 The 20 Minute Business Work OutPublished Date: 2003-06-15 12:47:04 WorkOnInternet.com
THE STRETCHING WARM-UP ROUTINE Are you guilty of slamming that first cup of coffee, hopping into your chair in your pajama "business suit", and rushing into your daily routine? Before you dive into work, take a few minutes to stretch, think, and plan your daily routine. Instead, start your day with a "work out plan" by making a "to do" list for the day. My personal "work out plan" starts by dividing my paper into 3 distinct areas including one for business, personal, and client interests. 1) BUSINESS TO DO's: At the top left of my paper, I write my business workout plan. Here, I list the business management activities I need to do such as client invoicing, web site updates, and marketing activities. I also try to think about "what's next" and what steps I could take today to plan for my bigger business vision of tomorrow. 2) PERSONAL TO DO's: At the top right corner of my paper, I list my family/personal work out plan. This includes family errands, personal phone calls, household chores, social plans, th kid's activities, and other reminders. By listing these both the business and personal at the top, it's a reminder to me that my family time is equally important as my business time. It helps me to stay balanced by dividing my time and activities fairly among business and family. 3) CLIENT TO DO's: Then, in the area below those two, in the middle of the page, I list my client work out plan. Here I write down all client projects in the queue. Then, I prioritize them by asking myself which projects will make me the most money today and which client relationships I want to enhance. Spend your time on the projects that offer the most return on investment. In addition to cranking out projects, I try to spend time keeping in touch with my clients. Occasional, how's it going notes and even birthday ecards can help you stay close to your clients. THE 20 MINUTE BUSINESS WORK OUT Now that you are all warmed up, let's exercise to create a strong marketing muscle to build your business. Just like regular work out plans, if you want to stay lean and mean, you'll need to make this a regular part of your daily exercise routine. Carving out 20 minutes a day to keep your business fit will go a long way to creating a more solid future. Here are a few key exercises that don't require much time, but can go a long way towards creating a stronger, firmer business physique. Choose one exercise to do every day. 1. ARTICLE ABS: Write a new how-to article. Try to find subjects that fill a true knowledge need. Ask yourself, "What are the most important issues my customers face?" Challenge yourself to write about a "less covered" topic. Or try to take a new approach to a popular topic. You can post your article on your web site, submit it to ezine editors for possible publication, send it out in your ezine, offer it as a free report to your subscribers, or place it on an autoresponder. 2. ARTICLE DIRECTORY PUSH UPS: Once you have written that article, maximize its exposure! Submit your new articles regularly to article directories. Many article directories periodically "flush out" older articles, so check to see if your older articles are still listed. If you submitted a "winning" article over a year ago, it's probably time to resubmit it. 3. SEARCH ENGINE SIT UPS: Try to spend a few minutes to discover what your rankings are in various search engines. Look at how highly your competitors web sites rank. Try to discover what they are doing that is "working" that you could implement. Then take some time to tweak your meta tags, improve your page titles, add alt tags to your graphics, or make your page content more keyword dense. Keep on the lookout for new search engines or directories to submit in. 4. TRAFFIC TWIST: If you have web stats, take a minute to look them over. They contain valuable feedback about what your visitors are looking at on your web site. How many visitors are you getting each month? What is your most popular page? Make the most of your most valuable marketing space. Put your most exciting product specials or newsletter subscribe info there. You can add as a teaser to that page, or create a popup window that is set off when visitors visit to that page. 5. EZINE DIRECTORY LUNGE: In about 20 minutes a day, you could submit to 5 ezine directories. You can look for new directories to submit to, or check to make sure your existing ezine listings are still accurate. You may want to update the number of subscribers, subscribe instructions (if you changed listserves), or your ezine description listings. 6. NETWORKING KNEE BEND: Think about the people in your circle of influence. Make an effort to keep in touch. Try to stay connected to what everyone is up to. Ask yourself if there are any ways that you could collaborate to create a winning partnership. See if you can exchange "free reports" to offer in each other's ezines. Can you agree to cross promote each other's newsletters? Double your subscribership by creating a joint subscribe form where you offer subscribe info for BOTH of your publications. The bottom line is to stay connected with your key business relationships. 7. WEB SITE WHAMMY: Take a few minutes to try to review your web site. What needs updating? Is your about me page out of date? Can you update your articles page? Do you have new links to add on your resources page? Are there any new client testimonials you can list? Does your web site accurately "speak" to your target audience? A good idea is to agree to swap web site evaluations with a trusted friend. A fresh eye can see details you might miss. Someone else can offer some creative ideas that you may not have thought of. BEGIN YOUR BUSINESS WORK OUT PLAN TODAY! I hope that you'll spend some quality time every day working "on" your business. Make sure to diversify your work routine so that your business gets a well-rounded work out every day. The effort you make to keep your business fit, will build strength, flexibility, and stability for an out- a-sight business physique that will have people CHECKING YOU OUT!
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