“Don’t join an easy crowd.  You won’t grow.  Go where the expectations and the demands to perform and achieve are high.”  When professionals make the decision and commitment to adopt their big vision for their life, they are, at times, surrounded by relationships that may be holding them back.  They key is to pay attention to your feelings.  If you feel worse after spending some time in their company, it may be an occasion to look for a different circle of friends.  Re-evaluate, too, whether those relationships are able to support you to your next level and expand your circle.  Seek out the relationships or mastermind groups that will support you while being upfront and honest with you.  In order to move ahead, you might also need to let go of things, mindsets or relationships that hold you to the status quo and move toward the places where expectations to perform and grow personally and professionally are higher.

” The few who do are the envy of the many who watch.”  The thing that often prevents people in achieving their next level of success is that they have a goal in mind, but they keep it in their head so it appears so big that they stop before they’ve even started on it.  I’ve lost count on how many people have said they always wanted to write a book but never take the first step.  Creating a plan has never been more important to achieving your next level of success.  Write out the goal, the action steps to get there, and the timelines you will achieve these steps.   One entrepreneur tried this exercise with a project she had in mind.  She also identified all of her resources that could assist her with associated deadlines.  She went from anxious to anticipation in just one hour.  Her anxiety level was reduced once she realized it wasn’t going to be as difficult as she thought.  The simple act of writing down your steps taps into another part of your brain.  Instead of being one of the many who watch, you transform into one of the few who do.

“Success is something you attract by the person you become.” Continuous personal development is the key to continuously moving to the next level.  Just when you think you’re done developing, there’s always another dimension or new lesson to learn.  Successful entrepreneurs regularly identify their areas of development and seek out resources that provide the skills or competencies to move ahead.  You see, the valuable things are on the highest shelf.  If you want the things on the highest shelf, you must stand on the books you read.  With every book you read, you get closer to that high shelf.

“Learn the skills, practice the skills, apply the skills.”  Few words are more powerful than these.  Have you heard entrepreneurs say, “I already know that” but they haven’t applied the skill or implemented the solution consistently to achieve the next level of success?   Success has many dimensions, too, not just financial.   Reflect on all areas of your life and write out that vision.  It takes the unique formula of learning, practicing, and applying to create the next level of success in all aspects of life and for you to reach your desired vision.

When you make the commitment to attain your next level, consider these quotes and apply them to your own situation.  Observe the changes and celebrate your successes often.

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When you adopt a systems mindset, you begin to look at how your decision in one area affects the other areas simultaneously.  So what’s this systems mindset?  When you adopt a systems mindset, you look at your whole business.  According to the INCOSE Systems Engineering Handbook, a systems thinker “knows how systems fit into the larger contents of day-to-day life, how they behave, and how to manage them.”  “Systems thinking is a unique perspective on reality – a perspective that sharpens our awareness of wholes and how the parts within those wholes interrelate.”

One of those parts of a whole includes the systems you create that helps to close a sale or, as I refer to it, Seal the Deal.  The Seal the Deal System^TM looks at how you use both systems and how you educate your prospects as well as authentically offer resources.  Part of that system is about offering choices to your prospects.  One major mistake that business owners and solopreneurs make when structuring their business model is offering only one high priced service or one option.  This leaves the prospect with a “yes I’ll work with you” OR “no I won’t work with you and they go; otherwise known as the “yes” OR “no-and-go” scenario.  When you develop choices, it changes the focus from yes OR no-and-go to “which option.”

A good example of how a system’s mindset can help change your whole business comes from a participant who attended my Entrepreneurial Edge System 3-Day Intensive. 

In less than two weeks after attending, I received a call from this participant on his success in changing his system of converting prospects to clients.  After being inspired by a system and conversion process, he implemented the conversion part of the process at a recent workshop he hosted.  He looked at the options and resources he was providing his prospects and made adjustments to his overall process.  He ended up not only providing high content and high value in his workshop, but he also created options for his prospects to work with him afterward resulting in a 100% conversion rate.   What that means is that 100% of prospects to his workshop chose one of the products or services he offered. 

What’s more is that he also created a metric for himself.  He now uses his conversion rate as a gauge.  Metrics are good ways to measure how the various systems are or aren’t working so that you can continuously improve them.  Afterall, you can’t manage what you don’t measure. 

In a recent episode of CBS’s Undercover Boss, the CEO of 7-Eleven explored his company from the inside when he went undercover as an employee and got a wakeup call about one of his response call times for replacing burned out lights in his franchises.  When he went through his own process, he realized it would be over a week to get lights replaced in a back room causing potential safety issues.  His experience allowed him to see things from his franchise owner’s perspective giving him a new view on field operations and his company’s metrics.

When reviewing your business systems, remember to look at how each part of the process affects your whole business.   If you’re looking at just the strategy portion of your business, take time to also review the processes from your customer’s perspective.  You will also want to review your systems as they may have elements that have different life cycles or parts of the system may become outdated and need to be changed.

When you can keep in mind how all of the parts and systems interrelate and monitor them to see if they are still relevant, you can get the edge in building a sustainable business that remains agile and relevant to today’s marketplace.

Do you have a system that works for you?  If so, let’s hear about it on my blog at http://excellerateassociates.wordpress.com or get my free Excellerator Ezine at http://www.excellerateassociates.com

Technorati Tags: business strategies, entrepreneurs, small business help, systems thinking

Financial Benchmarks

Creating benchmarks and metrics (both financial and other specific business metrics) helps to continuously review how the system is working. For years, I’ve seen business owners say “we don’t have the right employees.” When, in fact, they never looked at the systems the employees were working with. When they made the (sometimes slightest) change in a business system, it created improved outcomes – not only financially but their productivity and efficiency indictors also improved.
 

Developmental Benchmarks

One of the most interesting, but often overlooked indicators, is developmental. Broadly speaking, developmental indicators are about what systems need to be created and developed and, in The Entrepreneurial Edge SystemTM, what is called The Inner Entrepreneur. The Inner Entrepreneur is about the business owner’s hard wiring, assumptions, belief systems, how they use their time/energy and overall vision.

One entrepreneur started his day listening to the news. By the time he got to work, he was already discouraged hearing nothing but bad and negative news. He made the assumption from the information he heard that nobody had any money and his actions followed that assumption. One day, he changed his developmental system: what he listed to in the morning. Instead, each day he began to read a self-improvement book for only 10 minutes. This sparked his thinking to develop new and innovative ways to systematize and monetize his business. Not only did he develop himself he started seeing different results in other areas of his business. Today, he is not only a million-dollar wage earner, but he also is living a full and balanced life. In this case, a focus on developmental indicators, yielded multiple results in other areas.

Take time to strategically plan your business. When you keep an eye on the whole system (including the Inner Entrepreneur), you see results in other areas because belief systems and hard wiring will affect your actions and your actions will impact other areas of your business.

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Lisa Mininni is Best-Selling Author of Me, Myself, and Why? The Secrets to Navigating Change and President of Excellerate Associates, home of the sought-after Entrepreneurial Edge SystemTM that helps entrepreneurs systematize and monetize their business. To get your copy of her free eBook, Get Ready, Get Set, Go! and sign up for the free Teleseminar, request your information below:

Technorati Tags: attracting clients, entrepreneurs, profitability, small business help, Strategic Planning, systems

• Pay Attention to Your Market

It is important to review market changes. Keep an eye on the Baby Boomer generation, one of the largest generations, which will be requiring additional and specific health care needs. If your business services this generation, you’ll want to keep an eye on their needs so you can adapt your products and services. Researching your market now helps you to anticipate their wants and design products, solutions or services to assist them later.

• Update Your Marketing Strategies

One of the key issues with both new and seasoned business owners is that they are applying push marketing strategies and avoiding pull marketing strategies and social online sites. Entrepreneurs using outdated techniques wonder why their results aren’t what they used to be. It is important to keep a pulse on the societal changes so that you can be more effective in using systems and these online communities to draw in your target market.

• Ask the Customer

To anticipate customer needs, ask your customers what is really important to them. It sounds simplistic but so many companies don’t ask what their customers really want. They then create a product they think their customers want, only to find the results lacking once they launch. There are many low-cost (and quick) ways to ask your customer what’s important to them: surveys, face-to-face, telephone, or as part of your system or process of collecting valuable information that shapes the way you do business.
It is important to not only develop products your customers want, but if it is in development too long before it hits the market, you could miss the timing. A careful balance must be reached between research and development through to launching the product or service. By looking at your systems and processes, you will find greater efficiencies in meeting customer demands.

• Systematize

Often the reason for inconsistent results is a lack of systems. A client had detailed business plans. It sounded great on paper yet she failed to systematize her business plan. Often times, she would respond to the pressure of the day and forget about the long-term. It wasn’t a matter of her responding to the market. The plan was solid. But she failed to bring the plan as far as her calendar – scheduling it to make it happen. Once, she systematized her time and began to schedule times on her calendar to execute her plan, she found the results happened very quickly. She also didn’t have a good system for bringing in clients consistently. She had an opt-in e-newsletter but didn’t have a Permission-Based Marketing System (that is, an automated system that consistently nurtured the relationship with the client.) Once she built her system, she consistently filled her practice with clients.

• Leverage in Monetizing

Among many solopreneurs and small business owners, there is this notion of “being the only one to do the job.” They are often stuck in trading hours-for-dollars and forget about leverage. There is leverage in the internet, leverage in delegation, leverage in working with many people (as opposed to one-on-one). There are many different ways to create passive income leading to increased financial results.

Savvy solopreneurs take advantage of systematizing and monetizing their business. The ones that take action on these solutions end up thriving even during financial market fluctuations because they are clear on who they serve, consistently market, and create systems that help monetize their business.

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Lisa Mininni is Best-Selling Author of Me, Myself, and Why? The Secrets to Navigating Change and President of Excellerate Associates, home of the sought-after Entrepreneurial Edge SystemTM that helps entrepreneurs systematize and monetize their business. To get your copy of her free eBook, Get Ready, Get Set, Go! and sign up for the free Teleseminar, request your information below:

Technorati Tags: business planning, Entrepreneurial Edge System, entrepreneurs, free business plan format., monetizing, Strategic Planning, systematizing, writing a business plan

As a business owner, remember these tips in your business planning process:

• Identify your target market and preferred customer/client

One of the most important items to solidify in your planning process is to specifically identify who you serve.  There is a tendency with business owners to throw up a shingle and toss a wide net hoping to catch some customers.  If you try to be everything to everyone, you’ll be nothing to nobody. 

When you consider specific niches or specialties, you are able to market to that niche and create specialty programs, products and services that draw in customers.  Customers will seek you out and it  creates focus for your business often creating a win-win situation. Win for your business because you draw in more customers and win for the customers because you have a solution they seek.  When you define such a specific niche, you may not have competitors.  If you need heart surgery, you’re going to seek out a heart surgeon not a Pediatrician, unless your child needs the heart surgery then you would seek out a Pediatric Heart Surgeon.  The premise is the same for business.  By identifying a specific market or submarket, you can create a lucrative following by the nature of the niche.  It is important to research your market and learn where to find them.  There is a two-fold approach:  find them and help them find you.

• Consistently Market

One of the biggest mistakes entrepreneurs leave off their business planning is to consistently market.  Numerous studies have revealed that entrepreneurs who have consistently marketed even during economically down times, have better results in the long term.    One of the most important changes in today’s economy is a shift from push marketing to pull marketing; that is, to pull in your clients, create a relationship with them, and build trust over time.  Yet, many business owners make the mistake of push marketing:  continuously “pushing” or hard selling their products or services. 

One of the biggest frustrations of today’s entrepreneurs is bringing in a continuous flow of prospects.  But when business owners systematize their marketing to continuously bring in prospects, such as through a Permission-Based Marketing System, this frustration can be alleviated.  A Permission-Based Marketing System is an automated system that starts building the relationship with your prospect and helps your customer find your products and services.  If done correctly, it also collects data that you can use as the business owner.  It also acts as an aid to other networking and advertising strategies.

• Create Agile Infrastructures to Respond to Changing Conditions

While there are pros and cons to allowing employees to have access to social online sites, these online communities are here to stay.  It is important, however, when new technology comes into play, that business owners look at how they are responding (or resisting).  The concern of allowing access to these sites often stems around productivity.  Business owners stuck in the Industrial Age processes and systems may also be stuck in managing tasks rather than in managing outcomes and believe that by isolating employees from these sites, they will increase or maintain productivity.  On the contrary, savvy Business Leaders realize that they should manage outcomes. These social online sites are hubs for doing business and connections on these sites can increase business exponentially.  It is important to look at the sites strategically and select the ones that best meet your ideal customers.  But remember to continuously look at the demographics of these sites.  While Facebook started out with college students, one of the fastest growing segments became 50-60 year-old women.  Demographics of these sites are continuously changing so it is important to evaluate and re-evaluate which sites are providing the best outcomes.

Begin to look at things strategically and selectively just like your customers will when seeking out your services and products.  For them to be clear on what you offer, you need to be clear on your preferred client or customer.

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Lisa Mininni is Best-Selling Author of Me, Myself, and Why? The Secrets to Navigating Change and President of Excellerate Associates, home of the sought-after Entrepreneurial Edge SystemTM that helps entrepreneurs systematize and monetize their business. To get your copy of her free eBook, Get Ready, Get Set, Go! and sign up for the free Teleseminar, request your information below:

Technorati Tags: business planning, Entrepreneurial Edge System, entrepreneurs, free business plan format., monetizing, Strategic Planning, systematizing, writing a business plan