I am actually at work right now (Saturday morning) and I have always enjoyed working a few hours on Saturday morning but, I don’t sell on Saturday morning because business owners are usually not in and if they are, they wish they weren’t and they are in a hurry to get their stuff done and get home. When I was selling full time, I always used Saturday and Sunday to do a few very important things.
1. First of all, I never work more than 4 hours on Saturday and 2 hours on Sunday because these are the days I spend on my other interests and with my family. I believe that no matter what kind of financial situation you are in, working more is not always the best plan.
If you start to despise your work and you feel like it is keeping you from do what you really want to do, you will not be productive when you are working. A focused worker that loves his work will get more done in 8 hours than a regretful worker who hates his work can accomplish in 20 hours.
2. I complete paperwork for clients that needed something done and submit it. This might include a free terminal order or some new gift cards. Also, any sales I made on Thursday and Friday, I usually key those in on Saturday Morning because I like to focus on closing deals Thursday and Friday and not administrative work.
3. I always take at least a half an hour and think about the previous week. I ask myself what went right, what went wrong and what I could improve the next week, especially in the area of time usage. In other words, did I do the right things and did I do them at the best times. Most people read this and think, “What a great idea!” but… very few people actually do this in a serious way. Do you sit down for half an hour each week with a pen and piece of paper and think about your week?
4. I plan out my next week. I go through all my prospects that I am working on and think about what I need to do in order to get that sale. This is my creative time when I don’t usually have to worry about clients calling me and I can really sit and think. Going through each prospective client, call back and new account in your files will take you a half an hour starting out and eventually about two hours but, this is the best time you will spend all week if you make sure to write down the next action that you can take to further these relationships and when you plan to take that action. Make a schedule for the next week, talk to your significant other and friends and plan your non-work time first so you don’t feel trapped by your work and then take your remaining work time and think through how the week should go. In this business you don’t need a minute by minute schedule, just look at the time you have available each day and place the number of tasks you believe you can complete in that amount of time.
Hope that helps, have a great weekend!
James Shepherd