Staying On Track

Your business is you. It’s you creating something that wasn’t there before; with material results from your intentions, your energy, your essence, whatever it may happen to be at that time. The science of growing it simply means having prepared leadership, development, producers, and administration. As the process evolves, so do your systems for solving frustrations and focusing on those critical factors that matter most.
This is your rich-making vehicle. Like any car, you’ve got a gas gauge, a speedometer, oil gauge—all the key things you need to know quickly and conveniently if this thing is running properly. You need the same things in your business.
You need the ability to track what’s important. There’s what is quantifiable and easy to count—like sales—but there are also subjective things where opinions are measured, when the ‘qualifiable’ becomes quantifiable.
One issue that’s gained tons of traction over the last couple of years is going green—especially in businesses—from “cloud” computing to energy consumption’s impact on the bottom line.
Some people couldn’t care less about the plight of the pelicans in an endangered eco-system (a shame, for sure), but when you can quantify how switching over to energy-efficient equipment can save thousands of dollars, politics goes out the window. Saving the planet is on the same track as the bottom-line.
Also consider, though, the marketing appeal of being able to sincerely tell your market you support green initiatives. Again, the subjective can become countable in response rates.
Put a scale in and it. Customer satisfaction; employee satisfaction—you measure benchmarks, time frames, the ranges you’d like to be in, or what high/low thresholds would signify danger-zones. They sound complicated, but they’re really not.
How many sales calls and closes per hour would you like to see? You look at what your sales are per month and compare. Too low? Too high (maybe there’s something else not being considered if it’s too good to be true)?
You want the salesperson that follows a script, makes the calls and closes the ratio that they should be closing. That can be copied, duplicated, and most importantly, tracked.
If the oil pressure in your vehicle is too high, you’ve got a problem. If it’s too low, you’ve also got a problem. You want to be in between, yes? What are your operating ranges for your critical success factors?
It might be that you’re willing to spend a certain amount of money per employee depending on their role in your business’ structure. If you’re paying your marketing guy $30,000 more than you really intended, there isn’t going to be much speculation on why your profits aren’t where you want them to be. Like getting a speeding ticket, you had this gauge that you weren’t paying attention to and you exceeded the operating range.
There are things you can count on and physically look at; things you can measure; and real accurate data that you can track—not guess. They’re documented. It could be in a manual you pass out to all employees, or one that you’ve got linked up online.
It takes consistency, predictability, and tracking—systems that can be operated by someone with a base-line level of skill. When you can duplicate that, you’re on track to financial freedom.

The Real Problem is …

Last week we explored how sometimes we just need to be able to identify what we’re frustrated at in order to begin addressing it. When there are consistent frustrations in a business, we can usually address them but putting systems in place that minimize inconsistencies and produce more of the results we’re really looking for.

It’s another one of those no-duh, no brainers that may not appear like much until those frustrations build to the point of blinding us from the most direct solutions.

But we now want to articulate the impact of that frustration on our business condition. How does this thing impact you? What results aren’t you getting? What’s happening? What’s not happening that you want to happen, or don’t want to happen?

We don’t want to be working on anything that doesn’t really matter. If you’re frustrated because your partner starts their day later than you do, does it really matter as long as the work is getting done? But if that lateness means missing calls from earlier time zones, that could have an impact, yes?

So it’s one thing to name a frustration, and it’s another to know exactly what that frustration translates into toward your bottom line. You’ve got to probe, measure, and quantify that frustration. You might find at the end of the day, you’re really getting bothered over something trivial—or you could find that your frustrations are indeed warranted.

If you have a complex system you’re looking at, this process can take months. So how about a more simple formula?

“The real problem in my business is the absence …” It could be a system that will cost-effectively generate leads rather than be a costly guessing game every time. Or a system that staff can follow consistently rather than doing it their own way each time, producing mediocre or inconsistent results. Or it could be the absence of a system for strategic planning rather than primarily responding to a competitor’s moves.

It’s just a generic way of focusing. You’re not actually formulating a system yet. What you’ll find is some of these things that you describe can actually be purchased as software programs, or you can easily hire consultants who do them much better than you would. But once you’ve figured out what the problem actually is, reformulating starts to become easier.

“The real problem in my business is the absence of a system that will …” Fill in the blank with that generic system solution and then write down your original frustrating condition.

You should start to feel a shift in your energy in terms of some of these things that are frustrating you. The question that you simply have to ask now is: Is this frustration worth fixing? Is this frustration that you named—if it’s not stemming from within you—something you have to address quickly or is it lower on the priority scale?

Putting a Face on Frustration

Putting a Face on Frustration

November 11th, 2011 by T. Harv Eker

When we get frustrated by our conditions, we inevitably end up becoming frustrated with ourselves. It can take us over and we tend to run with it. It can creep into every aspect of our lives, from how we relate to the people around us, to how it will impact our business.
If the frustration builds for too long, pretty soon we might forget altogether what the hell we were frustrated at in the first place, yes?
This happens in business all the time, especially when, in the early stages of the business, cash flow can fluctuate maddeningly, which then leads to all other kinds of frustrations from payroll to profits.
There’s an energy attached to frustration that sucks the life out of your business, and if you’re not dealing with this as a business owner, it’s only going to go downhill from there.
Moving back away from whatever the problem is, step one toward a solution is simply being able to classify your frustrations. Is it with your team? Your results? A process that doesn’t seem to flow efficiently?
Some typical early-stage business frustrations include time (there never seems to be enough of it), feeling like you’re too bogged down with menial detail-work instead of bigger-picture tasks, or relying on people to get things done that don’t follow through. Just to name a few.
This is where the importance of systemizing your business processes plays a huge role. First you name your frustration, and then you develop the system to address it.
So if you’re having problems with freeing up your time yet ensuring that essential tasks still get done, then the real problem is the absence of a system that will hire the right people rather than you doing it all yourself. That way, not only is your time freed up, but the right people will also help micro-manage the way processes continue to develop and flow.
The good news is that frustrations within your business are fairly easy to identify and deal with, though they may take time. Inner frustrations, on the other hand, not only take more time and energy to deal with, but may also be harder to identify in the first place. You could be mad at yourself because you’ve done something poorly for so long, and you get frustrated about not seeming able to turn the corner. Or worse, you externalize that frustration toward everybody else—the customers, the suppliers, the vendors, the client; everybody but yourself.
We know the power of blueprints, so we won’t address that here.
When it comes to outer frustrations that we can identify, though, the questions are much simpler. What’s my frustration? What’s the gap in the system? What system is missing altogether?
If your frustrations begin with ‘I’, it’s about you. It’s inner directed. If it’s about ‘them’ or ‘those people’ or ‘those lousy clients’ or ‘those suppliers’ or ‘that lousy machinery’ or ‘that way’ of doing something, it can then be addressed systematically and objectively.
What do you think? Have you experienced similar or even different kinds of frustrations, and how did you address them? Did systemizing play a role? The Millionaire Mind Community wants to hear from you!

Why Did I Start This Business Again??

I wonder how many would-be entrepreneurs consider—while they’re thinking about running a successful business—that ultimate success means not running that business?

Building a business that has you stuck in the middle of it isn’t much better than working for someone else under their terms. It gets to the point where you look up one day and you find that you might make some money, but now you have no life! You’re a slave to your business. Money with no life, or vice versa, is brutal.

When you are the one running your business, you are at the very center of it. YOU make all the key decisions. YOU manage all the key relationships with all the key customers. You have to deal with the key suppliers and every key problem in your business. You’re the only one who you really trust, and the pressure just keeps mounting. And there’s not much of a way out because you’ve built a business that’s based on experience and expertise.

Every new customer requires more work. Results are inconsistent and sometimes you don’t even know why. Your customer service may be kind of iffy because you’re the only one who really does a great job of it.

And when you’re away, you’re anxious about what’ll happen when you’re gone. You don’t have time for anything as it is, and when you do, you feel like you probably should be working on the business. And then it’s hard to get good people, yes? That’s especially true if you’re trying to hire superstars to cover you when you’re gone.

Think of the difference between hiring someone who’s honest rather than teaching them to be honest, or hiring someone that’s enthusiastic rather than teaching enthusiasm. Imagine you had a staff where you hire them with the values that you share, and they are capable of doing what you need them to do while you actually do what you want to do and should be doing—which is focusing on keeping that business on the success track.

The definition of a successful business is simple: when it works with or without you. It doesn’t depend on you and that translates into increased growth, increased profits, and most importantly, increased satisfaction.

It delivers consistent, predictable, and superior results. There’s a good team in place doing what it needs to do without uncertainty or undue pressures on you to make decisions that they should be making.

The only way this is possible is to have systems in place that speak for you and your business. If you have a system, you smooth out the ups and downs. You’re able to have predictability in your results, and you’re not held hostage to yourself by needing to ‘over-the-shoulder’ manage. Systems free you from the day to day. It allows you to work on developing the future.

Over the next couple of weeks we’ll take a look at some of the different aspects of systemizing so that if you choose, you can sell it for much more money than you would have without having those systems in place.

Remember: what did we get into this for? To have another job?

What do you think? Has the power of systemizing affected the growth or success of your business? If so, how? We want to hear from you!!!

Your Business Reflects You

If someone told you, right before you got out of the gate, “Sixty-three percent of all businesses fail within the first six years,” would you still want to start a business?

That’s the figure according to the U.S Bureau of Labor Statistics. That means most people stand a little bit better than a 50/50 chance of, at minimum, staying above water; we’re not even talking about profitability.

Given that reality, it’s good to remind ourselves of why we wanted to do this business thing in the first place. Some people want to make more money. Perhaps it’s about taking care of your family, or taking care of them in the style you’d like. Maybe you want to be a better provider, a better parent, or a better spouse. It could be about more freedom, or more quality time.

Some people start a business because they believe it will give them greater security. They realize that working for somebody else and having someone else make fundamental economic decisions in their lives just doesn’t give them the kind of control they want. So they start a business for a different lifestyle.

Whatever the reason, the same fundamental question remains: what’s so important about any of this? What’s really behind it all?

I think—just as important as taking care of loved ones, or being successful, or being in control, or even being free—we are most basically fulfilling the creative impulse to grow something, to make something that didn’t exist before, and to nurture it as best we can. It really helps to understand this when it seems like the steam may be going out while trying to get your business up and running. This isn’t and can’t just be about money—though that is a pretty obvious goal for whatever those reasons we see above.

You also can’t ignore the “maverick,” individualistic impulse to do something different, or something completely unusual, so you build a business, go out there and you learn something. You develop a core expertise, gain some experience, and build your business around that.

There are so many basic human elements to creating a business—freedom, or accomplishment, care for others, individual expression—it makes you wonder how we could stand to live by not starting a business?

Our reasons better be more than just “success,” though, because if you make it past that 63% mark, the bigger that you get, the more the headaches come, and then it just kind of gets worse ifyou don’t know what you’re really getting into—if you’re not properly educated to give yourself a chance to make it well beyond that 63% mark.

This is the essence of what takes that 27% percent of successful business owners beyond those first six years. It’s knowing that success is not just measured in numbers alone—but again, when those numbers increase, it sure as hell does feel good, yes or yes?

It’s also understanding that success as a business owner entails reaching down into yourself, your creative spirit, and bringing that out into the world meaningfully. It’s as spiritual as it is material, and we’d all do better for ourselves and our impact on the world to honor that.

What’s your opinion? We want to hear from you!!!

Success Takes More than Skill

Success Takes More than Skill

October 21st, 2011 by T. Harv Eker

Two hamburger joints open back in ’67 … we’ll call one Bob’s Burger Shack. Great hamburgers! The other shop is McDonalds. The rest is history, yes?

Were Mickey D’s burgers really that much better than Bob’s? I mean, really … how hard is it to get a burger right? Even Ray Croc himself admitted this to eager business school students he lectured in his lifetime. He’d ask them, ‘How many people in here can make a better hamburger than McDonalds?’ Everyone would raise their hand because everybody’s made a tasty burger before, at least tasty by their own standards. But then he’d ask, ‘How many people make more money than McDonalds?’ Naturally, all hands dropped.

It’s a simple yet eloquent demonstration that it doesn’t matter whether you have a better idea, a better product, or a better service. In business, the only thing that matters is getting that product, idea, or service out to as many people as possible, and/or at as much profit as possible.

It’s the learning curve of the entrepreneur—amassing the skills necessary to take what you have to offer to a mass audience profitably, which anybody can learn how to do, but it also takes a nerve and determination that most people just don’t show when it comes to taking control of their financial future. That kind of moxie can be the rope that saves you instead of binds you in stagnation after a big failure.

Few people have the kind of moxie that Karl Eller has. He’s a legend in Arizona but a giant in business period. He started out in billboard advertising; was one of the founders of the NBA Phoenix Suns basketball team; president of Columbia Pictures at one point, which he helped merge into Coca-Cola—amazingly successful businessman.

But he had a major setback, to say the least. He built another company called Circle K—a kind of convenience store—into the second largest chain in the U.S. during the 80s. Under his leadership, the company grew from something like $750 million in sales to $3.4 billion!

Then the company filed bankruptcy in the 90s, due in part to just a bad turn in business. He was forced to leave with $100 million in personal debt! Can you imagine being $100 million in debt? Not your company … you, personally???

Instead of declaring bankruptcy, though, Eller dug himself out by going back into what he knew well: outdoor advertising. Eller built another media company and merged with Clear Channel Communications for a then-record $1.15 billion!

And he did this when most people are retiring.

His track record is elegant proof that the question isn’t what type of business you want to go into—or at least that’s not the essential question. You’re going to find your niche, and you’re going to be better at that particular field of interest than others—whether we’re talking about burgers or billboards.

The essence of success in business, I believe, is the intangible quality that means having integrity no matter what the situation—win or loss—not being afraid to take risks, and your ability to bounce back after tremendous setbacks.

What do you think? What do you consider to be some of the intangible qualities of business success? The millionaire Mind community wants to hear from you!!!

It’s Not the Times, It’s the Technique

When businesses go down these days, you hear the same thing over and over again: “It’s the economy. Times are tough. It’s hard to get people to spend money or take risks.”

Yeah, everyone is going to be more cautious about how they invest or spend their money in a tough economic downswing. But what’s the main function of any kind of business at any time? Getting people to buy your product or service. Simple, yes or yes? But if a business today isn’t good at attracting people to buy what they’re offering, it will lose profitability and go down, but the economy gets blamed.

Here’s the truth: being a successful businessperson has nothing to do with the economy. If you know what you’re doing, you’re going to be successful in any economy. And one of the keys to the success of a business is Effective Marketing.

This is one of the most crucial functions of business, but quite frankly most people suck at it! That’s why statistically, most businesses fail, especially when exposed to an economy like the one we’re in.

As a business owner, the main function of generating leads and getting as many of those people to buy your product as possible doesn’t ever change no matter what’s going on out there. An effective system of marketing will make or break if people will buy your product, and whether or not your business will be profitable.

Successful businesses have these four marketing techniques, no matter what the industry:

1. You have to start with prospects—These are the people you’re going to be “talking” to. You need a database of people who will raise their hands and say, “Hey, I’m interested. Tell me more.”
2. You Have to Have A Message—Start with information: who you are, what you do, your credibility and expertise, and the benefits of whatever it is you’re offering. The hook.
3. How you’re going to reach them— Newsletters, emails, network marketing, direct mail—a system of delivering the message.
4. Back End—A method for closing the sale or following up later. Not everyone who raised their hand will say, “I want this now.” Don’t let potential customers fall through the cracks.

These four steps are necessary for any business at any time, and you also have to have strategies in place for each of the steps individually, like how to build your database (engine search, joint ventures, etc.), psychological leveraging (the potential pain by notgoing with your product), attractive packaging, and alleviating fears and hesitation.

It doesn’t matter what type of marketing you do—paper or electronic, people to people— you’ve got to have a system that works; a checklist of things you’d do whether the economy is good or bad.

You need something that makes it easier for you to get people to buy your product, and easier for the customer to want to buy it. With effective systems in place, it’s a win-win, and you’re giving yourself a greater chance that people spend their otherwise reluctant money on you. Of course, don’t forget to deliver on the promise.

Effective marketing makes the difference between a good business that prospers only when times are good, and a great business that endures in any economy.

A Pitch with Mass Appeal

Use your imagination to picture the truth of what it really means to sell yourself, to sell what you have to offer to as many people as possible.
You’re the “weirdo” on the street with the megaphone. That’s right, the one that people are aware of but usually pass by. Some can hear you from blocks away, but the message only gets clearer the closer they get to you. And the point is of course to get them closer to get them to do something.
Depending on the content (product) and the presentation (emotional impact), some people will stop and listen, especially if what you’re saying is interesting to them or has imminent, relevant meaning. Of those very few people who stop and listen, even fewer will actually engage you, give you a chance to address objections, or otherwise convince them to take some kind of action.
But everybody’s got somewhere to be, right? Who has time to stop and listen and engage? Plus, you’re kind of weird for putting yourself out there talking all passionately and excitedly into a megaphone anyway. Who does that?
Every business person does, and we have to. The key is to understand that at any given time, you have about 3% of people who are ready to buy something right now, whether it’s a car, a cell phone, furniture, you name it. That’s what drives all commerce.
About the same percentage of people are willing to listen because they’ve been thinking about buying something but aren’t necessarily committed to it. It’s not an immediate concern. If they did by, it would have to be because you gave them an offer they couldn’t refuse.
What does that mean for the vast majority of others passing you by? It means they’re indifferent, not thinking about it, or flat out uninterested.
But what if we could say something that would get 75% of people passing by to stop and listen, or more? What would make them stay? It always points back to adding information that is above and beyond a particular product or service you’re offering. You generalize, then specify.
If you’re a business coach pitching CEOs and managers to become your clients, who you are as a company should be last in your presentation. Yawn! But starting off with something like, “The 5 Most Dangerous Trends Facing Small Businesses Today” and no business owner can logically or emotionally say they wouldn’t be interested in that subject. It matters to all of them! They’re all business owners or involved in some way, and none of them want anything to do with danger in that business.
In reality, it’s actually much easier to keep prospects near because by the time they’ve reached you, you’ve already narrowed the audience anyway because you’ve got your identity and unique selling proposition nailed down, yes? It’s much easier to pitch to qualified leads than people who thought they were getting one thing but get something else because you weren’t clear on who you’re really trying to reach. So now it’s a simple matter of turning 3% of those who were ready to do something anyway into a much a deeper pool by giving away information that they’d all be interested in.
How do you champion your product or service? What’s your proverbial “megaphone” speech to your prospects? Share your ideas or even experiment. The Millionaire Mind community wants to hear from you!!!

Don’t Just Be Good, Be Good and Rich

What’s the root of all evil? Money, right? Wrong!

You’d be amazed how many people think being rich will make their lives worse, like they won’t be judged for who they are but for their money. So even though they want to be rich, they shirk it at the same time.

This subtle yet profound fear keeps people from the truth: it’s good to be rich! Not just for the lifestyle, but because in the end, being rich makes us into better people.

I can hear someone screaming, “What about the rich jerk who doesn’t tip even though the service was great? How’s money made him a better person?” Here’s a clue: whoever you are, money will make you more of that. If you are a kind, generous person who attracted like-minded people before being rich, you’ll continue to do so after because now you’ll be able to be evenmore generous on a larger scale.

It’s our duty to become rich if we can. We have an obligation to grow to our greatest potential, developing the character that can achieve and care about other people at the same time. This is the growth that will ultimately make us into better people.

So what is the root of all evil? It’s not stacks of paper. Fear is at the root of our thoughts that tell us becoming rich will make things worse and take us away from being loved, accepted, and well-thought of.

If we don’t accept that being rich can be a good thing for ourselves and for others, fear and doubt creates envy. Envy says, “I can’t have that, and I resent those that do.” Acceptance of what you really want says, “I can have that, and I will be a better person because of it.”

So instead of secretly despising rich people, we should affirm them, even if they’re frickin jerks. We’re not affirming who they are as people—we’re affirming the idea that it’s okay to be rich. You can make a choice not to be selfish, arrogant, and thoughtless. Fear and envy negate thoughts of wealth and result in feelings and actions that take you away from it, even when you’re not aware of it.

Here’s a simple exercise in overcoming fear. Think of something that you’ve always wanted to do but never got around to, and just do it (Don’t break any laws, though!). Even if you end up not wanting to do it again, at least you know instead of just holding back for whatever reason. You’ve broken through something, and other breakthroughs become easier. It’s the only way we’ll ever grow.

This is not just about being rich, although that is one of the goals. This is about growing ourselves to become bigger than the obstacles we’ll face in life. The more wonder we experience andchallenges we face, the more we expand to be able to take in more; the good and the bad; the money and the problems that come with it. In the end, striving toward becoming rich can only serve you, and if you choose it, serve others as well. How’s that a bad thing?

Service and Presentation Equals Millions

Writer’s get writers block. Baseball hitters have slumps. Markets have down days.
The idea behind “funks” is that we’ll eventually come out of them, yes? But what we can we say for those people who aren’t making excuses about lack of financial growth; who have a burning desire to get off the treadmill and take control of their financial life by deciding to start a business, but have no idea what they’d do?
We can start drawing parameters around the question by realizing that in business, you either have a product, a service or an idea that you’re selling. Some potential business people might think, “Great, I don’t have a product. I don’t have two thousand of something sitting on a shelf somewhere in a warehouse ready to be shipped out and sold.”
Or they might be saying to themselves, “I don’t have a product but, but I do have an idea for a service, but how they heck do I do that enough to make a lot of money?”
As a matter of fact, every year there are over 375,000 different patents submitted to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. A fraction of those patents turn into something lucrative. The vast majority don’t because they are lacking a crucial element: Presentation!
You can have the greatest product, service, or idea in the world, but if you can’t communicate it in a way that gets others to want what you have—or if you can’t create the need for what you have—then nothing’s going to happen.
Before we can truly understand how to effectively make our presentation, we have to first understand why people buy anything in the first place. If we understand that, then we’re in a much better position to come up with that product, service, or idea and present it.
There’s only one reason why people buy; whether it be from television, from across a desk, in a department store, or on the telephone. People buy based on emotion and they justify it with the facts later!
Not that the facts aren’t important. Facts are very, very important, but they provide the information while emotion provides the interpretation.
When we’re buying a car, sure gas mileage matters, but there’re plenty of cars that have that covered. You’re gauging how you feel in that seat, the new car smell, and the compliments you’ll get. How those car payments will be made you figure out later. It’s primarily about how you feel about the purchase.
When you’re sending out your message about your product, service or idea on the informational level, you’re not doing anything wrong but you’re never going to make a real connection. You’re always going to miss making that strong, important, effective, emotional association.
We’re not talking about manipulation, either. I think it’s a basic instinct of all human beings to want to help other people. So when we’re thinking of what we’re going to do to make millions, whatever it is you have to be thinking, “How do I effectively help others with what I have?” Not just how you’re going to make your car payments or mortgage.
When you are selling something you are doing something tosomebody, but when you’re helping you’re doing something for somebody. Service and presentation will keep you in business.
What do you think? We want to hear from you!!!