Come on guys, be honest. You know what you should have done first thing this morning, don’t you but, I know that most British business owners did something different instead.
What you should have done first thing this morning – at least if you want to be super successful and move your business forward – is, of course, to give some focus to your marketing. This is particularly true if marketing is not something you are naturally good at. In those circumstances, it’s almost imperative that you do it first thing otherwise it will get consumed by the list of the day, it will never emerge at the top of your priority list and, you will lurch into tomorrow, and then tomorrow and then tomorrow and no marketing will get done.
I promise you, one of the key reasons why I have been able to build five separate million pound plus businesses in the last five years is because, every morning, when I get into the office I spend at least 60 minutes and usually 90 minutes to two hours doing marketing.
Marketing is what brings in the customers. Marketing is what keeps our existing customers coming back.
Marketing is what generates the revenue to pay the bills and create the profit to fund the lifestyle, etc, etc.
If you spend the first hour of every day doing marketing for the next four to five weeks then the experts will tell you that you will have established a new habit and, it will become much easier for you to continue spending the first hour of every day doing marketing thereafter. I have no idea whether this is true or not but, I do know that doing marketing first thing is a well established habit that I have and, I commend it to you in the strongest possible terms.
It’s six years ago this month since I met Donald Trump. I shook his hand and had dinner with him – or rather I was at a dinner (along with 200 other people) at which he was also in attendance.
Trump made a short speech after the dinner and then he opened the floor to Q&As. One of the Americans on the table next to mine asked The Donald, “Mr Trump, you are an incredibly successful business person, to what do you attribute your success?”
Trump paused for a minute and then he said something so profound that it’s had a completely life changing impact on me. Here’s what he said, “I think big, most people think small, this gives me a distinct advantage”.
When I first heard that it was like someone was whacking me around the face with a 20 pound haddock. I suddenly realised that much of what I’d been thinking and aspiring to in business was just, quite simply, too small.
It’s a philosophy that served me well over the last six years. I found that there’s a lot less competition for the bigger goals because most people do think small – Mr Trump is correct.
On what, for me, is quite a poignant anniversary month, I thought you might find this helpful…..
With the new football season now upon us (hurrah!) I have been devouring the press coverage of the build up. My team, Leeds United are riding high in the Championship once again this year following our successful promotion campaign last season. It’s all very exciting but, of course the Championship is dwarfed by the importance and profile of the Premiership.
In this context, I was very interested to read recently of the approach adopted by both Fernando Torres and Wayne Rooney in relation to training. Apparently, both these players, who are the biggest superstars at their respective clubs, are always the last off the training ground each day. They spend longer, on their own, practising their free kicks, their finishing, their shooting, etc and, it got me thinking that that is what it’s like in business as well.
You see, the super successful entrepreneurs – the superstars, do spend longer working “on” their business. They do make sure, every day, that they spend time focusing on the marketing of their business and they are to be found at their place of work long after everyone else has left BUT they’re not always doing work – they are working on their business, developing new things and focusing on the marketing. There’s a big difference. Lots of footballers train really hard and, similarly, lots of business owners work really hard.
Torres and Rooney have been blessed with amazing talent when it comes to kicking a football and playing the game but, it’s a talent that has been honed, developed, nurtured and polished by the amount of time they spend working on their game.
That’s the message for this week – you’ve got to get off the treadmill, out of the doing and focus “on” your business pretty much every day if you want to play in the Premiership.
I’ve had cause to travel to London quite a bit recently and on most occasions I’ve taken the train. It’s Virgin trains that run from Birmingham International down to Euston and they recently introduced new Pendolino trains which do the journey in only an hour and ten minutes.
Now, when you’re going to catch a train, the first thing you do is check the timetable to see what time it leaves and when it will arrive and, this got me thinking about the timetable in my business. I do always do my marketing first thing in the morning so, from 7.30am to about 9.15am my door is shut, my phone is turned off, my email is not even opened up and I focus on the marketing for my business. It’s part of my timetable.
Any emails that require me to think before replying to them get filed in a Friday afternoon folder that I only do on a Friday afternoon. This helps give me efficient and not bogged down by other people’s agendas – there’s the message I think here. Who is setting your timetable?
Have you got the right slugs of time earmarked and closed off with brick walls around them for you to focus on what you need to get done to develop your business? Or, are you like most business owners when someone else is setting your agenda when, you spend all your days reacting to things that are happening, crises that occur, the demands and requirements of other people?
It’s not possible to be 100% in control of our own time, all the time but, it is something that we should be aiming to do as responsible entrepreneurs. The more we allow other people to set our agenda and decide what we think about, focus on and work on then the less successful we will become.
I am completely resolved to ensure that I control my timetable for enough hours in the week to ensure that I achieve and make progress towards all my goals.
I’m sure I can’t be the only person to be completely inspired by Jackie Cobell – she is the 56 year old lady who set off to swim the Channel last week. She succeeded, but only after over 28 hours in the water, making her the slowest cross Channel swimmer ever.
I reckon that also makes her the best cross Channel swimmer ever – apparently she swam over 60 miles, not just the normal 22 miles because of being swept north and south by the tide.
I just think she’s a complete hero. I can’t begin to imagine being in the water for all that time, let alone swimming over 60 MILES! I’ve never met Jackie, although I’d definitely like to now but, she strikes me as the sort of person who will do ‘whatever it takes.’ Infact she’s proven that she is.
That’s always been my motto in business – ‘whatever it takes’. It’s my job description if you like and so it is for all super-successful entrepreneurs.
Metaphorically speaking, would your business have got across the Channel if it had taken that long and been that tough?
At what point would you have given up?
I’m quite proud of my “stick-ability” but I can’t comprehend what Jackie did. It was completely amazing.
Just seen this great video that our thebestof franchisee in Newport has posted on his Home Page. Understand it’s been on national TV and all sorts. Not surprised. It’s brilliant.