Organize, Plan And Profit - What Systems Work For You?
April 9th, 2008 · Filed Under: Bob The Teacher Training · Business Building · Freemind · Productivity · Rants
Today’s rant is all about taking more control over your business.
After all, it is YOU that should be in control of your business, and not the other way around.
When you are in control, you determine what hours you will work, the time frame for your product launches, even the growth trajectory.
But when your business is in control, you are back in the “employee” role again and have to react to situations as they come up.
So how do you deal with this? Seriously, I’d like to know.
What do you do to maintain control of your business, to keep yourself in the driver’s seat?
- Do you set goals and check up on yourself periodically?
- Do you set benchmarks and prioritize the stages of your business development?
- Do you have a legal pad by your computer that you use to write your to-do list and weekly targets?
Personally, I have found that if I am organized, and plan strategically (and often), my profit increases. When I fail to do that I’m all out of whack.
I’ve tried all kinds of ways to be organized. I made business cards that were mini-task items that I could shuffle around. I’ve used day calendars, and desk calendars. I have an “idea” book with a page or two for each project.
Each one of those “systems” works for a few days, and then I find myself off track again. In addition, now I have all these pieces of paper laying around my desk piling up without any real sense of organization. Ironic, isn’t it?
Fortunately, I’ve been using a different type of system that I started using in the classroom. It took me a while to apply it to my business. But since doing so about a year ago, I’ve been impressed that it has stood the test of time.
On Friday, I’ll let you know what this tool is, where you can get it, and how little you have to pay for it (hint: it’s WAY under $97 - which is what I would honestly pay for it if I had to)…
But I really want to know what kinds of systems you’ve tried, and what seems to work for you.
Tell me all about it (both success and failure if you like) with a comment below…
Bob Jenkins
p.s. I am DEFINITELY no clean freak - but when it comes to ideas and projects the more organized I am the more profits come in. Do you see the same results? Tell us all about your system (or lack thereof) below…
15 Responses to “Organize, Plan And Profit - What Systems Work For You?”
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 | Bob Jenkins is an internet business marketing teacher, with ten years experience teaching teenagers and teachers. He is the creator of several online training courses that teach you how to get better customers and increase your profits. Specializing in social networking strategies for business and creating information products from teleseminars, Bob can help you use internet marketing tools and strategies to promote your business online. |
April 9th, 2008 at 9:32 pm
Hey Bob,
Great post. Sounds like your system will help a lot of people.
Certainly organization and staying focused is the key. We’ve all been cursed with dropping out of focus and losing site of our endpoints.
So many distractions out there.
It’s important to find a system that works and continually test and tweak it as needed.
Continually works for me too.
Mike
April 9th, 2008 at 9:43 pm
The daytimer and pad of paper work best for me. I try to adopt the “do it now” approach and move to the next thing on the list. Waiting or procrastinating only makes it worse. Annual goals with semi-annual check-ups keep me focused and the pad of paper has the list of items I need to do. I cross them out at I go.
April 9th, 2008 at 9:58 pm
The three things I swear by are
1. Freemind (thanks for the tip…) to organize myself
2. Basecamp to help keep track of what needs to happen with/for my VA clients
3 Gmail — it is my substitute brain and filing system. I email myself everything I need to keep track of — I even have other people trained not to tell me things — just to send it to me via email so I have them.
I just recently figured out how to automatically sync my ical to my treo via the web — so now I’m in heaven :)
April 9th, 2008 at 10:49 pm
One word (OK, it’s a made up word, but still):
SIMPLE.OLOGY
It has changed my life. I really encourage everyone that still hasn’t to give it a try (it’s free).
Alright, I’m back to my Daily Targets…
Oh yeah, and taking off Sundays has helped me a lot as well. If you’re not taking at LEAST ONE day off a week, you’re crazy.
April 9th, 2008 at 10:59 pm
Dear Bob,
I really feel like my work is in control of me right now. I am not able to make progress like I think I should and it seems part of it is a result of having so much responsibility that I can’t spend adequate time on the to-do lists of my online businesses.
Thanks for your input.
Lavern Gingerich
April 9th, 2008 at 11:33 pm
I do 2 things. Before I get out of bed in the morning I think about 3-4 things I really think I should get done that day and write them down (very important part!)
The other thing I use is Simpleology. It helps me set goals, stay on track, and think correctly about how to accomplish my goals.
April 9th, 2008 at 11:35 pm
I forgot to mention the best part. The first course is free for simpleology.
April 10th, 2008 at 12:14 am
I would have to say: organization is one of my weak areas. It seems to take me a while to get going on projects, and the problem is organization.
One of the things I have started to do is use lists to keep me on track. But, Bob, I can use all of the help I can get in this area.
April 10th, 2008 at 1:21 am
To much To fast To little time,
and I got all day.
It seems like I can work for
14 hours and still get beat up
by the big world of the internet.
Don’t get me wrong, I got 6 legal
pads on my desk, thats got half
my brains on.
You gota right it down, and most
times, do it now.
April 10th, 2008 at 3:33 am
It’s 3:13 a.m. by my computer clock. I’m up because I fell asleep in the chair, exhausted after a frustrating day during which I did not meet my goals because I was fretting over and trying to deal with…
Taxes - almost done, but not quite…
The doctor - managed to make appointments with three different doctors next week…
Activities - don’t these people know that I need to be working on my websites?…
The lawn - grass [weeds] are a foot high, it’s still raining, the creek is out of its banks and halfway up the yard. Finally got the flat on the mower fixed, made a trip into the city Tuesday to buy a chipper/shredder to process the tree limbs downed in December’s ice storm, but how can I possibly catch up and keep ahead of this?…
Dinner - Can we PLEASE just eat these panini that I grabbed in town at Wal-Mart while making stops at five places in the pouring rain, and call it “dinner”?…
Bills - Well, the electric bill will have to wait if we’re to have groceries this week; I’ll send a check next Monday and pray it doesn’t process before the next auto-deposit; the others will have to wait. I need INCOME! How will these websites EVER make me money if I have no time to work on them?…
Am I anxious yet? You betcha!
Bob, I taught for more than 25 years, took care of aging parents, managed a household, taught in the city at the community college nights, drove to extension classes on weekends, planned months in advance, was organized, and…got paid. I’ve never worked as long or hard at anything, ever, including graduate school, as I’ve worked on “making money online” with so little success.
“Focus”
“Make a long range plan”
I’m trying, but for every step forward, seems like I get knocked back two. I’ll read your suggestions, and those of your readers, with great interest.
April 10th, 2008 at 8:05 am
Hi Bob,
Everyday life demands so much of your time,without an over abundance of Email to check and then try to make some sense of the information that we have learned by association from reading Emails.
I still live in hope of a successful outcome.
Thanks Eric
P.S. No plan yet,Just do it when I can
April 10th, 2008 at 8:07 am
Thank you Bob for getting me started with FREE MIND. I thought that I was organized using my Daytimer, but the system that I learned from you has made my whole life easier to manage. I can see my do-to lists, my entire month’s plan and all of my daily activities all at once. This is soooo cool and I cannot tell you how grateful that I am for you teaching me how to do this. It is also much easier to plan out all of my future projects!
Thanks again Bob, you have been a life saver!!
April 10th, 2008 at 8:18 am
Thanks for your honest and open comments Bob and, for those that have added theirs here to.
Focus, organization, time management. These are words that frustrate and scare many of us nearly as much as April 15th. Why is it so hard to get it all together?
For me, I’m working at setting new daily and weekly routines now that I am totally self-employed as of about 6 weeks ago. When I was working in my roll as an I.T. Manager the projects and work requests of my employer formed my to do list. Now, I have the freedom to make my own list but, often I jump into a day without planning and wonder at the end of the day just what I did.
I’m finding it easier now to format the larger chunks of my time and day, to give time for family, helping at church and stopping work to just relax but, I’m still trying to find the best tool for organizing my work time. I’m very interested to see what you will have for me there.
One thing that has helped me is to focus on only doing what I am good at doing and to start outsourcing other tasks. I can do some graphics work but it takes me too long to get it right so, I have a couple outsource guys that do it for me. I have identified what my hourly rate is and when I compute how long it will take me to do something myself I look for someone that can do it cheaper or faster and then outsource the task.
I don’t like working with accounting and doing my books. For most of our 37 years of marriage I’ve outsourced my tax work to someone else. I have a tax preparer who is very good and knows how to we operate. She saves me lots of time and money. Six or eight months back she gave me a recommendation for another lady to do my accounting each month. That has proved to be another good move for me.
Too often people try to start their own online businesses thinking they need to learn it all or do it all themselves. As you know Bob, many of the most successful Internet Marketers have staff and outsourcers do their work. They plan and direct the projects while others do the work for them.
Task overload, I believe, is what cripples our minds and makes it hard to get organized to get our work done. Outsourcing our work to others should be a top priority even for those new to this online business world.
My friend and mentor Jeff Mills is an expert at outsourcing his work to others. He has earned well over a million dollars in the past couple years alone by making better use of his time and hiring others to work for him.
Right now Jeff is giving away many of his best outsourcing secrets in his new ebook, The Outsource Compendium. This book is nearly 70 pages of insight and resource lists. It is free from this link. http://www.bestoutsourcingsecretsrevealed.com
I’ll be watching for your new tool Bob. Hope to see meet you at Big Seminar later this month if you are going.
Henry Griner
Your Technology Consultant
http://www.whoishenry.com
April 10th, 2008 at 10:15 am
I’m enjoying reading all the suggestions presented so far. Thank you for sharing!
Indeed Simpleology is an excellent resource for breaking down tasks and evaluating your own goals.
If you’re feeling frustrated by the system you are currently using, you have just a few more hours to wait until you get the inside scoop on what I use every day.
Bob
April 10th, 2008 at 7:44 pm
Organised? Who’s organised! Not me.
I just sit at the computer, and work through whatever has to be done.
Usually try to prioritise, but somehow it all gets done.
Now if only all this work would yield some more results………