Does this sound hard to believe?
There was one easy rule I adopted when looking at the numbers in my business that allowed me to more than double my income in less than 12 months.
The truth is it’s completely accurate.
You’ve probably heard of the 80/20 rule: 80% of your results usually come from 20% of your efforts. It’s the Pareto principle: focus on the crucial few vs. the trivial many.
For example, typically 20% of what you offer brings you 80% of your revenue. A little while back I looked at my own numbers in my business and found this to be absolutely true.
It was a huge a-ha.
So how did I adjust based on that?
I stopped putting equal effort and time into marketing everything, and I put more focus and effort into where the majority of my revenue was coming from.
And by the way, it made things a lot easier too.
But I only figured that out by looking at the numbers.
I urge you to do this for yourself, and it’s simple: look at what is bringing you the most money, and move your focus to those activities.
If you need help here, get a coach or mentor to guide you through this. This is what my own mentors have done for me and what I do with my own clients.
Finding yourself busy, busy, busy but it’s not being reflected in your income? Here’s an important measuring stick: you need to spend the majority of your time on revenue generating activities.
RGAs are NOT tweaking your website, futzing around on Facebook or perfecting your tagline. RGAs ARE things like following up with warm prospects, attending live events, taking part in coaching and mentoring programs, scheduling discovery sessions, working on a sales page, launching a new offer, or having a joint venture conversation.
My advice is to map out your RGAs so you know what to spend time on that will actually bring you income. Base your to do lists on tackling primarily revenue generating activities.
I have my Impact Academy students do this exercise all the time and it makes a huge difference in the amount of income they bring in.
So, use the 80/20 rule to see what you should be concentrating on in terms of your activities, offers, and marketing. It’s so worth taking the time and effort to dig in to your numbers and get clarity here.
Look for the holes: if you want to generate more revenue, then your focus should not be on tweaking your branding and website endlessly or obsessing over your tagline. It should not be on blogging five times a week right now.
Why? Because in the now, in the short term, those are NOT RGAs.
Instead, use the 80/20 rule to do more of those revenue generating activities, right now.
The best part? You’ll start to upping your cash flow NOW.
I think THAT is totally worth it.
I couldn’t agree more Christine. As a new member of your Impact Academy, I am already re-framing how I choose to spend my work time. Every time I embark on a new work related activity, I ask….Is this a Revenue Generating Activity? If not, I jot the activity down in a notebook knowing it will get done during a time I have not earmarked for growing my business. The majority of my working time is now devoted to those activities which will bring me the majority of my income.
Thank you for the clarity. I’m working to share my message in a BIG way, and your marketing strategies are paving the way for that to become a reality.
Paula Boylan
I love to hear that Paula! Doing this will serve you so, so well. Really glad to have you in the Impact Academy!
Christine: I was just thinking about this while I was getting ready to work this morning. In my mind, I went through what I’ve been working on like tweaking brand, website, etc. Then I thought–I’ve got to get going on finishing the things that will actually generate revenue. It is so easy to get off track. I think it is important to re-visit this question often.
Thanks for the great information.
Angeline Marie
It definitely IS easy to get off track, no matter how long you’ve been in business. That’s why it’s good to revisit this often and make sure you haven’t completely fallen off the wagon! 😉 Thanks for your comment!