Productive Habits
Most likely, you found my or similar web pages because of an idea you had, and you started to look around to see how you could realize that idea.
To establish earnings outside of a 9-to-5 job, one option is to launch your own business.
What does it take?
You might imagine that not all related actions you need to take are fun or super easy; there will be a learning curve. It helps if you have a creative idea or project to share with the world, but earning an additional income will still require you to develop useful habits, learn useful skills, and be consistent.
Then there is the aspect of marketing yourself and your business. The way you tell your story online can make all the difference.
Don’t worry too much about sounding like a pro or coming across as one.
If you force yourself, you might end up not sounding like you.
If you stay true to yourself and your story, you will also have stable motivation to translate what inspires you and what your goals are into repeatable, successful work habits.
How likely is it that you will reach people?
You might feel impressed and little by realizing that there are a billion or more websites out there; why would one more written by you matter?
Here’s something to realize: You’re connected to more people than you might think, and the reach of a website, a blog post, or posts on social media can easily add up to numbers that resemble a snowball effect.
Imagine getting 100 consistent followers on Instagram.
It is a fact that many users follow a huge number of other user accounts, so if 100 people follow you,
with each of those people being followed by another 100 users,
That amounts to a potential referral audience for you of 100 x 100 = 10000 people you can reach.
Be original; be you!
Your original story is what’s going to make you stand out from the rest. It is a cognitive effect called recognition. Someone who can identify with your story has something in common that resonates. That is how you find your audience and also peers to communicate with, learn from, mentor, and develop as a person and as an entrepreneur.
How do you know if you've found the right words to write or say? If you read the words back and don’t hear your own voice in your head, that’s a good sign you still have more work to do.
Be clear, be confident, and don’t overthink it. The beauty of your story is that it’s going to continue to evolve, and your website, blogs, podcasts, or whatever it is you decide to do can evolve with it. Your goal should be to make it feel right for now.
Later, it will take care of itself. It always does.
Yet another key to success is consistency. Make a promise to yourself to invest time each day in your business, whether it be reading, following a lesson, learning a toolkit, posting on social media, or keeping up with bookkeeping.
Keep the promises you make to yourself, because in the end, if you cannot trust yourself, why should any of your customers, clients, or partners trust you? Begin with yourself, and if it is not easy to be consistent, then think of one small thing you can do.
Make it so small that it would be ridiculous not to do it.
Do it, have a good laugh at yourself, and then do more per day.
Any skill improves when used, and a work habit gets easier the more often you do it.
Why not do something to develop your business and promote it each day? Small actions per day can accumulate.
Each useful action you take will already be rewarded by your own internal reward system.
Your body will, for example, release dopamine or oxytocin, hormones produced by your own body, if you focus on something interesting or complete a useful task.
Keep in mind what I mentioned earlier: steer towards your first success, your first sales, and your first additional income; the first one is the most important one. It is a proof of concept — a confirmation that something you do works. Keep learning and optimizing; pause from time to time and review what works best.
Is what you do in line with who you are?
Where can you improve in terms of effectiveness without making things too complicated? More financial freedom and the freedom to steer your own day and activities will feel great and be a huge benefit. This means it will be very useful for you to keep an integrated focus on success in sales and at the same time the question: ‘How can I best conduct myself precisely to aim at the additional freedom I want?’
Here a Method, an approach to regular activities, a best practive which is known to work:
Attract people who are interested in your services on a regular bases.
Warm up new leads for one or more of your offers.
Convert leads to become your customers.
Apply a method which ensures you delivery to your promises.
To achieve these objectives, and there is no growth in busienss without these, there are some critical choices and regular activities you need to comit yourself to.
activities which ensure to attrack significant more leads/people compared to the new customers you need and can serve. This is of outmost importance as not each lead or interested person will purchase from you.
to warm up leads for your products posting on social media regularly is essentiel. Chose one main platform! You can have more than one platform for posting, but if you divide your attention between many right from the start it will be harder to identify which kind of post works best and attracts the kind of customer you want to attrack.
To support converting leads to customers also use advertising. A good practice is to create one very recognizable ad. An evergreen’ advertising which you can use anywhere. This is like your signature and this one should focus on the precise problem or problems your services can solve for a potential customer.
Networking is key to keep yourself inspired, learn from peers and enable yourself to explore options to work with other creators or outsource some of your activities. At the beginning you might be able to do all service fulfilment yourself. However you are of course aiming to grow your business over time. If you do not orientate yourself within the niche of the services you are providing, optimization and modernization in how you deliver your services is likely to be somewhat more challenging. You can also learn to understand how to tweak your offers to distinguish yourself. What is your specialty within the niche of your products?
Reach out: Last but not least, this is an important key to success
when posting on social media likewise with offers that serve as Lead magnets: include the call to action to reach out to you.
reach out yourself on social media and ensure to contact others who might be interested in one or more of your products.
When you use advertising ensure to include links which ask leads to share at least their name and email address. Ensure the information reaches you (proper automation) and then ensure you react to people without significant delay. This can be partially automated but nothing tops your personal response. In the end people don’t just want to have a conversation with an automation routine You must be real, your services need to have the capability to deliver real results and you (or your trusted team) to directly support and care for your customers will ensure that a positive reputation around you and your services can grow.
Have A Plan - to achieve and do all the above you need (!) a plan
Without a plan you have nothing to go by. What is a method with activities without a plan which funtions to:
lead the way in regards what to do and when?
what to when not all activities lead to the results you need?
outline what to do next at each step of the process from attrackting leads and serving your customers
and what the goal is to work towards, at each stage of the method, at each milestone of your customer’s journey?
The key - regular repeatable actions and a system to perform and optimise these to aim at your ‘ideal customer’
Starting enterpreneurs can be shy in regards to defining their ideal customer. A fear of missing out of not attracting enough leads makes them define their customer group as broad as possible. But in fact daring to define your ideal customer makes you better at targeting precisely your target audience and those who are a match with you and what you offer will feel the right attraction towards you and your services.
Dare to define your ‘ideal customer’ and fine tune your social media posts and ads to that customer group. Apply all of the above mentioned on this page and keep going for at least 6 month. Then check the results and see what you can optimize.
