Here is a very simple way to double your business in one year. Pick three things that you can do every single day that will grow your business. It doesn’t have to be something huge. It could be as simple as spending 15 minutes a day promoting your business on social media, or talking to one person a day about your business. One client reaches out to 10 previous customers a day. He’s developed a system where this only takes him minutes to do. Together these three tasks shouldn’t take up more than ½ hour of your day. Yet, if you do them consistently overtime you will see big results. If you decide to add 5 friends a day to your facebook page in one year you will have over 1500 new contacts. For some reason we are all hardwired to go after the big wins, yet it is the small consistent tasks that will make a real difference. Just like brushing your teeth every single day.
Growing your business is like brushing your teeth
The Entrepreneurs Curse
The qualities that make an entrepreneur successful are also the same qualities that cause them to struggle. The excitement that we get from a new idea keeps us from staying with the things we need to do the most to grow our business. Entrepreneurs must come to grips with a very basic idea; growing your business is not very exciting. To really grow your business it means doing the little things every day. That’s not a lot of fun for most entrepreneurs. I recently challenged all of my clients to come up with three daily habits that would have the biggest impact on their business. They got to choose what to do and how much of it to do. It could be something as simple as calling three old customers a day, or asking 1 person a day for a referral. It was that simple. What was interesting was how difficult it was for many to implement this. We get busy doing “stuff” every day that is energizing and exciting but not always productive. We often put the most important things on the back burner and wonder why our business isn’t growing.
It’s Your Garage Moment…. Enjoy it.
How many times have you heard about a business being started out of someone’s garage? When I first graduated from college I worked for Russ Berrie, the stuffed animal company. Russ Berrie, the founder, started the company out of his garage in the 1960′s, using a wagon to take samples of his products to potential customers. Today Russ is a publically traded company and occupy’s much nicer office space than a garage. In Bloomington, Kip May has a thriving photography business. Kip is well known as one of the top photographers in Indiana and regularly offers classes to other photographers helping them develop their skills. Kip started in his garage and worked out of it for eleven years! Sometimes we see some of the great success stories and compare ourselves to those companies. We beat ourselves up when strategies fail and our business struggles. . What we need to realize is that most businesses struggle early on. Many have moments when they are not sure they are going to survive and just when they thought they made it the biggest recession in 70 years hits. Sometimes business owners have to take part time jobs just to pay the bills in order to keep their businesses running. Most of us have to make big sacrifices just to keep the dream going.
If you are in this phase my advice is to enjoy it. This is your garage moment! It’s part of your story and if you hang in there it may be part of a great story. Realize that you are not alone and just because you are struggling now doesn’t mean that can’t and wont’ change in the future.
This is your garage; make sure you enjoy the moment.
Posted in Emotional Intelligence
Tagged Emotional, Emotional Intelligence, Intelligence
Leave a comment
Are you focused on your why?
Do you know why most people don’t achieve what they really want? It’s not because they are not disciplined enough. I believe the main reason they don’t achieve their goals is that they are not focused on their why. What’s your why? Your why is the reason you do what you do. It’s what gets you out of bed in the morning. It gives you energy and brings meaning to your life. We all have a why. Unfortunately many of us lose our why in the day to day struggles. People who are successful do one thing better than the rest of us. They never lose their why. Your why will keep you motivated and pushing through the challenges and roadblocks that you will face. If you want to do one thing in 2010 that will help you achieve more; get clear on your why. Write it down. Read it every morning when you wake up. Make sure it is so powerful that it brings you to tears.( or at least close).
I am currently working with a person who wants desperately to quit his job and own his own business. He has his business up and running but at this point it is not bringing in the revenue he needs to quit his job. However, I wouldn’t bet against this guy. It’s not because he’s smarter or more disciplined than everyone else. It’s because his why is so strong that it motivates him to do the things he needs to do every day. He is driven to get where he wants to go and he won’t let anything get in his way. That is what a powerful why can do for you.
Obstacles are there to show us how much we care about something
There is a great video titled ” The last lecture”, which features a professor, Randy Pausch, who is dying from a brain tumor and is giving his last lecture. It is a highly inspiring video. In the video Randy Pausch talks about obstacles he has faced and makes the comment that obstacles are put in our way to show us how much we care about something. In my work as a coach I think this may be the biggest difference I have noticed between high performance and mediocrity. When we are at our best we see obstacles for what they are; nothing more than challenges. In addition, we become motivated BECAUSE of the challenge. We actually get energy from the problem. However, when we are not at our best we have a tendency to see obstacles as mountains; unmovable and forever lasting. The obstacle takes energy from us and makes it almost impossible to get past. What is interesting is that the size or complexity of the problem seems to have nothing to do with how we view it. I have seen an entrepreneur on the brink of bankruptcy view the situation as nothing more than a short term challenge. I have also seen the same person paralyzed by having too many “to do’s on his task list.
The question then becomes how do you make the shift from seeing obstacles as mountains to seeing them as what they really are; nothing more than short term obstacles. The answer is actually quite simple; practice seeing them as obstacles and not mountains and the rest is easy. If you are able to recognize in yourself how you are perceiving a challenge and can make a shift in your thinking than the solution may come much faster and easier than you thought possible.
The Dangers of Being Addicted to Email
I am addicted to email. I check it constantly. If I’m not at my computer I check it on my phone while I’m driving, coaching my sons soccer game, talking to my wife or kids, and even doing yard work. About the only time I don’t check it is when I’m in a meeting with someone or sleeping. Recently I read a great book called “The Power of Full Engagement.” It is written by two sports psychologists who teach executives how to perform at a higher level. They focus on helping people improve their performance by managing their energy. If you often feel tired during the day, or are exhausted at the end of the day, you are most likely doing a poor job of managing your energy.
One of their key concepts is that you should focus on tasks for a period of 90 minutes and then move onto something else. You should limit your multitasking, That means not checking emails every time you hear a beep. Checking email constantly will drain your energy, make you less productive, and more irritable. Their advice is to check email twice a day! What I noticed was that my email had taken control of my life. It even made me slightly anxious, always waiting for that next email. While it wasn’t easy to check email twice a day, after a few days I found myself feeling and thinking a little bit differently. I felt less controlled by email, and realized that I had gotten away from doing some of the things that I really enjoyed doing because I was always reacting to my emails. I also realized that rarely do I get an email that is urgent and needs immediate attention.
In the book the authors interview many top executives and find that the most productive don’t check email on a regular basis. The top executives have strict routines that they follow and many check email in the morning or the evening.
Are you ready to give up your email addiction? Here is a challenge. For one day try checking your email only once in the morning and once in the afternoon. You might be surprised by how much control email has on you. I can guarantee only one thing. You will survive.
Posted in Emotional Intelligence, Self Management
Tagged Emotional Intelligence, managing email
Leave a comment
A view of an emotional hijacking
George may seem a bit out of control but it shows exactly what happens to us when we become hijacked by our emotions. We all get hijacked from time to time. If you watch the video closely you’ll notice that it’s George’s thoughts that are hijacking his emotions. He doesn’t have a girlfriend, his job is parking cars, and he lives at home with his parents. What really puts him over the edge is that Kramer, who’s never even had a job, gets a speaking part in a Woody Allen movie.
We all get hijacked by our emotions. Although hopefully not quite as bad as George. A highjacking occurs when the emotional part of your brain takes control and the logical or thinking part of your brain shutsdown. One example of this is when someone sends you an email that sends you through the roof. Your emotions take over and the first thing you want to do is to respond with the most vicious combination of words you have ever been able to put in one sentence. Of course if you are smart you don’t send that email.
There is a logical way to help you calm down when you are feeling hijacked. If you actually label how you are feeling it helps you calm down and get back into functioning from your logical brain. Ive tried it and it really does work. So the next time someone pushes you over the edge remember to say to yourself; “they make me feel _________. It might just keep you from acting like George.
Posted in Emotional Intelligence, Self Management
Tagged Emotional, Emotional Intelligence, Intelligence
Leave a comment
Advice for job seekers
If you have recently found yourself out of work you are most likely feeling somewhat overwhelmed, a little lost, and afraid that you will never find work. I know this because I coach people who are looking for a job. I also know this because that is how I feel every day. In some ways I’ve been out of work for almost nine years. That’s when I decided to start my own business as a business coach. In the past few years I have worked with quite a few people who lost their job and needed support and help in finding a new one. That’s when I noticed that being unemployed and being self employed have quite a few similarities. I wanted to offer three few words of advice that have helped me succeed and I believe applies to those who are in transition.
GET OUT THERE!
Those were the words I heard from my coach about five years ago during a particularly tough period for my business. I was in my comfort zone in my office on my computer looking for clients. It wasn’t working. Here is what my coach had to say; “Get yourself out there and get exposure. You don’t have to have the perfect elevator speech, brochure, etc.” He was right. There is a strong link in my business between getting out there and getting business. (What a surprise) This is true with those looking for a job. You will not find a job from your computer. About 80% of jobs are never advertised. The only way you will find them is to network and tell everyone you know that you are looking for a job. Don’t worry if your resume is not perfect, your elevator speech is the pits, or you don’t even know what you want to do. If you wait until you figure it out you may never find a job. I am an imperfect coach and yet people hire me all of the time. You are an imperfect job candidate but you will find someone will want you. Just get yourself out there!
Posted in Career Advice, News & Events
Leave a comment
Focus for 2009
Make relationships your priority for 2009
What is your focus for 2009? What do you want to accomplish? How much money do you want to make? What are the best goals to set for 2009?
Here is a thought, it is my experience that one of the most important goals you can set for yourself is to improve the quality of relationships you have with those close with you.
In my work in organizations I can tell you that in almost 100% of the cases, when the company was struggling or stagnant it was because of struggling relationships at the top of the organization. In one case the relationship with the GM and owner was so strained that it threatened to put the company out of business. It was one of my first clients and in the beginning I tried to ignore some of the relationship issues and focused on strategy and operational issues. I quickly learned that until the two improved their relationship with each other the company was going to continue to struggle. Over the next year we worked on improving how the two worked together. I am happy to say that years later the company is not only surviving but has tripled in size and the owner and GM are clearly responsible for the company’s growth. The company, which is in the construction industry, had it’s best year ever in 2008 and is poised to surpass this in 2009. Yes, this is happening in a down economy where most of his competitors are struggling. If you ask the owner what was the key to the company growing he will tell you it was the work that was done to improve how he and his GM worked together.
I will cover how we got there in future blog posts but for now I want to make it clear that in all the companies I have worked with the strength of relationships at the top was the number one reason for the company’s success or struggles.
Posted in News & Events, Self Management
Tagged Emotional Intelligence, focus, Self management
Leave a comment
