What do World of Warcraft, Sex and Small Business have in common?

What do World of Warcraft, Sex and Small Business have in common?

Grinding!

HA….I laughed out loud at that one.  (For all you non-gaming nerds out there, “grinding” is the act of doing INCREDIBLY  boring “gathering and creation” quests.  It’s what you do to kill time, level up your character, and build mediocre gear.  It serves a purpose, though!!)

Ahem…anyhoo.  Today, I’m going to leave off the other two and just talk about the sex part.

….I kid!

Being a small business, especially when you are just starting out, means doing a TON of grinding.  We are talking posting in Facebook groups, creating downloads that don’t do much, reading blog posts on topics you’ve read a hundred times before, and yes…checking your analytics every ten minutes and screaming on the inside because your numbers are NOT changing!!!!!!!!

AAAAAHHHHHHHHHHRRRRRGGGGGGG!!!!!!!!

*Ahem* Kinda like leveling up your character, you have to work hard to level up your business.  MOST of it is going to be mundane tasks that you will need to do over and over and over again until you start to see a permanent change…but sometimes, you get to a BOSS fight!

I consider boss fights to be turning points in your business.  For example, my current boss fight is my damned Sales Funnel.  I SUCK AT THOSE!!!!  Ugh…

My last boss fight was building traffic…(the magic key turned out to be the 30 Day Challenges I starting launching last month!).

Boss Fights are the tricky, speed bumps of your business.  BUT, they are there…and you have to get over them. You can’t do that one tire off, one tire on move.  You need to tackle the sons of bitches…roll backwards on occasion because they are too steep…then pick up speed and tackle them again.

The great thing about Boss Fights, though…is that you will do some SERIOUS fist pumping after you win!!

Alright…so how do you know what your boss fights are?

First, you need to set your business goals. Set goals for this week, this month, this quarter and this year.  I’ve included a kick ass download to help you do this!!

Second, you’ll need to create steps to get there.  These don’t have to be incredibly detailed…yet.  Just the steps you KNOW you’ll need to take to get to the boss.  For example, my sales funnel boss looks like this:

Goal: Make $3,000 in one month with my sales funnel.

• Step 1: Finish challenge and course creation.
• Step 2: Research sales funnels.
• Step 3: Write Sales Funnels
• Step 4: Include opt-ins to sales funnels in each blog post.
• Step 5: Create a promotion calendar for the posts and downloads.
• Step 6: Analyze success of funnels and tweak after 3 weeks if need be.

JUST write the steps you know. All of the research will come in later! So, according to this chart, my first boss is going to be to finish all four of my 30 Day Challenges and the final course that is launching in January.  BIIIIIIIIIG BOSS, if you ask me.  I can do it, though!!

The second boss is going to be to spend some major time really dedicated to figuring out sales funnels. I get the jist…I just haven’t mastered them yet. So this boss may involve finding a course from another, more experienced blogger in this arena.

One thing to remember, bosses should ALWAYS be done to the best of your ability!!  No half assing.  No “well…I’ll figure this one out later.” JUST, NO!!  You fight that boss until it’s dead!!  If you need to do major research, if you need to attend a conference, if you need to read blog post after blog post, if you need to sit down one on one with another blogger…you do it. Don’t ignore the challenge.

If it’s a boss, it’s important. Think about it…in a video game, if you don’t beat a boss, you don’t move on.  And NOOOO…there’s no Game Genie in small business!

OK…so how do you keep yourself motivated when a boss is just unbeatable? 

You grind, baby. Damn right, we are back to that!  I’ve already told you, a HUGE percent (we’ll make up a statistic like 87%) of running a business is picking away at small tasks until they take hold and you can move up to the larger tasks.  Just like in gaming, grinding in small business will help you level up your business and create mediocre gear.  (Don’t worry…you can turn in your mediocre gear for better gear later on in business.)

As a beginning business, you’ll want to focus on increasing your traffic, setting attainable goals, getting noticed by fellow bloggers in your bracket, starting production on downloads, and maybe even starting to produce your first products! You’ll grind by posting in Facebook groups, commenting on other blogs, listening to countless hours of webinars (not gonna lie…I love that part), and doing a crap ton of writing.

As you move up with your blog, you’ll start fighting bosses like income goals and budgets, tax bosses (god I hate those), building traffic (always), figuring out which product will sell better than the last.  You’ll grind by scheduling a ton of interviews and guest posts, polishing your brand, polishing your products, doing a crap ton of writing, and more.

Look, I’d be lying if I told you you’d get to the uber boss.  There IS no uber boss. Not even when you are making $40,000 a launch.  You’ll still have boss fights (they’ll just be dressed in Givenchy) and you’ll still be grinding.

But hey…that’s KINDA the point of the game, isn’t it?

I’d love to hear what boss fights you’ve recently won or have coming up!! Post in the comments below, or better yet…tell us all in the Facebook Group!

Don’t forget to grab your free download, and I’ll see you guys on the interwebs (or in a WoW server…  0_0  …FOR THE ALLIANCE!!!).