if i log eight hours of work per day, i deserve to live.

unless i log that kind of time every workday i do not deserve to be an independent person.

i owe at least eight hours of real solid work every day until i surpass andrea. that is my karma and i have no actual problem with that. i’m freaking 36 and i am willing to work on this to make it make money.

is proving a godsend

i will be able to log time and know how much time i’m spending on various tasks.

the goal is to get to a point where i am spending at least one solid hour on sales every day and emailing PR and other outreach efforts to fill up my prospect funnel.

people aren’t as hesitant on their second orders.

i need to do a great job on this process because I want people to be higher-ROI about it – like they expect the process and therefore expect to pay at the end of it.

I could get annoyed with the back and forth with church for prosecutor but why? at least she paid for them.

by breaking down my task logging into categories and measuring intervals instead of just milestones, i can create a TIME BUDGET

i don’t want to spend all day on “adjustments” for instance, or on “brainstorming” or “errands”.

in fact, yesterday’s supposed four and a half hours of work probably include the time i spent getting the rent and such – not exactly work!

ideally, i make four buckets that relate to the two hours times four tasks above.

today i will spend four hours on sales and marketing

time is the hardest cost to pay for a sale

it is worse than paying google.

basically i wind up creating previews and sending out freshbooks invoices that will never get paid.

typical ops tasks:

• printing out orders
• filing them in the book
• determining my work queue
• designing stickers and previews
• emailing previews and stationery
• billing people
• figuring out who paid
• answering and adjusting post-billing
• shipping paid and approved to kyle

marketing is conceived very broadly

• designing collateral
• brainstorming
• coding
  • website: psychological aspects
  • website: order flow
  • website: viral marketing tools
  • discounts and new products
• autoresponder writing
• traffic and conversion analysis
• creating new products
• writing and literature
• PR outreach
• surveying customers
• competitive analysis
• adwords
• other online advertising
• print advertising

some things that i should do:

• 2hrs of ops
• 2hrs of sales
• 2hrs of marketing
• 2hrs of research/admin

i need to put this in there as billable time, it’s important

• books
• internet
• brainstorming

each of these bulletpoints should become systems.

these systems should be VERY EFFICIENT:

• time to complete each operation
• time to set up
• ROI from each operation

over time you need to improve each bulletpoint

ultimately it needs to be unconscious and delegable

i am really blowing these:

• bookkeeping
• bank management
• paying bills

these are not just sales-ops but actual new sales tasks:

• thanking old customers
• reaching out to other people’s customers on myspace
• starting facebook and twitter sales initiatives
• spreading a discount code
• thanking UA customers
• prospecting via google or myspace
• following up on leads and prospects
• sending out DM catalogs