$10 OR $1,000 AN HOUR?

As a small business owner your most valuable asset is your time. I am a strong advocate of the 40% marketing rule. That means you should be spending 40% of your time marketing and the rest performing all the other duties required to run your business.

If you can’t get all the other work done in the 60% of the time allocated to it, then it’s time to hire someone. I can anticipate your answer, “I can’t afford to hire someone.”

If you are in that position, then a change is required. Most small business owners are competent in earning $10 per hour which, unfortunately, doesn’t pay all the bills much less allow for growth. To earn $1,000 or more per hour you cannot just be competent in an area, you have to be excellent.

Excellence requires a different mindset. You have to believe that you are capable of delivering the value. It requires taking a look at your target market and even your product/service. Increased action does not translate into increased income unless it’s directed towards the target market that can pay what you ask for.

Earning $1,000 per hour doesn’t mean that your product/service has to cost $1,000. It can be translated into selling 100, ten dollar items in an hour. It’s all about how and to whom you present your marketing pitch.

The following four action items are part of the foundation building process to reach $1,000/hr.

• Planning and prioritizing your day.
• Building your sales funnel.
• Tracking marketing results.
• Getting in front of qualified prospects.

The only way you can achieve your vision is to let go of all the unimportant, trivial and uninteresting busy work. It also means discarding the no profit marketing efforts. I don’t buy the statement, “But I have to generate some income, a little is better than none.”

Reaching  for the “stars” is not, in my opinion, as risky as doing what you are currently doing, either losing money or existing in a “barely surviving mode”.

“Desire is the key to motivation, but it’s determination and commitment to an unrelenting pursuit of your goal – a commitment to excellence – that will enable you to attain the success you seek.”

Mario Andretti