After spending a year in a network marketing business, I heard the word ‘hustle’ a fair bit – especially around the end of month when fellow consultants were trying to pull in as many orders (and recruits) as possible.

But I could never bring myself to actually use the word. (In fact, typing ‘hustle’ in this blog will be the first and only time I plan to type this sequence of letters on my keyboard!) The word has always given me an icky vibe. And no wonder – check out some of these definitions!

To me, ‘hustling’ is an act of desperation. It’s the result of not planning properly and suddenly jumping into action at the 11th hour. The term just oozes with stress and surely your customers are likely to sense that?

How do you avoid ‘hustling’ in your business?

With a good marketing plan, of course! Here are some key steps you can take:

1. Look at your goal date and work out how many weeks or days you have left.
2. Write down a list of actions that you can take in the lead up. Perhaps it’s writing a blog post or two (or three!), preparing and sending out an e-newsletter, scheduling in Facebook posts, allocating time for follow up calls and emails etc.
3. Aim to do at least one of those actions every day. (See my 100 Day Goal Challenge blog post for inspiration)
4. Action them early in the morning (or schedule in a time to complete them – no procrastination allowed!)

When you reach your goal date, reflect on what worked and didn’t work. Did you reach your goal? Hopefully, yes! And I bet your stress levels were fairly under control?

If you didn’t reach your goal, ask yourself why. Was it unachievable based on where you currently sit in your business? Or were you taking the wrong actions? If you really feel that you thrive on that leaving-it-to-the-last-minute adrenaline, then why not set yourself a power hour – and see how much you can smash through within that time limit?

‘Failing to plan is planning to fail’

We’re all busy, but if you allocate an hour or two at the beginning of every month to decide upon your next blog post topics and deadlines, your next newsletter deadline, when you’re going to make follow up calls etc, you’ll find yourself in a lot more control.

And ultimately, you should be able to avoid that last minute need to hustle! (There – that’s the last time I’m going to type it….)

Don’t agree? Feel free to comment below!

If you need any assistance with your content marketing planning, feel free to contact me.  

Keep on writing,

Leanne