I usually get the coffee started and then open the house & curtains, and get the paper. Then I sit down at my PC and start the day.

Today was different.

After opening the house, and before sitting at my PC, I put in a few minutes just thinking about what needed to be completed by the end of the day. I thought about what processes I would employ during the day. I thought about how to avoid the time-sinks that each of us has – mine unique to me, but identical to yours.

During this time, I also thought about what I wanted this week to look like at the end of it. How would it stand up to backward scrutiny? What did I want to be able to write down as accomplishments during a weekly review?

That few minutes of reflection helped me stay on track for longer than usual, and I got quite a bit done that I might not have, otherwise.

I put in the time pre-planning my day.

What’s the big deal? Doesn’t everybody do this?

No.

Most people go through the day allowing random circumstances and events to sway their course and dictate their responses. Most people do NOT plan their day, but allow others to do it for them. In fact, most people EXPECT to have others tell them what needs to be done, and when.

The problem with this for the entrepreneur is that there is nobody to do this for you. Sure, the customer will have plenty to tell you, but that core response is why you are in business. In order to make your business more effective and you more successful, you have to spend time outside of customer-satisfying activities to plan and do improvement projects.

If you don’t take the time, you won’t do the work. it will slip away until the daylight fades with your willpower along with it. The lost opportunity to do SOME-thing to improve will cost you in the long run.

Put in the Time every day, to figure out at least ONE project you can complete that will have a positive effect on your business. Just One.

I’m going to do it again in the morning… How about you?

John L

It is easy to point to external circumstances as reasons why failure is inevitable or acceptable. The elected administrations are  seen as the cause or the cure for the economic environment. That environment is seen as the key factor in business success.

I say, No.

Yes, the macro or big-picture economy is important to business success. But, unless you are engaged in the collapsing housing and mortgage markets, it isn’t as important as you fear.

Your business has customers and competitors. Let your competitors cower in fear. YOU take stock and chart a safe course through the tumult, and expand into their market. While you’re at it, take their customers, too.

You see, everybody makes their economic decisions, not on the general economy, but on their own personal circumstances. Sure, the news on Wall Street will have impact on those decisions. But it is the bills in the mail, the price of gas, and the boss at work that have more impact.

So, whether your guy won or not should cheer or disappoint you. But, don’t count on him to solve your economic problems. After all. It’s YOUR business, not his.

Make your plans with alternatives to counter higher prices. Decide how to plan for manpower. Be creative and discover ways to better communicate to your market that you are still there and willing to help them out. There will always be customers who are above the economics and will continue to darken your door. You just have to keep finding them.

It is your business. You have no business letting its success hinge on the decisions and actions of that guy in the Whitehouse – whether you voted for him or not. Your responsibility is to make it work in SPITE of what goes on in Washington. You have commitments to meet, customers to serve, and employees who depend on you.

Don’t let them down.

The company requires survival, and that survival requires certain decisions, most of which are distasteful. On top of that, some decisions automatically eliminate certain future options of pursuit.

When we decide to abandon an operating market, we flush the sunk costs of opening it, and we make it very unlikely we will return. If we had not opened it in the first place, we could always come in at a later date. But exiting might be required.

As we choose to restrict capital expenditures, we automatically restrict potential growth. As markets grow, we require new equipment or expanded facilities to accommodate it. If there is no money, there is no expansion, there is no growth. This is the difficult choice.

As we address payroll considerations, we make similar restrictions in our future. We presumably have competent people working in the right positions. If we lay them off, chances are that they will end up working for another company and not be available to us in the future. Worse, they may go to work for a competitor – in spite of any covenants they may have signed. When we need to accomplish the work once again, we will be put in a required position of hiring and training someone to do the job. Extra expense in the future is always the cost of replacing cost-savings of the past.

But, survival, now, is paramount. We must make the hard choices that affect our future abilities to respond. We also must try to minimize that future effect and make our decisions in line with our Mission. Do not be impulsive in this most critical environment.

So, when survival is the requirement, make the correct decisions swiftly. Do not hesitate and hope that the circumstances will change – they will, but not likely for the better, or not soon enough to be of any help.

Gauge the consequences, accept the risk, make the decision, take the action.

Good Employee Traits

• He is expected to show up at work on time, and to work until the shift is over.
• She is expected to execute the activities of the job requirements with precision and efficiency.
• He is expected to earn his wage and be a positive contributor to the bottom line.
• She is not expected to fritter away the day in idle pursuits.
• He is not expected to cover over major or minor errors.
• She is not expected to be a hindrance to company progress.
• He is not expected to be a negative influence on other employees.

All in all, an employee is a desirable asset to the company, one who is productive and worthwhile.

Are YOU a Good Employee?

How am I a Good employee? I am not. I do the minimum required to get the day done. I avoid the repetitive drudge that makes a business go. I know what needs to be done, but I don’t do it. I know what I shouldn’t do, but I do it anyway. I should be let go. I can’t get over with just my good looks alone, I have to add value to the company by my presence and actions.

That is what I have as my most unproductive attitude. I don’t work unless pressed into it. Deadlines get me to so the necessary things. I avoid the clerical tasks – UNLESS – they keep me from the even harder work of creatively advancing the business agenda.

How hard is it to do the work? How difficult to sit down and grind it out? When did it become impossible to make time to do the little things that advance business? Why can’t I read and implement simple marketing texts? What is WRONG with me?

Are you waiting for success to strike from above, or ambush you when you’re not looking? Do you expect success to be like the lottery. “I don’t need to do anything except buy the ticket.” How absurd!

I’m you’re an intelligent and capable person who can take on any task and succeed. Do you somehow choose to do otherwise. Are you a self-defeating mechanism. I don’t think my way into a day, don’t pay attention to any of my priorities, and don’t execute when I am forced to.

I do the minimums.  I should get the minimums.

What the Boss Needs to Do

What I need to do each day is to:

• KNOW what I need to do.
• PLAN how I need to do it.
• WRITE the Plan down so I won’t forget.
• EXECUTE the Plan.
• EVALUATE the Execution and the Plan.
• CHOOSE to do it again.

Every day is my only opportunity to advance. Tomorrow might never arrive. Yesterday is gone. The ONLY time is NOW.

DO IT NOW!

The Bottom Line

The bottom line is that your business needs to make a profit, or it isn’t a business, but a charity — for your customers. At the end of the day, Profit needs to be at the end of the Income Statement. profit is your goal.

Now, you might think that your goal in business is to improve the lives of your customers. Well, you might be able to manage to do that. But, without profits, you won’t do it for very long. Profits are the ultimate goal for any business. Profits are Good. They are essential.

Making the Sale

Profits don’t start with keeping expenses to a minimum. They start with a sale. Something has to be sold before any profits accrue.

So, your number one goal for any given day is to make sales. It doesn’t matter if you are selling a product, or a service, if someone doesn’t “buy” from you, today, you missed your mark.

Now, you might have other things to do throughout the day. Activities like production and accounting keep the wheels on. But, if you ask yourself, “Is this contributing to making a sale?” and say, “No”, then it is time to re-focus.

You make the sale by funneling suspects into qualified prospects, and from there, into paying customers. If you do business online, this means generating enough targeted traffic to your sales pages so someone will click the “Buy” button. It also means writing and re-writing your sales pages so your Conversion Rate improves.

If you do business from a store-front, you still have the same operational goal: attract targeted traffic to come in and look at your merchandise or service.

If you do any kind of in-home or in-office sales, then your phone better be burning up with your out-bound prospecting calls in between the inbound inquiries.

Going to Work

As a business owner, you have great freedom and flexibility. I always loved how flexible my calendar was. I only had to work half-days, and the Best part was that I got to choose which 12-hours that was.

As the owner, you have to be both the boss AND the employee. How good are you as a boss? Do you have exciting plans for your business? Do you have plenty of productive work for your employees to do? Are you able to motivate even the most recalcitrant employee? Do you take good care of both customers and employees?

The larger question is: How good are you as an employee? Do you show up for work on time and ready to work? Do you get the most important work done first? Do you avoid the productivity sink of online browsing? Do you earn 10-times your salary? Do you take good care of the customers? Do you always seek to be a little bit better than last time? Are you a good role model for the other employees? Do you make the boss look good?

The key is for you to remember that your business success rests solely on YOU. You have to make it go. You have to keep it running. If your business fails, it is probably because you weren’t a good boss, or you weren’t a good employee, or both.

Get Focused

Focus on Bottom Line Profits. Focus on Making that Sale. Focus on being the best Boss and best Employee you can be. Focus…

So it is with your business.

The 3 legs of your business are:

1. Production
2. Marketing
3. Administration

Your business will ultimately fail if these legs aren’t strong and of similar length.

Production

Production is getting your product or service completed and in the hands of the customer – on-time and on-budget. This is what your customers are paying you for.

This is your talent or skill. This is what you were good at when you decided to become a business owner. You are a good carpenter, web-designer, programmer, mechanic, typist, baby-sitter, dog-washer, card payer, musician, writer, butcher, baker, or candlestick maker… You KNOW how to DO the nuts and bolts of what your business does for others.

You have to be good in this area or else your reputation will precede you and you will eventually go out of business because you can’t find any more customers who are willing to pay for your mediocrity. Keep getting better. Practice, Read the Latest, Go to Seminars or School. Spend some time each day or week learning and practicing what you do so you will eventually be the best there is at what you do.

Remember to learn from every job or transaction.

Marketing

Marketing is everything you do to bring yourself new business. Without marketing, you will not have customers.

The best marketing is done according to choice, not chance.

Advertising is a large part of how to get new business, but who are you advertising to? EVERYBODY really does not need your product or service, so who, REALLY, would be your ideal customer? How would be the best way to get their attention? Spend plenty of time tuning up your advertising to make the most bang for your buck. Test the copy, test the channel, test the results.

Marketing also includes the “package” your product or service comes in. What little extras do you throw into the bag? How do you followup to be sure the customer is satisfied with their interactions with you? How do you get new leads from existing customers? Do you have an upsell or addon plan for each transactions?

Marketing is being thoughtful and consistent about generating new business. I had a client that taught me his dilemma. He had no business, so he’d “Market, market, market”. Then he’d have so much business he’d be buried for weeks trying to catch up – “Work, work, work.” Then, he’d run out of business and have to go back to “Market, market, market”. We taught him how to balance his time investments and “Market, Work, Market, Work, Market, Work…” His business and life became far less harried.

Build a Marketing Plan to keep you on track attracting more business for your business.

Administration

Someone has to keep all the wheels on the bus. Administration is that guy. You need to know how to or hire it done, but done it must be.

1. Planning
2. Money Management
3. Project Management
4. Time Management
5. Employees
6. Rules & Regulations
7. Taxes
8. Records and Organization
9. Maintenance
10. ??? What Else Do You NEED to DO to Stay On Course?

Without keeping these areas up and running, without backlogs, up-to-date, and active, you’ll eventually drown in the backwash.

Most of the clients I’ve consulted with have root troubles in this area. They don’t keep their bookkeeping up-to-date and they miss tax deadlines, don’t see that they are losing money on every job, and can’t stay ahead of the creditors. They run their business on scraps of paper or notes in their cellphone. They save it all up for a marathon session that never happens. Sometimes, they aren’t even aware of what needs to be done in these areas.

When you put together your Business Plan, include a BIG chapter on these topics.

When you go to do business, DO these Administrative tasks as well as you do your Production tasks.

Conclusion

Be sure to build all three legs into your business. It will fall over without paying attention to all these areas – in a balanced way. If you aren’t good at some of this stuff, hire it, out-source it, but get it done. Be a stable business for the long-haul.

1. Find a Market
2. Find a Product or Service
3. Sell Lots
4. Control Expenses

Market

This is a pool of potential customers. You know who they are, and you know what they want or need. You can serve a large market, or a niche market. But, you can’t sell to “everyone”.

It helps to have a Market with fewer rather than more competitors.

Product or Service

Your Product or Service needs to be something your Market wants or needs, and something that is different from all the others, You don’t want to be waving the “Me Too” banner too wildly.

Sell a Lot of It

Now, we’re getting somewhere! Selling is where it’s at… Sell a Ton of them and all will be well.

Maybe. Many a going concern collapsed by only focusing on sales.

Control Expenses

This is where Business Success is made or not. Profit is the end goal of any business venture. Without Expense Control, there are not likely to be any Profits. Certainly not as much as could be.

Think of this. Profit equals Sales minus Expenses. A Sale brings related Expenses. Only a portion of a Sales dollar makes it to the Profit bucket. However, Saving a Dollar, or NOT spending one, drops it right to the Bottom Line.

The Bottom Line

The Bottom Line is that the more that you sell AND save, the bigger the Bottom Line.

Watch Your Pennies and the Dollars will take care of themselves.

PR: wait… I: wait… L: wait… LD: wait… I: wait… wait… C: wait… SD: wait…

Each of us engages in setting goals and planning each and every day. We just might not recognize it, that’s all.

Can you answer the following questions?

What do you want? Where do you want to go? How will you get there? What will you need along the way? How much will it cost? Who will help you? Do you know how? What else do you lack? What do you already have? Do you care about any of this? Will you pay the price? Given two choices of action, which one should you choose? What will you do, today, to get you closer? How will you know you have arrived? Are you closer or farther away? What are the signs you are missing the mark? Should you re-set the mark, or re-double your efforts?

The answers will, of course, vary between individuals, and in relation to the magnitude of the vision that motivates us. However, in order to manage or provide stewardship to our scarce resources – time, money, energy, talent, motivation – answering them to the best of our ability will bring a clarity and energy to each day that might be missing otherwise.

Mission or Vision

We begin with a framework of belief or a vision or mission that we use as a measure, a plumb line to our everyday ideas.

However, the vision and the mission are really too broad to be of much help in the routines of day-to-day work.

Goals

So, from the vision and the mission come goals or objectives or targets or destinations. These fix the vision with a concrete picture or description. This is a picture seen through a glass, darkly. It will not be as we expect it to be. But it will help us along the way as we work day by day.

A goal is a target — a destination — an expectation — a measure of faith — a challenge of faith — a statement of desire — a statement of motivation. A goal is NOT a statement of fact or a prediction of the future, nor a rigid, mechanical, unalterable, inevitable control device. It is a guide to actions, a helper for planning, a measure of decisions and actions. Without a goal, it is difficult to make plans; it is difficult to make decisions of value.

I have used the example before of the targets in an archery range and a bunch of little boys and girls. The targets are not there for these children to hit bull’s eyes, but to keep the arrows all going “that way”.

But keep thinking about the ones who return to practice – who are captured by the thought of actually hitting the bull’s eye. In time, they will hit the target, and finally hit the bull’s eye. But because they are small, the target is close and the bow is weak. As they grow physically, soon there is no challenge in hitting bull’s eyes so close. They get a stronger bow, and move the target farther away, and keep practicing the skills that allowed them earlier success. Someone will become good enough to go to the Olympics and win a gold medal.

We aren’t out for gold medals. I believe goals are what will help us put to work what the Lord has put in our charge.

A goal is something we can see, touch, feel, and describe.

Therefore, a goal is SMART. This is an acronym for:

S pecific

M easurable

A ttainable

R elevant

T rackable

Specific

Can you see it in your mind? Can you describe it to someone else? Can you touch it, or feel it? Can you draw a picture of it? Can you see what is around it? Can you hear it? These are specifics. “Make some money” is not specific. “Make $100,000 in Net Profit by March 10th,” is specific.

Measurable

Related to specific is the ability to measure it. How many? How much? What date? What pace? The above specific example has a number of measurable attributes. What are they?

Attainable

There is a need to be realistic about a goal. We need to be able to believe in it. We need to be able to say… “It could happen.” This doesn’t mean that we put limits on what’s possible. It does, however, mean that we don’t set a target or goal so unrealistically unachievable that even the most faithful prayer and petition can’t convince us that we believe in it.

Relevant

Relevance keeps us from pursuing something that does not contribute to overall success. This means that it “fits.” Here is where we measure against our Mission and Vision.

Trackable

This simply means that the measurables are available often enough that we can stay informed about our progress. Imagine setting a goal and not being able to see how well we are doing until the end, only to find out we were “this close” to making it… Daily, Weekly, Monthly collection and comparison of progress towards goals is important.

This also allows periodic comparisons of progress against a plan, and adjustments either to the plan or to the goal.

Within the Vision and the Mission are the Goals. From the Goals flow Plans.

Planning

Planning is defined simply as deciding – today – what to do – tomorrow. A Plan is a series of pre-made decisions about how to accomplish a Goal. The Goal must exist before a Plan can be made. Once the goal is SMART, it is easy to make a Plan to reach the goal.

Begin at the end and work backwards. Divide the time into smaller and smaller chunks until you are able to see today. You will ultimately be able to answer the question “What do I need to do, today, to reach the goals I set?”

I recommend that your plan focuses on the Production or Action kind of Goals. Answer these questions:

How many customers will I need? How many do I have now? What is the demographic profile for my customer base? How will I identify prospects? How many prospects will I have to ask before I get a yes answer? How will I recruit them? How will I train them? How will I lead them? When do I get started?

I also recommend you start at the far end of your goals to get the big picture for your plans, and then re-focus on the coming Year, then the Quarter, then the Month, Week, finally the Day. Each day, in your quiet time, meditate on to do this day to accomplish your goals.

Another illustration to help give light on this topic. Imagine yourself embarking on a vacation. You just start driving one day, and then you find yourself back at home. Did you have a good time???

Start again. Imagine you want to have an exciting two week vacation this October. Where do you want to go? Who will go with you? What means of transportation will you use? ? If you are driving, what route will you take? What stops will you make along the way? If you are flying, which airline will you use? Will you fly Coach, or First-Class? What kind of living accommodations will you require? Will you make reservations, or trust that there will be openings when you arrive? What will you eat? Will you take it with you, buy along the way, or eat in restaurants? How much will all of this cost? Do you have that much available today? How much will you have to save before you leave? How much is that each day? What will you have to give up to save that much money? What about alternative plans? What happens if it rains, or doesn’t rain? What do you do if there is a detour? What if you can’t save that much money, what would your second choice be?

You get the picture. Planning is not only smart, it is required.

We begin with the Goal – the Target – the Destination. We build Plans on the Goals – decisions today about what we will do tomorrow. As we work our plan, we are always evaluating progress so we can change plans, or readjust goals.

What kinds of Goals do you need to establish? What level of Planning do you need to do?