How to create revenue…

Credit where credit is due!

Barbara Grassey

Barbara wrote a great article titled “Direct and Indirect Revenue Generating Activities” ~ the article is posted on her website (BarbaraGrassey.com).

Barbara starts the article with a quote that I've come to hold dear:

“Revenue generating activities (RGAs) should be the first thing on every entrepreneur’s to-do list—every day. 
"I know this. You know this. Articles shout this from the rooftops.”




Barbara proposed that 20% of your time should be devoted to “marketing your business” and quoted a different article that suggested that small businesses spend more like 20 hours a week. While Barbara protested that is 50% of a 40-hour workweek, I don’t know any entrepreneurs that limit their weeks to only 40 hours!

She adds another memorable line: “If you can’t put money into your marketing, you need to put in more time.”

Early in her article, Barbara points out that “indirect activities” includes deciding what you’re going to offer as a product or service.

That decision/definition (what I'm offering) is my “whoa” moment because my own business efforts lack focus!!

My business activities are inter-related, but have different markets. Here is a list that I have defined for myself, and at one time or another I do all of them:

• My Senior Computer Coach
• My WordPress Webpage
• My Internet Videos
• A Better Computer, Inc.
• Pick Rick @ Jaggers.net

My Senior Computer Coach

I am a “senior” myself; a digital immigrant. My peer group is people born before 1980, and we all need help with computers and on the Internet. My Senior Computer Coach allows me to do desk-side training, teaching, and mentoring without touching the keyboard myself. I really enjoy sharing my knowledge and experience, and this is a way to do that.

My WordPress Webpage

WordPress is used on over 30% of the Internet, and I have skills and experience that I can share with businesspeople to support their web page. I can teach WordPress, do it from scratch, or repair someone’s website because their Internet person has disappeared.

My Internet Videos

This is an entirely new area for me. I am acquiring skills to create and edit videos for commercial use on websites and YouTube. I don’t have a body of work to display – yet. This is a non-profit corner of my world for now.

A Better Computer, Inc.

This is my corporate entity, and a catch-all bucket for my business efforts. Under this umbrella I can do all the above plus social media marketing plus office computing and networks. I have no limits, but I have no focus.

Pro-Bono Work

I do far too much stuff for free: I volunteer with SCORE. I maintain a website for my community’s HOA. I serve on the board of the county genealogy society. I write reviews for products. [OK, that last is not for free; I get to keep the products!]

Branding

I have finally focused on branding myself, and it is still a work-in-progress. I need succinct key words/power phrases to summarize what I’m offering:
Pick Rick (@ Jaggers.net) for something-Internet.

Back to Barbara’s article…

She goes on to assign daily activities to one category of the other: Direct or Indirect.

“Direct” is basically asking for or completing a sale. Collect the money and deliver the product, with emphasis on the former.

“Indirect” can be anything that leads up to that point. She says a blog post (like this one you’re reading) could be a support activity if it doesn’t include a call-to-action.

I commented on her article that there is another category: “Nada.” I have large blocks of time that I consider well spent but, in reality, are NOT Revenue Generating Activities even though I try to convince myself otherwise.

Alas, I seem to have too many “Nada” moments.

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Links:

Barbara Grassey (BarbaraGrassey.com)
Barbara's article (BarbaraGrassey.com/Blog)
Rick's Branded site (Jaggers.net), and his other business sites:

• A Better Computer, Inc. (ABetterComputerInc.com)
• My WordPress Web Page (MyWP2.com)
• My Internet Videos (MyInternetVideos.com)
• My Senior Computer Coach (MySeniorComputerCoach.com)
• My Pick Rick brand (www.Jaggers.net/)