[vc_row css=”.vc_custom_1548289356400{background-color: #bcbcbc !important;}”][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”4635″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center”][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1753491617377{padding-right: 19px !important;padding-left: 19px !important;}”]Strategy is critical to your success. Often it is made more complicated than it needs to be. The heart of good strategy is a thorough understanding of your customer’s need and then organizing your company in such a way to meet that need in an effective and efficient manner. It is that simple.  It is finding the need, meeting the need and collecting a check. To learn more, download the chapter on strategy.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text css=””]

Chapter 4: Strategy Counts

Strategy is a bigger topic than this short book can cover. I mention it here, however, because strategy is one of the fundamental steps of success. We will talk about it briefly, with the understanding that strategy is a topic worthy of its own book. In fact, two of the best books on strategy I have read are Good Strategy/Bad Strategy, by Richard Rumelt, and Strategy and the Fat Smoker, by David Maister. There is a lot of confusion as to what strategy really is, but what strategy is not is vision and goal setting (topics I will cover later).

It Starts with a Need

In graduate school one of the instructors (a business person, not a professor) told us something that I have never forgotten. He said that business was relatively simple and amounts to this: Find a need, fill the need, and collect a check. Then he added, don’t screw it up in the middle because most businesses owners do screw it up.

To me this is the heart of good strategy: finding the need and figuring out how you will meet that need. Knowing what problem you are solving and how you will solve it is strategy. Then you organize your business in such a way that it can meet the needs in the most efficient and effective manner.

According to research by Nathan Furr and Jeff Dyer in their book The Innovators Method, the most successful companies do not just offer products that are easier to use, they offer products that delight their customers. How do you delight your customers? By meeting their needs and solving their problems. The authors go on to say that you have to first deeply understand the customer’s problem, pain, or desire. They describe it as the job to be done and it comes from understanding a problem in a way that others have not, and then going beyond the customer’s expectations in providing a solution.

As Richard Rumelt says in Good Strategy/Bad Strategy, a good strategy has an essential logical structure and a set of coherent actions. He illustrates with Apple and Steve Jobs: ìIn 1997 two months from bankruptcy, Steve Jobs returned to Apple as interim CEO. Steve did the unexpected and shrunk Apple down to a more suitable size to be a niche producer in the highly competitive personal computer business.î. He cut Apple back in order for the business to survive. Steve’s strategy was to go after and address the fundamental problem of survival with a focused and coordinated set of actions. Where is Apple today?

In essence, strategy is an intentional focus and alignment of resources that delivers maximum and measurable results to meet the customers’ needs.

Success Steps

1. What problem are you going to solve?
2. Where is the problem located?
3. How will you solve it?
4. How will you organize your company in order to solve the problem?
5. How will you add value to your customers?

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It’s Not Hard, It’s Business

Fundamental Steps to help business owners learn what it takes to grow their business and increase their revenue.

As the former GM and COO of a $40 million company with seven locations I have learned what it takes to be successful in business. In this book, I share some keys to sustainable business growth and acceleration and the way to close the gap between your performance and your dreams.

You didn’t go into business to just get by, you got into it to succeed. Follow our series on the website and get your desktop reference copy from Amazon.[/vc_column_text][vc_single_image image=”4271″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center”][vc_column_text]

Get Your Copy

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[vc_row css=”.vc_custom_1548289356400{background-color: #bcbcbc !important;}”][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”4637″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center”][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1753491745723{padding-right: 19px !important;padding-left: 19px !important;}”]Your mindset is the foundation of your success. It is tempting to think that skills are, but that is not what I have observed throughout my years in helping lead companies toward greater success. I have seen that if your mindset is not right, success will be elusive. We all have internal stories that we are telling ourselves, and these stories can either help you to achieve success or get in the way of it. You need to understand yours.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text css=””]

Chapter 3: Mindset Matters

Mindset is the foundation of all success. It is tempting to think that skills are, but that is not what I have observed throughout my years in helping to lead companies toward greater success. What I have seen is that if your mindset is not right, success will be elusive. Like everyone, business owners often have internal stories that they are telling themselves. These stories originate in their past, yet still manage to get in the way of their success. Unfortunately, these past stories, or self-limiting beliefs, can prevent you from achieving the level of success you dream of attaining. Your limiting beliefs do not merely exist inside your own mind. They have real-world consequences, and that is why they must be addressed in order to achieve success.

During my second visit with one particular client, he went into a twenty-minute explanation as to why he had not been successful thus far and why he would not be successful moving forward. He elaborated on his past as well as his relationship with his father, and he said that he was doomed to failure. After he finished his story, I politely told him that this was complete nonsense. He looked at me with astonishment and asked why. I explained to him that it was like he was driving his car by looking in the rear-view mirror. How successful is that? I told him that he would not achieve the level of success he desired when he believed it would never happen. He was allowing his past and the mindset that had developed there to control his future. Of course we cannot change the past, but we can learn from it. In the big picture, it does not really matter where you came from, it only matters where you are and where you want to go. I love what Tony Robbins, author and success coach, says about the past: ìWhat if your past happened for you, and not to you?î

You have the freedom to let go of the past and reinvent your future. You need to learn how to thrive, not survive. If you want your business to get better, then you have to get better. If you want things to change, then you have got to change. As Dean Graziosi says in his book Millionaire Success Habits, ìWe want to be the thermostat not
the thermometer.î

How to Feed Your Mind

Our minds are not unlike our bodies: We are what we eat. If we feed our minds with negativity, we will get negativity. If we feed our minds with positive information, we will get positivity in return. Whatever we allow in is what occupies our thoughts. Our minds do not discriminate between destructive input and constructive input. Both have an effect on our physical reality.

If you continually tell yourself negative thoughts, you will start to believe those thoughts and they will have a direct effect on your actions, which will eventually get you exactly what you were thinking. The opposite is also true, of course. If you feed your mind with good thoughts and positive input, you will get positive results. Success will come to you if you are determined to be successful and you intentionally adopt a positive mindset. Because you have the power within you to change what you believe is possible, you can affect what actually becomes possible.

I personally have gone on a no-news diet. The news on TV, no matter what channel you listen to, has more negative news than positive. Steven Pinker, a Canadian-American cognitive psychologist, wrote an article for The Guardian magazine entitled ìThe Media Exaggerates Negative News. This Distortion has Consequences.î In the article he says that every day the news is filled with stories about war, terrorism, crime, pollution and a host of other negative topics. He states that even magazine covers are covered with negative topics and crises of some sort or another.

Pinker says, ìWhether or not the world really is getting worse, the nature of news will interact with the nature of cognition to make us think it is. News is about things that happen, not things that don’t happen.î He went on to say that the news can and likely will distort our view of the world, and the consequences of negative news are negative.

Reprogram Your Negative Thinking

I often tell clients if they have negative thought patterns that have been ingrained over time, they should think of the antithesis or exact opposite of that thought and start developing a mantra of saying the positive over and over until they change their belief system. A good way to do this is to write down the positive opposite of your negative belief and read it out loud every day, morning and night, in order to reprogram your subconscious mind. This sounds rather simplistic, but it actually works and gets your subconscious mind engaged in helping to change your belief system.

Fix in your mind what you want to achieve and write it down. Any idea that you write down and repeat verbally day after day will indeed program your subconscious mind to ensure you are moving in the right direction. Your state of mind often determines the story you come up with. You need a story that empowers you, not one that disempowers you.

In his book Think and Grow Rich, Napoleon Hill says, ìThe power of auto-suggestion is the agency of central thought through which an individual may voluntarily feed his sub-conscious mind on thoughts of creative nature, or by neglect permit thoughts of a destructive nature.î

Success comes to those who are determined to be successful and adopt a positive mindset with a definite purpose. We all have the power to make the little choices in our lives that can alter our lives forever. If you do not believe that, I recommend Viktor Frank’s book, Man’s Search for Meaning. Viktor was a prisoner of war in a Nazi concentration camp. He saw his family murdered, and he endured bizarre experiments on his body. He came to the conclusion that while he did not have physical freedom, he did have the freedom to choose his response to what was happening to him. It is not so much what happens to us that has the greatest impact on us and those around us, but our response to what happens.

You should make a concerted effort to spend time around people who are playing at a higher level than you. I have heard it said that we become the sum total of the five people we spend the most time with. Most people hang around with people playing at a lower level. Do not be the smartest person in the room. Invest in yourself and get around people that are smarter and more successful than you. Ask questions and learn. The best investment you can make is in yourself.

The foundation of success is mindset. By mastering the little things that impact your mindset, you can make an enormous difference in your business, and in your life.

Success Steps

1. Stand guard at the door of your mind.
2. Be careful and intentional about what you allow into your mind.
3. Pay attention to any negative self-talk that you have become accustomed to saying without thinking about it.
4. Counter any negative self-talk with a positive mantra that you repeat twice a day.
5. Focus on the positive, not the negative.
6. Write down some positive supporting statements, and repeat them daily.
7. Find a way to feed and strengthen your mind every single day.
8. Ask yourself this question on a somewhat regular basis: What are the things I am going to do to improve my mindset?

[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]

It’s Not Hard, It’s Business

Fundamental Steps to help business owners learn what it takes to grow their business and increase their revenue.

As the former GM and COO of a $40 million company with seven locations I have learned what it takes to be successful in business. In this book, I share some keys to sustainable business growth and acceleration and the way to close the gap between your performance and your dreams.

You didn’t go into business to just get by, you got into it to succeed. Follow our series on the website and get your desktop reference copy from Amazon.[/vc_column_text][vc_single_image image=”4271″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center”][vc_column_text]

Get Your Copy

[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

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[vc_row css=”.vc_custom_1548289356400{background-color: #bcbcbc !important;}”][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”4639″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center”][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1753491829990{padding-right: 19px !important;padding-left: 19px !important;}”]Simple steps make all the difference in business growth. I discovered these steps in the process of interacting with hundreds of business owners; more importantly, I have used these principles to help my clients achieve from 30 percent to over 400 percent increases in their bottom-line results. Understand the steps and follow them to accelerate your business growth and increase your odds of success.

1. Mindset
2. Strategy
3. Clear direction
4. A map and plan of action
5. Focus
6. Discipline
7. Knowing your numbers
8. Understanding your cash flow
9. Knowing your banker
10. Paying your taxes

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Chapter 2: Accelerate Your Business Growth

Simple steps make all the difference in business growth. I discovered these steps in the process of interacting with hundreds of business owners; more importantly, I have used these principles to help my clients achieve from 30 percent to over 400 percent increases in their bottom-line results.

This short book cannot possibly cover all the aspects of business success, but the following fundamental steps have power to accelerate growth and increase your odds of success:

1. Mindset
2. Strategy
3. Clear direction
4. A map and plan of action
5. Focus
6. Discipline
7. Knowing your numbers
8. Understanding your cash flow
9. Knowing your banker
10. Paying your taxes

Think of business growth acceleration like driving a stick shift. You have to start your car in first gear and then shift through the other gears to achieve the desired acceleration. Just like driving, you cannot start in third gear. As you shift through the gears and build momentum, the effort required of the engine is lessened. It is the same in your business. There are no shortcuts. You have to shift through the gears, and all the gears have to be working in order to build and achieve success.

I know so many business owners and executives today who are working harder and harder, running on the treadmill of life faster and faster, but they are not getting anywhere. You do not have to work harder and harder to make your business a success. Putting your head down and doing the same things just harder and faster hoping that things will change is not a good strategy. So stop it! Stop thinking that if you just work harder, your business will improve. You do not have to work harder, you do need to work smarter and more efficiently. The key principles in this book can help guide you along the path to success.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]

It’s Not Hard, It’s Business

Fundamental Steps to help business owners learn what it takes to grow their business and increase their revenue.

As the former GM and COO of a $40 million company with seven locations I have learned what it takes to be successful in business. In this book, I share some keys to sustainable business growth and acceleration and the way to close the gap between your performance and your dreams.

You didn’t go into business to just get by, you got into it to succeed. Follow our series on the website and get your desktop reference copy from Amazon.[/vc_column_text][vc_single_image image=”4271″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center”][vc_column_text]

Get Your Copy

[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

--- END POST ---

[vc_row css=”.vc_custom_1548289356400{background-color: #bcbcbc !important;}”][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”4641″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center”][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1753305842445{padding-right: 19px !important;padding-left: 19px !important;}”]Business is really very simple if you know what to do, yet I have found that many business owners make it far more difficult that it needs to be. In their desire to make their business a success, I have seen business owners work harder and harder doing the same things they have always done, expecting different results. That does not work.

 

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Chapter 1: Business Doesn’t Have to Be So Hard

Business is really very simple if you know what to do, yet I have found that most business owners make it far more difficult than it needs to be. In their desire to make their business a success, I have seen business owners work harder and harder doing the same things they have always done, expecting different results. That does not work.

Statistics paint a grim picture of the chances to succeed in business. Only 5 percent of all businesses ever do more than a million dollars in gross revenue per year. Only .004 percent of businesses do more than $5 million in gross revenue per year, and even less do more than $10 million in revenue. The life span of a business is even more dismal. After one year, 50 percent of all businesses fail. By the fifth year, another 80 percent of those businesses have failed; and by year ten, 96 percent of all small businesses have gone out of business—and that does not mean that the 4 percent that are left are making money.

The message to business owners is clear: You cannot leave your business success to chance or luck. Furthermore, what got you to your current point most likely will not get you where you want to go. To beat the odds, you have to take control of your business and learn the necessary skills to grow and sustain your business. You did not go into business to just get by, but if you are not proactive about ensuring your success, then just getting by or failure will be the end result.

If you really want to take your business to a new level and ensure your competitive advantage, profitability, and success, you need to learn and master the steps to sustainable business growth and acceleration. The process of achieving success means you can never stop learning and you must continually upgrade your skill sets and capabilities.

The secret in business is mastering the little things that can make significant differences in your business. It is the little things done consistently over time that add up to great success. If you want to grow your business, it starts with you.

This is about understanding some of the foundational steps necessary to building a strong business that can achieve what you have always dreamed. Every building has a foundation, and if the foundation is not strong, the building will fall. Fortunately, you can shore up the foundation of your business with the steps in this book. Here is your quick and dirty guide to business success.[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]

It’s Not Hard, It’s Business

Fundamental Steps to help business owners learn what it takes to grow their business and increase their revenue.

As the former GM and COO of a $40 million company with seven locations I have learned what it takes to be successful in business. In this book, I share some keys to sustainable business growth and acceleration and the way to close the gap between your performance and your dreams.

You didn’t go into business to just get by, you got into it to succeed. Follow our series on the website and get your desktop reference copy from Amazon.[/vc_column_text][vc_single_image image=”4271″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center”][vc_column_text]

Get Your Copy

[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

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