Debbie Mayo-Smith: Four step focus gets results

A motivational speaker gives her tips on business success·Herald online·

21 Aug, 2011 09:30 PM3 mins to read

If you read my column last week you would have seen the simple formula for turning your business goal into the daily activity required to achieve it. Read it here.

However with the frantic work and personal lives we have - this time can't be pulled out of the hat. Time is finite and in my opinion the concept of balance, is bull.

There are only three things you can do to get more time; to be more successful at business (thus enabling you to do the things you'd like for balance). First eliminate some of your activity. Second delegate it to someone else. Third - do what you do better and faster.

To help get this point across, I derived an acronym that is memorable (at least I think it is) to develop the right activity to achieve your business goals.

Doing the Right C.R.A.P.

Right Customers - For business development, it takes the same amount of effort to market to and find customers that have a higher spend. In other words people who will use the $500 service vs. the $100 service for example.

Right Results - The work and time you spend must help you achieve your goal. A perfect example of this is social media. It takes an enormous amount of time and attention to do it correctly. If the end result doesn't meet your goal - more sales, more referrals, much better branding; or if the sales generated from the social media activity are lower that other avenues, is it the right thing to do for your business? The time spent there is stolen from other activities. Would you be better off targeting existing customers than always chasing new ones?

Right Activity - If your job is to bring in the income, to develop new customers, is it the right use of your time to do different activities such as administration, helping other staff members, fixing the copier? By this you know I mean doing jobs that others whose time is not as valuable can accomplish. Additionally by using and learning your everyday technology better will help you to free up time normally wasted puttering around doing things one by one by one by replacing it with many at a time. For example using the 'rules' function to manage your emails. Keeping a great database. A smartphone to boost your productivity while out of the office.

Right Place - Are your efforts directed in the correct location. For example advertising in the right media where your 'Right customers' are looking? If your demographic is mature decision making males, will Facebook be the right place for your efforts? Just because social media is the 'in' thing right now does not mean it's the right place for your businesses efforts.

So let me ask. How focused are you?