Ok let’s face it, we all have a million things we feel we need to do or want to do in a day, week month, etc! Fact is though when our days are consumed by all the enormous list of things we are focused on getting done, the “true money maker” often times gets ignored or put on the back burner! Hey I know I am guilty because my 6 most important things to do list is about two pages long!! Not to mention that there have been days where I spent hours in the forums chatting, looking and admiring others new product posts and getting nothing done that as a result of doing it will produce income (that is the definition of IPA’s). I am talking tangible products or if you offer a service than something one can read, see or reach the service you offer through!
I have shared on this blog before that I used to be a Mary Kay consultant and we had this AWESOME IPA’s weekly tracking sheet for consultants! I don't know how to attach excel files to blogger so I can't show you the sample file here but feel free to ask me and I will send it to you! We had to write out your goals for the week and the IPA’s you would do to make sure you reached those goals. Boy did my director stay on my back but it taught me discipline and how to focus on what a TRUE IPA was at least for Mary Kay!
I created my own variation of the MK worksheet and will gladly share it as well as well. How this can be used will be different for each person. Of course you also need to have a determined number of hours each week that you are committed to your business. For me it is 20 hours a week. I wrote what my weekly goals were and what I would do to reach those goals. I make sure that I spend a minimal amount of time doing NON IPA activities like administrative tasks i.e. inventory, abundance chatting whether it be on the phone or on forums, etc.
I also break down my goals/focus as follows:
DISCLAIMER: I am NOT consistent even remotely at following through on this thus the reason I felt compelled to write about it! I am working towards it though!
- No more than 2.5 a week on NON IPA activities i.e. Admin work, inventory control, etc (sometimes this means either paying someone else to do these tasks or doing it during your non business hours)
- No more than 4.0 hours a week on advertising and marketing ( I consider these to be indirect IPA’s as they promote the opportunity to create income as a result of doing them). Examples of advertising and marketing for me is blogging, EC Drops
- Spend remaining 13.5 hours a week on direct IPA’s i.e. making jewelry, photographing, editing and posting items.
Using this worksheet I first wrote out what my IPA’s were for the week. An example of some IPA’s (both indirect and direct) in my current venue are:
1. Make 2 jewelry pieces a day (10 a week)
2. Blog on Unique Commodities Blog (6 days a week)
3. Blog on Indiscriminate musings blog (4 days a week)
4. Do 200 EC drops 5 days a week (1000 drops a week)
5. Photograph jewelry and edit photos
6. Post jewelry items made to Crobbies
7. Post jewelry items made to Etsy
8. Post jewelry items made to Bonanzle
At the end of the week, I evaluate my business! Did my activities support my goals for the week? Why or why not? Reassess , tweak where necessary and keep it moving!
