Ecommerce Coffee Break: Growth Tips for Shopify Stores and DTC Brands

Watch This To Boost Your Business! 5 Things You Need To Do...

November 10, 2022 Claus Lauter: Ecommerce Podcast Host | Shopify Partner | Marketing Optimizer Season 3
Ecommerce Coffee Break: Growth Tips for Shopify Stores and DTC Brands
Watch This To Boost Your Business! 5 Things You Need To Do...
Show Notes Transcript

Here are some tips and strategies on how you can increase your productivity and work less to achieve better results in your business.

Want to get in front of 1000's of Shopify merchants and business owners?
Become a featured interview guest on the show.

More info: https://www.clauslauter.com/podcast-guest-application/


Continue the Conversation

In our ECOM MERCHANT PRO community, you can connect with our podcast guests and continue the conversation.

Our community is also a great place to get advice from other Shopify merchants who have achieved what you are aiming for.

This is your safe place to actively grow your online retail business with the support of the most amazing and helpful group of ecommerce entrepreneurs behind you.

Join the Ecom Merchant Pro Community! Podcast listeners get 50% off for life with the coupon: EMPC

Join here: https://www.clauslauter.com/ecom-merchant-pro/

Subscribe & Listen Everywhere:

Listen On: ​clauslauter.com | Apple Podcasts/iTunes | Spotify | Amazon Music/Audible | Stitcher | Deezer | Google Podcast

  • By rating and reviewing the show in the app that you are listening to, you will enable us to invite bigger and more impactful guests.
  • Please also remember to subscribe to our podcast and switch on the notifications to never miss an episode.
  • Tag the podcast on Instagram @clauslauter and let me know what you like about it.
  • If you like the content and would like to support the podcast, you can buy me a coffee here.


Custom Shopify Store Audit
Discover valuable insights to boost conversions and optimize your store for maximum impact. Learn more: https://www.clauslauter.com/audit/


Our Newsletter

Join over 6,000 other merchants & marketers to stay updated on eCommerce news, marketing strategies, tools & resources, and podcast interviews, all designed to help you grow your revenue.

Every Thursday in your inbox. Consumed in 3 minutes. 100% free. Sign up at https://newsletter.ecommercecoffeebreak.com

Claus Lauter: Hello, and welcome to another quick tip episode of the eCommerce Coffee Break. Today I wanna share some tips that I'm using in my own business for the last 20 years to create more clarity for what I do and prioritize things that I do on a daily basis. So where's the problem? I see with a lot of coaching clients that I have, that they're all over the place.

And as a solopreneur, as an entrepreneur, as a manager of a small business, it's very easy to get lost in the daily tasks. A lot of these people focusing on busy work, so they're working. 10, 12 hours or more a day and a busy all the time. And at the end of the day, they're just looking back and wondering what they actually have achieved during all this work.

So that's where busy work comes in to really become successful. To really get the most out of your time, you need to prioritize, and with that, you need to first create clarity on what you need to focus on, what you need to work on. Busy work just keeps you busy, again, doesn't necessarily bring you the results you need to work, and maybe your time is better invested on specific tasks.

Than doing everything. So if you are all over the place and you have a million things on your plate, you might find some of the tips that I'm giving you now from my experience. Quite helpful. So let's start with number one. You wanna prioritize. The tasks that you're doing during the day.

So you wanna start with tasks that are the closest to the money. That's why you wanna really focus on, So basically everything in your business where you know and where it is proven that this will bring you most likely more clients, more revenue, more results overall. So everything that's close to the money should be the highest priority on your list, and 

how can you achieve that, how you can get there. Now, first of all, what I do, and I do this for 20 years and I do this still on paper, which you can obviously use also some apps there, is to prioritize your daily tasks. So what I do, I write down all the tasks that I'm planning to do on a day or for the next day, or even for the week, then I prioritize them.

To find out what really is important, where can I make the highest impact by working on that task to achieve something in my business. So that's the ones on the top. And then everything then from there follows. Then I work my way through these tasks. But what I do there is thinking about which task can I actually outsource?

Are there any kind of busy work there or some low level work there that I can give to someone else, either within my own team, if I have a team, or give it to someone on Upwork or five, or whoever can work on this task this is from my plate. So everything that's sort of low key, low impact, low revenue, whatever.

Try to find someone else to do this for you. Usually these are simple tasks or tasks that are easy to train to do for someone. So just get rid of them. They won't disappear from your list. With that. Also, make sure that you don't micromanage these people. So give them a good training, give them good standard operating, , procedures that they can do these tasks, and then just wait for the results and then give feedback on the results , but try to avoid to micromanage everyone that's working on your outsourced task.

With your paper list, then you start in the morning when you are fresh and clear to get rid of the tasks that take the least amount of time. With that, you can work off a lot of points on your list, which also gives you a, , feeling of achievement. So you work through the things that take 10 minutes, 15 minutes, 20 minutes, just work through them.

After an hour or two, you should have a list that is particularly shorter than the bidding of the day. And then you will be left with the tasks, with the most important tasks, the ones that are close to the money, and then you focus a certain time slot on these tasks to get them done, and these will have the highest impact to grow your That being said, don't try to work, for six, eight hours in a straight line. I use the principle. So basically I work for 20, 30 minutes, then I just get up, have a coffee, walk around, , get my head clear, and then I continue working. , I might have. Sessions where I work for an hour, but then I take a break.

So don't try to sit for too long. Look for a tomato timer or tomato timer, depending where you are. And, look up how that works and try to implement that into your workday. That might help you to stay fresh for a longer period of time. And the longer you are fresh in your mind, the better your results.

Now that's for the paper list or for the prioritization list. , you can also use online tools like Asana, for instance, for doing this, and that will help you to really focus on things that are important. Now, another thing that helped me a lot in the last 20 years that I have , a zero inbox principle.

So my inbox usually has zero. Ills in there. Whenever emails are coming in, I check it like three, four times a day. I, again, prioritize them. Emails that are not important, I get rid of them immediately. if that's something that I have not subscribed to, I unsubscribe immediately. I don't want to have anything falling into my inbox that either does not interest me, that does not add anything to my business where I have not subscribed to get rid of.

Then there is three, four folders that are action folders. These folders again, have different priorities. The main action folders, everything that comes into the inbox that has high priority goes into my action folder, and that's where I work on, and this will be properly a task that you will find on my prioritization list.

Then I have folders for things that happen someday and things that are just projects, So they go in different folders. Look up zero inbox method on Google. You will find a lot of information about this and try to implement this again, try to have a inbox which is pretty much empty, and get rid of everything that you don't need there.

Inbox, email can be a huge time waste you want to be as effective as possible by dealing with your emails . If you have more complex, , topics or projects that you're working on, one thing that I have learned 20 years ago, I didn't like it in the beginning. Since then I'm using it all the time, is using mind maps.

if you have never worked with a mind map, again, Google it. There is a lot of , software tools out there, even free tools, web-based tools that you can use to create mind maps mind. Helps you to organize your thoughts and all the different moving parts and puzzle pieces that are coming with a new idea, with a new project, and you wanna make sure that you get these in the right order.

The best way to come from something that is completely clustered all over the place is to create a mind map. Put all the bits and pieces in there, and then try to give it a structure. Try to give it a flow. Try to give it a timeline. This works very well with mind maps, and I always recommend using mind maps.

Even if you have never used it, you might be a little bit hesitant to learn something new there, but at the end of the day, you will see the value that mind maps actually will add to your productivity. One recommendation that I got when was my very first business about 20 years, 25 years ago from a business angel that we had on board is avoiding Time bandits.

Now, what is a time bandit? A time Bandit is a person or an organization that is stealing you time, so they are popping and they want something from you and, for their own good, not for your good. that might be asking for is a way that might be someone who wants to have a feedback, but's not paying for that and so on, so forth.

So everyone who comes in, again, prioritize and see what does that person or that contact request On value for your business for your day. If nothing is happening there, if there is no value there, then probably it's a time waster and then try to get rid of them. , you will have emails, people reaching out to you once all over again every third day with a follow up email.

Try to get rid of them. don't be rude, just say, listen. Thank you for the info, but not interested at that point in time. And then get rid of them. , if they're sort of a pest, then block them, put them in a spam folder or whatsoever. Again, you want to create clarity and everything that distracts you, that takes time away.

That is a time banded, you want to get rid of them as well. And then finally one thing that's important, and I think a lot of people don't do that and I'm a victim of that or was a victim of that as well, is just sit and think. So take time to think. , people think being busy is what makes the difference.

Interesting enough, it is thinking makes the. Difference. So if you have a busy week, take a time slot of one, two hours where you basically, silence everything around you, switch off your phone, switch off, everything around you, everything that can distract you. Go to a room where you're on your own and then just sit for an hour or two.

have something to write maybe, and then just. Think about your business. Think about what you do. Think about what you can optimize, think about new ideas. , maybe you have a slot there where you really on new ideas or optimize existing flows or ideas. Just take some time out and tell everyone that you don't want to be disturbed for that specific time.

take a coffee or a tea or whatever you need to make you comfortable, and then just think it's a sort of meditation. It might take you some time to get into the flow to just think, but. I can almost guarantee you that you will come up with maybe one, two, or five, maybe 10 ideas, depending on how good you are in this moment.

And these ideas will help you to bring your business forward and to make your life better. So these are just a few tips that I use in my own business, in my own life to create results. I hope that helps. If you have any and if you want to have me looking into your business and get a second opinion, then also reach out and I'm happy to talk to you.

That's it for today. Have a great day. Talk soon.