
Then when you enter the workforce, and even when you move up the ladder and become a manager or a leader in a company, there’s still somebody above you that gives you the projects or sets the vision and tone.
There’s always something to do that somebody else creates for you—even if you delegate some of it.
BUT…
When you’re an entrepreneur, nobody tells you what to do!
You’re supposed to make all that stuff happen yourself.
So picture this…
You quit your job and show up for your new business on Monday morning.
You power up your computer at 8:00am and stare at the monitor.
…now what should you do?
You suddenly have all these options of what to do with your time, and that’s the struggle because most people spend their time doing the WRONG things.
And hey, I understand the uncertainty…
Back in 1998, when I quit my job and went full time in my old network marketing business (where I spent almost the next ten years)…
There was nobody standing over my shoulder telling me what to do it.
My wife and I had just gotten married, so I had to support a family, and I had to replace my income.
So I figured out very quickly that I had to…
DO something every single day to make stuff happen!
That became my daily goal: make something happen!
Of course there are many things that you can do to move your business forward, but what will actually move you toward your goals?
Watching videos, reading books, attending webinars and trainings, and administrative stuff is all important, for instance…
But they don’t really drive your business forward.
For example, reading this post is good, right?
Sure, you need to learn every single day to have the skills and inspiration to grow your business, but it doesn’t drive your business forward.
So What Really Matters?
In my old business, the ONLY things that moved my business forward were when I got on the phone to prospect for new business, met somebody face to face, got on the phone to set up appointments, or actually went on appointments to present my business and services.
If I didn’t do those things every single day, then nothing really got accomplished that day.
Online it’s even harder because there are so many distractions.
You can spend hours in Facebook groups and on the Google community pages, talking to people and emailing back and forth.
And it seems like you’re working, right?
Especially to your family.
They could be thinking…
“Boy, this guy! He’s working all the time. He’s on his computer and he’s doing stuff all the time.”
But yet, if you don’t do the things that move your business forward, are you reallyworking?
Are you really making stuff happen every single day?
Working Hard or Hardly Working?
Don’t confuse working with getting stuff done.
The truth is…
If we really look at the difference between working on the stuff that drives our business versus doing everything else—if we’re really, really honest—most people don’t work very much at all.
It’s possible, and probably not that uncommon, for people to spend 10 hours a day doing stuff on the computer, yet only spend 15 or 20 minutes really doing the stuff that truly drives their business.
Think about the 80/20 rule, which basically says that 80% of your results in life will come from 20% of your activity.
So should you be spending most of your time…
Learning or doing?
That’s how you can differentiate.
Am I learning or am I doing?
Now, I’m not saying that you shouldn’t spend time learning, going to webinars, doing webinars, watching videos, and all that other stuff—you need to do those things.
Just don’t spend ALL of your day doing it.
Make sure you allocate your time wisely.
And to help you out, here are three steps to do just that…
When I started full time back in 1998, I had a single goal every single day…
I had to do something to move my business forward.
I had to get appointments, and I had to close some kind of business.
Did I accomplish that goal every single day?
No, I didn’t.
But I did everything I could possibly do to make sure that I increased my chances of accomplishing it.
I would go on appointments and call people.
Over time, I got to a point where I was able to hit that goal every single day.
It’s the same online.
If you get into the habit of driving your business forward every day with the important actions, you will get to a point where stuff is going to happen every single day.
After making stuff happen, the other key to managing your time is to write things down.
I know for “A-type” personalities (like myself) it’s the hardest thing to do, because you don’t like to be managed.
After all, that’s why you went into business for yourself, right?
Nobody likes having a boss.
At least, I know I don’t.
What I found is if I don’t write things down, and actually schedule everything in my calendar, they won’t get done.
Especially when you’re trying to do multiple things during the day.
When you have a lot of things that you have to do, especially when you have a family, time can really go by quickly.
The answer is to write down all of those productive things that you will make happen.
Write down your priorities and then prioritize your list.
It doesn’t matter whether you write it down in your calendar, type it out on your computer, or keep a piece of paper; it helps you to be crystal clear on what needs to be done.
Let’s say that you make a commitment to write an email every single day.
Schedule it in your calendar.
Write it down.
I know it sounds simple, and you’re thinking…
“No, I don’t need to schedule it. I know I’ve got to do it every day.”
Well, if you don’t schedule it, there are going to be days when it’s not going to get done.
I can promise you that.
But if you put in your calendar that every day from 9:00am to 9:30am, or whatever, I’m going to send out that email, and you create a calendar alert, it’s going to get done.
You’re going to get that reminder, and I promise you there are going to be days when stuff is going to happen.
You’re going to get sidetracked, you’re going to forget, but when that reminder comes in you’ll be like…
“You know, I gotta do this. I made a commitment. I have to stick to my schedule.”
The “Magic Key” of Discipline
Those three things…
- setting goals,
- writing down your priorities, and
- prioritizing your priorities,
…are the little things that really make a big difference over time.
It doesn’t seem like it’ll make a big difference when you do it once or twice…
But when you do it over a period of 90 days, six months, a year, it seriously tends to accumulate.
All you need for all that to happen is really just one word…
Discipline.
It all comes down to discipline.
I love this quote by Jim Rohn…
“Discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishments. It’s like a set of magic keys that you can use to unlock all the doors to wealth, happiness, achievement, success and so forth.”
If you just make a commitment to stay disciplined to the things that you need to do on a daily basis, all kinds of good stuff is going to happen.
It takes a commitment.
It takes some habit forming to make yourself do the stuff that you need to do regardless of how you feel.
Even writing emails.
Do you think I feel like writing an email every single day?
No, of course not.
Yet…
It’s a habit.
So I do it.
I don’t even think about it anymore.
But I promise you there are days when I don’t feel like it, but I do it anyway, because it’s a habit…
It’s a discipline, and it’s what I do.
No Glory on the Bench
If your goal is to do videos or set up a traffic campaign, believe me…
It’s a lot more fun to watch a video on how to create a Facebook traffic campaign than to sit there and put your money on the line, pick those interests, create those ads, watch as nothing happens for awhile, and start wondering if you’re doing it right.
It’s a lot more fun to watch somebody else do it than to do it yourself.
But if you do it yourself and you make the habit of doing it every single day, amazing stuff is going to happen.
Most people are just not willing to do it.
Think about this…
It’s not just online.
It’s not just business.
It’s everything.
What will happen if you make the commitment to do some kind of exercise every single day?
You do it for a week, you do it for a month, you do it for 90 days.
Are you going to notice some results?
Absolutely.
Look…
We know this stuff, and yet most people don’t do it.
Why?
Lack of commitment and lack of discipline.
Where Will You Be in a Year?
What would happen if you decided to read a book every single day?
Not a full book, mind you, but spending 30 minutes reading every day on the topic of copywriting, for example.
What’s going to happen to your copywriting ability if you actually spend 30 minutes to an hour every single day studying copywriting?
In a matter of six months or a year you’re going to be one of the best copywriters around.
It’s a fact, not a possibility.
It will happen.
It’s not going to happen after a day, but it will happen after a few months of discipline.
It’s the same thing with doing all this stuff in your business.
If you do what you commit to do, every single day, things are going to start turning around for you.
12 Words to Live By
Here are twelve words that I heard in a seminar from Tom Hopkins, a famous sales trainer who I’ve studied for years.
He said when he began his selling career years and years ago, he wrote these twelve words down on a piece of paper, put it on his desk, and kept it in front of him all the time to keep himself on track.
They are:
“Am I doing the most productive thing possible at every given moment?”
Ask yourself this question no matter what you do and you’re going to know whether you’re on track.
If in your calendar you’ve allocated this hour to be on a webinar, or to listen to this call, then that is the most productive thing for that particular moment.
If you’ve committed the next 30 minutes to writing an email, then that’s what you’ve got to do for the next 30 minutes.
If in the next two hours, you’ve made a commitment to spend some time with your kids, then that is the most productive thing possible you can do at that moment.
If you run your life through that lens of doing the most productive thing possible at every given moment, all of a sudden time management will not be an issue…
…and you’re going to be able to spend more quality time with your family…
…and you’re going to be able to create a business that gets massive results.
It’s that simple.
So What Really Matters?
What are the things that you need to do that move your business forward, which you can commit to do on a daily basis?
Well, I have good news…
There are ONLY two things you must focus on daily when building an online business.
And they are…
- Traffic
You’ve got to do something to drive traffic every day. Whether it’s Facebook Live, creating a video, creating a blog post, or doing something to get more traffic to your capture pages, sales pages, or offer pages, you MUST drive traffic every day. - Sales
Next, do something that can actually create a sale. You can get all the traffic that you can for the day, but how about writing an email? How about connecting with the people that are in your pipeline? Those are the things that most people don’t do, at least not on a regular basis. Yet that is exactly what’s going to move your business forward. That is what’s going to drive your sales, your conversions, and ultimately your income.
That’s it!
Now, may I make a suggestion?
Because, full disclosure…
It can take a fair bit of costly trail and error to learn how to drive traffic and convert sales every day.
However, I do know a proven shortcut…
Which has helped dozens of marketers get profitable (often within just a few days).
And that’s taking an over-the-shoulder tour of…
Our most profitable traffic sources, winning ads, and converting offers
In fact, we’ve put together a point-for-point tutorial revealing our exact traffic-getting and sales-making process in a 100% FREE traffic workshop.
Hosted by none other than Tim Erway, our fearless leader and CEO here at Elite Marketing Pro.
Simply pick a time and register right here.
You’ll discover how you can put together a profitable ad campaign in just 10 minutes a day with as little as $10 in initial ad spend.
In fact…
We’ve used the exact formula to turn a $10 test campaign into $141,246.30 in sales.
Yep, those are 100% real numbers, and Tim will show exactly how we did it.
So if you haven’t registered yet, what are you waiting for?
Pick a time that works for you to attend Tim’s traffic workshop right here.
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