Grow Your Biz – Week 3: Learn what to repeat, adapt or stop doing altogether!

Sounds easy, right? While Stop Doing the Same Things and Expecting Different Results sounds absolutely logically we all tend to fall into this trap at some point or another. Instead of changing our approach, we are unsatisfied that our income isn’t growing, our traffic is stagnant, [insert your unreached goal here]. Well to finally get there you need to learn what is worth repeating, what needs to change and what you should stop doing altogether.

Before we start…

What exactly is #GrowYourBiz?

Grow Your Biz is a new blog post series I created after running my online business for two years. Every week I will share my goals and learnings with you so that you can grow your business alongside me.

The internet is a wonderful place, which allows us to create and run a one-person-business from home. But it also can be very lonely and depending on where you live you could be cut off from fellow entrepreneurs. Not being able to chat about your business with someone who has similar goals, struggles and to-dos can be stressful. While family and friends love you and will always listen to you, there are just some things they can’t follow and fully understand – they try to believe me! – if they work a usual nine-to-five.

But you are not alone!

There are many of us even if we live all around the globe. So let’s use this wonderful place called ‘the internet’ once more to share our journey, learn from one another and grow our businesses together.

Review of last week’s goals

• Finish translation of Bullettastisch printable bundle
• Announce Bullettastisch printable bundle for October, 12th 2018
• [75%] Create the sales page for Bullettastisch printable bundle
• Create the flip-through video for Bullettastisch printable bundle
• Document ‘unplanned tasks I did each day’
• Write & publish two blog posts
• [10%] Brainstorm & draft as many blog posts as you can on Tuesday
• Write & send three newsletters this week // one of them will be automated for new subs

As you can see I managed 5.85 of the 8 goals I set myself. I’m very happy with that. Both the sales page and the flip-through video need to be done by October, 12th. So I’m making good time on my schedule. And the brainstorming and drafting of multiple blog posts is something that can save me time in the long run. But it is nothing I need to do right now necessarily.

Last week I realized there are a lot of tasks I do each week that are not part of my weekly goals. So I started to document them daily. Which allows me to see how I spend my time each day. And if I’m procrastinating with ‘fun tasks’ instead of the ones that need to be done ASAP.

Review of accomplished unplanned tasks

So let’s review them real quick:

• I did my finances
  – needs to be done, can’t be avoided
• I updated all my Amazon affiliate bank data
  – I created a bank account for my business and needed to update my Amazon affiliate account with the new data
• I automated the promotion of my lead magnets and main products on Facebook
  – will save me tons of time in the long run and gets more potential customers on my list
• I started doing the same for Instagram and Pinterest as well as for my Etsy Products on all three platforms
  – same as above
• I updated my Facebook Profile and Business Page
  – should have happened ages ago, finally did it
• I decluttered and streamlined my ConvertKit Automation
  – still trying to optimize my welcome series sales funnel
• I decluttered my old Google+ Page and am now also promoting all new blog posts automatically to it
  – Google Search loves it if you promote your content on google+, which is why I started doing so again this week
• I crunched all numbers for my income through digital products in 2018 and started to make decisions for the future of my Etsy Shop
  – I always could kick myself in the butt for not documenting, reviewing and analyzing my data earlier. So valuable!!!
• I played around with CrowdFire and decided against using it
  – very much a waste of my time should have done more important tasks instead

As you can see most of these were focused on automating my business. While I have the completion of this set as a goal for a future date I want to get it implemented as soon as possible. Since I’m sure a lot of try and error will be involved and since it can save a ton of time while increasing my profits.

Looking at my goals as well as ‘unplanned tasks’ I accomplished this week I’m very happy overall. And you know what? Before sitting down and reviewing it all I was sure I did way too little. Because the thing is you don’t remember everything little thing you did each day. Which is why I document it the second I switch tasks.

Start documenting, because you don’t remember everything little thing you did each day. Click To Tweet

Which brings me to this week’s learnings…

DOCUMENT, REVIEW AND ANALYZE

There are two ways you can run your business. You can do the same things over and over again and wonder why nothing changes. Or you can

• Document,
• Review,
• And Analyze

the heck out it. This allows you to learn from your past mistakes and successes. So that you do know what to

• Repeat,
• Adapt,
• Or Stop Doing!

Which will allow you and your business to grow so much faster and reach your goals.

While I always have done the above to some extent I never made it a priority. So stupid!

Which brings me to the next point.

Document, review and analyze regularly!!!

It needs to be a fixed date with yourself that you don’t miss. No excuses. No pushing it back. Just decide on a time slot every single week or month (depending on how you want to handle this) and do it.

For me it looks something like this:

I plan out my goals for the week in advance on Sunday the week before. I decide what I want to do each day and write it down. It’s all mapped out. There is no further decision making needed during the week. I just do what’s on my list, starting with the most important.

Everything I don’t manage that day migrates over to the next and so on. Always starting with the most important task.

Daily

During each day I check off the goals I have completed as well as document all unplanned tasks I did that day. I don’t wait until the end of my workday to do so. I do it the moment I switch tasks. So even if a task takes only fifteen minutes and I plan to go back to it later. I will write it down. Otherwise, chances are high I will forget. I do so on the same sheet of paper my daily to-dos are on. So that I can see what got done which day.

Fridays

On Friday afternoon, 1-2 hours before my work day officially ends and the weekend begins. I will sit down, go through this weeks documentation and start reviewing it. Then I start making bullet points for my #GrowYourBiz blog post. Afterward, I write down any new learnings or ideas I might have had that week. And get the rough outline written for this post. This not only saves me a ton of time the next Thursday when it needs to be finished and published. But it also allows me to write about it when it is still fresh in my mind. And not obscured by next weeks doing.

Sundays

On Sunday I will plan out the next week. I will look at my big picture strategy. See when the next deadline is due. What needs to happen beforehand. And plan out all goals for the new week.

Mondays

On Monday I will quickly screenshot my analytics for the past week, including

• Wundertastisch.com traffic
• Gumroad sales
• Etsy sales
• CoSchedule Campain Traffic to wundertastisch.com
• Instagram Traffic to wundertastisch.com

The last two are important to me right now since I’m trying to automate my social media and want to see what is working and what isn’t.

Stop Doing the Same Things and Expecting Different Results. Click To Tweet

FIND WHAT WORKS FOR YOU

While I document and review every week. I plan to analyze once a month. Because while you can see trends from week to week. I think it’s important to look at the big picture. And only so many changes can happen in a seven-day timeframe. Which is why I will have a 4-hour analyzing session on the first Friday each month.

Why not Monday you ask?

Because I want to make sure I get all my most important tasks out of the way first. So that, should my four hours on Friday end up being six or eight. I still have reached my main goals for the week already. And don’t have a rocky start.

Since I’m only in week three of my new #GYB adventure, I haven’t had an official monthly analyzing session yet. So I will give you more details as soon as that has happened.

For now, let’s talk about…

GOALS FOR NEXT WEEK

• Finish Sales Page
• Film + Edit + Upload Flip Through Video
• Create Sales Funnel for launch week
• Publish two blog posts
• Add to automated Weekly Etsy Products Sales Funnel
• Finalize Files for Launch
• Create Gumroad Listing
• Create Deadline Funnel Campaign
• Write Upsell e-mail for Bullettastisch customers
• Bullettastisch Launch on Friday, October 12th, 2018!!!

I would love to know what your goals for the new week are. And if you will give documenting, reviewing & analyzing a try. So make sure to comment below and share your story!