Time to Face Facts

It is time to face reality! You and your business have some problems that require some solutions. Very simply, you can’t change what you do not openly acknowledge. Identifying and admitting a problem goes a long way towards solving it.

To begin the transformation and healing process, you need to do some serious reflection. Be brutally honest when you answer these questions:

• Do I often question, “Why do I have to do every darn thing myself”?
• Am I still working too much and making too little?
• Am I trapped working “in” my business instead of “on” my business?
• Do I ever wonder if business ownership is truly worth the time, effort, headaches, hassles, and sacrifices?
• Do I feel trapped on a treadmill, moving faster and faster, but going nowhere?
• Do I constantly face frequent interruptions and repetitive questions from my staff?
• Do I go home many nights feeling mentally and physically drained?
• Do I confuse busyness with accomplishment?
• Do I dread the drudgery of facing and solving the same issues and problems each and every day – the burden of re-creating the wheel time and time again?
• Do I daydream about regaining my sense of freedom, joy, passion, and peace-of-mind?
• Do I have anxiety about drowning in projects, problems, deadlines, crises, meetings, employee issues, unanswered voicemails/emails, customer complaints, administrative trivia, and on and on?
• Do I feel like a master juggler with too many balls up in the air and dreading they will soon begin hitting the floor?
• Am I forever chained to a phone, computer, email, or pager?
• Am I tired of having customers rely on me personally for services, solutions and satisfaction?
• Am I fed up with missing family time, family events, and making other personal sacrifices on a semi-regular basis?
• Do I crave more free time to do the things that matter most to me?
  
  Admit to the Problem
  
  If you answered yes to most of these questions, don’t feel guilty, ashamed or embarrassed. You are not alone. Most owners have never learned to be strategic. Role models are scarce. As such, dysfunctional businesses and owners are the rule, not the exception.
  
  Like you, most owners feel that they have been sentenced to a life of servitude and some even suffer from the blues. Unfortunately, because of pride, shame or ignorance, this sad condition has been kept hidden in the corner office for too long. Starting now, you should not have to endure this much discomfort and frustration associated with your business. You do not have to live this way! You should not be consumed by your business and frustrated with your life. Stop and think, why in the world, as the owner, should you have to touch every transaction, be involved with every decision, help solve every problem, or handle everybody’s job in some fashion? You shouldn’t! It doesn’t make sense. Something is broken! You cannot succeed alone. You don’t have enough hours in a day or enough energy or bandwidth to go it alone. Pain is a good indication that something is wrong and needs to be healed!
  
  Realize that you aren’t the only one suffering. Think about how your stress and blues are negatively impacting your employees, customers, vendors/suppliers, friends and if applicable, your spouse and kids. Hear this wake-up call! It is time to shift radically your business beliefs and behavior. It is time to expand your view of new possibilities for managing your business and life. The better your business functions, the better your life will function.
  
  You deserve to be free from the daily grind; after all, you own a business, not a job. You should actually enjoy the journey of developing and running a business and not defer your personal life and happiness until you retire or sell. Live life now! Do not get so caught up in making a living that you forget to make a life. If your personal life is suffering because of your company, either your leadership approach is misguided or your business design is broken, maybe both!
  
  At this point, simply admit that your business centers on you and is totally dependent upon you. Admit that you are buried up to your eyeballs in details of the business. Admit that you are a slave to your business. Admit that instead of your business giving you greater life, it continues to drain more of your personal time and peace-of-mind. Admit that while your headaches and hassles grow, your freedom shrinks.
  

Start With a Goal

Have you ever made a New Year’s resolution? Lose weight, spend more time with the kids, quit smoking, or get organized? I’m sure we all have at some point in time. What were your results? Did you achieve what you wanted? Making a New Year’s resolution is nothing more than establishing a personal goal. It more commonly involves stopping something that we are doing or includes starting something that we aren’t.

In the business world, we commonly utilize the S.M.A.R.T. method for establishing goals. S.M.A.R.T. stands for:

Specific — stated in clear, objective terms
Measurable — the results of the objective can be measured
Achievable — the goal is in your realm of responsibility and control
Results-Oriented — the goal should define the specific results to be achieved
Time-Bound — specific time-frame information or target deadlines are included

You should establish personal goals in your career as well. In fact, both your personal goals and career goals should be supportive of each other. Establishing and achieving both personal and career goals can generate a synergistic effect. Achieving one of your goals should get you closer to achieving another one. For example, stating that you want to get more organized at work and work fewer hours should support your personal goal of spending more time with your family and friends.

Similar to the S.M.A.R.T. method above, before you establish personal goals, you must be sure of a few things. It’s important to evaluate your goals before you commit. There are several questions that you should ask first:

Can I actually control it?
Do I really want it?
How much time will it take?
How will it impact others?
How will I measure my success?

The answers to these questions are critical if you intend to be successful with your goals. These questions are your foundation to helping you become victorious. Make sure you understand why these questions are so important.

What is Your Attitude Today?

One of my favorite quotes is from Henry Ford, stating, “Whether you think that you can, or that you can’t, you are usually right.” This is a perfect example of how your attitude impacts what you can and cannot achieve. The more you believe in yourself and what you can achieve, the more likely you are to achieve it. This is not only important to you, but to everyone around you. Attitude drives behavior.

Attitude is one of the most important assets. Everyone has an attitude. There are positive, negative, and even neutral attitudes. One’s attitude can vary depending upon multiple factors, especially in the business world. Contrary to popular belief, the things around us do not cause our attitude. Attitude comes from within us. We determine what our attitude is going to be each day. We may choose to blame it on other factors, such as work, people, kids, the drive to work, etc. But in reality, those things didn’t cause our attitude, we let them influence what attitude we chose to have that particular day. It is how we responded to those external factors that others see as our attitude. A positive attitude is optimal for positioning yourself for a promotional opportunity. It can lead to achieving your goals faster, inspiring others around you, increasing your energy level, and gaining more respect from your colleagues. It can help with your work/life balance and even lead to a happier, healthier life. There are multiple benefits from having a positive attitude. A person’s strong positive attitude can even become contagious to those around them. I realize that it’s difficult sometimes to maintain a positive attitude. There are certain situations where things may not be as rosy as you would like. There are circumstances where there doesn’t appear to be a good way to approach the problem. These are the times when having a positive attitude is the most important. Remember, we choose which attitude we are going to have. It’s not just for your benefit, but for those around you. Maintaining a positive attitude during difficult times is a sign of a strong leader. It is second nature to develop a negative attitude. It takes effort to maintain a positive one. If you let the day-to-day activities bother you, and you find yourself complaining about them to those around you, you have a long way to go. Those around you recognize your negative attitude and will tend to steer away from you at times. They probably see you as the pessimistic type who doesn’t see the good in things. When this type of behavior is recognized by those above you, either your manager or someone else of influence, it creates a lasting impression that may be difficult to overcome. When it comes time for a promotion, those of influence will have a tendency to remember your negative characteristics just as much as they will remember the positive results that you have accomplished.

If the negative aspects they observed created a strong enough lasting impression, it could create a sense of doubt in their mind over whether you are ready for the next level. The problem is, you might not know that they have this impression of a negative attitude until it’s too late. Those who have a negative attitude typically won’t admit it, and usually point the blame on either other things or other people. So you have to be very honest with yourself and start looking for signs that you are exhibiting a negative attitude. Have a conversation with your manager and ask him or her what attitude he or she sees in you. Ask some of your peers for their opinion. Remember: Don’t ask for feedback from others if you are not willing to receive it. It might not be what you want to hear. They may tell you some things that might hurt your feelings, but until you know what to improve upon, you can’t make positive changes. This is one of the things that you have to start doing now to prevent roadblocks in the future.

Are You Ready for a Coach?

Are You Ready for a Coach?
Take the Quiz to Find Out!

Please take a minute and find out how ready you are to live life to its fullest.

On a scale of 1 to 10, (1 being Don’t agree at all to 10 being Totally agree) rate each of the following statements:

_____ I am ready to create more balance in my life.

_____ I am ready to improve my personal or business relationships.

_____ I am ready to make real and positive changes in my life.

_____ I am ready to find and live my life’s purpose.

_____ I am ready and willing to overcome self-limiting belief’s and behavior.

_____ I am ready to create plans and take action to achieve my goals

_____ I am ready to achieve a sense of fulfillment at work and in my life.

_____ I am ready for more fun and enjoyment in my life.

_____ I would like to work less and make more money.

_____ I can benefit from someone who will help me to stay on track.


Total Score _______






Interpreting your score:

Under 30
Coaching is probably not right for you now.

31 to 60
Coaching could help you to look at your life from a different viewpoint as well as help you develop a plan to change what it is that you would like to change. However, if you decide to work with a coach now, you should decide and commit that you will take the necessary action for your benefit or you will not make lasting life-changing improvements.

Over 60
Congratulations! You are ready for a Coach! You are willing to do whatever it takes to create the life you deserve and desire. Please take a moment to go to my website right now for a FREE introductory coaching session to find out what coaching can do for you.

This one click can change your life forever.

Dare to Go for Growth... Even in Challenging Times

Growing is the natural order of all living things, including businesses. If something is not growing, it's by default declining or even dying. Besides, if you aren't continually growing your company, odds are one of your savvy competitors is! As an owner, your challenge is to keep your business vibrant and growing at all times...even in challenging economic times. Have the right mindset, marketing, and dare to go for growth!

Start by making no excuses. Even with a tougher economy, you should still be intelligently marketing and growing your business. While you should conserve cash in your company anyway you possibly can at this time, you should not scale back effective and profitable marketing...emphasis is on effective and profitable. As long as your average profit-per-sale is higher than your average cost-per-sale, keep your marketing machine cranked up. Effective marketing pays for itself! However, many owners are forgetting this wisdom and caving in to their irrational fears. They are running their businesses based on fear instead of based of data.

Do You Know Your Unique Qualities?

Do You Know Your Unique Qualities?

• Why do current clients/customers continue to do business with me?
• Why do new clients choose to do business with me?
• Why do referral sources refer clients to me?
• What would friends/loved ones say are my natural talents/gifts?
• What gives me the greatest results with the least amount of time and effort?
• What activities do I do effortlessly, that energize me, and produce extraordinary results?
• What vital few things produce 80% of my results?

If you don’t know the answers to these questions, then you are probably not operating your business at its greatest potential.

To continue to grow, you have to find out the answers to these questions.

Key Terminology that should be in your vocabulary as a business owner:

1. Productivity – achieving the greatest results in the shortest period of time
2. Leverage – achieving the greatest results with the least amount of effort
3. Effectiveness – doing the right things to produce superior results
4. Efficiency – doing things right to produce consistent and rapid results
5. Strategic – planning for and executing on high-level, high-priority, and high-leverage activities that produce optimal results

How often do you use these words and in what circumstance?