Marketing Success In 30 Minutes A Day

One of the hardest things to do as a business owner is make time to work on growing your own business. We’re so busy working for our clients, creating the products or services we sell, or reacting to the Tyranny of the Important that there just isn’t enough time to give to our business.

Successful businesses learn that they must prioritize marketing. (That means actually doing some!)

You might reject the intent of spending time on your marketing because these hours aren’t billable. And, when you have a business in which billable hours fuel the engine, it’s a difficult choice to make.

However, there won’t BE an engine unless you’re growing the business, attracting and retaining customers, and coming up with new ways to offer them value.

Demonstrate your commitment

If you’re really serious about making marketing a regular activity, begin by scheduling time with yourself on your calendar. Don’t adopt you’ll just remember it, or that you’ll do it first thing in the morning. Get serious and write down an appointment.

How much is enough time to work?

When I first started to schedule sessions with myself, I’d block off entire half-days. I thought I’d knock out a bunch of work at one fell swoop, but I found it hard to stay on task for that long, especially knowing all the client work that was inactivity to be done.

After compromising myself down to an absurdly short 15 minutes (less time than I spend reading the news online!), I found that 30-minute, focused work periods were saint for me.

Focused 30-minute work periods

It’s simple to accomplish something in 30 minutes if you’re focused. It’s too short a time to dawdle or disturb it with phone calls, or else you won’t get anything done.

Some people use a kitchen timer to keep on track. For them, the ticking sound it makes is a reminder to focus on the work and the remaining minutes. However you select to do it, be sure to keep the time and stop when you’ve concurred to. Otherwise, you might run way overtime and feel resentful. Let the timer remind you to respect your own boundaries and not near yourself too hard.

Can you write a marketing plan in 30 minutes a day?

Sure, you could, but that’s not really the purpose of this time. I’d advocate doing planning at another time dedicated just to that, and then executing and refining it during your regular marketing exercise.

Honor your commitment

Once you’ve scheduled these times on your calendar, honor your commitment. Treat these appointments as respectfully as you would one with your most important client. That means you’re never late or a no-show, and, if you totally MUST do something else at that time, you reschedule the appointment by immediately writing a alternative down somewhere else on your calendar.

Remember that others will notice how you treat your commitments to yourself and to your business, among them your clients, employees and vendors. You also send a signal to your Self (your spirit or soul, however you want to call it) and the Universe. It doesn’t feel good to be last on your own list, and somewhere in the mechanism the message “my business isn’t worth as much to me as the business of others” gets filed away.

Honor yourself by keeping promises and nurturing your own business.

Accountability partners

An accountability partner is simply someone who concurs to follow up with you about things you commit to do. Usually you find someone else who wants support in getting something done. Just as two exercise partners can keep either other motivated and on-track, so can you accomplish more when someone else is checking with you and supporting you.

After several months of partnering with a friend on our weekly goals, I found it quite simple to schedule and keep commitments to myself and to work regularly on my marketing.

What’s a good thing to do during your regular – or thrice weekly – marketing exercises?

Here’s a list of things you could do:

* Think about how to improve your marketing message.
* Call a lapsed client and find out why you haven’t heard from them.
* Call a raving fan and find out why they continue to do business with you.
* Meditate or pray.
* Imagine how you’d like your business to look in six months.
* Visit a competitors’ store or web site.
* Make a list of what to do with your marketing time over the next month.
* Attend a networking event.
* Study something useful about marketing, business or your industry.
* Take a achievement while holding the intention, “I am open to receiving ideas about how to grow my business.”

Here’s a list of things you should not do:

* Answer the phone.
* Chat with passersby. (Remember, this exercise might look like you are doing nothing, so be sure to let people who might see you know that you’re busy increasing the value of your business.)
* Check email.
* Get distracted by something on the World wide web (you only have 30 minutes for your business – you can read everything else later).
* Pay bills.

Billable vs non-billable hours

Although you’re not technically paying yourself for the time you spend working on your own marketing, this exercise will definitely pay off for you. You’ll be more centered, more in-control, more effective, and you’ll have more clients, money and profits. So, get out your calendar and make an appointment with yourself right now!

Marketing Success In 30 Minutes A Day

10 Tips To Make Cleaning Your Kitchen Easier

10 Tips To Make Cleaning Your Kitchen Easier

I don’t know about you, but I spend a lot of time in my kitchen apiece and each day. I rarely use box mixes and usually make our food from scratch so my kitchen gets a regular work out!

I am cleaning something up in my kitchen each day, I believe your kitchen should be one of the cleanest rooms in your home, after all, germs seem to accumulate there and its important to keep it clean.

Here are some nifty kitchen cleaning tips that I thought I would share with you today.

1. Cleaning and Deodorizing Your Garbage Disposal: You should never let food particles sit in your garbage disposal, always turn it on and use it after putting food down into the unit. Letting food sit there, will cause odors. Each few days I cut up a half of piece of citrus fruit (rinds work best) and place that down into my garbage disposal unit. I let it sit for approximately 30 minutes and then begin running my water and turn the unit on to grind up the citrus rind. This not only cleans the unit but also removes smelly odors. I never place onions or other smelly foods down into my garbage disposal unit.

2. Slicing Boards: I use several different types of slicing boards, depending on what I am slicing up at the time. You should have a minimum of 3 different slicing boards in your kitchen. (one for raw meats, one for cooked meats and one for slicing up vegetables and other things). I am healthy to place two of my slicing boards directly into my dishwasher for cleaning. My third slicing board needs to be hand cleaned after I use it and one of the ideal ways of doing that is by using antibacterial liquid hand dishwashing soap and a break sponge or microfiber cleaning cloth. Rinse your board thoroughly after cleaning. To remove odors from your slicing boards try using a half of a lemon dipped in salt and then rub that over the top of your slicing board and letting it sit for 10 minutes before rinsing your slicing board off under warm running water.

3. Cleaning Bakeware: I always follow manufacturers cleaning instructions, you can find that printed on the adjudge of the bakware that you purchase. However, if that information is missing, you should never use material cleaners. For stubborn baked on grime, you can soak your bakeware in hot soapy water or try some warm water with 2 tablespoons of baking soda in it. I like to let mine sit and soak for approximately 20 minutes and then I use a soft sponge to finish cleaning them up. You should never grant metal bakeware to air dry as that can cause pitting and rusting. Always towel dry with a soft absorbent cloth.

4. Glass Carafes, Decanters and Coffee Pots: One of the ideal ways to keep these items clean is to use warm soapy water and a soft sponge. For stubborn stains and food debris, try cleaning them with one of those fizzing denture cleaner tablets.

5. China and Porcelain Dishes: The ideal way to clean these items is by hand, they should never be place into your automatic dishwasher. I like to handwash mine in warm soapy water. To prevent chipping and breakage, I line my sink with a rubber sink mat. Dry them with a soft clean and dry cloth.

6. Cleaning Metal Freezer Racks: One of the ideal tips I have ever received about cleaning metal freezer racks came from my great aunt. Remove the metal racks from your freezer after defrosting it. Clean them in warm soapy water and rinse. Towel dry them. Take an old plastic tablecloth or a plastic drop cloth and lay it outside in a clean area. Take your metal freezer racks outside and place them on top of your plastic cloth. Next, take a can of nonstick baking spray and lightly mist your racks. Let them air dry for 5 minutes. Place them back into your freezer. This will help to prevent food packages and other gunk from sticking on your metal racks in the future.

7. Cleaning the inside of your Refrigerator: One of the ideal ways to do this is to remove all food, beverage and condiment items and place them on your counter top. Next, remove any removeable shelving and drawers. Wash the shelving and drawers in hot soapy water, rinse and towel dry. Fill up a clean bucket with some warm water and a 1/4 cup of baking soda. Take a clean sponge and wipe out the inside of your refrigerator before placing the shelves and drawers back inside it. Another substitute is using 5 parts water and 1 part white vinegar to wipe out the inside of your refrigerator.

8. Ceramic Tiles: I have a ceramic tile backsplash behind my sink and also behind my stove top so its constantly getting splashed with grease and food debris. The ideal way I have found is to clean the ceramic tiles each day by using liquid dishwashing soap and a break clean sponge. If you let the grime build up on the ceramic tiles, it will be harder to clean. To clean stubborn dried on grime, use an all-purpose spray cleaner.

9. Microwave: Fill a microwave innocuous glass container with 1 cup of water and 1/4 cup of lemon juice. Microwave on HIGH for 1 minute. The steam will help loosen stuck on food products and splatters for simple cleaning. The Lemon also is a natural deodorizer. After wiping out your microwave, dry the inside with a soft dry cloth. I find using microfiber cleaning cloths and towels great to use when cleaning the microwave oven.

10. Coffeemakers: Since we are a household that drinks coffee each day, our coffee maker constantly needs a good cleaning. After each use, you should be cleaning out the coffee pot and filter basket. You can do this by rinsing it out with hot soapy water. Just make sure you rinse it out completely. For stubborn stains, try sprinkling some baking soda onto a break sponge and scrubbing the spot. Wipe up drips as soon as they happen.

I hope you find some of my cleaning tips helpful. I am a firm believer in cleaning up messes as I go along and not letting them sit for another day.

10 Tips To Make Cleaning Your Kitchen Easier

Demonstration of the rubber Dry Cleaning ‘smoke’ sponge to clean cloth book covers. From Book repair for Booksellers from Sicpress.com
Video Rating: 5 / 5