MOTIVATION

Are you motivated to achieve amazing results in your business and your personal life?

                                 How does one get motivated?

We get motivated when we get results. It’s like going to the gym and seeing that we are loosing weight and looking better after putting in the effort. This motivates us to want to keep going, to work out harder and more often. Results generate the motivation to keep going, to repeat our previous efforts.

Clarity of direction with a plan of action, intense focus coupled with the discipline to keep going generates results. And when we get results, we get motivated.

Incredible results provide an amazing amount of motivation to keep going and to do it again and again to achieve the greatest success you have ever experienced in your business and personal lives. What is your level of motivation today?

We can’t continue to hope success will fall into our lap, or by some kind of luck we will be granted more happiness and success. Success is not going to fall from the sky into our lap. Clarity, a plan of action, focus and discipline generate results. Results will motivate you to even greater success. But there is no short cut. We have to follow the process.

It’s time to take charge of your future. What do you want in your business and personal life? Do you want greater results, the kind of results that can motivate you on to even greater success and fulfillment? Then contact us and we will show you how.

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          ARE YOU WAITING FOR PERFECTION

In my last blog post I discussed how marketing is a proactive not a reactive activity? We can’t wait around for marketing to happen, we have to make it happen. And we do that by reaching our to our customers and clients often. Communicating frequently the value we provide.

But often I find clients hesitant to send that blog post or write that article, or just get started. They want to tweak and adjust and tweak and adjust again and again their content or their message trying to make it perfect. . This continues until nothing happens and the post or article doesn’t get sent to their clients or potential clients.

Are you waiting for perfection in what you write before you send it out? Are you waiting to make that perfect video before you send it to your customers and clients? The thing about marketing is that it is better to get your message out there regularly and consistently. It doesn’t have to be perfect. This is not to say that is shouldn’t be of good or excellent quality, but it is not necessary for it to be perfect in our eyes. It’s better to get your message out there.

Communicate with your clients and customers often and consistently. It’s most likely that your competition isn’t doing this.

Are you struggling to achieve the kind of results that you should be making in your business? Are you not where you thought you would be by now? Do you want to make more money and have more free time? Call us, we can show you how.

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DO YOU HAVE A PLAN B?

                 
Recently a good friend, Darren Gross who produces a Commercial Real Estate Pro Network blog on Blog Talk Radio, interviewed me for one of his radio post. Darren was interested in what does an individual do now that we are at the 2/3rds mark in the year and we realize that we are not achieving the goals that we set out to accomplish at the beginning of the year.

Often we start off with a plan at the beginning of the year with good intentions of making great achievements and we arrive at this nine-month period and realize we are not on track to achieve our goals. What do we do now? Many times at the beginning of the year we set our goals and have a plan to achieve them but they are either so far out there in the future that we feel we have plenty of time, so there is no urgency to get started, or the goals are so big that we feel overwhelmed and it prevents us from getting started as well. So now that we are at this nine-month period, what do we do?

Do we abandon the plan all together or do we create a plan B.

I do not recommend abandoning the plan all together. But we must be realistic and realize that we are probably not going to accomplish the original goals so we need to recalibrate and refocus on what we can realistic accomplish in the next four months. We need a plan-B.

This new recalibration should still be a stretch, but the goals should also be accomplishable. I would recommend that we write these four-month goals down and put them in a place where we can read them everyday. This will reinforce them in our minds and our subconscious minds will go to work to help us achieve them.

We must also prevent the distractions that get in the way of us accomplishing our goals. Many of us have too many distractions and clutter in our lives that prevent us from really focusing. We must be intensely focused in order to maximize our potential results. Especially with only four months left in the year.

Do you have a plan B?

Are you not where you thought you should be in your business by this fourth quarter? If so, call us; we can dramatically improve your individual and organization effectiveness.

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BUSINESS BONDAGE

IS YOUR BUSINESS LIKE A BALL AND CHAIN?

Many owners/managers feel like a prisoner to their business. They feel that the weight of everyday operations is like a ball and chain around their ankle or possibly their neck.

What are the common causes of such business owner bondage?  How does the chain get tighter and tighter?

After working with a variety of business owners, I believe the following five to be the most common causes of business bondage:  (1) technical tendencies, (2) busyness, (3) ineffective leadership and delegation, (4) inadequate or missing business systems, and (5) growing business complexities.

Technical Tendencies:

Habits determine destiny. Too many entrepreneurs are former technicians now performing as owners.  They think they are entrepreneurs, but they don’t act that way.  As once accomplished technicians, they have a hard time letting go of such expertise and familiarity.  They remain trapped in a technical comfort zone, mindset and work approach.  Sadly, such technical expertise is insufficient for managing a business.  Moreover, they fail to develop the visionary, strategic, and leadership skills necessary to run a successful business

Busyness:

Many owners confuse activity with accomplishment.  They confuse busyness with results. Hard work with smart work.  Perspiration with purpose.  Efficiency (doing things right) with effectiveness (doing the right things).  Instead of working smarter, many owners hold tight to the delusion that working harder and harder is the solution.  They keep trying to shift into higher and higher gears.  The more the business grows, the harder they work, the more imprisoned they become.  No matter how much energy you expend, however, lack of clarity and poor strategy inevitably leads to poor results – less freedom and more headaches.  It is like trying to catch fish in a pond with your bare hands.  No matter how many hours you work or how deep you wade, a poor strategy leads to poor results – there won’t be a fish dinner!

Ineffective Leadership & Delegation:

Far too many small business owners are by default small leaders.  Instead of leadership, they excel at doer-ship.  They are micromanagers that like to touch and control everything.  They trust no one but themselves.  They believe “no one does it as well as me”. They seldom delegate, if at all.  They mistake such busyness for business leadership.  Instead of thinking and leading like owners, most think and behave like employees.  Instead of reflecting and planning, they excel at sweating and doing.  They act like they have a job instead of owning a business.  To lead effectively, one must trust others.  Not developing their leadership potential costs them dearly

Inadequate or Missing Business Systems:

A vast majority of owners don’t know how to design a new business or re-engineer an existing one to be more systems-oriented and professionally equipped with plans, procedures and policies.  As a result, entrepreneurs don’t create and document the processes (specific and repeatable ways to do something), procedures and policies that allow for well organized, smoothly running, easier-to-manage companies.  Without defining and documenting the specific work that needs to be done, owners can’t delegate effectively and eventually remove themselves from their technical roles.  As a result, owners are forever feeling “out of control”.  Tragically, most entrepreneurs have unknowingly, reactively and accidentally created an owner-centered and owner-dependent company.  They are trapped!

Growing Business Complexities:

A growing business with its increasing number of customers, transactions and problems will eventually crush a business not properly designed and prepared to handle such growth.  Without effective leadership and adequate business systems (an integrated web of processes), a growing company does not stand a chance.  Growing pains are unavoidable.  Producing predictable and consistent results will be nearly impossible.  By failing to plan for growth, you are by default planning to fail.

Busyness, technical bias, poor delegation, inadequate leadership and business systems, and the growing complexities of a business lead to a life sentence of working on the chain gang – your company.  Fortunately, it doesn’t have to be this way. A willingness to change, can serve as your “get out of jail free card”.  We can help you to escape the blues and the tyranny of technical busyness.  You will no longer have to be the jack-of-all-trades for your company.  Growing pains will subside.  You will learn to be master, not servant.  You will learn to lead more and work less.  You will learn to shape your company by design, not by default.

What are you waiting for? How much longer are you going to wear that ball and chain? Call us today! We can dramatically improve your individual and organizational effectiveness.

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BUSINESS IS SIMILAR TO PLAYING POKER

I have the opportunity to be associated with a very smart and successful businessman, and we were having coffee recently. He told me about a book that he enjoyed reading and asked if I had read it. I had not. Then on Saturday the book showed up in my mailbox as a gift from him and I started reading it that afternoon. This is a very good book and I finished it on Sunday, 24 hours later.

Thank you Nick Footer with in2itive search a website design and SEO company located here in Oregon.

http://www.in2itivesearch.com

Because of the length of this blog post, I will divide it up into two posts.

Delivering Happiness, A Path to Profits, Passion, and Purpose was written by Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos.com.

It is Tony’s story of success from starting a worm farm, to running a pizza business, to ultimately having Zappos acquired by Amazon for $1.2 Billion.

One of the analogies he used that I found fascinating was his comparison between business and playing poker and the lesson learned along the way.

BUSINESS IS SIMILAR TO PLAYING POKER

EVALUATING MARKETING OPPORTUNITIES

• Table selection is the most important decision you can make.
• It’s okay to switch tables if you discover it’s too hard to win at your table.
• If there are too many competitors (some irrational or inexperienced), even if you’re the best it’s a lot harder to win.

MARKETING AND BRANDING

• Act weak when strong, act strong when weak. Know when to bluff.
• Your “Brand” is important.
• Help shape the stories that people are telling about you.

FINANCIALS

• Always be prepared for the worst possible scenario.
• The guy who wins the most hands is not the guy who makes the most money in the long run.
• The guy who never loses a hand is not the guy who makes the most money in the long run.
• Go for positive expected value, not what’s least risky.
• Make sure your bankroll is large enough for the game you’re playing and the risk’s you’re taking.
• Play only with what you can afford to lose.
• Remember that it’s a long game. You will win or lose individual hands or sessions, but it’s what happens in the long-term that matters.

Stay tuned next week to the conclusion of Business is similar to playing poker.

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BUSINESS IS VERY MUCH LIKE PLAYING POKER: Part Two

Continuing Tony Hsieh’s comparison between business and playing poker and the lesson learned along the way, from his book; Delivering Happiness.

STRATEGY

• Don’t play games you don’t understand, even if you see lots of other people making money from them.
• Figure out the game when the stakes aren’t high.
• Don’t cheat. Cheaters never win in the long run.
• Stick to your principles.
• You need to adjust your style of play throughout the night as the dynamics of the game change. Be flexible.
• Be patient and think long-term.
• The players with the most stamina and focus usually win.
• Differentiate yourself. Do the opposite of what the rest of the table is doing.
• Hope is not a good plan.
• Don’t let yourself go “on tilt.” It’s much more cost effective to take a break, walk around, or leave the game for the night.

CONTINUAL LEARNING

• Educate yourself. Read books and learn from others who have done it before.
• Learn by doing. Theory is nice, but nothing replaces actual experience.
• Learn by surrounding yourself with talented players.
• Just because you win a hand doesn’t mean you’re good and you don’t have more learning to do. You may have just been lucky.
• Don’t be afraid to ask for advice.

CULTURE

• You’ve gotta love the game. To become really good, you need to live it and sleep it.
• Don’t be cocky. Don’t be flashy. There’s always someone better than you.
• Be nice and make friends. It’s a small community.
• Share what you’ve learned with others.
• Look for opportunities beyond just the game you sat down to play. You never know whom you’re going to meet, including new friends for life or new business contacts.
• Have fun. The game is a lot more enjoyable when you’re trying to do more than just make money.

Do you want to Deliver Happiness in your business and take it to the next level? We can dramatically improve your individual and organizational effectiveness. You can take advantage of a mentor, coach and consultant or you can make mistakes. Which makes more sense? What are you waiting for? Give us a call.

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                TONY ROBBINS ROCKS LONDON

As Marshall Goldsmith’s book title says, What Got You Here Won’t Get You There.

I run into business owners all the time with great technical skills, but lacking an in-depth understanding of all the other aspects necessary to run a successful business. I notice these same business owners don’t take advantage of the opportunity to learn about business skills and improve on them.

Consider the data on business start-ups. In the first year of business, 50 percent go out of business. By the fifth year, 80 percent of those who started are gone, and by the tenth year, 96 percent are out of business. In today’s business environment, a business owner can’t survive solely on the basis of skills and talents. You need to understand the others aspects of running a business. If you want your business to survive (and who doesn’t?), you can never stop learning.

Tony Robbins, Business Mastery

I recently attended the Tony Robbins Business Mastery five-day program in London along with 1,200 others to learn advanced business skills to help business owners achieve even greater success both personally and professionally. It was well worth the time (and the $10,000) to attend. Tony Robbins can get a room excited about learning new skill sets and improving on old ones. I am a lifelong learner with a ferocious appetite for reading and learning, so this event was right up my alley.

In this dynamic and rapidly changing business climate, the most effective business owners understand that never-ending improvement is the only way to survive—and thrive. The business knowledge and understanding that helped you get started in your business is not the same knowledge and understanding that will get you where you need to go. You have to continuously upgrade your skill sets and knowledge.

Too many business owners continue to operate their businesses as an operator, working in their business rather than on their business as an owner. Tony Robbins says that you can’t take your business to the next level as an operator. The only way to get to the next level is as a business owner.

If you want to take your business to the next level and learn the skills necessary to do so, give us a call. We are experts at dramatically improving individual and organizational effectiveness—ready to help your business and you to make more money.

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                              ALBERT EINSTEIN

Albert Einstein has been widely credited with saying; “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” However there is absolutely no evidence that Einstein actually made this statement. Never the less, it is a great quote and most people we meet can easily repeat this statement.

However, few actually take it to heart. Many business owners will do the exact same thing they did in 2016 and expect 2017 to be a better year than the previous year.

Often business owners at the beginning of the year will say they want to make a 3- 5% increase in their business for the upcoming year. The problem with this statement is that it doesn’t really require thinking differently or doing anything different than the previous year to achieve this goal. A little tweaking here, a little tweaking there, a slight increase in sales, a little expense reduction at the same time and they can easily make a 3-5% increase in their bottom line results. Often these are practices that were already being done in the business anyway. So are they expecting different results while pretty much doing the same thing they did in the previous year? Have they really made any real changes in their business practices? Are they thinking differently moving forward? Most likely they have not made any real changes in the business but will expect great results. Incremental change isn’t going to take your business to the next level. We have to demand more of our business and ourselves.

What if we asked the question; What would it take to double my business for the upcoming year?

Asking the question, how can I double my business for this New Year requires us to think about our business from a different perspective. It can no longer be business as usual. It forces us to stop and think and look at our business from a higher level.  And in order to effectively think differently about the business, we have to step back from the business to really see what is going on. If we want to double your business for the upcoming year, it can’t be business as usual. You have to do something different beyond tweaking here and there.

Where do we want your business to be a year from now? What are you going to do differently this year then you did last year to make a dramatic change and double that business? What is it that is preventing you from reaching the next level of success in your business and personal life? Do you know what it is? Have you reflected on the last year to examine what you did well and what you can improve on moving forward? Have you determined what prevented you from achieving the level of success that you wanted to achieve at the beginning of the year? Are you going to do the same thing this year and expect different results?

Do you want to make dramatic improvements in your business for 2017?

If you truly want to make a difference and take your business to the next level, then give us a call. You don’t have to go it alone and without a guide. We are here to help.

Take massive action today to improve your business in 2017!

http://www.garyfurrconsulting.com

http://garyfurr@garyfurrconsulting.com

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These are uncertain times and the path forward is not yet clear. Many times in business and life we find ourselves dealing with issues outside of our circle of control. How we deal with those issues has a tremendous impact on our businesses and our lives—and even the lives of those around us. One approach that can help is learning how to effectively frame the uncertainty and lack of control.

Nathan Furr, Professor at INSEAD, has published an article in Harvard Business Review entitled, “You’re Not Powerless in the Face of Uncertainty” that may help you as you navigate these unsettling times.

You can read it here: https://hbr.org/2020/03/youre-not-powerless-in-the-face-of-uncertainty

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Early in March I had the opportunity to present to a group of twelve bankers at a local commercial bank here in Portland, Oregon. I discussed how applying value stream and process-mapping tools to your business can help to streamline processes and procedures and increase efficiency.

A value stream is a sequence of events or activities required to deliver goods and/or services to customers, both externally and internally. It includes all the activities that start when there is a request and a deliverable. These activities occur hundreds of times a day within businesses; unless they are examined, there are often disconnects, redundancies, and unnecessary complications and confusion as to how work gets accomplished on a day-to-day basis. This confusion and complication tends to cause chaos—the enemy of efficiency. Without examination, this tends to get worse rather than better.

To eliminate these impediments to efficient flow within a work system, it is necessary to understand the current state or conditions. This is done through value-stream and process-mapping tools. Mapping the current conditions allows everyone in the organization to see the truth about how work gets done and how they are performing. It also tends to create a sense of urgency for improvement and helps reduce resistance to change.

Value stream and process mapping provide the opportunity to redesign the workflow to increase efficiency and eliminate unnecessary actions and steps. Those extra actions and steps tend to get added in to systems and processes over time.

The bankers I presented to were able to see how value stream and process mapping could be applied within their bank to increase the flow of work through the various systems—without increasing costs. The result is an increase to bottom line revenue. They also recognized how value stream and process mapping could help their customers improve top-line revenue, reduce costs, and improve bottom line results—reducing the risk to the bank in the process.

If you would like a deeper understanding of how these tools can help increase your efficiency on the shop floor or within your office, give me a call. It costs you nothing to have that first conversation to discuss how we can help you increase top-line revenue and bottom-line profits. If not now, then when?  503-312-3145

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