Ask for Help!
In a recent interview I was asked what I thought was a common thread for all my 
clients. Without thinking, I answered, “They’re ready and willing to ask for help”. I knew it was true before, but I hadn’t put it into words. Understanding and acknowledging this I can now focus on finding those who are ready to ask for help. That’s a great insight. I can simply ask prospects if they are ready to get help.
Entrepreneurs by nature don’t like to ask for help. An independent and sometimes stubborn lot, we tend to think we can do it all. There are many kinds of help we can ask for, from getting administrative support to calling on expertise beyond our own to accomplish something that would require ramp up time for us. That includes getting feedback on our ideas, helping us monitor our milestones and keeping us focused on our goals. The place to go for help is where the payoff is the biggest. If we haven’t clearly defined exactly what results we want, we may want to start there and get help to define them.
It’s much easier, and certainly more pleasant, having someone help us sort out the issues, get focused on goals, offer solutions, function as a partner and be a friend. Enter — the coach.
How do you know if you’re ready to ask for help from someone like a coach? Here are a few responses I’ve heard more than once.
- Tried unsuccessfully to do it myself
- Feel stuck and tempted to give up
- Want to grow my business but don’t know how
- Finances are out of control
- Staff is not productive; I end up doing it all
- Have great ideas, but don’t know how to develop them
- Want to create a strong brand; need guidance
- Frustrated with my business partnership or family business
With those kinds of answers you can’t afford NOT to get help. Humans were meant to help each other. It’s an honor to be asked for help. It reinforces our sense of being valued.
Asking for help does not imply weakness. I’ve found that those who ask for help when they need it are much more likely to succeed than those who keep putting it off, continuing to hope they can do it themselves. That can lead to total frustration and could be the beginning of an unwanted downhill spiral.
Is it time to get help in making critical decisions or setting a strategic course of action? Don’t be afraid to ask. I’ll bet you’ll be glad you did.
Go to the Contact Page, and tell me how I can help.
If you’re ready to cut through all the “stuff” and move your business onto the fast track to success, join us for the 9 week Fast Track Intensive, starting April 27th. First session is F*R*E*E.
Got Goals? Here’s a System to Achieve Them
Which of the following scenarios describes you?
- You have specific goals for next year that you’ve defined, quantified and are prepared to carry out a written plan of action.
- You have mental goals that you think are going to take you in the direction you want to go, but you have not been taking consistent action toward.
- You know you should set goals and be working toward them, but you’re not really clear about what you want to accomplish or even what’s realistic.
If either of the last two describes you, I predict you could be in for disappointment come the end of next year. What I’ve learned in coaching business owners is that goal achievement is something everyone knows about and wants, but frequently are at a loss about how to attain. Goal setting and achievement is a process with a beginning and end point with specific interim steps in between.
The game of football offers a good analogy; always seeking the end goal, but setting and achieving short term yardage goals that eventually add up to a touchdown.
Start with the most abstract aspect — the Vision you hold for your business. If you were to close your eyes and envision what your business would look like when it’s mature, what would you see? If you haven’t done this in a while, go ahead, close your eyes and take a look. Consider the scope of your business, what products or services would be included? Who would be your target market? What would your surroundings look like? Where might you be located? What revenues and profits would you be generating? What benchmarks would you consider appropriate to acknowledge you’d realized your Vision? These become your ultimate Long Term Goals.
Make as many observations as possible about what your mature business might look like. If you can’t get the picture to come into clear focus, this is the time to call upon your coach to help you clarify it. The clearer you can get, the easier it will be to stay focused on it once you have a plan of action.
The Vision for your business is the basis for everything else you do. Think about why your business exists – beyond providing you a job and an income. Whom does it serve? How is it different from competitors? How are customers or clients better for having or using what you sell? Your answer becomes your Mission.
Greg Kurzynski’s, mission for Air Messenger in Denver is to provide prompt, cost effective transport of people and time-sensitive products across the deserts and mountains of the Southwest. “When I get caught up in the daily grind of running my business, it helps to remember why I’m doing this”, he says.
Think about how long it might realistically take to realize your vision. Three years, five, eight, ten? With a ten year timeframe use your total revenue as a guide for milestones along the way. A $15 million business in ten years means you’ll need to be well along the way at five years, maybe $6 or 7 million. So what will it take to reach that in five years? And what about three years from now and then one year?
Mark Dimitri’s company provides professional video editing services and equipment. He serves a varied media base. After 13 years in business he has a Vision of financial freedom that will allow him to devote time to other business ventures, hobbies and community service. In 5 years Mark would like to be debt free and have a net worth of $5 million. He believes $5 million net worth will be adequate to provide him the level of financial freedom he “envisions”. So these can be called his Long Term Goals.
It’s best to quantify a goal whenever possible. Short Term Goals are really benchmarks designed to show where you are on the continuum toward your long term goal and offer a valuable opportunity to make adjustments based on results.
Mark’s assessment revealed he currently owes $120,000 and is worth about $500,000. The starting point and end point are the gap that must be filled over the allocated time (5 years). He believes he can reduce his debt to $60,000 in one year and can add another $500,000 to his net worth. In two years he believes he can be debt free and see his net worth at $2,000,000. He’s projecting interim targets of $3,000,000 and $4,000,000.
If we plotted this on an annual basis it would look like the following:
Current Debt $ 120,000
Current Net Worth 500,000
One Year Debt 60,000 (Short Term Goal)
One Year Net Worth 1,000.000 (Short Term Goal)
Two Year Debt 0 (Interim Goal)
Two Year Net Worth 2,000,000 (Interim Goal)
Three Year Net Worth 3,000,000 (Interim Goal)
Four Year Net Worth 4,000,000 (Interim Goal)
Five Year Net Worth $ 5,000,000 (Long Term Goal)
Just as in football, the most active strategy and planning takes place in the immediate timeframe. Long Term Goals are achieved by meeting a series of Short Term Goals.
One to two years is a reasonable timeframe to consider total revenue, total profit, market share, market position, current challenges that need to be addressed, new products/services, location and facility. This is considered short term goal setting and planning.
Danielle McGivern, owner of Cream Puff Bakeries in San Diego, says, “This year’s goal is to become more financially educated in my business operations, which will enable me to make proactive, instead of reactive, business decisions. I’d like to reach a million in sales within the next 2 years and be able to afford better incentives, such as health benefits, for my employees.”
To accomplish this she’s delegating some of her work so she’ll have more time to spend on the financial aspect of the business. And she’s using her business coach to help her understand and use her financial information and stay focused on her goals.
An easy way to approach getting from goal setting to action is to break short term (annual) goals down into quarterly goals. Set your plans to achieve this quarter’s goals, take the actions planned and monitor results monthly. Adjust as needed to stay on course toward your quarterly goals.
Determine tasks that will lead to your goals. Transfer these tasks to your weekly and then daily planner. Most Important – Allocate time on your calendar to carry out these key tasks. Give them priority. Remember, these are the activities leading toward your goals – and eventually your Vision.
To the extent that you can achieve your Daily, Weekly, Monthly, Quarterly and Annual Goals, you’ll be able to realize your Vision. I’ve created a specific tool to help you stay on track toward your goals on a weekly basis. It’s called the Goal Tracking Worksheet, and you can download it now with complete instructions on how to use it. It’s a steal at $37, but use code GTW10 and it’s yours for $27 till the end of the month. My clients swear by it.
If you’re not happy with what you’re achieving, this can be a small investment with a huge ROI. Download it now.
Are you suffering from “Entrepreneuritis”?
Today a client introduced me to a new term, “entrepreneuritis”. Since I hadn’t heard the term, I asked her what it was. She said it’s that syndrome that says “I can do it all myself; I want to do it all myself, I have to do it all myself. These are all my ideas, my way of doing things and no one else can do it as well. And I’m feeling overwhelmed because I need to grow my business but I’m so busy doing everything myself, I don’t have enough time to do the things that bring in business.”
Being curious, I decided to do some research myself. There seem to be varying definitions of entrepreneuritis. Robert Sher in his blog article, The Path between Entrepreneuritis and Myopia. says “Entrepreneuritis is where you can’t stop yourself from jumping on every new business idea that pops into your head. Having a clear definition of your business will aid you in steering the course between entrepreneuritis and myopia”. He also warns, “avoid being too rigid in your niche. If you’re not growing your business in some way you’re in trouble”.
The Blue Jeans Virtual Assistant in her blog article, Do You Have Entrepreneuritis? says, “As a small business owner I must learn how to do everything myself (spending countless hours learning it sometimes) and must grab on to each new idea that comes my way or through my inbox, learn it and move on to the next thing. As a result most likely I have a list of unfinished projects on paper, in an idea journal or on the computer.”
Donna Maria calls it Entrepreneur’s ADD and defines it as 1) too many ideas at one time, no execution of any; 2) can’t think what to do with an idea. In her article, 3-Step Cure for Entrepreneur’s ADD, she actually offers some tactics she used to cure herself.
I think all entrepreneurs occasionally have bouts with entrepreneuritis, even if they didn’t know what to call it. Of course, when it becomes chronic, it can become a problem and really hold back your business. Part of the argument I often hear is “I can’t afford to hire someone to do other tasks”. They don’t have the money to pay someone else now, so they just keep doing it themselves. Bottom line: you can’t grow your business until you can begin to hand off tasks. It’s like the chicken and the egg.
I remember the first time I hired someone to help with my e-mail communications. I didn’t really have the money to pay her, but I decided to make the investment in my business. I quickly learned how valuable it was to be able to hand off tasks that had taken me hours to do. Now I had more time to spend on what only I could do in the business.
For some alternatives to doing it all yourself, read my article, Delegation and Teamwork, for some ideas and examples of how to start letting go a little bit and giving yourself the solid support you need to grow. If you’re really serious about getting your business to the next level, don’t let entrepreneuritis keep you down.
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One of the great ways you can hand off tasks is by finding others with whom you can create a mutually beneficial alliance, joint venture or partnership. Learn how to put this to work in your business in the forthcoming Successful Partnership Workshop, which starts October 14th. In 4 weeks you will incorporate the principles of successful partnerships and have your growth-oriented partnership plan working.