When trying to develop a successful dropshipping business, one of the most integral aspects that will drive that success is a healthy mindset and a good daily routine for dropshippers. Regardless of the products you’re trying to sell and how good they are, it all comes down to your marketing and the routines behind it that sell them.
Think about the most successful people you’ve heard of, from Bill Gates and Steve Jobs to Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg. One thing they all had in common that you can implement in your own business is the optimization of time. It’s important to wake up every day and know what your schedule will look like, with little room for uncertainty. If you have a set plan and routine to follow every day, you’ll know that you’re spending your time productively.
Use the B.U.I.L.D. System to Gamify Time
One of the best ways to get started developing an effective routine that yields success is to use what we call the B.U.I.L.D. system, which gamifies time. Back in 2013, I created this system to help me with my own routines. It essentially consists of using notebooks to help set up a consistent routine.
This acronym stands for what you want to prioritize in your routine to create a healthy balance, including:
- B: Body — This can include working out, eating healthily and regularly, or otherwise taking care of your body
- U: You Time — Free time that you can spend doing what you enjoy
- I: Income — Your income goal
- L: Relationships — Maintaining healthy relationships with friends, family, and partners
- D: Development — Developing yourself
The important thing is to keep all of your goals consistently balanced. Don’t try to build on one of your B.U.I.L.D. goals while neglecting the others. This will hurt you, whether you’re focusing too heavily on business and not enough on relationships or taking too much “you time” without spending enough time on developing your business and meeting income goals.
How to Implement B.U.I.L.D. Goals
An example of a good set of B.U.I.L.D. goals may include working out for 45 minutes in the morning every day, spending 30 minutes playing video games in the evenings, reaching out to influencers and creating copy toward income goals, spending time with your spouse and children, and developing yourself by taking business courses.
At the end of the day, it’s not just about gamifying your time. You also need to push yourself to meet and exceed each of these goals. For instance, I took up meditating every day, which started with around 5-minute sessions on a daily basis. That’s since developed into an hourly session every day. The key here is to start small but build on those goals quarterly as you progress. Push yourself hard, but not too hard, and you’ll be able to incrementally improve on yourself and your business. For instance, you may start with a 15-minute run in the mornings, but for the next quarter, that goal turns into 30 minutes, and so on.
The Foundation of a Daily Routine for Dropshippers: Using the Daily 6 and P.T.T.
A good daily routine for dropshippers includes spending around two to four hours every day on your business. While this may not be the easiest task to fit into your schedule, you will need to find ways to fit that time in, whether it means getting up earlier, staying up later, or cutting back on free time. Keep in mind that competing dropshippers often have entire teams working for them, so if you want to stand a chance against them, you need to invest the necessary time and effort to make it a profitable full-time job.
As you develop your business, you need to have six specific tasks to perform every day. We call this part of a daily routine for dropshippers the Daily 6. Some of those goals may include connecting with influencers for influencer marketing, developing content for your store or ads, or building your opt-in page. With your goals in mind, set aside some time to complete those tasks. For instance, you might schedule time to work on your opt-in page between 9 AM and 10 AM. You may schedule another task for 3 PM to 4 PM, depending on the task.
When developing those Daily 6, use the P.T.T. system, which stands for Plan Tomorrow Today. This means taking some time out of each day, most likely in the evenings when winding down, to plan for the next day’s tasks and goals. Figure out what your entire day will look like so you know exactly how to approach the next day upon waking up in the morning. Include all of your B.U.I.L.D. goals along with your Daily 6, which will help you develop a clear, realistic, and balanced schedule.
The Need to Develop a Consistent Daily Routine for Dropshippers
Part of making sure you get everything done in a given day is training the mind and body to work together on a regular basis. Routines can help break up the day and ensure you spend the time you need to on every aspect of your schedule. This will help you meet your daily and quarterly goals.
Start with morning routines that help you begin the day and clear your head. This could entail eating a healthy breakfast to give you some energy, along with working out or meditating. Again, I’ve personally found that meditation is one of the best ways to clear your head and self-improve. This is crucial as you need to get rid of distractions that might otherwise impede your progress.
You Can Buy Your Time Back
If you want to optimize your schedules, cut out anything that you don’t need to do every day that could set you back. For example, you may not want to spend the time washing your clothes. In that case, hiring a laundry service could be worth the cost if it buys you time. You may also want to order takeout or grocery deliveries frequently if you don’t enjoy cooking or grocery shopping. Landscaping, maintenance, and other tasks that you perceive as a nuisance shouldn’t be in the way of your daily routine for dropshippers. So if you can find a way to eliminate them from your schedule, you’ll find that you have more time to devote to more important matters.You can even hire a virtual assistant to handle repetitive tasks in your dropshipping business.
Another important step to take to buy back much-needed time is to learn how to say “no” to people. This element of a daily routine for dropshippers may lose you some relationships. But you need to make sure that other people aren’t going to take up too much of your time if it doesn’t help develop you or if you otherwise simply can’t invest the time. One way to avoid interruptions is to avoid using personal social media accounts unless it’s absolutely necessary when connecting with friends or family. The rule we live by at Ecommerce Empire Builders is if you’re not using social media to create content, you shouldn’t be on it.
The Master and Puppet Relationship of the Mind and Body
I tend to look at the mind and body as master and puppet, respectively. By default, your body is likely to always go for the easy route in everything. That’s what it’s used to doing. While your body prefers what’s comfortable, you can use your mind to train your body to function more favorably.
One training exercise you can try is to simply try waking up an hour earlier in the morning. It can even be 15 minutes earlier. But try to get your body used to operating the way you want it to based on your ideal daily schedule. Another exercise that’s worth trying is a cold shower, which you can begin introducing to your body at the end of a regular shower by switching to cold water for the last minute.
Using Feedback Loops and Fighting Resistance to Change
The point is that you should be testing new ways to improve performance and get your mindset and body on the same page. If you can align your mind and body, you’ll be able to do a lot better every day. In short, get comfortable being uncomfortable, and don’t let your body drag you back into ineffective yet comfortable habits.
The only way to grow is to avoid doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. Stepping out of your comfort zone is how you can fight feedback loops and resistance to change. Not only does this apply to improving your body’s response, but it also applies to change in your business approaches. Don’t look at inefficiencies or poor results as failures. Instead, try to find ways to change your campaigns to improve their performance.
You can combat some of those challenges you’ll inevitably face by introducing feedback loops. A feedback loop is simply a way of looking at a particular success or failure as a set of data, which you can then analyze and iterate off of in an attempt to move forward. You can use the data that you collect to make any appropriate changes that optimize performance.
Create Your Story and Evolve Through This Daily Routine for Dropshippers
With a healthy routine and mindset behind your business and life in general, you can develop a narrative for yourself that you’ll be proud to look back on as you continue to evolve. Everyone has a unique story that got them to where they are. You can make sure yours is a story of success that could even inspire others.
Want to learn more about how to succeed with your dropshipping business and build a thriving sales funnel? Reserve your seat today at the free Ecommerce Masterclass from Ecommerce Empire Builders. Be sure to check our YouTube channel for even more free resources and insights into the dropshipping and sales funnel industries. Remember, your empire starts now!