How to Focus on the Business Activities that Bring in Revenue (and ditch the stuff that wastes your time!)

Written by: Keleigh Lauermann

Income-producing activities (also known as an IPA, for short) are a cornerstone of any direct sales business. They are the things you do in your business that directly lead to making money (or income!)

For example, organizing your office is not an income-producing activity because it doesn’t lead directly to money. But calling customers for reorders IS an income-producing activity because it leads right to a sale!

It can be easy to get caught up though and find yourself focusing on non-IPA tasks. Sometimes it’s because we’re avoiding something that is new or feels scary, like making a phone call. Other times, it’s because we’re just not sure where to focus so we pick what feels most comfortable!

But if you want to make money in your business, you've got to get comfortable with thinking about your daily tasks as income-producing or not income-producing so that you can make sure the work you do is paying off (literally!)

Tracking your income-producing activities is also a great way to make progress toward a specific goal. My favorite way to break up IPA’s is by level of activity.

Level of activity is kind of like being employed full-time in a day job, part-time, or just on the weekends. Are you focusing on working your business as a full-time job and replace your full-time income? If that’s the case, you’ll need to make sure you do MORE income-producing activities than someone who just wants to work on the weekends.

One way that you can track your income producing activities is using a tracking pad, like this one that is included in our Holiday Bundle.

This tracking pad starts with an IPA idea bank – more than 10 direct-sales-specific activities that all lead directly to making money. Some examples of what you’ll find in this idea bank include:

  • Hold 1 party with at least 3 guests
  • Put out 3 lead boxes in your town
  • Text opportunity information to 5 people
  • Get 10 new leads

If you look at these examples, it’s easy to connect the dots between the activity itself and how it brings money into your business.

Click the image to get this weekly IPA tracking pad!

Next, you’ll find a tracking section for your weekly activity. It’s broken up by level of activity. A hobby level, which might be just two or three hours a week, like a weekend job. A side hustle level, which could be similar to a part-time job. And of course, a leadership level – most similar to a full-time job!

All you need to do is track which IPA’s you do during the week and fill in the bubbles, starting under “Hobby.” If your goal is to be in a leadership position, then you need to make sure you fill in enough bubbles to get to the leadership level, 11 to 15 bubbles. But if you want to work at a hobby level, you only need to fill in 1 to 5 bubbles.

Tracking your IPA’s on paper gives you a clear visual of how your business is performing without over complicating it. At the end of each week, you fill in your weekly results before tearing off that weeks sheet. You’ll track your total saisl, profit, new recruits, expenses, how many new parties are on the books, and even how much you pay yourself. At the end of the season, you’ll have a clear picture of your activity and the growth you’ve made because you’ll have written it down!

Click the image to get this weekly IPA tracking pad!

This tracking pad makes things easy:

There’s nothing worse than a planner that requires 30 minutes fo journaling every day. I don’t know about you, but I know I’ll give up on that pretty much immediately because it overcomplicates it. Instead of unnecessary tracking, this pad focuses on what’s most important: The activities that lead directly to YOU making MONEY.

Ready to start tracking your Income Producing Activities so that you can stay focused and reach your goals this year?

Ready to level-up your Business?

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