EPISODE 124 OF THE MARKETING SOLUTIONS PODCAST: 75 HARD FOR BUSINESS OWNERS
It seems like everyone on my TikTok is doing 75 Hard in the new year. And I get it, the whole “New Year, New Me” thing sucks us all in, but here’s an idea:
What if we took the STRUCTURE of 75 Hard, and directed that energy into making your BUSINESS stronger, leaner, more agile, and more successful?
Because if 75 days of consistently taking action can totally transform your body, imagine what it could do for your business.
(INTRO)
For those of you who haven’t heard of 75 Hard, it’s basically a program that LOOKS like a health and fitness challenge, but it’s REALLY designed to help you develop grit and strengthen your willpower and resilience.
There are six rules to 75 Hard:
You must do TWO workouts a day - one of which MUST be outside.
And if you live in a dry, hot regional town like I do, this first step is challenging enough, but there are still five more!You must follow a diet, with no cheat meals, for 75 days. You get to choose the diet, but whatever it is, you MUST stick with it.
You must take a progress picture every day.
You must drink one GALLON, or about 3.8 litres of water, every day.
You must read 10 pages of a non-fiction book every day, and
You must abstain from alcohol for 75 days.
After hearing those rules, you’re probably either thinking, “No thank you, not for me”, or “Meh, that doesn’t seem so hard”.
Let me tell you, if you fall into the second camp, unless you already do all those things daily, this program is a CHALLENGE. Which is kind of the point.
The thing that tripped me up the most when I did 75 Hard?
The PROGRESS PICTURE. Seriously. The thing that took the least amount of time each day was the biggest struggle for me.
Which is interesting, because one thing I’ve noticed recently is that it’s the little things in business that end up snowballing and becoming big things.
And that’s exactly why I’ve created a 75 Hard Business Edition - and why I want you to do it with me.
Here are the rules.
Each day you must:
Read ten pages of a business book
Track your business finances
Complete 1 x marketing activity
Do one activity to work on your business operations
Complete one client retention activity
Complete one sales activity
And the most important rule of all: you’re going to take weekends off!
I’ve developed a Google sheet where you can tick each task off as you go, and keep a record of all your tasks. Trust me, you’re going to want to look back and see everything you’ve achieved in 75 days when you’re done.
Plus, if you’re a spreadsheet nerd like me, it’s good for that dopamine hit and keeps you accountable.
Let’s look at each rule in a little more detail:
RULE ONE: Read 10 pages of a business book.
I’m a firm believer that if you get ONE idea you implement from each book you read, you’ve spent your time well, which is why I’ve made this Rule #1. Pretty much every very successful business owner is known to be a voracious reader, so we’re going to walk that same path for 75 days.
These are some of the books I’ve read, that have changed the way I run my business:
The e-myth revisited
A MUST read, particularly if you’ve worked your way up through the ranks and find yourself ‘dipping down’ to work below your level. I re-read this book every few years, and it’s a firm favourite within my network of business owner friends.
Getting things done
Reading this book was part of my induction at my first office-based job during Uni. The concept of having to read a book as part of my induction threw me a bit, but the concepts discussed in this one are fantastic, and really helped me with my productivity.
Deep Work
One of the books that has changed my business operations the most, this book inspired me to implement Deep Work Wednesdays in my agency. Deep Work Wednesdays give my team the opportunity to have a day to focus, uninterrupted by clients or internal meetings. Total game changer.
Shoe dog
A fantastic story about the power of perseverance, and also a masterclass in storytelling. Just do it.
The 12 week year
This is a concept I use in my entire life, not just business, and it doesn’t just hold me accountable to my goals, it helps me achieve so much more in one quarter than I would if I set annual goals and gave myself a whole year to achieve them.
Turning Pro
This book by Steven Pressfield is an absolute gem. The chapters are short - some of them literally just one page - and the lessons are clear and concise. No fluff. For someone like me, who kind of cobbled their business together in the beginning, shifting my mindset played a huge part in my growth as a business owner. Highly recommend this one.
The Magic of Thinking Big
We all KNOW we’re supposed to ‘think big’, but what does that actually look like? This book helps you think big… and then even bigger.
And our current agency read: The Client Retention Handbook
I’ve given a copy to everyone on my team, and we’re working our way through it as we speak. We might even cover the relevant lessons in a future podcast.
Another book to mention is The gap and the gain
It’s on my list, but I haven’t read it yet. Quite a few people have recommended it to me in the past few months. If you’ve read it, and you love it, let me know.
Alright, onto RULE #2: Track your business finances
Every day, you’re going to check your business account: your incomings and outgoings… ESPECIALLY your outgoings. I’m not going to tell you to make any big moves here, you’re simply going to track and plan for the next 75 days.
What this looks like:
Review your monthly invoices and follow up any outstanding payments owed to you
Create a budget
Track your margins and profitability on each job or product line
Reconcile your accounts
Cash-flow forecasting
Book an appointment with your accountant for a check in
Finances are only scary if you ignore them. Getting intimately familiar with what’s coming in, what’s going out and your profit margins is one of the most important things you can do to be successful in business, closely followed by setting ambitious goals.
RULE #3: complete one marketing activity a day
This one’s pretty straightforward, but remember: the simple things can be the ones that trip you up! Jim Rohn used to say, “the things that are easy to do are easy NOT to do”, and I couldn’t agree more. This is why we see so many businesses not posting consistently on social media, or struggling with their ads after they’ve let their audiences go cold.
Your daily marketing activity could look like:
Creating a reel
Updating your Instagram bio
Writing and publishing a case study
Updating your website
Asking a client for a testimonial or google review
Updating your Google Business Listing
Reviewing your Facebook ads and switching off any that aren’t performing well
It doesn’t have to be a big task, but you do need to do SOMETHING towards your marketing every day.
RULE #4: Do one activity to work on your business operations
Businesses ebb and flow. We have slow seasons and peak seasons, and as much as we love our teams, people move on for a multitude of reasons. One thing I learned last year was the importance of having clearly set out SOPs, or standard operating procedures.
I’ll be working on creating SOPs for my business throughout this challenge, but if yours are already rock solid, you could:
Identify - and implement - things to improve your client onboarding process
Create templates for emails you send regularly
Create checklists for activities that need to be completed daily, weekly or monthly
…and if you’ve never heard of an SOP, or don’t have them created for your business, I STRONGLY recommend you create one each day for the next 75 days. They can be as small as “here’s how to share a folder with a client in Canva”.
This rule is the one I think I’m going to have the most trouble keeping up with, but I’m determined to have 75 new SOPs by the end of the challenge!
Moving on to RULE #5: Complete one Client retention activity each day
It can cost five times more to attract a new customer, than it does to retain an existing one, so we’re going to turn client retention into an art form in the next few months.
Some simple ideas to try:
- Send your favourite client a gift, just to let them know you appreciate their business
- Send an email, asking your clients to answer this simple question: “What’s one service or product we DON’T currently offer, that you wish we did?”
- Shoot your VIPs a cheeky discount code, just because you can
- Shout out a client who’s achieved something really great on your social media
- Book an in-person coffee catch up with a client you usually only speak to on the phone or via email.
That last one has made a HUGE difference to my business in the last few months, not just in strengthening client relationships, but in getting my team to ‘buy in’ more to those accounts. Emails can be misinterpreted, and phone calls can come at inconvenient times, but when you sit with a client, have a chat about things other than work, and spend TIME with them, human to human, it’s just NICE. I think we’ve forgotten the art of the in-person meeting, and I think we should bring it back, just quietly.
Alright, onto RULE #6: complete one sales activity every day
No sales = no business. It’s as simple as that.
When you’ve got a full roster of clients, it’s easy to rest on your laurels and not put that effort into scouting new prospects, or upselling the ones you already have.
We’re stomping that complacency out right now, and we’re doing one thing every day for 75 business days to make sales activities a habit ALL year round - not just when things are slow.
Here are a few ideas:
Update your proposals or packages, especially if you haven’t raised your prices in a while!
Follow up with last year’s enquiries
Reach out to past clients
Put together a limited-time-only upsell offer
Take that information you got from surveying your current clients, and create a bespoke package, tailored to their response.
Try something new! If you always run newspaper ads, give Facebook ads a go. If you’re overstocked on one particular product, jump on your Facebook stories and offer the first ten people who buy that product a bonus free product. Preferably one that’s no or low cost to you.
And that’s it! Six rules to follow, for 75 business days.
Remember: No weekends! You’re not a robot.
And I just want to point out that some of the tasks you complete could tick two boxes, for example a sales activity might also be able to be considered a marketing activity. In the spirit of 75 Hard, I SHOULD be telling you that one activity applies to one rule set, but if it’s the difference between you continuing the challenge, or you getting discouraged and giving up? I’ll allow it.
Just PROMISE me the next time you do a 75 day sprint you do one activity from each section, ok?
Now, I’m not going to leave you high and dry, trying to figure out how to track your progress. I’m a Virgo, I love a good resource or two!
We’ve created a PDF with the rules that you can print out and have on your desk throughout the challenge, there’s a category ideas page in there for you, and I’ve also created a tracking spreadsheet that you can access at bit.ly/75hardbusiness
We’ve also created an Instagram story template so you can flex your progress over on social media - that doesn’t count as one of your marketing activities though, you need to challenge yourself!
Follow my progress over on TikTok, you’ll find me at sonya_mcreid , and I’d love it if you’ll join me for this challenge!
I’ll link all the resources and my tiktok in the show notes for you, or shoot us a DM and we’ll send you the links you’re after.
While I’m not going to jinx us and declare that 2024 is going to be the best year EVER, I WILL say that 2023 was pretty challenging, and we’re all a lot more resilient because of it. Let’s take 75 business days to prove it to ourselves.