Too many of us spend a lot of time doing things that don’t bring the value we are worth. In life, we spend time doing things we think we half to do – not because we want to, or like doing them. What we don’t often think about is the fact that we could likely pay someone to do the “things we half to do”, and use that time to make far more than what we are paying out.

The Duct Tape Marketing Blog has a great post on that:
http://www.ducttapemarketing.com/blog/2007/08/14/are-you-worth-more-than-you%e2%80%99re-making/

Another side of this is in our business when we get stuck doing busy work. This might be things like paperwork, sorting information, filing etc.. You don’t get paid your for these things. You get paid for setting appointments, sharing your business and products with other people, and leading your team. Do the things you get paid for. Other things should either be skipped (if not important), passed on (to someone who can do them also), or hired out (to an assistant – even a virtual assistant). This will give you more time to focus on what you get paid for.

Now if you enjoy doing some of the “busy work” activities then by all means continue to do them, however don’t call that business time and effort. Call that your fun time.

Danny

I want to get better at sending out cards. Today it is so easy to send out emails and e-cards that they have lost a little bit of their value. At the same time, the value of perceived value of receiving physical mail has increased. Sending out birthday cards, post cards, and other cards can be a valuable way to increase your exposure and the favorable attitude towards you and your business. Think of how nice it is to get a real birthday card in the mail when everyone else is sending you e-cards or Facebook messages. As such, I’m going to work on sending out more cards, and you should as well.

Here is a great post with some helpful hints about creating an easy to use system for mailing more cards:

http://unclutterer.com/archives/2007/08/birthday_cards_and_reminder_sy.php

Danny

Probably one of the absolute keys to building your home business (once you have found a good company), is to be consistent in your daily activity. Consistent growth will always outlast quick spurts followed by complete stops. You need to be doing activity each day to grow your business.

The first thing I ask every team member to do is to commit to 15 minutes a day of professional development related to their business. This should be reading the company magazine or listening to an audio training. This is vital to keep your head in the game – to keep you focused on developing yourself and your business.

After that I recommend making three daily business building activities. These should be three things that you will commit to do each day – no matter what – that will create growth in your business.

For this list you can include things like the number of approach calls you will make every day; the number of follow up calls to your teammates; the amount of time you will spend on online marketing etc. etc. In other words choose things that will create growth – and then do those three things every day.

It works best if you put down things that will help you create momentum for your day; things that you may not want to do at first, but once you get going you don’t have a problem. For me, one of these things is phoning prospects. It is always easier not to do it, however not much grows your business like finding a new business partner. As such I commit to making at least 5 dials each day. Normally I make many more than that, but by making the first 5 I create personal momentum and activity.

Tony Robbins teaches that your body always wants to stay in the “state” that it is in. This is why your comfort zone is so powerful. By getting started on an activity, like dialing the phone to call potential customers, you get in a new “state”. You get in the “state” of action and start creating results.

So choose three activities that will create growth in your business. These activities should all relate to the critical activities need to grow your business, and doing them should lead to further growth for your business.

Danny Gamache
(Professor, Coach, Entrepreneur)

One of the keys to any home business is to be continually involved in personal growth and professional development. Personally, I commit to at least 15 minutes a day of professional development related to my business.

Here is a great site that has links to a number of great videos to help you grow.

http://www.squidoo.com/videosthatchange/

Danny

New forms of communication are taking over the internet!

The primary examples of this include social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook, and update sites like Twitter. Through these sights people provide a lot of information about what is going on in their lives. Marketers are just starting to get a grasp of how powerful these sites will become for marketing.

This article from FAST COMPANY will give some thoughts:
http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/118/the-next-email.html

The article, however, does not talk about specifically about home businesses. I think that home businesses, and direct marketing in particular, can benefit from these sites. While I have some thoughts, what I really want to do is start a discussion about how you are using these sites to build your business? Please add a comment and share your perspective.

Danny

Our attitudes and belief systems have a huge effect on anybody building a home business. We need to keep focused on our goals, and be positive as we move towards reaching them. We need to believe in our company, our business and most importantly ourselves. The last one is where most people fall off as it is easy to get discouraged and not believe in your own abilities.

Tony Clark has an excellent for suggestion for helping with this. He suggests we take positive successful moments from our past and develop clear images of them in our mind. These then become the mental images we can play to reconnect with who we are and remind ourselves of our ability to be successful.

You can read his post here: http://successfromthenest.com/content/eternal-playlist-of-the-successful-mind/

I’ve really been enjoying his blog and I would recommend adding it as an RSS feed or checking his site from time to time. The posts have been insightful and inspiring.

Danny

If you have your own business from home you need business cards. Unfortunately, too often I run into business owners who do not have business cards or only have home made business cards from their printer. This will not be sufficient. You need to have professional business cards that demonstrate your creativity and your leadership.

Seth Godin has a good post today about effective business cards. You can check it out here: http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2007/08/business-card-m.html

Take action today and get some good professional business cards. Keep them on you at all times and be prepared to share them well. It will help your business.

Danny

With the growth of blogging and social networking sites the idea of “self promotion” has been talked about frequently lately. It is the idea of making your name your “brand”. Getting the word out there about who you are and what you can do – becoming an expert at something. At times this seems like it might be a new phenomenon, however it certainly is not. It goes back to before Mark Twain. In fact, you may not know that Mark Twain used self promotion very effectively early in his writing career.

Here is a great article from Fast Company about how Mark Twain did it!

http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/117/column-final-word.html

Danny