Originally Published 02-02-06

ONE - Start your business day at 9am.  Your first appointment or contact telephone call should be at 9am.  Dresses for business – even if you work at home, wear a business suit.  This puts you in the business frame of mind.  You are unlikely to cut the grass, do the washing or watch TV in a business suit.

TWO - Get others to do work for you.  Any job that can be completed competently by others – let them do it.  This leaves you to work your business efficiently within business hours.  Example:  Invoicing, cleaning, empty bins, loading the toner in the copier etc.  Manage those jobs by clearly communicating how and when you want the jobs completing, always thank for a job well done.  Every moment of your business day is highly valuable – use it to sell your products.

THREE - Speak with 20 new contacts every business day.  This equates to 100 new contacts per week, 4,800 new contacts per year.  These new contacts can be appointments, meeting people at network meetings or a cold call on the phone.  When you have say 4,800 people you have talked to about you’re business it is a fact a percentage will buy from you.  What percentage this is, is up to you.

FOUR - Do it now.  If a job can be done now – do it now. Procrastination is the thief of time.  Prioritise every morning.  Write a to do list of jobs. Prioritise jobs to top priority the moneymaking jobs.  Other jobs like editing the business website, invoicing, reading industry journals etc can be done after office hours.  If you find yourself reading an industry journal or news paper within business hours – even the business section – be very ashamed – you ain’t retired yet. 

FIVE - Write a TO-DO list at the end of the day for the next day.  This way you are one click ahead when you start at 9am sharp the next day.  Your mind is sharper at 5pm than at 9am.  A proven winning tip.

Author – Jake Amzulu.  Marketing CEO JADS World Wide