Failing Your Way To Success

Well, I've screwed up big time this month.

I decided to increase my sponsoring efforts and as a result I'm not getting my retail bonus for the first time in 6 months.

I need to find a way to do both with the limited hours at my disposal. Looks like it's back to Review, Revise and Refocus.

Still, I've learnt that I can either put out catalogues (this time, with recruitment flyers in), or I can put out recruitment flyers. I don't have the time for both. I'm having problems finding the time to fit everything in as it is.

My typical week goes something like this (with the exception of trips to Heathrow; that only happens once every 3 months):

	Saturday	Sunday	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
05:00					Get up, breakfast	Get up, breakfast
06:00	Get up, wake son	Get up, wake son	Get up, wake son	Get up, wake son	Leave for Heathrow, wake son	Leave for Leicestershire, wake son by phone	Get up, wake son
07:00	Son's paperround, breakfast	Son's paperround, breakfast	Son's paperround, breakfast	Son's paperround, breakfast	Son's paperround, breakfast, Travel to Heathrow	Son's paperround, breakfast, travel to Leicestershire	Son's paperround, breakfast
08:00	Travel to Chichester	Rebag catalogues	Drop son at school, car share, travel to work	Drop son at school, car share, travel to work	Arrive at Heathrow	Car share, travel to work	Car share, travel to work
09:00	Travel to Chichester	Rebag catalogues	Arrive at day job	Arrive at day job	Collect fiance	Arrive at day job	Arrive at day job
10:00	Travel to Chichester	Gardening	Work	Work	Travel to Oxfordshire	Work	Work
11:00	Arrive at Chichester	Gardening	Work	Work	Arrive at Oxfordshire	Work	Work
12:00	Family day out	Lunch	Work	Work	Lunch with fiance	Work	Work
13:00	Family day out	Shopping	Lunchtime phone calls to prospects	Lunchtime phone calls to prospects	Rest of day with fiance (just back from overseas contract)	Lunchtime phone calls to prospects	Lunchtime phone calls to prospects
14:00	Family day out	Housework	Work	Work	With fiance	Work	Work
15:00	Family day out	Decorating	Work	Work	With fiance	Work	Work
16:00	Travel home	Weekly talk to fiance in Kazakhstan	Work	Work	With fiance	Work	Work
17:00	Travel home	Weekly talk to fiance in Kazakhstan	Work	Work	With fiance	Work	Work
18:00	Travel home	Evening meal	Arrive home, get changed, start Kleeneze recruitment	Arrive home, get changed, start Kleeneze retail	With fiance	Arrive home, get changed, start Kleeneze retail	Arrive home, get changed, start Kleeneze retail
19:00	Shopping	Housework	Blanket drop flyers	Blanket drop catalogues	With fiance	Collect catalogues	Blanket drop catalogues
20:00	Evening meal	Review weekly activity	Blanket drop flyers	Blanket drop catalogues	With fiance	Collect catalogues	Blanket drop catalogues
21:00	Housework	Plan weekly activity	Arrive home, evening meal	Arrive home, evening meal	With fiance	Arrive home,  rebag catalogues	Arrive home, evening meal
22:00	Decorating	Bed	Housework	Housework	Bed	Input customer orders, eat	Housework
23:00	Bed		Bed	Bed		Housework	Bed
00:00						Bed

I have virtually no social life and consequently a very small warm market. That's due to being a single mum, who works full time. All I've done is swap surfing and TV time for Kleeneze time. My fiance lives 55 miles away, so we only see each other at weekends when he's not working overseas.

I know I need to work smarter; I know I'm still a Kleeneze apprentice and I'm learning all I can. I just haven't worked out how to improve my organisation and time management skills.

But I will, and when I do, I'll be on my way to achieving my goals.

How to Track your 90 Day Plan

You cannot be successful in anything if you do not know how you are doing. If you were dieting and did not measure your inch and weight loss each week, how would you know if you were reaching your targets?

So why do so few track their own business performance?

Yes, it takes discipline and effort. It takes persistent action. It takes commitment. But the rewards are worth it.

Start simple.

In the case of a catalogue-based business, such as Kleeneze, or Avon, that would mean daily retail tracking of catalogues out, catalogues collected, number of orders received, value of orders.

For all network marketing businesses, daily recruitment/sponsoring tracking would include lead generation type (adverts, online adverts, flyers, personal contact, warm market, etc.), how many of each lead generation method out, number of response, first contact calls, follow-up calls, number signed up.

How you monitor this tracking is up to you. Some use spreadsheets, some buy CRM suites, some use a notebook/filofax. The method of recording your tracking is not important. What matters is that you track your effort every day and review it every week.

When you review it, be honest with yourself. Did you do enough retail? Did you do enough recruitment effort? What can you do to improve this week? Reflect, Revise, Refocus.

Tonight, I collected in 167 catalogues out of the 198 I put out on Sunday. Those 167 catalogues generated 6 orders to a total of £70. That's not enough to support a growing business and I will be revising my strategy and activity accordingly. This is the last time I spend hours placing catalogues in an area already saturated with Kleeneze distributors, just to see if I can generate additional customers. Time to concentrate my efforts on a new area. I won't neglect my existing customers; but I will be smart about how I distribute my catalogues here from now on.