When I first started Bestseller Publishing we focused primarily on ghostwriting and book launching. We only offered those two services for a while but at the time, I wanted to know how far I could grow this company.
Once I got really comfortable doing what we were doing, I was ready to move forward and expand the business.
Now I have a team of employees and we’ve had the opportunity to work with so many wonderful clients who we’ve helped publish a great number of books. We’ve also doubled our revenue.
I would say Bestseller Publishing is a more mature company now and I’ve recently found myself with more time on my hands because I’ve been eliminating things from my life and my business that doesn’t serve me.
I’m choosing to be more deliberate with how I spend my time.
The last big event I went to was my friend and former client, Shanda Sumpter’s event in Arizona. I brought all of my staff and I even spoke on stage a few times.
The event went really well but I haven’t wanted to do any other events in the past year. I don’t enjoy them as much as I used to.
I’ve always excelled at speaking opportunities and I made great money, but I’ve decided to do fewer because I’m not interested in doing them at this stage in my life.
So just as we had a few things to focus on at the beginning of Bestseller Publishing, I want to refocus what I’m doing now.
My favorite strategy for getting clear is called the Three E Method.
- Enjoy
Do I enjoy this thing? Will I enjoy it in the future?
- Excel
Do I excel at this thing? Is this something that I’m really excellent at?
- Earn
Is this something that will earn money for me and my company?
When I was trying to answer these questions about Bestseller Publishing, my biggest unanswered question is how much money could I make?
The first step is to make a list of all of the things that you could be doing right now to grow your company. Here are a few suggestions to get you started…
- Writing (it’s always a good idea to be writing content whether it’s a podcast episode, blog post, video script, email copy, etc.)
- Gary V style content: we currently have a multi-camera shoot set up and I’ve been creating a bunch of video and audio content that we’ll also use to repurpose. By “Gary V style,” I mean batching content. He’ll shoot 40, 50, or 60 pieces of content every day so his team can pull from that to create articles, videos, podcasts, etc.
- More staff training: We have regular meetings in my office but I think we could take it a step further and increase our staff training.
- Create new offers: This is something I really enjoy doing and no one else is going to want to be creating offers more than I do.
- New Ad Strategies: It’s always a good idea to be thinking of new ways to attract clients. It’s also a good idea to be constantly checking in on your ads. I look at mine every day to make changes and adjustments.
- Things that interest me: This can be anything from a new program I can do through Bestseller Publishing, to something totally different depending on what I’m interested in or feel passionate about at the moment.
Once I have this list, it’s time to put everything against each other.
It’s time for the Three E’s.
Ask yourself which of these do I enjoy most? Which of these do I enjoy the least? Can I outsource anything? Do I really excel at any one thing? Which of these things will help me earn more money?
I’m a visual person so I like to make a Venn diagram to weigh my options. Then I’ll choose a few things that I want to focus on.
Doing this gives me incredible clarity in my business.
When I don’t stay organized and focused, I’ll find myself at a bit of a low because I start things that I don’t fully enjoy or excel in.
For my work to matter, I feel like it needs to do one of those two things for me.
When I started Bestseller Publishing, the first month we had 80 strategy session applications. Who did all of those 80 calls? I did.
Why?
Because there was no one else to do it. I was the sales guy.
7 years ago I was the one doing every single call because I needed to be the one to decide if this business could grow.
There may be things in your business right now that you may not want to do, but right now you have to do them. Ideally, you won’t have to do those things together.
What you might want to start thinking about is how you can get the things yo don’t want to do off your plate and onto someone else’s as quickly as possible.
When you’re doing the things you enjoy and excel at, you’ll be earning your business the most amount of money possible.
