Debbie Mayo-Smith: Become a MasterChef of income and time generation

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Are you running, managing a business or in charge of sales? Well then, you and I aren't so different.

We both have family. You're probably married with children like I am (hopefully you don't have six like we do which includes twin and triplets). We're both deeply involved with work. We have 1001 things to do, pulling our attention. And of course we have to do more with less resource.

If you come back with me to 2001, when the children were little, I decided to start working again (a misnomer all parents will agree since when does a parent not work)? Anyway, at that time I put together a recipe for success. Simple. Easy. Freasy (free and easy). Best of all - only three ingredients.

By faithfully following the recipe, It enabled this mom to grow a successful business, write 16 bestselling business books, travel the world, gain one of the top motivational speaking designations - CSP (certified speaking professional). There's only 6 CSP's in NZ, 700 in the world. All while keeping hubby and the kids happy, the beds made, cats feed and dogs walks.

By faithfully following this recipe - and as you'll hear over and over and over again on any MasterChef program - and only using quality ingredients - you can achieve freasy success. As yeast works it's magic on flour and sugar - doubling the volume you can generate greater income.

Like a bread machine does all the work - you can automate much of what you do, saving hours and hours.

Income comes from two sources. People who know you - customers and their referrals. The second source is people who don't know you - YET. They find you through your media advertising; website, social media, the internet, face to face networking.

Ingredient 1 Information

The first ingredient reflects all the hard work you put into great customer service and your marketing and business development work. You never let a client or viable prospect go. You've paid and worked hard to get them. So you put their details in a database. The data you store should also be relevant to them (not only you).

Ingredient 2 Communication

Your database is a goldmine - if you use it. It's worthless if you just let it sit there. To use it, you form a communication plan. Multifaceted in distribution - email, print, phone, SMS, social media, in person.... The content of the communication again is multifaceted. It's not just to sell. It's to build relationships and support tenacity. That's waiting until someone is ready to do business with you. So your communication is tips, hints, ideas, what's on sale, what's new, case studies.....

Ingredient 3 Automation

We normally only use one chip out of a 500 gram Cadburys dark chocolate package of features our everyday business tools have for us. By learning how to better use your software (especially email), your smartphones, your database you can make magic happen. You mix your yeast (database) with your communications (flour, water, salt) . Your result? A bread so tasty that people keep coming back for more, and more and more.

Clever you - you gathered the ingredients, stored them and used that bread machine to do all the work.

Written by international speaker and bestselling author Debbie Mayo-Smith. For more tips, over 500 how-to articles visit Debbie's article webpage.