The Secret Ingredient – YOU
Want to create a strong brand, add to the sustainability of your business, increase your confidence and really enjoy being an entrepreneur? Just add the secret ingredient. Billion dollar businesses have been built on the secret ingredient.
In your business the secret ingredient is “YOU” and your personal assets. It’s up to you to know who you are: your strengths, your motivators, your values, and to apply those liberally to how you conduct and present your business. A good part of what attracts customers and clients is you.
Early in life you may have been discouraged from using your personal assets by well-meaning family, friends, teachers and others. It is, however, these qualities that have the strongest potential to attract what will make you successful and happy in your business and your life.
Marcus Buckingham, noted author and speaker on the subject has shown that “people will be dramatically more effective, successful and fulfilled when they play to their strongest skills rather than attempting to improve their weaknesses”.
Think back to when you were a child. I’ll bet there are things you can remember having fun doing or that were important to you then that somehow got lost in the growing up process. Chances are they’re still there, but have been forced underground because you wanted to “fit in” and be accepted as one of the group – or there was no obvious way to use them at the time.
The wonderful thing is you have choices all the time. With every choice comes the resulting impact on your universe. Each option will bring a different set of results. If you are conscious of who you are – your strengths, passions, talents, etc., you can make choices that will allow you to benefit from these assets.
I believe we use only a small part of our brain power to a large extent because we are out of alignment with our innate nature and strengths. It’s an exercise in basic physics. We’re designed to receive our awareness energy from many sources. If our basic receptors are out of alignment, some of that energy will be deflected as it enters our multiple consciousness levels, thereby substantially reducing the energy we can use.
By realigning ourselves with our core strengths we receive the full force of that energy. This means we gain maximum awareness from our environment. We become stronger, more intuitive and express ourselves with more passion and confidence.
So how do we realign ourselves to benefit most from who we are?
It’s an exploratory process that can be accelerated through the use of an outside person; a friend, a family member or a coach – someone who can help sort out the truth from the fiction we’ve created about ourselves.
When I work with a new client, the first assignment focuses on identifying personal assets. This brings to the surface many personal facets that had previously been forgotten. A focused review of their lives gives major clues about their strengths, values, skills, passions and talents.
A rediscovered musical talent, a love of animals, the ability to create solitude and peace in a hectic environment are all part of the individual truths that have been used to redefine and redirect several of my clients’ lives and businesses.
Once you acknowledge and claim who you really are, you have the foundation upon which to build your relationships, your business and your personal satisfaction. You will more easily be able to attract what you need to realize the dreams you may have long ago forgotten.
When your own image is clearly implanted in your mind it becomes your personal brand and your secret ingredient for business success.
What’s your secret ingredient?
If you’d like to work on defining and refining your own secret ingredient, go to the Contact page and send me a note. We’ll schedule a time to talk.
2010: A Year of Opportunity
There seems to be a glimmer of optimism in the marketplace. Some businesses are hiring; corporations are starting to spend, home sales are up, the stock market is up. Many small businesses are starting to see a break in the logjam we’ve been in. That means there will be more business to be had in 2010. Are you ready to get your share of it?
Now is the time to be proactive — with a plan. The challenge is finding the right opportunity for your business.
Come spend an hour with me and some of your peers to:
- discuss market trends,
- learn steps to gain market advantage,
- brainstorm new ideas,
- share knowledge and experience
all for the purpose of helping you make 2010 a year of opportunity.
Join us for this F*R*E*E brainstorming tele-session on Monday, December 14, 1 – 2 p.m. EST.
It’s my gift to you.
A recording will be available to everyone who registers, including those who register but do not attend the live event.
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.