Around a year and a half ago I started to do online affiliate marketing. I worked hard at it but didn't see the results I was looking for with it. However, I copied some of the strategies of the people who were successful in this arena that I still use to this day. One of the strategies is to track daily progress with Excel spreadsheets. The people who made money in affiliate marketing would track everything every day to try to increase their performance by even a fraction of a percentage. If they can accumulate a fraction of a percentage this week and a fraction next week and so on, it can really add up. If I am not tracking my results closely I may not know whether my actions are producing slightly better or slightly worse results. The power of cumulative incremental profit can be enormous.
Today, I use spreadsheets in business to track my performance and hold myself accountable to certain results. If I track my data I can fish out patterns from the data which allows me to understand and run my business better. It gives me information that I can use to set attainable goals with. A side benefit of tracking information is to keep me motivated even if I am having a slow week. I can look at my points of success over the past six months and believe that I am capable of succeeding.
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I really like this concept, this could be used for anything (especially those type of people that are focussed on the end result.) I could even see this being a motivator for kids doing homework, or working on a huge assignment. Just try to make the graphs go up. Jordon, what does the Excel SS look like? How have you set it up?
ReplyDeleteHave you read the book from Good to Great or The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People?
I agree with you Christopher. Visual understanding of progress seems to be different than just logical understanding of the progress. It is like your mind processes it differently.
ReplyDeleteMy Excel sheet is used to track financial progress and has 3 main areas.
The first sheet is a broad overview of the current level as well as the start and finish dollar amounts of previous months. It also compares the monthly performance to previous months. It is basically a totals page.
The second sheet is the visual representation with a graph.
The third and fourth sheets are both tracking daily transactions and details on those transactions.
Those are are the ones I use for business. I have different spreadsheets which Sara and I use for budgeting, debt repayment and net worth. Do you use spreadsheets? Have a certain way you have found helpful to set them up?
I don't think I have read The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. I guess I should read it if I can't remember it! I know I haven't read Good to Great though. Do you recommend them?
Yes, I use spreadsheets a lot in my daily life. I find them to be really helpful. You can ask Sara actually, I showed her mine at one point! They've expanded a bit since I showed them to her. I love watching the numbers change on them.
ReplyDeleteYes, I reccomend both of those books. Truthfully i'm not fully through either one of them but I've enjoyed what I've been exposed to. They are great for entreprenuers (sp?)