Let’s just agree on something: the reason most people do not have enough clients or are not making enough money in their business is because they are not MARKETING enough.

There are many reasons why this is so, but a biggie is the excuse (and it is an excuse–harsh but true) that they just don’t have enough time. But, we all only get the same 24 hours in a day.  So how is it that some people are able to be super-productive with their time and others are not?

Managing my time wisely is something I will readily admit I wasn’t always so good at.  It’s something I continually work at because we all have a lot to do, right?

Alas, the truth is that many business owners need to place an increased focus on making time for marketing–in order to get the results that they say they so badly want.

I don’t profess to be a time management queen or expert, BUT, I do have strategies that I use in my own business that have been enormously helpful to me and I think would be helpful for others as well.  Here are 3 exercises you can use to help banish the no-time-for-marketing excuse once and for all:

List Your Time Wasters

When you need more clients and cash flow, you need to spend more time on marketing. What are some of the time wasters or “time sucks” you can remove from your day or pause until you have more clients? (Be honest with yourself :))

I did this and I still do this occasionally to make sure I’m on track and I am always astounded.  Phone calls, errands, pets, friends asking you to grab lunch, etc. Even business-related tasks that just aren’t directly income-generating that can be outsourced or put on the back burner for now. What are yours?

Breakout Your Time

To make the best use of your day, it can be useful to use a daily time breakout sheet. This helps ensure you make marketing a priority in your schedule. I like to think of this as carving out your time.

When there is something that needs to get done in your business, ask yourself how long it is going to take.  Is it fifteen minutes? One hour? Three hours?  Let’s say you need to prepare for a group call you are having. You need an hour to write up notes for the call and another hour to gather the resources together.

You would then find that two hour spot in your calendar where you could fit this in. Schedule it AS IF IT WAS A CLIENT APPOINTMENT. See, when you think about it, when you put your client appointments in your calendar, they’re pretty non-negotiable. You put them in there, and you don’t touch them. Why? Because you have a commitment to that client.

This is the same thing except this is a commitment to yourself and to getting the clients that you need. So, if something requires ninety minutes, then open your calendar, and find ninety minutes and plug it in.

Mind Mapping

A lot of times, we put marketing on the back burner, but only because we have too many other “things” that we’re doing.

I like doing the Mind Map exercise because it allows me to get clear on where I need to “pause, outsource, delegate, or focus.”

How it works: write down everything that you are working on in your business, but also all your personal stuff, (all of the things that are going on in your life) as a “mind map.”

Here’s a simple example:

Then, look at your mind map and everything that you wrote down.  Most people will have dozens and dozens of “bubbles.” Where can you put a pause button on the things that aren’t directly giving you results in your business? This doesn’t mean you need to stop them forever—maybe just for 3 months, 6 months, etc.

You need to be working on the projects that bring in the money and the clients. Everything else should get a pause button or should be outsourced or delegated.

This is the formula: ask yourself: “what out of everything here is going to bring me the most money in the quickest amount of time with the least effort with the greatest long term impact?”

Focus on three things. For example: “Focus on closing three clients and three clients only until completion.”

To figure this out, you can rank all of the things on your mind map that will bring you the most money, the most quickly, and with the least effort. Once you get really clear, just select the three and star them, and give yourself permission not to do any of the rest.

Now–I’d love to hear from you: how do you make time for marketing? Do you think you should be marketing more than you are currently? Let me know in the comments!