Income-Producing Activities (IPAs): The Daily Tasks That Actually Grow Your Business
As a founder, it's easy to fill your day with work.
You answer emails. Refine your website. Organize your Notion workspace. Watch another business podcast. Rewrite your service page for the fifth time… and feel productive doing it.
By the end of the day, you've been busy, but have you actually moved your business closer to making money? Do the tasks you spent doing all day actually compound into the long term growth of your business and revenue.
One of the most helpful concepts I've learned came from my friend and wellness coach, Kailani Raye, who introduced me to the idea of focusing on Income-Producing Activities (IPAs) first each day.
The idea sounds simple, but it's surprisingly easy to overlook… especially as a creative entrepreneur. We naturally gravitate toward the work that feels exciting, inspiring, or productive, even when it isn't the work that creates opportunities for revenue. We often subconsciously hide behind constant building, design, and refining, and call it entrepreneurship.
What Are Income-Producing Activities (IPAs)?
Income-Producing Activities (IPAs) are the actions that directly move someone closer to becoming a paying customer.
They're the conversations, decisions, and actions that create opportunities for revenue today, not someday.
Every business has different IPAs, but the goal is the same: intentionally prioritize the work that grows the business instead of only maintaining it.
Why am I busy but my business isn't growing?
Revenue-Generating Activities vs. Growth Assets
An important distinction to make is that every task isn’t a revenue-generating task. Some tasks build the future of your business. Others generate revenue today. You need both.
GROWTH ASSETS create long-term value.
Examples include:
Writing blog posts
Improving SEO
Building/refining your website
Creating systems
Recording a podcast
Creating content
Building your email list
These are valuable investments. They compound over time and make your business stronger.
REVENUE-GENERATING ACTIVITIES create (or follow through on) opportunities today.
Examples include:
Starting sales conversations w/ warm leads
Following up with inquiries
Sending proposals
Booking discovery calls
Asking for referrals
Pitching partnerships
Publishing your new offer (and being willing to refine it once you learn from actual clients)
Sharing client results
Inviting people to work with you aka PROMOTING
Closing outstanding invoices
Both lists are important, the problem happens when founders spend weeks building growth assets while avoiding the activities that actually create revenue because without revenue, you might have a brand, but you don’t have a business.
What should I be doing to make more sales?
What Revenue-Generating Activities Look Like
One of the biggest mindset shifts I help clients make is realizing that momentum usually comes from conversations, not perfection.
Instead of:
Tweaking your sales page for another week...
Rewriting your homepage again...
Waiting until your branding feels perfect...
You could:
Reach out to three potential clients (finding people who are clearly lacking what you help fix).
Follow up with someone who already expressed interest.
Share your offer publicly.
Tell people exactly who you help.
Ask someone to book a discovery call.
Asking for a referral.
Invite people to purchase today.
Those actions create feedback. They tell you whether your messaging resonates, whether your offer makes sense, and whether people are willing to invest.
No amount of editing can replace real conversations with real people.
How do I know what to focus on every day?
How to Identify Your IPAs
Your Income-Producing Activities will depend on your business model, but ask yourself one simple question:
"If I only had one hour today, what could I do that would most likely lead to a sale?"
HOT TIP: Take it a step further asking this question at the top of each week, to your team/contractors, and reflect on at the end of each work day to inform the focus of the following day. It will make you sharper and more effective.
For a service business, that might be:
Client outreach
Discovery calls
Proposal writing
Referral requests
Networking
Following up with leads
For an e-commerce business, it might be:
Showcasing and discussing the product in detail on social
Email campaigns with direct purchase links
Influencer/Affiliate outreach
Customer retention (customer service is KEY for e-commerce brands)
Promotional campaigns
Wholesale outreach
The answer is different for every business. The discipline is in choosing those activities before getting pulled into everything else that feels pressing each day (emails, calls, meetings, urgent questions from the team, etc.). Whether you have to wake up a little earlier or digitally/physically block contact with others for a few hours, this is the heartbeat of your business’ longevity and success.
SIDENOTE: It will also show you where your mental and emotional blocks. If all of this were easy to do, we’d all be champs at it, but this is the most direct place to see where your money blocks, fear of showing up, fear of asking for what you deserve, fear of being perceived… etc. all come out to play and that my friend is THE REAL WORK.
Why isn't my business growing if I'm working so hard?
Stop Preparing. Start Participating.
I see this all the time.
A founder spends two weeks perfecting their website before telling anyone they're open for business. Or they spend hours researching how to market their offer instead of simply talking to the people they're trying to help.
Your website doesn't sell itself, and your offer doesn't grow simply because it exists. People have to know about it. Start the conversation, share what you're building, tell people who it's for, and invite them to work with you. You'll learn more from real conversations and real market feedback than you ever will from another week of preparing behind the scenes.
What's the biggest takeaway?
Both growth assets matter and revenue-generating activities matter. The key is knowing the difference.
Build your business intentionally, but don't let building become a substitute for selling.
The founders who grow the fastest aren't the ones with the most polished websites or the most elaborate marketing plans. They're the ones consistently having conversations, making offers, refining, following up, knowing what they want next, and giving people the opportunity to say yes.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Income-Producing Activities (IPAs) are the tasks that directly move someone closer to becoming a paying customer.
They include activities like:
following up with leads,
having sales conversations,
sending proposals,
asking for referrals, and
inviting people to work with you.
While every business has different IPAs, they all share one goal: creating opportunities for revenue.
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Being busy doesn't always mean you're working on the highest-impact tasks.
Many founders spend their time improving their website, organizing systems, or researching their next move…all valuable activities, but not necessarily the ones that generate revenue today. Then they wake up and feel panicked when they realize they have a money problem.
If you're constantly working but not seeing results, it may be time to get clear on and prioritize more Income-Producing Activities.
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Start with the activities that are most likely to lead to a sale.
That might mean having as many conversations as possible, following up with leads, reaching out to potential clients, sending proposals, asking for referrals, or talking publicly about your offers.
Once you've completed those high-impact tasks, you can shift your attention to longer-term projects like content, SEO, or systems.
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Ask yourself one question:
"If I only had one hour today, what could I do that would most likely lead to a sale?"
If your answer involves talking to potential customers, following up with existing leads, or making an offer, you're likely focusing on the right work.
If it doesn't, consider whether you're preparing instead of participating.
