Most entrepreneurs who are going it solo probably feel like they’re already doing all they can. We get it. You’re probably answering all the emails, taking and processing orders, and maybe even packaging the product, and monitoring shipping.
You’ve ensured that every customer is satisfied just as you’d guarantee they would be. However, what you haven’t done is leave space on your schedule to get more clients.
Why make marketing your main focus?
This is important because by marketing you are in control of how many ideal prospects are coming into your pipeline daily, weekly, monthly, bi-monthly and yearly. This is how you guarantee you always have all the clients you need. As an entrepreneur, your goal is to grow, expand and leverage. Ultimately, you want more business and more money in the bank; the way to achieve that is by getting more clients.
Make Time For More Clients
Marketing yourself and your brand should be your priority. You simply cannot afford not to make time for it. You may think that things for your business are going well now but without a steady flow of new clients, your pipeline will ultimately dry out and business will fail.
We understand you’re busy and may feel that you have no more time to squeeze in marketing. However, if you were to examine what you do in a day, you’re likely to discover that there are some things eat in your day that is not as essential as marketing.
There may be things that you need to give let go or assign to someone else to make room for your client attraction efforts. It might mean hiring someone to take and process orders or answer inquiries. And if those aren’t options at this time, think about what items on your calendar you can shorten or remove entirely.
One of the beautiful things about being your own boss is having your own hours. There’s no one forcing you to stick to the confines of the traditional 9 to 5 work structure. However, if you want your business to grow, you will eventually need to assign yourself “regular work hours” just for essential business-related tasks.
Because attracting clients is one of those crucial responsibilities that guarantee the health and longevity of your business, schedule non-essentials for after the work hours you’ve blocked off. Ideally, your marketing efforts should be taking up as much as 1/3 of the hours you put into running your business.
If we were talking about the typical 8-hour work day, you should be devoting 3 hours a day dedicated to bringing in more clients. If might seem like a lot now but as a company that is just starting out, attracting new customers is vital to your business’s survival.
Eventually, you’ll start to see consistent results, and you may not need to spend as much time each day on marketing particularly if you’ve already developed a system which may involve networking, email campaigns, writing newsletters and even blogs as we do with our clients.
To get you started, set aside some time and start listing down everything you need to do in a day. Divide which activities are work-related and what are personal. Grade them based on priority. Before you know it, you’ve made time for yourself to focus consistently feeding your business pipeline with ideal prospects, serving more clients and stashing more money in your bank account.
If you have any doubts about what you should be doing during your marketing hours, then you’ll want to check it the Profit Power UP Marketing System for step-by-step, easy-to-follow marketing strategies.
Talk soon,
Simone
P.S. Need to create a “workable” marketing plan? Do you believe in a pull strategy not push – and do not want to waste time? Are you focusing on the ideal client but need a sounding board for moving forward with the marketing?