The income plan

One of the biggest mistakes I see newbies make is not focusing on "income producing activities".

They spend a lot of time on social media, watching videos, webinars, and more.

This time spent is VERY GOOD. In fact, I'm a huge fan of learning and I do it myself.

BUT...

These are not income producing activities.

And if you want to build a profitable business, you must learn how to focus on the primary tasks that will get you results.

The first step is identifying what an income producing activity is for you in your business.

Here is the method that I use.

It's called the 3C's.

1. CREATE
2. CAPTURE
3. CONVERT

When I'm doing a task for my business, I ask myself if it fits in one of the 3C's or not.

Let me clarify what I mean by these 3 C's.

Create Traffic.
Capture Leads.
Convert Sales.

In order to produce income for your business you need sales. In order to make sales you need leads. In order to get leads, you need traffic.

TRAFFIC > LEADS > SALES

So the first thing you want to do is identify what tasks you can do that fit in those 3 C's.

For example.

Let's say you are reading this email right now.

Are you creating traffic? NO.
Are you capturing leads? NO.
Are you converting sales? NO.

Is it still a good use of your time to read this email? YES.

Why?

Because without the right knowledge, you might go on for months, or even years without creating a successful business.

Here is the takeaway that you need to understand.

It's important to do non income producing activities in your business.

BUT.

It's MORE important to focus on activities that DO create income.

A good rule of thumb is the 80/20 rule.

80% of your time focused on Income Producing Activities.

20% of your time focused on everything else.

For example.

Reading a personal development book is a VERY important task we should be doing as entrepreneurs.

Which category does it fit into, the 80% or 20%?

20%.

It's not an income producing activity, but you should STILL be doing it.

Just make sure to GUARD your time well, and focus the majority of your efforts on tasks that lead to creating revenue for your business (assuming this is a significant goal of yours).

Here is another example.

Writing a blog post about your business.

Does that fit into the 80% or 20% category?

80%.

Because you are "Creating Traffic" with organic content that can rank in Google.

BUT, don't fall victim to this very common mistake.

Many newbies will spend time creating content, but NOT marketing it, which is more important.

Creating content that nobody sees is NOT an income producing activity.

So when you create content, whether it's a youtube video, a blog post, even a post on social media, your primary focus should be TRAFFIC from that content, not just creating to create.

Remember the first C is "Create Traffic" not create content.

So as long as traffic is the primary motive, then yes, writing a blog post is an income producing activity.

Let's dive into this concept a bit further.

If you have a new blog that is not ranked in google and gets no traffic, then your blog post might fall flat, and get you no leads or sales.

Why not instead write a blog post that could be featured on someone else's blog as a Guest Author?

Now you are getting the benefit of your content being published on a site with more traffic, as well as the potential for links to your own blog to make it more popular one day.

Ideas like this are at the heart of the 3C's.

When you create content, TRAFFIC should be the primary objective, especially when your business isn't successful yet.

After you start creating income, you can create content to RETAIN your following and your customers.

But in the beginning it's all about creating traffic, not just busy work.

The 2nd C stands for Capture Leads.

So all this traffic that you are creating from social media, or google, or even ads, are they subscribing to a list of some kind that you can continue to stay in touch with them?

The best method is to get them to subscribe to an email list, where you can continue to follow up with them every day, directly in their inbox.

Most of your traffic won't buy from you right away, so it may take several follow ups before they eventually buy from you.

Make sure that you are capturing leads as much as possible with the traffic you generate.

Think of Lead Capture as another form of Follow Up.

So it's not just an email list to make this possible.

You can use Facebook Pixels on your pages and build a "Retargeting List" with all that traffic and continue to re-market to them online with ads.

It will cost you money each time for them to see your content, but it's still a great way to be following up with your list.

Another form of follow up is converting traffic to become FOLLOWERS on your social media networks.

Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, you name it.

When you get REAL Followers from your traffic that subscribe to your channels, then your future content will reach more people organically.

So, in a nutshell, when someone follows you on social media, or gets added to your retargeting list, or opts-in to your email marketing list, then you are Capturing Leads.

Those are all income producing activities.

Now for the final C, Convert Sales.

This is the most important of the 3 C's and is the direct way to create income.

Creating Traffic and Capturing Leads are still indirect, since they haven't purchased yet.

Now it's time to convert sales.

The key here is to have a sales page and a buy button.

If you currently don't have a buy button online where someone can purchase from you, then no matter what you do it's not an income producing activity.

Start with that very simple concept.

A page with a buy button.

Either a buy button that pays you directly, like a paypal button or stripe button.

Or a buy button for a company you are promoting, where they pay you a percentage of the sale.

Once there is a buy button in place, all your efforts should go to drive traffic and leads to that button.

Next you want to increase your conversion rate, which simply means to get MORE of those visitors to actually purchase your product.

For instance, instead of just a buy button, create a nice Order Page that is presented well so that the customer knows exactly what they are purchasing.

Then you can add some urgency and scarcity so that they are more likely to make a quick decision to purchase with you.

You can increase the value of how your offer is presented so that the customer quickly sees how amazing this deal is.

And you can presell them well by following up with leads over and over using different angles until they finally realize how beneficial your product is for them.

This is the Art of Converting Sales.

THE 3 C'S OF INCOME PRODUCING ACTIVITIES.

Now that you have a better understanding of the 3 C's, let's put it into action.

Write a LIST of all the activities that you do (and should do) for your business every single day.

Then, make 2 lists out of that one list.

LIST #1 - Activities that are in the 3C's
LIST #2 - Activities that are NOT in the 3C's

Start with List #2 and put a STAR next to items that are GOOD for your business.

For example, studying and gaining knowledge is a GOOD use of time for your business.

The right knowledge from the right mentors can shorten your learning curve significantly.

But those activities still belong on List #2 even though they are important.

Then put an X next to any activities on List #2 that are not a great use of time.

For example, scrolling your Facebook Newsfeed.

It's okay, don't beat yourself up, but put an X next to it because it's not that effective.

You don't have to avoid scrolling through newsfeeds, but you should anchor that as an activity that is not very effective for your business, and do this with an X.

Now you have the first version of List #2.

This is your 20% list.

You don't want to spend more than 20% of your available business hours on activities in this list.

Now let's move to your 80% List.

List #1 - Your 3C Activities.

I like to organize this list in 3 segments.

#1 - Creating Traffic
#2 - Capturing Leads
#3 - Converting Sales

I'll take each of the activities that I am currently doing and put them into the 3C sub-category they fit in the best.

Then I'll go even further and write a bunch of activities that I SHOULD BE DOING and put them in each of the proper 3C sub-categories.

When I'm done I should have plenty of activities in EACH of the 3C categories to start with.

Now, I'm going to PRIORITIZE my activities so I'm using my time the best way possible.

#3 - Converting Sales - TOP PRIORITY

There is no better way to invest your time than creating sales for your business.

So, if you have fresh leads that need to be contacted and pitched, you must train yourself to START with that activity.

If you have a hot new salesperson that can potentially create a lot of revenue for your business, you need to lead them the right direction by helping them create sales that can benefit you.

It all comes down to this 3rd C.

The other C's are just there to create traffic and leads that you can potentially turn into sales.

Now, what if you aren't making your sales directly?

What can you do to create sales?

One example would be to Email Your List!

Write an email to your list and give them a link to the page that has your buy button.

That's a direct income producing activity.

If you don't have a big enough list to make sales, then you step back down into the 2nd C.

And you Capture Leads.

And if you don't have enough traffic to capture leads, then you do the 1st C.

Create Traffic.

Is this making more sense now?

CREATE TRAFFIC > CAPTURE LEADS > CONVERT SALES

Placing Ads is a great example of a 3C activity.

For example let's say that you run a Facebook Ad.

You are "creating traffic" which is the first C.

And let's say that traffic is being directed to a lead capture page.

Then you are "capturing leads" which is the second C.

And let's say that after they opt-in, they are forwarded to your sales page and order page.

Then you are "creating sales" which is the third C.

So when your activities are done right, you can do all 3 C's at the same time!

The way to do this is with a sales funnel.

You create content for traffic, then encourage them to opt-in and become a lead, and then you follow up with those leads consistently to create sales.

This whole entire process can be automated.

For example, you can use an email autoresponder that goes out automatically.

Or you can use Facebook Messenger auto-replies which are easy to set up.

Once you set up a system like this, it can generate your sales on auto-pilot.

And all you need to do is create traffic.

Written by the only and one Chris Record