GrowthCLUB - Does Your Business Have a Plan?

DOES YOUR BUSINESS HAVE A PLAN?

Only 2% of business owners have a 

written plan ... and even fewer stick to it ...

Imagine where your business could be in 90 days’ time if you ...

• Had strategies to build your profits immediately Could get more done in less time.
• Had renewed energy, vision and focus.
• Increased your confidence, leadership & decision making skills.
• Had a step by step plan for all areas of your business.

How much could you grow your business? How much more profit could you be making? How much more free time could you have? How much better would your team perform?

After attending GrowthCLUB, you’ll have complete focus on your goals and how to achieve them.  You’ll get back in touch with why you are in business and be able to review your progress to date.  It’s the ideal chance to get re-motivated, share fresh ideas with a group of business owners who are determined to move their businesses forward too. You’ll have a step by step plan for the next 90 days and an outline plan for the rest of the year. You’ll know exactly where your business will be and the strategies to get there.

What can you expect from a high action day working ON your business.....Heres what the vibe was at the previous first and second quarter planning days for 2014...

2014 First Quarter:

2014 Second Quarter:



So if your seriously want to get some focus in your Business then you really need to make the investment and come along for this dynamic Business Building day. Click on the eventbrite for more details on costings for the day and register.

Joining ActionCOACH for this practical and dynamic business-building day is the fast track to your next quarter to success ….

Plan your next quarter at the level of detail you need.

Work with a highly professional and focused coach and map out a winning plan for the next year.  Plus, with practical and expert training, you and your team will get back to your    business with clear direction and new tools to achieve your goals faster.

Get more done in less time  ….

By the end of this high energy day, you’ll have a clear picture of where your business will be at the end of the third quarter of 2014, and a step-by-step GrowthCLUB plan to get you there.  Your plan will encompass sales, marketing, finance, time efficiencies, customer service, systemisation and team building.  You’ll be able to focus on your goals and share your  challenges with other like-minded business owners.

Work ON your business, not IN it …

You will systematically work through business basics,   using your own business as a model, guided every step of the way.  This is a very interactive workshop; you will learn by ‘doing’ ensuring you come away with a model specific to your business to take you where you want to be. 

Head into the next 90 days with momentum …

We guarantee you will leave the day with renewed energy, a sharper focus and bubbling   enthusiasm.  It won’t be long before you see the direct benefits that this will have on your business.  You’ll walk away with:

· Energy, vision and clarity about the direction you’re driving your business in

· Strategies to build your profits right away

· A detailed plan for the third quarter of 2014 you can implement as soon as you get back to your business

· An outline plan to enter into the remaining of FY 2014/15.

· Ideas from growth-minded business owners

· The skills and tools to get more done in less time so you stay ahead of the competition

· Proven tactics to recession proof your business

Why Set Goals

Why Set Goals?

Goal setting is used by top-level athletes, successful business-people and achievers in all fields. Setting goals gives you long-term vision and short-term motivation. It focuses your acquisition of knowledge, and helps you to organize your time and your resources so that you can make the very most of your life.

By setting sharp, clearly defined goals, you can measure and take pride in the achievement of those goals, and you'll see forward progress in what might previously have seemed a long pointless grind. You will also raise your self confidence, as you recognize your own ability and competence in achieving the goals that you've set.

Many people feel as if they're adrift in the world. They work hard, but they don't seem to get anywhere worthwhile. A key reason that they feel this way is that they haven't spent enough time thinking about what they want from life, and haven't set themselves formal goals. After all, would you set out on a major journey with no real idea of your destination? Probably not!

Goal setting is a powerful process for thinking about your ideal future, and for motivating yourself to turn your vision of this future into reality. The process of setting goals helps you choose where you want to go in life. By knowing precisely what you want to achieve, you know where you have to concentrate your efforts. You'll also quickly spot the distractions that can, so easily, lead you astray.

Starting to Set Personal Goals

You set your goals on a number of levels:

• First you create your "big picture" of what you want to do with your life (or over, say, the next 10 years), and identify the large-scale goals that you want to achieve.
• Then, you break these down into the smaller and smaller targets that you must hit to reach your lifetime goals.
• Finally, once you have your plan, you start working on it to achieve these goals.

This is why we start the process of goal setting by looking at your lifetime goals. Then, we work down to the things that you can do in, say, the next five years, then next year, next month, next week, and today, to start moving towards them.

Setting Lifetime Goals

The first step in setting personal goals is to consider what you want to achieve in your lifetime (or at least, by a significant and distant age in the future). Setting lifetime goals gives you the overall perspective that shapes all other aspects of your decision making.

To give a broad, balanced coverage of all important areas in your life, try to set goals in some of the following categories (or in other categories of your own, where these are important to you):

• Career - What level do you want to reach in your career, or what do you want to achieve?
• Financial - How much do you want to earn, by what stage? How is this related to your career goals?
• Education - Is there any knowledge you want to acquire in particular? What information and skills will you need to have in order to achieve other goals?
• Family - Do you want to be a parent? If so, how are you going to be a good parent? How do you want to be seen by a partner or by members of your extended family?
• Artistic - Do you want to achieve any artistic goals?
• Attitude - Is any part of your mindset holding you back? Is there any part of the way that you behave that upsets you? (If so, set a goal to improve your behavior or find a solution to the problem.)
• Physical - Are there any athletic goals that you want to achieve, or do you want good health deep into old age? What steps are you going to take to achieve this?
• Pleasure - How do you want to enjoy yourself? (You should ensure that some of your life is for you!)
• Public Service - Do you want to make the world a better place? If so, how?

Spend some time brainstorming these things, and then select one or more goals in each category that best reflect what you want to do. Then consider trimming again so that you have a small number of really significant goals that you can focus on.

As you do this, make sure that the goals that you have set are ones that you genuinely want to achieve, not ones that your parents, family, or employers might want. (If you have a partner, you probably want to consider what he or she wants - however, make sure that you also remain true to yourself!)

Setting Smaller Goals

Once you have set your lifetime goals, set a five-year plan of smaller goals that you need to complete if you are to reach your lifetime plan.

Then create a one-year plan, six-month plan, and a one-month plan of progressively smaller goals that you should reach to achieve your lifetime goals. Each of these should be based on the previous plan.

Then create a daily To Do List of things that you should do today to work towards your lifetime goals. 

At an early stage, your smaller goals might be to read books and gather information on the achievement of your higher level goals. This will help you to improve the quality and realism of your goal setting.

Finally review your plans, and make sure that they fit the way in which you want to live your life.

Staying on Course

Once you've decided on your first set of goals, keep the process going by reviewing and updating your To-Do List on a daily basis.

Periodically review the longer term plans, and modify them to reflect your changing priorities and experience. (A good way of doing this is to schedule regular, repeating reviews using a computer-based diary.)

SMART Goals

A useful way of making goals more powerful is to use the SMART mnemonic. While there are plenty of variants (some of which we've included in parenthesis), SMART usually stands for:

• S - Specific (or Significant).
• M - Measurable (or Meaningful).
• A - Attainable (or Action-Oriented).
• R - Relevant (or Rewarding).
• T - Time-bound (or Trackable).

http://www.mindtools.com/page6.html

Change the World

Admiral McRaven's top 10 tips for students to change the world. This is excellent and applies to all of us, at home, personally and in business. Watch his speech to see for yourself.

1. Make your bed every day - making your bed everyday into a profession. The wisdom of a a simple act.

2. Everyone must paddle. You can't change the world alone.

3. Measure a person by the size of their heart not the size of their flippers.

4. Get over being a sugar cookie and continue to pursue your goals with vigour.

5. Don't be afraid of the circuses, there's no such thing as failure only feedback. 

6. Sometimes you have to slide down the rope head first. Risk doing something different.

7. Don't back down from the sharks, confront your fears.

8. You must be your very best at the darkest moments under the keel.

9. Start singing when your up to your neck in mud, one person is all it takes to give hope.

10. Don't ever ring the bell.

So having listened to Admiral McRaven what little tasks to you need to complete daily to help along the way with the big tasks? How well does your team function, do they all have a paddle? How do you measure other people? How determined are you to pursue your goals? How do you react when the going gets tough? Have you the strength and courage to do something different? When the sharks are circling how do you control your fear? Where do you find your inner strength at the darkest moments? How do you get into a positive place when the negative wants to overwhelm you? Will you ever ring that bell? 

As Winston Said, 'Failing to Plan is Planning to Fail'

In my adult career prior to Business Coaching, I have only known the experience of having a plan and in a paradoxical twist understood fully that no plan survives contact with the enemy. In today's business context that certainly relates to the customer; 'no plan survives contact with the customer'.  That said without  plan you'll be running blind, reactive and unsure where you're going. With a plan and more importantly an 'end state' or 'intent' you achieve focused drive with knowledge of what you are doing and why. Planning focuses the mind and helps maintain discipline.

Here's my top tips on why planning forms a crucial element to getting started in business and remaining on course throughout.

1. The 'higher commander's intent'. When you first experienced that entrepreneurial drive to break away from a job and become your own boss; the business owner, you had a vision. That vision was the embryonic view of the future of your business. Knowing where you wanted to go the next question how you were going to get there, and communicating that journey to your team, bank manager or customers. Articulating the vision and forming the plan gives the focus and impetus to follow a course of action towards the success. The intent or the bosses intent is a written plan which tunes all parties into activities and action with a focus on achieving the intent.
2. By virtue of having a written plan you will have a series of milestones leading to the intent, to the vision. Essentially being able to chip away every day at the milestones will really highlight the progress step by step. A record of the journey and progress.
3. Focus on purpose. The actual process of writing and articulating your business plan will ensure you remain focused on the fundamentals, the lifeblood of the business. 

• The financial targets.
• Identify and focus on the target market with clear market research.
• Remain clear on the service or product for the customers. Details on the various aspects of customer engagement, managing their expectations.
• What is the marketing strategy, just how you are going to create the customer base.
• What the competition are doing.
4.  What if? A detailed business plan will enable strategies to be formulated taking into account various outcomes based on cause and effect. Having identified various potential outcomes will offer a series of solution and planning decisions to be made on the most probable course of action and have contingency in place. This increases the likelihood of achieving certain results and what actions need to be taken. 
5. The business plan forms the narrative for the cashflow forecast (finances in general), telling the story in numbers and supporting in words, it is afterall all about the numbers. A plan will also highlight the probability of success, show potentially when the return on investment will occur and what your targets are.  

Here's the important paradox in having any plan, they change. Having gone through the planning process will give you a great resilience and active response to the plan changing. Essentially you'll have a course of action in mind, likely to have worked through the potential of change and have contingency, being prepared. Arguably having the intent, the medium and long term vision in mind will allow you, the team and those who are invested in the business plan the dexterity to apply themselves in a manner to keep the end in sight.

Starting and running a business requires vision, a purpose and belief that you can succeed. Having a written plan with the vision in mind will increase the likelihood of success. See also my previous bloggs on why planning is so important. 

Be Militant About Your Time

Just a short rant about why we don't get more disciplined when it comes to mastering our time as Business Owners. In my travels and discussions with business owners I always seem to hear 'I don't have the time', 'there's not enough hours in the day', 'I haven't had a day off in months'. Additionally its not unusual to hear stories recounted of holidays which have been plagued with calls from the business on a daily basis, or frankly I haven't been able to take a holiday in years.

What was the purpose of entering into business on your own; a lifestyle choice most likely. Wanted to be my own boss, decide when and what hours I work! I bet for many that's a far off and distant dream now! Well folks you need to get some self discipline, you need to get militant about your time. In business time is after all money!

Here's a notion....there's no such thing as time management, there is only SELF MANAGEMENT. That's right you can manage the time you have with simple self discipline. So here's a few tips to get you started on time mastery:

1. Prior preparation prevents a poor performance, plan in advance, plan tomorrow today. Be clear in what you are to achieve the next day.
2. Urgency versus important, here's the thing, if you deal with all the important issues and task you'll avoid urgent stuff cropping up!
3. It goes without saying use GOALs to gain razor like focus and drive.
4. Have a default diary, scheduled your activity.
5. Get organised.
6. Increase you productivity by identifying when your business prime time is and when you are at your most productive.
7. Delegate, delegate, delegate!
8. Remember timings are critical not flexible........how do you feel when staff are late or you are late for a client!
9. Get systems in your business.
10. Say NO, don't allow unnecessary meeting to waste time (take the chairs out of a meeting room and see what happens), avoid getting caught in trivia.

Remember ultimately be militant about having your time wasted, get self determination, be tuff on those who undervalue your time and be tough on yourself!

If you are really ready to get productive in your business then join me on Wed, Feb 26, 2014 7:00 PM - 8:00 PM GMT for a webinar on Time Mastery follow this link: 

https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/3826703242211939329

In this short video Brian Tracy talks of some great strategies some of which I have touched on:

Carrot, Egg or Coffee Bean

A young woman went to her mother and told her about her life and how things were so hard for her.  She didn't know how she was going to make it and how she wanted to give up.  She was tired of fighting and struggling.  It seemed that as one problem was resolved, a new one arose.  Her mother took her to the kitchen.  She filled three pots with water.  In the first, she dropped a handful of carrots, in the second she a few eggs, and in the last she placed ground coffee beans. She let them sit and boil without saying a word.  In about twenty minutes she turned off the burners.  She fished the carrots out and placed them in a bowl.  She pulled the eggs out and placed them in a bowl.  Then she ladled the coffee out and placed it in a bowl.  Turning to her daughter, she asked, "Tell me, what do you see?"

"Carrots, eggs, and coffee," the daughter replied.  The mother brought her closer and asked her to feel the carrots.  The daughter did and noted that they got soft.  Mother then asked her to take an egg and break it.

After pulling off the shell, daughter observed the hard-boiled egg.  Finally, Mother asked her to sip the coffee.  The daughter smiled, as she tasted its rich aroma.  The daughter then asked.  "What's the point, mother?"

Her mother explained that each of these objects had faced the same adversity…the boiling water…but each reacted differently.  The carrot went in strong, hard and unrelenting.  However after being subjected to the boiling water, it softened and became weak.  The egg had been fragile.  Its thin outer shell had protected its liquid interior.  But, after sitting through the boiling water, its inside became hardened.  The ground coffee beans were unique, however.  After they were in the boiling water they had changed the water.  "Which are you?" she asked her daughter.  "When adversity knocks on your door, how do you respond?  Are you a carrot, an egg, or a coffee bean?"  Think of this: Which am I?  Am I the carrot that seems strong, but with pain and adversity, do I wilt and become soft and lose my strength?  Am I the egg that starts with a malleable heart, but changes with the heat?  Did I have a fluid spirit, but after a death, a break-up, a financial hardship or some other trial, have I become hardened and stiff?  Does my shell look the same, but on the inside am I bitter and tough with a stiff spirit and a hardened heart? Or am I like the coffee bean?  The bean actually changes the hot water, the very circumstance that brings the pain.  When the water gets hot, it releases the fragrance and flavor.  If you are like the bean, when things are at their worst, you get better and change the situation around you.  When the hours are the darkest and trials are their greatest do you elevate to another level?  How do you handle adversity?

So, which are you…a carrot, an egg, or a coffee bean?

Some people make the future; most wait for the future to make them.

And that's worth thinking about…

Get Moving, Even When Others Fall Behind

It’s often far easier to rest where you are than to push yourself to the next level.  But complacency leads to mediocrity…which almost always leads to disaster.  So, if this is true, how can you keep yourself responsive, resourceful, and recharged in this competitive business environment?

There are seven tactics that when implemented and sustained, will make a difference:

1.            Practice self-discipline versus self-indulgence.  Self-indulgence is thinking about how you feel at a given moment, then deciding what action, if any, to take and worrying about the consequences later.  Self-discipline is thinking first about the consequences, then taking appropriate action, and feeling great about your decision.

See it this way:

§  self-discipline = think consequences 

§  take action 

§  feel great 

§  self-indulgence = think feelings 

§  take action 

§  suffer consequences

2.            Remember the difference you make in people’s lives.  The real measure of your success is the difference that you’re making in the lives of others.  By positioning and promoting yourself as someone who can make a difference, you will reach more people.

3.            Avoid negative self-talk.  Resist the temptation to tell yourself all the things you’re doing wrong and all the things you need to improve on.  Remember Willie Nelson’s great tune, “Accentuate the Positive, Eliminate the Negative, and Don’t Mess with Mr. In Between.”

4.            Listen to one motivational or inspirational message each week.  Without recharging yourself, it’s impossible to charge others.  Whether this message comes from a religious affiliation or simply from motivational tapes or messages, (like Excellence magazine) it is vital to realize that by renewing yourself, only then can you renew others.

5.            Read books by and for successful people.  It is said that the average sales person reads only one book each year.  That’s why they’re average.  The importance of reading is that it not only develops your logic and understanding, but it also develops your verbal skills and gives you exposure to new ideas that you can use to build your business and your relationships.

6.            Focus on your long-term vision versus the short-term circumstances. Take the time to review your goals weekly so that you’re focused on the long-term.  Remember, if you’re focused on creating the future, you won’t spend time mourning the past.

7.            Manage yourself wisely.  Recharge and renew yourself and then put in enough effort to get where you want to be, not just enough to justify where you are now.