I love the beginning of the New Year.
The possibilities seem endless. It is a blank slate and yours for the taking.
Frankly, we don’t really need a new “year” to be the catalyst for making a change… but it sure helps and it’s as good of a time as any.
If you are like me, I start the year with lots of good intentions. I am going to lose weight, cut back on diet sodas, join a gym, finally remodel my kitchen, make more money, and spend more time with family.
The fact of the matter is that every year starts strong. Then somewhere along the way life’s inertia pulls you back to center and you slowly (just a little each day) get further and further away from your goals for the year.
So, how can you make sure that 2018 is different…your best year ever? Follow these three tips.
Tip 1: Carve Out DEDICATED Time For Note Buying
You know “time” is the one thing we all have in equal quantities. There are just 24 hours a day (and some of those require sleep).
Day-to-day life often sucks us into losing time.
Find a couple hours EVERY day to do something to help your note business. Morning, afternoon, or evening; before the kids get up or after they go to bed…it doesn’t matter when.
There are usually not enough hours in the day to get everything done so efficiency is key.
What you choose to work on can be divided into two things…
- Productive – moving you or your business forward.
- Busy Work – Stuff that needs to be done but doesn’t ‘really’ contribute to the bottom line.
When I am most productive is when I have three sheets of oversized paper on a wall in my office (giant post-it notes or whiteboards work great)…and they are updated monthly.
Sheet one contains the highest priority items.
These are things that directly impact revenue. Marketing for notes for example. I must make XX contacts every month to drive business. I must mail XX postcards – If I don’t do that, the phone never rings and everything else is pointless.
These are actions that directly affect making money.
Sheet two is for things that keep me moving forward.
In this sheet are tasks that will, at some point, help the bottom line. Items like educating myself on something new. For you it might be watching a Finding Cash Flow Notes Video for example. For me, it is learning a new marketing technique, making some tweaks on my website, finding a way to streamline something in my business.
I often use ‘Sheet two’ for important stuff, just not the highest priority of Sheet 1.
Sheet three is busy work.
These are things that I want to do, but know, in my heart of hearts, they probably won’t make a difference in the bottom line cash flow of my business.
Because these things are usually small they often are the quickest to complete so we have a tendency to work on them first. However that is not always the best use of time.
Is re-doing my business card really going to make a difference in my business? Probably not.
Every day I look at all three boards.
75% of my allotted time needs to be focused on sheet one. The remainder is divided between sheets two and three.
You would be surprised how much this keeps you focused.
Tip 2: Try Something NEW In Your Note Business
Testing is a key part of any business. You have to be constantly learning and evolving.
Never tried direct mail? Give it a test.
Don’t have a note website working for your business 24/7? Now is the time.
Been meaning to hit that local Real Estate Investor Club meeting and meet a few people? Get in the car and go.
Some ideas will work better than others. Some are proven methods to increase your business and some…well…they just won’t pan out. But you don’t know until you try.
Years ago I never thought people would buy and sell notes through the Internet. It was a people business. Not necessarily face-to-face…but certainly over the phone.
Our venture into the Internet for note buying was simply a ‘test.’ To this day I can’t imagine what would have happened had we not tried it.
Tip 3: Stop Trying to Reinvent the Wheel
Here is what not too many people will tell you…
…The Note Industry is NOT THAT HARD.
Sure, it is work…but the strategies and techniques used today were used decades ago.
Sometimes one marketing method is better than another. Internet vs. Direct Mail. Warm Leads vs Cold calling, Referrals vs. Ads.
But in the end…all the necessary info for you to succeed is on the table.
For example, in the Finding Cash Flow Notes Training we GIVE our hottest direct mail letter for people to use. Our highest performer.
Could you write your own? Sure. Should you? You bet…but not until you have a starting place.
Why start with an unproven marketing piece when you can start with and then tweak a letter you already know works?
The same is true of our winning postcard campaigns, how to buy a list of note holders, and negotiation techniques.
I want to forge new ground as much as the next person…but if someone paved an easy road for me to follow…heck, I am going to stick to that path for a while.
So what is the MOST important thing to keep 2018 on track?
Sure everything we spoke about in this article is important but if I had to boil it down to one thing, it would be this…
Do something every day.
That’s it.
I guarantee if you do something every day…no matter how small…you will be moving forward to making 2018 your best year ever!
