This is the super simple system you can use to figure out your three main streams of income for your business. It takes just 5 minutes to find focus and vision, save time and be happy!
The 3 Squares
The first thing you need to do is draw 3 squares sitting next to each other on any piece of paper (or use the free worksheet below)….
Now start thinking about the top three ways you make income (or want to make income)…. for me that is Blogging, Etsy and Clients.
Write them in your squares!
Here are some ideas to get your wheels turning…
- Speaking
- Direct Sales
- Writing Books
- Etsy, Ebay, Shopify Stores
- Clients/Customers
- Investing
- Rental Properties
- Job
- Courses
- Ads On Website/Blog
- Email List
Functionally it is the 3 MAIN ways you make money in your business or life.
Can you have more than 3 Squares? NO!
Okay, now comes the hard part for most of us Rebel Entrepreneurs! We look at those three little squares and think, there is NO WAY I can limit myself to just those three, I want to do a all the things.
And that is where most of us fall apart and make less money.
Seriously, having three main streams of income to focus on is way more than most people can handle. That zany book, The One Thing, suggests that we only have one thing going at a time, but I know you and that would be a deal breaker so you get three things!
But, But, But
Having taught this in person a bunch I know what you are probably thinking right about now… okay, I will put three things in there, but I have a plan to do courses later, or write a book or start selling essential oils too.
The problem with having more than three active streams of income is that you are giving so little time to any of them that moving forward and being successful is super hard to do!
There is only so much time in the day, week, month or year.
Staying On Track
I was meeting with an old business friend a little bit ago and she said when she gets stressed out she goes back to her 3 Squares worksheet and looks to see if she is over committing and has too many squares.
Most times she finds out that there has been scope creep and she is adding more and more squares which is totally stressing her out.
Picking just three things to focus on and splitting that time up evenly among the three would be business nirvana.
Being Practical About Your Time
But what about life?
So let's call a spade a spade, most of us don't have a super balanced life. Shit happens and we have to be realistic about what that does to our work time.
For example, my mastermind partner of 8+ years just had a baby so her three squares look like this now…
Baby Cora is getting the most, fitness and getting back into shape is second and that last one, way down at the end is getting very little time and attention.
We all have seasons in our lives when we can work more or less, focus on one thing or another and that is OKAY!
What would not be okay for Kirsten would be to have three work squares right now and then beat herself up over and over again about not getting everything done!
Next Steps
After you have picked your three squares it is important to think about the next steps you have to take to increase your income in each area.
This might be harder to do than you think! Most of us have LOTS of things we could think about doing next for our business but only some of them will be deal breakers when it comes to making more money.
For example, which of these things do you think will make more money in my blogging square…
- redesigning my website
- writing blog posts to get more traffic
- checking my stats
Only that middle one will actually increase the number of visitors I get so that I can make more money selling affiliate products, courses and ad views.
Checking my stats is a fun hobby and could down the road lead to some insights, but it is not a direct money maker. And rarely is doing something like changing your site's looks, redoing your business cards or updating your logo a money making opportunity.
Save For Later Ideas
Last but not least is keeping track of all the ideas that didn't fit in the squares. As entrepreneurs we can come up with a million ideas of things to do, but we really can't do them all at once effectively.
That said, unless we honor them and give them a place outside of our heads, they will just fester and keep bothering us while we are doing our “real”, productive work.
Writing them down on the worksheet gets them out of your head and gives them validity, just not right now validity.
The 3 Squares Wrapup
This worksheet is part of the Finally! Focus Course I am working on right now. The fun thing about being a blogger is that I can do my course content WHILE working on one of my squares, it just happens in public instead of behind the scenes.
If you use this sheet and religiously look at all the things you are doing in a day, you will start to see where you are veering off track and not focused.
If you have any questions please feel free to email me [email protected]
