Keep Your Business Booming With These 6 Steps

If you're a coach, consultant, or other type of service professional, you know wearing many hats comes with the territory. You also know it frequently seems as if 24 hours in a day isn't nearly enough.

So how do you find time to do everything your business requires?

There is only one way - with a focused strategy and a weekly and daily plan. Without this focus, something isn't going to get done and unfortunately, it's frequently marketing that doesn't get done.

But if you can stay disciplined and persevere in these 6 areas - business will be booming!

1. Planning/strategizing - Devote at least 1 hour each week to big picture planning and strategizing. This is where you check to make sure that your strategy and tactics are still on track to achieve your overall goals.

2. Outsourcing/delegating - It's very easy to slip into doing things you shouldn't be doing. Schedule at least an hour a month to go through your calendar and action lists and confirm you are not doing things your assistant or webmaster should be doing or things that shouldn't be done at all.

3. Operations/Admin - Depending on the size of your business, and what you have outsourced, you will need to spend between 2 and 6 hours a month on these types of tasks. For example, you may need time to review reports from your bookkeeper, set up procedures for a new area of your business, and hire/fire employees. Many operational type tasks can be delegated but you are always going to have some type of oversight responsibilities.

4. Marketing - Marketing requires daily activity. That's not as bad as it sounds. You can batch marketing activities for certain days of the week. For example, if you attend a networking event every Wednesday, schedule time for follow-up each Thursday. Even if you only schedule an hour each day, put it on your calendar. In addition to calls, marketing includes updating your blog, writing articles, writing your ezine, and any other activity that will bring attention to you and your business.

5. Track and measure your results - Although you may have someone running reports for you, you need to review your web and blog statistics, your article stats and the results of any other marketing that you do. Do this weekly if you have a web site and daily if you are running online ad campaigns or have multiple sites. Don't forget to include networking events when you're tracking and measuring. How much money are you spending on networking and what results are you getting? In some cases, you might really have to think through how to determine your results but it will be worth it.

6. Make adjustments - This can be one of the most difficult things to do. If something is not working, change it. You may not need major changes, just tweaking. The important thing is not to wait to make the adjustment. Adjustments may relate to something you're doing with your marketing that's not as effective as you hoped or an assistant who is missing skills that you need. Don't wait to make changes since things will only get worse.

Schedule time to work on each of these areas and you shouldn't have to worry about anything falling through the cracks. You also will also be able to build your business because you will not neglect your marketing.

Writing a Killer Business Plan

When establishing your business, there are several legal formalities you are expected to complete. These formalities, although cumbersome and occasionally time-consuming, also help in delaying the Project which Increase their Cost and expenses because of License Raj, and Red tapism. In so many cases there was too much delay in the Projects approval and by the time the project crossed its Viability. This holds true not only for those who are planning to launch their online business ventures. It is equally true for many of you who are already operating successful enterprises on the Internet.

A well-written business plan may help you obtain a new line of business credit, increase existing limits, bring new investors and venture capitalists on board and even help independent organizations and agencies accurately assess the total net worth of your company. Business plans, however, take you to the next level of expansion and growth by helping you develop a sense of clarity in your own mind about where your company is today and the direction it should take tomorrow.

Components of a Successful Business Plan
If the ideas take time to incubate and take the shape of concrete words that is perfectly normal and OK. You can always worry about the stylistics, grammar, punctuation and syntax later. What is most important is to get the ideas down on paper and the juices flowing. As Peter Elbow, the famous writing expert says, writing is more about ideas, concepts and thought processes than it is about spelling, grammar and punctuation. Here are the ten most critical elements of a well-crafted and insightful business that accurately reflects your company's objectives and your personal milestones of achievement.

- Rational Business Proposition...
- Reliable Funding...
- Risk-return Ratio...
- Clear Goals...
- Competition Analysis...
- Competitive Advantage...
- Marketing Strategy...
- After Sales Service/Customer Satisfaction...
- Personnel...
- The Almighty Budget...

Conclusion
When you enter your car and get ready to drive away, you know what your destination will be. Operating a business is no different. A viable business plan is much like a roadmap that charts a clear course for you.

Your business plan should be precise, terse and journalistic as Hemingway would put it. However, do not be stingy with details, facts and a tinge of persuasion. After all, the primary purpose of your business proposal at the front end is to persuade your reader to take action in your favor and support you as you gradually make progress on your pathway to success.

The Millionaire Mindset

Do you have a millionaire mindset? Ok, maybe you don't want a million or think that's too high a goal. That's ok. The purpose of this article is to get you thinking about the way you think about money.

Here are some facts about millionaires from researcher Thomas Stanley of the Millionaire Next Door and the Millionaire Mind:

Millionaires say that the foundation of their financial success is to be in integrity 'being honest with all people; practicing discipline/self-control; having social skills and the ability to get along with people; hard work 'more than most people; and a supportive spouse. Well, you might not have the supportive spouse right now, but don't worry, you can control the other four factors and reach financial success.

1/3 of millionaires are business owners or entrepreneurs. They have courage to take financial risk but are not gamblers. The kind of risk they take is related to choices of their occupation or vocation. Being self employed has the risk of no employer backing you up and if you fail to deliver what the market demands, you may be out of business. Just the same, those with millionaire mindsets think it is risky not to be self-employed. And I agree! Being self-employed allows you to be in control of your own destiny. Profits are your own and there is no one stopping you from making as much as you'd like.

Millionaires focus on success, not failure. They practice believing in themselves and persistent attention to their work. The words of Napoleon Hill "Think and Grow Rich" are still true today. They develop an understanding of their strengths and limitations and hire others to do the things they are not best at. They have an abundance of common sense. And here's a key point 'they choose work that they love.

Financially independent people have no difficulty focusing on their goals and working at high levels of productivity because they love their work and are excited by it every day. They know their chosen work allows them to fully use their strengths; they get self-esteem from their work and they are absolutely certain that their work will make them financially independent one day. Now, please note that many millionaires had several other jobs before finding their ideal one. And you probably will too. One of my mentors was fired from his first five jobs before finding his passion and fortune in real estate!

The rich find a great idea, often something they are passionate about, they assemble a great team of people, follow advice and hang out with people who are already where they want to be and they never let anyone steal their dream. Most people will scoff at your desire to be financially free because they don't believe they can achieve this for themselves. Don't let them. Don't even tell them. Just surround yourself with those who are already where you want to be and share your dream with only those who you know will support you and see the vision of your dream with you.

If being self employed, working from home and being financially free is your dream, stay tuned for the next article on "Great Home Based Businesses." I'm walking out the door now of Starbucks, where I've worked this afternoon, taking my own advice 'I'm on my way to a real estate investors club. I've built a six figure business and am now ready to generate more passive revenue (more on that topic in a later issue), and I've chosen real estate investing as the way to do this. So, I'm on my way to learning new things I have a passion for, putting persistent actions into place, meeting people who are already where I want to be and getting support!

Ann Ronan, Ph.D., RScP provides teaching, coaching and writing to help others live authentic lives doing what they most love. Receive her free e-course on the Top Ten Ways to Live Authentically -register at http://www.authenticlifeinstitute.com to begin this step-by-step program today.