LIVE LIFE UP HIGH

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Killing Success.

If you want to know how to kill success I have a great way. It is called “excusitis”, which is a failure disease. It affects most average people and people who don’t realize their dreams.  Excusitis, if left untreated, will seep into every area of your life and cause you to feel worthless and depressed. It causes you to act as a victim instead of a victor in life.

What is excusitis?

It is the disease that constantly finds reasons for why you are not realizing your potential. You can detect excusitis in yourself and in others by listening closely to the words you and others use. A person who suffers from excusitis has many excuses for why they are not more successful. Every excuse they produce has to do with something they don’t have or a disadvantage they have that keeps them back. For example, you may hear things like I would be successful if I weren’t so old or so young or if I had more money or if I had a better upbringing or if I had a better education or if my spouse supported me or if the economy weren’t so bad… You get the idea.  Excusitis can take many forms and is only limited to the creativity of the person suffering from the disease.

This is Contagious.

Be careful and be aware. Excusitus is that it is highly contagious. Even if you don’t suffer from the disease now, if you are around people that are constantly making excuses for there lack of success you are at risk of contracting this disease. My advice is to stop spending time with such people if you really desire to be successful.

The Cure.

The great thing about this disease is that it has a known cure. This cure is effective and can inoculate you from any future infections from this disease. The cure is a three-step approach that works every time. Let’s quickly discuss the steps.

Peak performance begins with your taking complete responsibility for your life and everything that happens to you. – Brian Tracy

1. Take responsibility for any failures or lack of fully realizing your goals. Don’t blame anyone else or any characteristic you are missing or a characteristic that you have. If you haven’t succeeded it is because you have not decided to succeed. I know this is tough talk but it is true.  You are exactly where you have decided to be in life. If you are not realizing success it is because at some level you have decided not to be successful. Once you realize this truth, it will become apparent to you that if you have the power to decide not to succeed, you also have the power to decide to succeed. I can say this with unreserved confidence because I know that inside of you there is unlimited potential to succeed put there by our Creator. You were born to succeed.

Believe and act as if it were impossible to fail. — Charles F. Kettering

2. Believe you will succeed with or without “disadvantages”. I don’t want you to just believe that you can succeed. I want you to believe that you will succeed. If I dare, I would like you to take it further and believe that you are succeeding right now. See yourself being the success you already are.

No action, no change. Limited action, limited change. Lots of action – Change occurs.  - Catherine Pulsifer

3. Take Action. Set your goals, make your plans and then take definite action towards your goals. Be persistent and consistent. If you miss the mark see it as only a setback. Take responsibility (notice I didn’t say take the blame), review the situation to see what you can learn from the setback, and then take new action based on what you learned from the setback.

Excusitis is a very deadly disease, determine today to rid yourself of this disease and move forward to become the successful person I know you already are.

As always, I welcome your comments.

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The Power of Choice
I know we ended our off last time discussing the power of choice but I think this point is so important that we need to delve into it a little deeper. Your power to choose is one of the most powerful God-given forces in the universe. You can choose to be rich or poor, a winner or a loser, a success or a failure, a giver or a robber, a person of accomplishment or a person of excuse. It is really all up to you. So before we start on this journey to your best business and professional life we must begin with the most powerful thing you can do. Choose.

Make Your Choice a Quality Choice
Most of us have experienced making a choice one day and then violating that choice the next day. What I am suggesting today is that you make a quality choice. A quality choice is one that is backed up with the commitment to do whatever it takes (without causing harm to others or yourself) to live up to the choice you have made.

Check out these 5 great quotes about choice

The strongest principle of growth lies in human choice.
George Eliot

There are two primary choices in life; to accept conditions as they exist, or accept the responsibility for changing them.
Denis Waitley

We choose our joys and sorrows long before we experience them.
Kahlil Gibran

What we call the secret of happiness is no more a secret than our willingness to choose life.
Leo Buscaglia

You are the person who has to decide. Whether you’ll do it or toss it aside; you are the person who makes up your mind. Whether you’ll lead or will linger behind. Whether you’ll try for the goal that’s afar. Or just be contented to stay where you are.
Edgar A. Guest

Here are 12 powerful choices you can make
1. Choose to be the best version of yourself by God’s grace.
2. Choose to constantly increase.
3. Choose to be the best businessperson you can be.
4. Choose not to limit yourself.
5. Choose to be humble.
6. Choose to be a person of faith.
7. Choose to be a winner.
8. Choose to be prosperous.
9. Choose to be generous and loving to others.
10. Choose to discover and use your best gifts to help others.
11. Choose to discover and fulfill your destiny.
12. Choose to do no harm.

I encourage you to make a quality choice to live your best life today. As always I welcome your comments.

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Well, we have made it to deadly mistake number 6 in our discussion on the 7 deadly mistakes new entrepreneurs make and how to avoid them. I hope by this point you have learned how to avoid some of these mistakes based on the information I have supplied. Why repeat mistakes others have made if you can avoid them?

Deadly Mistake No. 6 – Not Placing a High Value on your Customers

Many entrepreneurs have been taught how important the customer is but few have really embraced this concept so that it permeates every aspect of their business. Valuing your customer goes beyond customer appreciation days and rebates. In order to value your customer you must take the time to get to know them and then design your business around them.

Many entrepreneurs start out with the customer at the heart of the business but somewhere along the line the customer becomes secondary. This is especially true of growing companies. The entrepreneur’s focus moves from the customer to building the business and dealing with internal issues. This is a hugely costly mistake. The customer must remain the main focus of the business if the business is to thrive.

Here are three simple keys to help you keep your customer front and center in your business:

1. Focus on your customer – As the leader of your business the customer must be your personal focus. Spend time thinking about your customer’s lifestyle. What do your top customers do for work? What do they do for recreation? What are their biggest problems?  You also need to know how your customer interacts with your product or service. Why do your top customers buy from you and not from your competitors?  How are your top customers’ needs changing? What is the biggest problem your customer is having using your product or service. Start thinking along these lines about your customer and you will help keep them front and center in your mind.

2. Build your systems around your customer – This is really self-explanatory. Any system you build in your business should be built only if it helps you serve your customer better. If it doesn’t help you serve your customer better it is not a good system for your business. Simple.

3. Teach your employees how to treat your customers- Your customers are gold to you and they must be gold to your employees. Make sure every employee knows the link between their jobs and how they treat every customer. They must understand that without the customer there is no business and therefore no job for them. It is your responsibility as the entrepreneur to communicate this message to your employees both orally and by example. You may also want to reward your employees for going the extra mile for your customer.

In the final post in this series we will discuss the 7th deadly mistake. As always I welcome your comments.

photo credit: hans.gerwitz

In part one of this post we discussed the fact that many entrepreneurs allow their past failures to hold them back. We discussed 3 bite-sized nuggets that entrepreneurs should consider to help them move past these failures on to success. 
In this post, we will introduce and discuss the four remaining nuggets.

Seek the advice of others who have gone before you – This is probably a step that many entrepreneurs skip. I think for many of us it is a pride thing.  However, it is imperative that we take this step my entrepreneurial friend. Seeking competent advice is very wise. You should seek advice on three levels:

1.Seek advice about whether you have properly defined the failure . Knowing how to properly describe and define the failure is key in determining the causes. It is also a key factor in ensuring you don’t have a repeat performance.

2. Seek advice about whether you have correctly identified the 1 or 2 key factors that led to the failure. It may be hard to be objective about what caused the failure. Discussing your list of possible key factors with a competent advisor can help you clearly identify the key contributing factors.

3. Seek advice about possible approaches to circumvent the failure in the future. This is very important if it turns out that your failure was due to an error in judgement. We all have blindspots in our lives that others see clearly. By seeking advice about solutions you will multiply the odds of succeeding this time around.

Create an action plan – After you have sought competent advice and combined it with the information you gleaned from your own analysis, it is time to create a plan for moving forward. Take your time and consider all the steps you need to take to move forward. A great action plan should include steps to take, deadlines for completion of each step, resources needed to complete each step, possible obstacles to completion and steps to circumvent any known obstacles.

Implement the action plan – There is no need to create an action plan if you are not going to put it into action. At this point, you need to commit to the action plan and get started. After each step, review your plan and see if you need to make any adjustments. Remember things change and we need to be flexible.

Review - After you have accomplished your goal it is important to review. You want to see what went right and what you can improve. The key is to understand the process so you can improve it and repeat it. 

When you face failure this way you will no longer fear it. You will eat failure for lunch. As always, I look forward to your comments.

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Do you want to fail miserable as an entrepreneur? Well in this post I will share with you 22 things you can do if you want to fail miserable as an entrepreneur. Follow these steps I can almost guarantee you will be a big failure.

1.Neglect cash flow and cashflow management. Don’t even create an Excel spreadsheet to show your daily, weekly and monthy expected cash inflows and outflows. Who cares about cash and the timing of those flows anyway as long you have profits right?

2. Forget about marketing and personal selling. Don’t even bother to create a marketing plan. Who needs to do all of this work. If you build it they will just come right?

3.Don’t bother to setup and document systems for your business. Run it by the seat of your pants. Who needs all of these structures?

4. Listen to no one. Don’t seek advice from those who have gone before you. Just go it on your own. You are smarter than everyone else anyway. Or even better, pretend you are listening to them and then do your own thing.

5. Don’t build your financal intelligence. Don’t learn about financial ratios that affect your business. All that matters is that you are making some money.

6. Spend no time talking to your customers. Or if you do talk to them don’t ask them questions about the business. Just shoot the breeze all of the time.

7. For goodness sake don’t spend time analyzing the metrics of your business. Who needs to know how many new customers are coming in and where they are coming from anyway? You don’t need to know why they chose you instead of your competitor. Stuff like that is useless.

8. Don’t write the vision plan for your business. Just work it everyday like a job. A business is just a glorified job right?

9. Don’t focus on a particular niche. Try to do it all even if you don’t have the budget for it. Be all things to all people.

10. Make sure you think of the glass as half-empty all the time. Don’t be tricked by those who think optimistically and implement realistic plans. You want to be as negative as possible so if something positive does happen in your business then great. At least if you don’t expect great things you won’t be disappointed.

11. Neglect your customers and focus only on the mechanics of your business.  Your customers are a nuisance anyway. They are always asking for something different. Can’t be just be satisfied with what you give them?

12. Work in the business but don’t spend time working on the business. It is the day to day that matters anyway, forget building the business for the long-term.

13. Do not waste your money on educating yourself and learning more about your industry and your business in general. Who needs the extra expenses? You already know everything you need to know about your business. What worked in the past will continue to work. All this talk about change is just that, talk.

14. Don’t bother to work on your leadership skill and your sales skills. Who needs the headache? You are good just like you are. Anyway, who wants to a bunch of people following you.

15. Don’t change with the times and please don’t anticipate change and try to get ahead of it. This takes too much time.

16.Don’t spend time growing your employees. If they want to grow they have to do it on their own. That is not your problem.

17.Don’t delegate. Try to do everything yourself. You are a one-person show anyway. Who needs other people?

18.Don’t take the 80/20 rule seriously in terms of your work. Don’t even spend time determining what the 20% activitives are in your business that brings you 80% of the results. What’s the use of that anyway?

19. Don’t take the 80/20 rule seriously in terms of your customers. Treat them all exactly the same even though about 20% of them provide about 80% of your profits. Don’t even identify these people.

20. Isolate yourself. Who needs to network with others who are in the same line of business or others who can provide critical services.

21. Don’t read. Spend all of your time working on your business and don’t bother learning new material. If you do read, only read about your industry, don’t bother expanding yourself to see if something in other industry can help you.

22. Forget being creative. That is for the artsy types. Don’t even learn anything about creative problem solving.

Ok. I know you know that I am being sarcastic. I don’t want you to think about failing as an entrepreneur but I do want you to take these things seriously. Obviously you want to do the opposite of what is suggested here. Take a good look at this list. If you are an entrepreneur, you may be doing some of these things. If you are, you may want to make a change. If you have not started on your entrepreneurial journey yet, please look at these items and avoid them like the plague. On Wednesday I will give you another batch of these items. Happy entrepreneuring.

Suggested Additional Resources

photo credit: Betsssssy

Do you want to grow your business quickly and have a ready base of customers? My fellow entrepreneurs and business owners, take the time to ask your customers these two questions and you may be surprised at the positive results that accrue to your business.

Is there something you want that we don’t carry?

No matter what kind of business you are in there are probably products and services that your customer wants that you don’t carry. Most customers won’t volunteer this information they will just go somewhere else to get it. Many times, the only way you will secure this information is to ask the customer directly.

Keep an open mind.
You may be surprised at what your customers say. They may suggest a simple extension of your current product or service, or they may suggest an entirely new product or service. Whatever is suggested,  keep an open mind. Take the ideas and do some research to determine if you can profitably supply this product or service.

Is there something that your friends or family would want that we don’t carry?

This is an extension of the first question, but it may give you additional information.  Sometimes the products and services you offer are just right for your customers but you may be missing products and services that their friends and families desire. Imagine being able to easily gain additional customers by having a whole family or group of friends shop together for your products and services.  This could make buying  your products and services a social experience.

Final note

These questions seem simple and the fact that a business owner should ask them is obvious right? I agree that the questions are simple but you would be surprised at the nubmer of business owners that don’t ask these questions. Just think back to your own experience in a small retail shop. How often are you asked these questions by a salesperson or by the owner? Almost never.  I believe a lot of potential business is missed because these questions aren’t asked.

Try asking your customers these questions and let me know the results. As always I look forward to your comments.

photo credit: Arturo J. Paniagua

Stress can kill you.  Most people think this is stretching the truth a bit, but it is not.  Stress causes unhealthy changes in your body and makes you less effective. Most entrepreneurs are faced with lots of stressful situations. As entrepreneurs, we must manage stress before it gets out of hand. In this post, I present four simple stress-busting techniques to help the entrepreneur live longer and more successfully.

Stress is our response to outside forces exerted on us.  For example, if an employee makes us angry, how we handle it affects our entire life.  Some entrepreneurs hold it in which puts pressure on their minds.  Others let the anger dissipate in order to keep it from affecting their lives.  You want to be the latter. 

Have you ever noticed that you get headaches when dealing with certain situations?  How about that stomachache that comes on when your client calls on the phone to demand that past due project you promised?  My entrepreneurial friend,  learning to manage these stressful situations makes all the difference to your body and your health. Holding things in can make you sick and kill you so don’t keep it in. You want to be around to create your next entrepreneurial venture. Learn how to get it out of your life in an appropriate manner.

Stress-Busting Technique #1 – Take a time out.  No, we are not talking about sitting in the corner facing the wall.  Time out means distancing yourself from the situation in order to get a fresh perspective.  People have many different ways to take a time out and you can choose a few that work with your schedule and lifestyle. Here are two good ones.

Go for a walk.  If you work from home, going for a walk can break up the work of the day.  Getting fresh air and sunlight, as well as exercise, increases the oxygen flow to the brain.  Working an exercise session into your day on a regular basis is the perfect time to sweat out all your problems and increase the feel-good endorphins in your system.  A body in good shape can combat physical changes due to stress.   In fact exercise reduces stress levels.

Pray. Praying is a smart way to deal with stress because it gets the focus off of you and puts it on God. Most people who pray sincerely notice a sense of peace after they pray. There is an old adage that says “prayer changes things”. I think it is also true that many times “prayer changes us” and equips us to change things.

Stress-Busting Technique #2 – Communicate with others.  Some stressful situations are caused by what we perceive to be the truth.  We do it all the time.  Interpreting a look or a gesture without verbal confirmation leads to trouble.  If you think your client is unhappy with you, go and ask her.  She may be having a bad day which has nothing to do with you, but you are getting a stomachache because of a faulty assumption.

When you are offended or have a problem, talk it out with the appropriate person.  Clearing the air goes a long way to clearing the mind of toxic thoughts and the body from harmful effects of those toxic thoughts.  Also communicate positive words to others to create a sense of well being for yourself.

Stress-Busting Technique #3 – Spend time doing something for yourself.  Every person needs to have time to pursue their own interests.  Maybe you like to sew, read or paint. 

Whatever your passion, it is an important part of who you are and it is important for maintaining your sanity.  When the pressure gets to be too much, making yourself the number one priority can soothe your soul.

Stress-Busting Technique #4 – Focus on generating solutions instead of  focusing on the problem. What you focus on tends to expand. If you constantly focus on the problem not only will your stress levels increase but the size of the problem will increase in your mind. It will appear a lot larger than it really is and this will increase your stress. However, if you focus on generating solutions and thinking about solutions, the solutions will swallow up the problem along with the stress that came from the problem.

Entrepreneur, stress is manageable with a few techniques.  Before you head towards the deep end, keep stress under control:  communicate, incorporate “me” time, keep your body healthy and focus on solutions.  You and your family will be glad you did.

photo credit: BAIA

Networking is a fantastic way to build your business, not only by expanding awareness and your customer base but also by giving you professional resources to enhance and strengthen your skills and knowledge. 

Not only should you network with other professionals in your field but you should network with your customers, your suppliers and people who can provide administative support.

Networking actually takes many forms including offline networking with local associations and organizations like the Chamber of Commerce.  You can also network online in forums, chat rooms and social networking sites.  Here’s how:

Step One – Understand what your networking goals are.

For many, their social networking strategy evolves around building relationships – and there are many different relationships networking can create and build including:

* Joint venture partnerships
* Vendor relationships
* Mentor relationships 
* Friends and resources
* Customers
Whether you’re creating a social networking strategy to find new customers or you’re seeking partnerships or mentors, or a combination of the above it’s important to have your strategy mapped out before you begin networking.

Step Two – Create Your Networking Plan

Answer the following questions:

* Who is your target audience?
* What relationships are you looking to find and build?
* What do you have to offer them?
* What networking sites or organizations will you participate in?
* How are you going to represent yourself online?
* How often are you going to post/participate? 
* Will you create specific promotions and offers for your networking audience?

Step Three – Choosing your networking mediums – websites and organizations

Whether you’re looking to join a local networking organization or an online website, the most important thing to keep in mind are your goals.  Determine if the organization is going to be able to help you reach your goals before taking steps to join.
For example, if you’re looking to create joint venture partnerships then a professional networking site, forum, or chat room devoted to your industry may be exactly where you need to be.  However if you’re looking to build your customer base and expand awareness then a popular social networking site would fit the bill. 
Often, networking sites are valued by the number of members they have however it’s also important to make sure the audience matches your audience.  For example, if you’re marketing to seniors or baby boomers then MySpace is probably not the right social networking site for you since it caters to younger people.

Step Four:  Participate

Networking is only effective if you participate.  Here are a few rules of interaction when it comes to online and offline networking.

Get involved. Networking is about connecting with others. This means communicating with your audience in a manner which they will respond to. This is accomplished by using their language, addressing issues which they will be interested in or concerned about and providing them with information and resources which they will benefit from.

Update frequently. Online, in order to develop a following and to stay connected to your audience, it’s important to update regularly. Because many people have made a habit of networking online at least once a day (some people maintain access to their social networking site of choice all day long), it’s important to stop in and say hello. If your time permits, update at least once a day. If you don’t have time to commit to updating daily, consider outsourcing your social networking.

Be professional. Networking is about giving and receiving – not selling.  Keep the sales pitches to a minimum.  Networking is more about offering benefit to others than making sales. 

Networking, whether online or off, is a valuable way to grow your business.  Create a strategy and goals and remember you get what you give – become active in the right group and you’ll reap the rewards.

I look forward to hearing your comments.

photo credit: ckaroli

In our final installment of this series I mention 3 more modes of thoughts for successful entrepreneurs. I am sure you know that this list is not exhaustive. There are more modes of thought that are important for the entrepreneur that I may address in future posts. Ok, now for the “final” three modes…

Think “Extra Mile or Ten” – It’s about service. Extraordinary service. Find out what your customers really desire  (which you have learned from our previous post because you are thinking like your customer) and find ways to deliver this desire packed with unexpected value. Discard the thinking of the limited entrepreneur that delivers ordinary service. Train yourself to think about each interaction with your customer and how you can make their experience exceptional. Do this and you will create fans that will spread the word about your business and your service. Your business will prosper.

Think Leverage – You can’t do it all yourself. Thinking you can is a limited and foolish way to proceed. Many entrepreneur limit their success, ruin their health and destroy their families simply because they attempt to do it all. Banish this mode of thought. Adopt the leverage mindset. There are many types of leverage but 2 good ones to start with are technology leverage and people leverage.  

Learn how to use technology to get things done more effectively and efficiently. Look at your business model and think about the processes that can be enabled by technology.  Here are two good questions to get you started. How can you use the Internet to reach your clients better or deliver better service to your clients? How can you use you mobile device to be more productive?

How about people leverage? What tasks are you handling that would be better performed by an employee or a freelancer? As I mentioned in a previous post, you should be focusing on the 20% of the business that gives you 80% of your results. The rest should be outsourced to others. One caveat is that you should only outsource to talented people. Talent may be expensive but the quality they produce is worth it.

Think Creatively- This is a very important mode of thought for the entrepreneur. You must learn how to think creatively about opportunities and about problems. Think laterally. Think options. When you are dealing with a problem think about 3 ways you can solve the problem. Simply doing this will help get your creative juices flowing. 

Here is another great way to get those creative juices flowing. Look at another industry and pick a process that is common in that industry. Now think about your business. How can you apply this concept to your business? This is a great way to generate new ideas for your business.

Please let me know how you use these modes of thought.

photo credit: chegs

In my last post I shared 3 modes of thought that help you succeed as an entrepreneur. In this short post I share 1 more important mode of thought for entrepreneurs.

Think Like a Customer- So many entrepreneurs have great product and service ideas for their customers but they don’t really know their customers. They don’t spend time really interacting with their customers so they don’t know how their customers think. This is tragic. This is why many of the product and service ideas they have for their customers fail to deliver real value to the client and real profit for the entrepreneur. 

Successful entrepreneurs know how their customers think and so they know how their customers will react to new products and services. Indeed they can think like their customers. How did they develop this skill? They developed this skill by spending lots of time interacting with their customers. Asking not only what their customers want and need but finding out why their customers have this need. Then they spend time thinking deeply about the implications of what they have heard from their clients. 

Which clients should you focus on? This is a good place to think about the 80/20 rule. Since 20% of your customers create 80% of your profits, thinking like these customers will give you your greatest return on investment.

Take time today to spend time with your customers. Learn from them and learn to think like them.

As always, I solicit your feedback and your thoughts. This site is for you and I want to know what you think. Thank you.