Part 2 of Your Business Makeover Formula

01/12/2007 | 5 Comments

Hey Guys,

I hope you’re having a profitable day.

So did you finish your ‘Victory’ list – you know the one that we talked about in my last post? Where you get to relive your glory days from last year so we can carry what worked forward into 2007?

If not, please scroll down to yesterday’s post and complete that exercise before you move on to Your Next Big Question for “Making 2007 Your Best Year Ever”.

When you’re ready to continue, here’s…

Your Next Big Question!
What Were Your Biggest Disappointments Of 2006?

Looking at your disappointments from last year may not be easy for you. Don’t worry – you’re not alone. It’s not easy for many people and so they white it out of their minds. They’d rather pretend it never happened and hope for the best.

But it’s hard to build a booming growing successful business if you live like an ostrich with your head in the sand. It’s with your eyes open looking around that you’ll make this year better than 2006.

Last year happened and you have experience from it, both positive and negative…

Today you’re going to learn the next step (#2 out of the 5) that will enable you to really profit from that experience.

First, you must start with this in mind:

As You Launch Into 2007 (it’s only January!!!) – Identify What You Did Wrong Last Year. No Pain, No Gain

It’s time for you to take out that treasured notebook or pad and begin a new list. This one steers clear of your accomplishments and focuses on what didn’t work in 2006…mistakes, missteps, failures, wrong roads, bad choices. Call it what you will, you know what it is I’m talking about.

And by the way SAVE YOUR LISTS!!!! They are the building blocks for your success. The more you put in to them, the more that comes back at you. Save them all! A treasured book of lists is really an excellent idea. You’ll see why.

Be Totally Honest with Yourself

When you begin to write up your list of disappointments, you may be inclined to just rush through them.

DON’T

The easy route here has no pay off. You know what went wrong and taking a good hard look at what happened is where the juice is. No one else has to see this list but you.

And, by the way, take a hard look not only at last year’s business activities, but your personal life, too. Lots of things go hand in hand.

Last time, we talked about taking an honest look at your situation… This is absolutely essential when building your list of disappointments and failures from last year.

You should not just be mildly honest with yourself – Mild Honesty is like lukewarm water.

Instead, go at your disappointments with gusto. If you’re ruthless in tearing your business and life apart, you’ll get a chance to find and face the core problems. You need more than a surface look. If things don’t jump out at you, look again and look harder. This really is a treasure hunt.

The harder you are on yourself at this point, the more ammunition you will have to make the radical changes that are crucial to making your life and your business better.

While you are working on your brutally honest list of disappointments and failures, it might help you to take a look at what I came up with when I did the same exercise you are doing.

What I Must Change In My Life and My Business to Make 2007 the Best Year Ever!

All of us have something we can improve upon from the last year, and that includes me.

Yeah, there were some things that I think could have gone better in 2006…

A big concern was all of the time I personally put into my coaching programs. This really turned out to be a problem for me.

I found it difficult to manage my time when working with over 750 coaching clients, working on my business expansion, entering into new partnerships and speaking all around the world.

All of this while spending as much time as possible with my two daughters Ava and Elle, and my wife Debi.

And I really don’t know how I did it… I sacrificed a lot of hobbies I enjoy – I slept less and read less. And I spent less time with friends. All in all, not too good.

But the pay-off was huge.

I am honored to have been able to help so many clients achieve and exceed their business goals in 2006.

And Strategic Profits is now set up to produce and deliver what I believe will be unrivaled in the business growth field of today and tomorrow.

So now that I have gotten Strategic Profits where it needs to be, I’m readjusting my schedule. This is bringing my life more into balance so I can dedicate more time to having fun.

Now I’m Not Claiming to be Perfect…

The facts are I certainly made some other missteps along the way last year. In hindsight, I did not do everything right.

Most people would have been happy with the numbers we did with our launch of Internet Wealth Alliance with Agora (a program we did together.)

But I thought the results were disappointing, considering the over the top track records of Agora and Strategic Profits.

And as I said before about my family life, I missed out on more than I care to admit. I wanted to spend more time with my wife and kids than I did.

I can’t undo what happened, but as you can imagine, these points are all very important to me.

How Important is All of This to You?

Taking a good look at your 2006 and building a list of all your disappointments and failures will be one of the most important exercises you do all year!

I’m serious here!

Take the time to do it right. Don’t get sidetracked – this is too important. If you face it now, you’ll be amazed at what you will find out about yourself and your business practices last year just from this one list .

Plus you will need this list, and your list of last year’s accomplishments, to be able to complete my business makeover formula so you can make 2007 your best year yet.

Your Next Big Question?

This is something that will make or break your business success and growth this year.

In fact, it is so important that without it, you are putting yourself in the position of reliving your mistakes over and over again, just like Bill Murray did in Groundhog Day.

And you’ll get to benefit from this next big question soon.

So make sure you check in with me tomorrow and make room in your notebook for another important list.

Soon you will see how these lists work together to help you transform your business and your life into that of your dreams.

To Higher Profits,

Rich Schefren
Strategic Profits

P.S. – I’m really looking forward to being able to help even more people in a different way coming up soon.

Since people are always asking me “So Rich, what exactly do you do every day?”… I’m going to let a few lucky people look ‘Over My Shoulder’ this year.

They will get to hear first-hand what I do each and every day and how I’ve used my actions to build my business into what it is today.

Power Of Planning

03/10/2006 | 1 Comment

As any successful business person knows, you can kill yourself trying to grow your company. You invest and immerse yourself wholly without direction until you’ve stretched yourself so thin that you’re no longer productive in any aspect of your work.

If only you had planned your day better…

By forecasting an orderly work schedule, you’ll preserve both your valuable time and your sanity. Unfortunately, most people start each day off in a fury of tasks and deadlines – without a plan on how to get things done efficiently.

It’s a known fact that stress is a killer. You can wear yourself out mentally and physically by tending to the daily tasks your company demands. Or, you can learn how to plan for tomorrow and realize an even greater success – one that you can enjoy as it happens.

When people don’t plan, they react to their environment… usually in a negative way. How many times have you gone into the office and felt irritated about something someone else has done… or not done?

Productivity requires a positive attitude. If you’re constantly reacting to deadlines, tasks you hadn’t planned on popping up, or other people’s interference with your day, then you’ll be too caught up in the stress of it all to make formidable decisions that will help propel your profits upward.

There has to be a fine balance between planning your day and being flexible enough to handle the unexpected. It would be even worse to have every minute of your day scheduled and then find that something has thrown it off kilter.

You don’t want to paralyze yourself with your planning, but instead use it as a guide – a path to help you get from point A to point B.

Planning doesn’t require a lot of time. You simply have to map it out the night before. It might be okay to set long-term goals, too – but you’ll be better able to schedule your day if you do it the previous night, when you’re more aware of your company’s immediate needs.

Make a comprehensive to-do list. That doesn’t mean every single thing will get done the next day, but you want to have it on paper so that you’ll be able to give it attention at some point.

Every item on your to-do list should have a plan of action. When you know how to get something done, you won’t have to sit there thinking about your next step, which would be a waste of time.

Make a quick estimate of how much time each task in a plan of action will take – to give yourself an idea of how long it will take you to complete that single item on your to-do list.

If any of the tasks require a resource you don’t have at your fingertips, then add the time it will take for you to acquire and set up that tool into your final estimate. You don’t want to underestimate the time it will take you to cross something off of your to-do list.

The reason for this is when you fail to meet your self-imposed deadlines, it can create even more stress than if you had simply worked without a plan in place. While you might want to be Superman for a day, it won’t always happen… things are bound to present themselves as obstacles to your success.

If there are more people connected to the company – from employees to contracted labor – define their roles within the company structure so that some of the tasks can be designated for them to handle.

As you create each tasks, determine what it would cost for you to complete it. For instance, if your time is worth $100/hour, and you’re wasting an hour filling out forms that someone else could do for $8/hour, then you’re losing $92 an hour in profit.

Your time need to be planned out so that you are maximizing your talents but also doing tasks that will have the highest return for your investment of each and every hour. Adding to the above example, your hour could have been used to develop an ad campaign that results in a high conversion rate of traffic to your website.

Don’t forget to add personal goals and time to your schedule. You want it to be flexible enough so that if there’s a family emergency, or if you simply need a break from it all, you won’t throw the entire business into a tailspin just because you’re not physically or mentally involved with the business 24-hours a day.