The Business Of Blogging – Schedule For Best Results

Every Thursday morning I attend a networking event. I’ve been a part of the group for almost two years, so I have a vested interested in its success.

Today we had an interesting speaker who presented on growing as a business. In order to grow as a business, you have to take charge of what you do for your business. iStock_000005893466XSmall Who do you want to help grow it? By joining a group, you are relying on them to become your sales team as much as anyone on the inside of your company. As you build relationships, those people should remember and refer you when the need arises.

But one of the things she said really stuck with me. It benefits you to grow the group, and to schedule time to grow the group. After all, that’s where your relationships come from that will ultimately turn into referrals. She suggested scheduling one hour per week to invite guests and network exclusively for the group itself.

Great idea.

Now let’s also take that to individual parts of your business.

We all mean to work at different parts of our business. But things tend to come up, and certain items get pushed aside. Why write an article and post it to your blog if a friend calls and invites you to a luncheon? The luncheon is more fun, and you never know who you’ll run into, right?

While it is important to stay active in your community, and build relationships with friends and acquaintances, you also need to look at your overall time and what gives you the greatest potential.

Running to several new groups per week where you have little potential of growing your business may be fun, but what is the actual return?

While writing an article for your blog may seem mundane, with little chance of results, lets look at the bigger picture.

Networking is only cumulative if you network with the same people again and again. They have to really know you to do business and refer you.

But adding something online will impact you from this day forward. Articles I wrote three years ago still pull traffic for me regularly. And each month I see more traffic, more results from the work I do. The results are cumulative – because I do a little all them time, I’m seeing a huge expansion of my business.

Spend some time really looking at your business and deciding where you want to invest your time. If you attend a weekly meeting like I do, your invested. Make sure you help keep it growing. And if you expect results from your web presence and from you blog, schedule time to make it work.

You’ll be surprised at the results.