Five Minute Commitments

A few years ago I found this article on an AOL message board. A Watkins rep(WatkinsOH) posted a message listing some 5-minute activities to increase business. I copied and used it in another forum with a few comments of my own. I’ve saved it and thought I would run it again here. I’m not sure where WatkinsOH is these days, or if they ever stuck with their MLM Business.

I modified the tips to make it more generic and to include some more relevant tips for community building and gaining permission to market, rather than mass recruiting and prospecting. You could further modify the ideas for use by any person in any business. I have included some further comments in the body of the entry as well.

In five minutes you can:

1. Strike up a conversation with someone around you. A person you are standing in line with in a store, a coworker over lunch, the UPS man, the mailman, someone in a group you belong to.

2. Really listen to a conversation: Find how you can help a person, to add value to your relationship with them. What do you have that could benefit them at a later date. Don’t take this opportunity to sell. As the relationship progresses, they may want to ask what you do, or they may want to set up a more convenient time to talk in greater detail.

20. Call a customer and let them know you are placing an order, if they would like to get something, you will add it. Return their calls promptly; let them know you are accessible.

Notice the key here is some type of contact with the outside world. Contacts are the key to business growth.

1. Look for organizations to join, relevant to your business.

2. Sample a product you haven’t used before and learn about it.

3. Get names of people (like neighbors) at the library for mailings.

4. I (WatkinsOH) count putting a business card in every one of my bills as an activity on bill paying day! Because, even though passive, it is reaching out!

5. Leave business Cards everywhere you go, stick them in every bill you send out, put them on the windshield of the cars immediately around you when you go shopping.

(These last two activites are usually frowned upon now, you may come up with a less obtrusive method)

Consistency is the key. If you spend at least 5 minutes a day doing something to promote your business, you will prosper better than working a full day once a month or one week every three months, or one month every 6 months, etc. Five minutes spent working the biz today, can very possibly mean 5 minutes spent enjoying an all expense paid vacation later.

If you are struggling to find more than 5 minutes in a day, here’s my best advice. Take a big picture of something that you want to have, be, or do and physically tape it to the front of your TV. Unplug the TV and cancel the cable or satellite. You can only focus on so much at a time, and you have to ask yourself, “what’s my focus on?” You won’t believe how much time you have now!

(This advice is a little archaic; Statements like that have been linked to cutting a rep off from the outside world, brainwashing, as it were. But the point of the author is to find some time-wasters in your life and re-direct your energy to your business. But if you a set schedule and work your business professionally, you should have time for family, TV, ballgames, and a little “vegetable” time.)

These are simple ideas that really don’t take any additional time. The key is to consistently do something every day. What will you do today?