Robert Skrob: Shortcut to a Million Dollar Business, Part II

To view part I of this article, CLICK  HERE

3:00pm to 3:20pm – Fulfillment/Customer Relationships 

Once you acquire a customer, the most important thing you can do is to keep your promises.

If your marketing told the customer you would deliver a product to solve a particular problem, you better deliver that product. Providing high-quality products helps you retain customers longer, makes them want to buy more, and encourages them to upgrade to higher level coaching programs.

Map out the activities you need to do to prepare your customer fulfillment. What are you going to do to make sure customers receive what they purchase? Also include time for product enhancements. What are you going to do to increase the value of your products to your customers?

3:20pm to 3:40pm – Administrative Improvements

Take a few minutes to note any administrative improvements you want to make during the year. It’s easy to leave administrative priorities off of planning calendars and then take care of them as they become important to you. However, planning for them makes it easier to execute your marketing because your momentum isn’t getting interrupted by emergencies that could have been avoided.

Do you need to add people to your team? Are your employment policies up-to-date? Do you need to create some educational materials for your team, so they have a better understanding of your goals and activities to help them do their jobs? Do you have scripts to handle in-bound customer calls? Are there problem vendors that need to be replaced? Do you need to set up an investment program to maximize cash you receive from your business?

These activities need to be planned out for the year to make sure you allocate time to complete them. There is no sense worrying about them or feeling guilty because you don’t get them all done. Plan some time each month during the year to get a few of these items completed. By the end of the year, you’ll be a lot better off than if you had tried to fit them in as you went along.

3:40pm to 4:00pm – Add Date Commitments

In the first step, you noted some conferences and programs you would like to attend in the next year. Go ahead and make a note of any of those dates available.

Note any dates for mastermind groups or coaching programs you participate in. Look for conferences within your niche you should attend. Plus, this is a good time to note events you’ve wanted to attend, but haven’t found time for in the past.

4:00pm to 4:30pm – Big Picture Planning

Take a quick look at the list of successes and disappointments you created in the first phase of your planning. Are there any successes you need to  include in your calendar for next year? Are there any disappointments from last year on your calendar you need to be remove?

Also, look at the work distribution. Did you load up too much work in any given month? Are travel commitments reasonable to maintain your workload? Are there ways to redistribute activities to make projects easier?

Look at the year. Are there ways to move activities around for efficiencies and to make sure you don’t create impossible deadlines for yourself?

4:30pm to 5:00pm – Update Your Personal Calendar

Open your personal calendar and put all of the dates and work you mapped out on the wall into your personal calendar. If you are running your business in addition to a job or another business you operate, plan around the work you have to do for that company.

Go through and set aside appointments with yourself to make sure you have the appropriate time to execute your business needs. Save some time for other activities that may pop up as you go along. Something always comes up unexpectedly, so give yourself several hours of flexibility per week at this stage of your planning.

Shortcut to Success

While it’s good to have your planning calendar up where you can see it, you may not want it on your wall all year long. If not, set aside an hour or two each month to pull out your calendar and see if you are on track with the shortcut you laid out at the beginning of the year.

If you discover you are behind on a couple of activities, it’s a lot easier to get caught up if only a month or two has gone by. If you remember four months later you were supposed to do something to generate an activity or revenue, chances are you’ve lost that opportunity for the year.

Use this planning time as a year-round tool for success.