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Use 15 Minutes Every Day to Grow Your Business

February 3, 2009

Fairy Godmother Erika Wilde of highly successful drop-shipping floormat business (featured in Real Simple last year!) Stop Dirt, writes: As a kind-of early New Years resolution to myself, I started last fall to dedicate 15 minutes a day to “pro-active” work on my business.erika wilde, stopdirt

I spend hours every day taking care of the business “must do’s” that are time sensitive. With the demands of kids, church and the lure of my other hobbies, I found myself working only “in the business” and not working “on the business.” I was not spending enough time proactively growing my business.

So I committed myself to 15 minutes a day, dedicated solely to proactive work on my business. Not re-active work like answering emails, processing orders, or making price quotes. But proactive work on new projects that will expanding my existing business.

Many days my 15 minutes turn into an hour. But other days, when my patience and energy is thin, I tell myself, “It’s only 15 minutes.”

Here’s how I’ve made it work:

1.    Throw every plan, task, dream or scheme into a master list. And I mean everything. If an idea pops into your mind, add it to the list.
2.    Break each item on the master list into manageable 15 minutes jobs.
3.    Each day, pull up your list and choose a project.
4.    Let a larger task remain unfinished. There is always 15 minutes tomorrow.
5.    Don’t go to sleep until the 15 minutes are done.

Here is an example pro-active tasks I’ve done on 15 minutes a day:

1.    Research one competitor’s web site and product line.
2.    Make one extra phone call.
3.    Look at the day’s web analytics and compare to the previous week.
4.    Write one more “FAQ” or short article for my website.
5.    Update or “freshen up” one page on my website.
6.    Edit one photograph to make it work better online.
7.    Email one supplier with a quick thank you note.
8.    Solicit a couple of repeat customers for product reviews.
9.    Search online for one related product to add to my line.
10.  Start work on a press release.
11.  Add internal web links on keywords in one article.

Then there are the really big items on my to-do list like, “Make new color chart for Classic Carpet mats” and “Re-build Grand Impressions logo mat page,” which will take at least an hour. So I tackle that project on a night when I have more than 15 minutes to devote.

It’s been amazing what a big dent I’ve made in my very, very long to-do list with only 15 minutes a day. With just 15 minutes a day, I find myself being more inventive, more motivated and more receptive to flashes of business inspiration.

Written by startupprincess · Filed Under Startup & Grow 

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