Archives for June 2019

A few days ago I was having a conversation with a group of clients about how to plan your online marketing strategy and one of the common challenges that they all shared was finding the time to do it all.

In general, doing it all means: promoting the business, selling more and serving customers.

For most business owners it is easy to give priority to the clients and neglect the rest of the areas.

Going back to the conversation, one of my clients simply said: “I do not have the time to do everything”.

In a way, that’s exactly where the problem is.

Nobody has time to do everything

If there is something that separates successful people from those who are frustrated and stagnating, it is their decision-making skill.

In other words, their ability to discern what’s important from what isn’t.

3 tips to learn how to plan your online marketing strategy and always win

1. Always start with the end in mind

When we have a thousand things to do, it is extremely difficult to decide which one is the most important.

The reason why this happens is that when we are overwhelmed by the list of things in out to-do list, our mind does not have the clarity it needs to make these kinds of decisions.

But everything changes, when you manage to change your perspective about the list of tasks and the most effective way to do this is to start with the end in mind.

And what I mean by this, is that the first thing you need to do is think about the results that you want in a specific period of time, for example during the next 90 days.

2. Having clear priorities is the path to success

Once you have clarity about your goal for the next 90 days, you can think about the results you need to have in the first 60 days to reach the final goal.

And you can continue doing this exercise, week by week.

Doing this exercise helps you gain clarity about which actions you need to take to reach your goal.

And those are the high priority actions.

All the others are simply tasks, but they are not the tasks that will help you achieve your goal.

Before continuing, I want to share an infographic that illustrates: 3 Tips to learn how to plan your online marketing strategy and always win

3. Reevaluate and make adjustments

Of course, this form of organization and planning does not work if you are not constantly re-evaluating the situation, the process and making adjustments.

Being flexible means taking the time to evaluate and make adjustments.

Being flexible means understanding that you will always face challenges and obstacles.

Not achieving your goal does not mean that you should give up or that you choose and unattainable goal.

It just means that you need to change what you are doing.

It means that you have the potential to discover and learn a new lesson and every lesson that you learn brings you closer to your goals.

 Conclusion

Having the time to do everything is impossible.

But not learning how to plan your online marketing strategy is not an option.

What separates successful people from those who never see results is that successful people understand that it is essential to develop the habit of identifying what action you need to take in order to move forward.

If you want to learn how to overcome the challenges of growing your business, you need to learn to manage your time and develop the skill of making decisions.

This takes practice and attention to detail and I am always looking for ways of learning how to overcome the challenges of growing my business.

Just like in sports, being able to go from Point A, where you currently are your business to Point B, where you want to go, requires that you develop new skills and become a new and improved version of yourself…

How to overcome the challenges of growing your business: what making coffee taught me about business

Last week, on two different occasions, 2 people to whom I prepared a coffee at home, told me that my coffee maker was slow.

I have to say that I was surprised by the comment, especially twice in a week.

And it got me thinking.

At home we use a traditional coffee maker.

We have tried the coffee that is made with the modern coffee makers that use the capsules for different types of coffee and the truth is that we like more the coffee that we make at home.

But the observation made me wonder if it was really time to upgrade out coffee machine and stop wasting time.

After all, nobody wants to waste time, right?

Since I am an analytical person, the first thing I did was to measure the time it took me to make coffee.

And it turns out that it takes approximately 5 to 6 minutes to make the coffee that normally lasts all day.

After measuring the time, I could feel a great relief

I told myself that if it was true that I was wasting time, then 5 or 6 minutes per day was not so serious.

After thinking about it a little more, I realized that for me that time is totally acceptable.

The truth is that I love making coffee in the machine that we have and it makes me smile every day.

The reason why I love it, is because it is a coffee maker that we bought during one of our trips.

And it turns out that every time I make coffee, it indirectly reminds me how amazing the trip was.

Not only that, but it also makes me think about future trips.

Every time I make coffee in that coffee machine, I feel grateful to feeling of freedom that I feel every day that I get to work from anywhere in the world and at the same time awakens my dreams about what is possible.

Thanks to the observations made by these 2 people, I was able to realize that there are certain activities during the day that fill me with energy, inspire me and help me feel good.

Preparing coffee is one of those activities.

And when it comes to these activities, I can’t and shouldn’t save time, because it’s those activities that help me stay connected to my dream every day.

How to overcome the challenges of growing your business (while staying connected to your dream)

If we are honest, we can say that growing a business is not a walk in the park.

Every day we have to face the ups and downs of the business, as well as our own ups and downs.

And learning to navigate that roller coaster of ups and downs is an important factor that differentiates successful entrepreneurs from those that stagnate.

1. Why do you do what you do?

When you have total clarity about your purpose, in other words, why you do what you do, everything becomes easier.

Being connected to your purpose is what will allow you to move forward and overcome obstacles.

Being connected to your purpose and your dream is exactly what will help you make your dream come true.

How to know if you are connected to your purpose?

When you are unclear about your purpose, it is when you feel like giving up. It is when you only feel that you are working too hard never see results you expect.

If you this is how you feel, my recommendation is that you spend a little time thinking, why is your business important to you? And what was the reason you started this business in first place?

2. How to make each day count

It seems that the only way to win in this game is to win every day.

What this means is that although things do not always turn out as we expected, we always have the opportunity to learn lessons. Developing that ability to always find the lesson, is precisely what allows you to win every day and what helps you to make every day count.

Before continuing I have created an infographic that illustrates: How to overcome the challenges of growing your business (while staying connected to your dream):

3. Surround yourself with people who understand your dream, believe in you and support you

This is perhaps one of the most important steps.

Human nature often causes us to be extremely critical of ourselves.

So critical that we sometimes give up before trying and many times even before starting.

Another common problem is to seek the approval or support from your loved ones and when you don’t get their support, you feel hurt and defeated.

The huge difference that separates successful people from those that give up is that they know they a coach or mentor that believe in them. Having someone who believes in you will help you to stay committed to your dreams.

Having that support makes all the difference in the world.

If you want to learn more about this topic, the following post will also be helpful: 3 Mindset Shifts to go from employee to entrepreneur.

Conclusion

Learning how to overcome the challenges of growing your business is an ongoing process.

I want you to think if you are spending enough time doing the things that inspire you and feeling connected to your purpose, in other words remembering why you do what you do.

Taking time to do things that make you feel good is the gas you need to face every day challenges of your business and keep the vision of where you want to go.

As in life, having a business is not a race against time.

And learning to enjoy the process is more important than reaching the final destination.