Direct and Indirect Revenue Generating Activities

Is what you’re doing making you money?

Revenue generating activities (RGAs) should be the first thing on every entrepreneur’s to-do list — every day. I know this. You know this. Articles shout this from the rooftops.

The numbers differ: You should spend 20% of your time marketing your business. A Constant Contact poll says the average small business spends up to 20 hours a week marketing their businesses. (In a 40 hour week, that’s a solid 50%, but I think “up to” is the operative phrase here.)

Then, of course, there is the balancing act of time vs. money. If you can’t put money into your marketing, you need to put in more time.

But it’s not about time spent and it’s not about money (though having a healthy marketing budget helps). It’s about doing the things that are effective in bringing business to you. While there are many marketing tasks and tactics that are foundational and supportive, what I define as Indirect Activities, it is more important to focus on those efforts that are going to result in money coming into the company coffers. And for the entrepreneur, these are sometimes the harder things to do because we don’t feel comfortable “being salesy.”*

Tough.