Most entrepreneurs struggle with exactly what to do and when to do it so that they attract more clients and ultimately make more money. You see, I recall when I first left my full-time job (the first time) and suddenly had all of this time on my hands; I had the cleanest, most organized office in the world. But I also didn’t have any clients and even worse, any income.
You see, spending time color coding my office did not get me closer to living my dream as an entrepreneur. In fact, it wasn’t until I got over the sticker shock of being my own boss and started to give my business the same respect that I once gave my job that I started to realize that the clients weren’t going to call unless I gave them a reason to.
Enter business development days. A business development day is a full day, 8 hours, spent each week working on marketing related tasks that help you to attract more clients. The fact of the matter is this: until you have a full practice (meaning you couldn’t possibly work with one more person without adding leverage to your business model), you need to dedicate time each week, a minimum of 8 hours, working on marketing related activities or profit producing activities as I like to call them, to bring more clients into your business. Now, for the most part, you will perform your profit producing activities on your business development day but sometimes you will spend time on that day scheduling the activities that will be executed throughout the week.
What is a PPA (Profit Producing Activity)? – Any activity when done consistently that adds clients and prospects to your marketing and sales funnel. You see, entrepreneurs spend too much time on tasks that do not add profitable value to their company’s bottom line. PPA’s have been designed to help ensure that you spend real time doing tasks that will lead to clients. PPA’s include:
- Marketing Calls to Low Hanging Fruit
- Follow Up calls to those you’ve met recently at networking events
- Holding client discovery sessions
- Writing hand-written notes to prospects
- Writing an article or blog to educate your Audience of One™ and give a strong call to action
- Shooting a marketing video (sharing a tip or strategy) with a strong call–to- action
- Booking marketing speaking engagements to be held in the next 30 days
- Recruiting unpaid sales force members or brand ambassadors
- Identifying networking events to attend where your Audience of One™ will be
- Attending networking events (structured and hodge-podge)
- Writing your weekly e-zine
- Creating a new product or service (and creating the marketing calendar to launch it)
- Creating new offers (free or fee)
- Developing your marketing calendar or marketing plan for the week
- Creating a new launch plan to introduce a new offering to your list and community
- Working with clients
- Speaking engagements (free or fee)
- Writing a warm or COI update letter
What else should you be doing on your business development day? Leave us a comment below about how you will shift the way you work in your business to begin getting more strategic about the results you wish to enjoy in your business.
If you need help creating your customized business development day checklist, consider one of our consulting options to help you get clear, focused and productive before 2013!
©2012 by Darnyelle A. Jervey. All Rights Reserved. Darnyelle A. Jervey, MBA, The Incredible Factor Speaker, Business Coach and Marketing Mentor, is the founder of Incredible One Enterprises.com, Incredible Factor University® the Leverage Your Incredible Factor System® a proven step-by-step program for more clients, more income and more leverage in your business. For more information and a FREE audio CD “7 Critical Mistakes Entrepreneurs Must Avoid When Unleashing Your Incredible Factor So You Attract More Clients, Make More Money and Gain More Leverage” just fill out the form below.
