I am asked that question all the time and I love it. What I have discovered from building my own business, and consulting and coaching entrepreneurs and professionals over the years is this: There really are just 5 elements that determine business success!

How can I say that? Well, it all comes down to 5 points of focus: your market, your product or service, your marketing, your use of attention, and your ability to use others.

Let’s take a closer look at these five success factors:

Your Market – You’ve got know how and there is a market for it. Your first task is to check exactly what your prospective buyers want to pay for and adjust your know how to deliver exactly that. Once your relationships are in place you can propose other ‘add-on’ services and product. FIRST sell what the buyer wants to pay for.

Your Product or Service – The world is filled with people who share your ‘know how.’ The difference is in your ability to focus on the solution you are providing and it’s match to the need in the market place better and faster than they do.

Your Marketing – The messages you use needs to be in the language of the buyer. Beware being too clever and having them skip right past you.

Your Attention – The biggest stumbling block business owners put in front of themselves is responding to every interruption and distraction. Think you don’t? Try turning off your phone and email for 3 straight hours. Measure how much you get done!

Your Use of Others – I define leverage as getting the greatest return from time, attention, energy and resources. There are activities that only you can take care of for your business. Keep your attention on those and leverage the experience and intelligence of others to cover the rest.

Remember, the simpler you view each challenge, the easier the solution you’ll come up with. Keep your focus on these 5 keys and you’ll out pace your competition and have your customers singing your praises.

Technorati Tags: Productivity, Time Management

The fastest way to serve 100 customers in 100 days is by expanding your thinking beyond “I do it myself.”

Let me give you just three steps. I’m known for breaking things into simple, easy to follow steps – as doable as can be. So here are the steps that are foundations for long-term success.

3 steps to build a team that serves 100 clients with ease:

1. Hire for expertise – Your clients don’t want you be the only person who can answer their needs (that’s just adding risk to their own business). They also don’t want to be the training ground for junior talent.

I recommend you hire ‘the most you can’ rather than ‘the least you can get away with’ when you build out your team. That way you’ll have competence on board to accelerate service delivery, problem solving and adding new lines of service for your customers as your business grows.

2. Design systems that leverage that expertise – A mistake many business owners make is hanging on to their own ‘know how’ instead of turning it into systems. With new folks on board you’ll want to incorporate your experience and theirs into fresh systems. Those systems guarantee your entire team can provide comparable excellent results to all those customers.

3. Sell your team to your customers – Have you caught yourself saying “I’m the only one who really understands my client’s challenges?” If you hire beginners you’ll be right.

On the other hand, hire people who have been ‘elsewhere’ and you gain the ability to sell that expanded ‘know how’ to your client’s business.

Bonus Tip – Productivity is created when you step out of the do-er role and into the leader role. The sooner you build your team, the faster you can fill your client roster. 100 clients can be merely the start of your vision for your business.

Over the years of consulting and coaching business owners and entrepreneurs, I’ve uncovered quite a few ways to mess up your efforts. Below you’ll find the top 7 ways to mess up, and what to do about it.

Top 7 Ways To Screw Up Your Business

1. It’s all about you – most people believe they‘re in business to sell what they’re interested in putting out in the world. Do you think your buyer really cars about this?

What to do instead – Your business is all about your prospective customer and what is in it for them. Tell them.

2. Being a “Do It All” – I also see professionals and business owners try to do everything so they’ll know it was done right. Silly idea.

What to do instead – Leverage others. Hire others to hand off lower level work so you can focus on business building.

3. Being a “Know It All” – I’ve seen people assume they know how to do everything. Yep, even thought they have no way of knowing the new and improved technique that might be out there.

What to do instead – Hire for the experience and expertise people have gained in other companies. Now that’s leverage!

4. Meeting hell – Yep, I’ve seen 100s of companies waste 1000s of hours of people’s time, energy and intelligence in worthless meetings. C’mon, you have too.

What to do instead – Never start a meeting if you cannot describe the single result you want to create by the end.

5. Ad Hoc Hell – I’ve seen it. People letting themselves be interrupted constantly by others who have ‘just a quick question.’

What to do instead – Use time blocking and create uninterruptible slots at least 3 times every day.

6. Technology Interruptions – Just because someone invented email and cell phones doesn’t mean they should command your attention.

What to do instead – Turn off both for 2 hours. Then check and answer what needs your attention AND turn them off again to keep working.

7. Getting lost in To Do’s – All too often our personal list becomes a mile long and swamps our attention.

What to do instead – Pick 3 to 6 items that will be the focus or your day. Delegate the rest.

Technorati Tags: Meeting Management, Productivity, team building

So let’s take a look at 3 of the biggest and deadliest mistakes that entrepreneurs, professionals and business owners alike make, and then what to do instead.

Big Mistake #1 – Going with the flow. Because we live in a society that rewards risk taking and responsiveness, I usually see people running businesses start each day with their focus on the squeaky wheel. The problems that shout the loudest get the most attention, even if they are not the most important factors in the business’s success.

What to do instead – Start each day and each meeting with a clear purpose. Make that purpose the stated vision and goals of the business and evaluate the issues that come up for their fit with those success targets before you put time or resources into solving them.

Big Mistake #2 – Giving problems the first call on your attention. When a business is primarily problem focused motivation goes right out the window. For a team to pull together, and even for you to want to get out of bed and go build that business each day, you can’t keep ringing the “what’s gone wrong” bell.

What to do instead – Focus everyone’s attention first on what’s being accomplished. Help your team see what they’ve done well and you’ll have them motivated to take their enthusiasm and creativity into fixing breakdowns with glee.

Big Mistake #3 – Letting externals design how you do business. There is nothing more deadly to productivity than watching the clock. Forget the notion of setting meetings for an hour. The issue you’re working on might only need 27 minutes to solve, yet everyone will spread the work to fill that hour. No one will speak up and say “can we take care of this quicker?”

What to do instead – Decide on the agenda of your meetings before you sit down at the table. State it clearly, and let people know that the meeting will end in 12, 27 41 minutes – however long it takes to get clear about the exact next steps to be done, and who will do them.

Technorati Tags: Productivity

Focus
Being able to stay focused is the first key to small business success. There will always be new options, new opportunities, new markets you ‘could’ take your products and services to. The quickest and easiest way to build success is by having a clear focus and checking to make sure all your efforts are aligned.

There is always more that could be added to your To Do list, but are those tasks adding value? Double check daily that the actions you’re giving your time to will build the business results you’re aiming for.

Leverage
One of the ongoing challenges for every small business is getting it all done. If your vision is to grow your business, you need to practice ‘not doing’ – not doing it all your self, not doing what doesn’t actually need doing. Leverage means setting up systems for how things are best done, so that they can be handed off to other people.

Another form of leverage is hiring others, whether part-time or full-time, to take over those systems and activities. Using both of those forms of leverage will free you up to be doing exactly what you need to accomplish on behalf of your business.

Leadership
How do you envision your role in your business? Is it as a team member or a team leader? If it’s the former you’re playing small. Every team needs great members, but team success depends on a leader who make sure the resources the teams needs are available, and the obstacles get cleared out of the way. Be the leader.

Management
No matter the size of your business, you need to carve out time for working ‘on’ your business rather than ‘in’ it. That means putting together the plans that will be road maps for everyone’s efforts. Once you have those plans, it’s your turn to make sure you’ve got the resources your business needs to get the work done. And as work is taking place, you need to monitor how things are going so you know what to adjust.

Passion
Let’s not forget, as you become absorbed in the doing, you need reminders of why you’re in business in the first place. Keep your life vision and your business vision in your line of sight on a regular basis so that you can draw on the inspiration to sustain your balance!

And one way to grow your business to the next level is to join the Business Accelerator TeleSeminar Club at http://www.TheBusinessAcceleratorClub.com – come on board and join for $200 savings the first month.

Come join me and like-minded business builders and learn all about how to run your current business ever easier, AND how to take your experience & expertise and turn it into – Programs, Products & Services Your Clients Are Hungry For – with all the how to’s set out for you.

Technorati Tags: Leadership, Management

Whether your team consists of a handful of folks, or you have 50 people in different functional areas, when you use these techniques, you won’t be able to stop the productivity if you wanted to.

1. Hire for expertise – One of the greatest mistakes I see small businesses make is pinching their pennies when it comes to bringing on team members. The result is a constant drain on your time and attention as you try to train them in every aspect of what you want them to do.

I recommend you buy ‘the most’ you can rather than ‘the least you can get away with.’ That way you’ll have competence on board to accelerate problem solving and redesigning your business to run better as it grows.

2. Deploy for the challenges you are facing today – Another mistake business owners make is to try to hire for where the company will be ‘someday.’

You are much better off hiring people with experience and a proven track record and asking them to cross train to cover other spots until the business has grown.

3. Leverage other peoples’ experience – Have you caught yourself saying “I’m the only one who really understands my business challenges?” If you hire beginners and spend your time training you’re loosing the opportunity to learn on other people’s dime. That’s the money other business owners spent to build expertise and experience in the person you can hire.

Now is the time to hire people who have been ‘elsewhere’ and gain the insights and ideas and other options that you could use in your business.

Bonus Tip – Productivity is created when you step out of the leader role and into the inquirer role. Spend 20 percent of your time asking others for their ideas and you increase their dedication to making your business run more productively.

The key to creating High Payoff Teams is in unleashing the potential of others on behalf of your own business goals. Reward them with the challenges, the recognition and the appreciation and your business will soar.

And one way to grow your business to the next level is to join the Business Accelerator TeleSeminar Club at http://www.TheBusinessAcceleratorClub.com – come on board and join for $200 savings the first month.

Come join me and like-minded business builders and learn all about how to run your current business ever easier, AND how to take your experience & expertise and turn it into – Programs, Products & Services Your Clients Are Hungry For – with all the how to’s set out for you.

Technorati Tags: hiring, team building, Teams

Ironically, one of the most powerful approaches to growing your entrepreneurial business is to repurpose the information you already have, the services and products you have already developed to create new streams of income.

Here are several keys to take your know how and increase your revenues:

Create Audio Products –You may not realize how often you are saying the same thing. Each time you say it, casually and comfortably in a conversation, you are actually proving yourself to be an expert.

1 – Get yourself a digital recorder and record yourself as you answer other people’s questions in person.

2 – Remember to record by phone. You can schedule teleconferences and tell people you’re available for answering questions and you’re recording the call so people can listen again later.

3 – Bundle the recordings and let people know they are available for a fee as downloaded mp3 files or CDs… and now you’re being paid for your expertise.

Offer Programs – Many professionals think they must sell their efforts by the hour. That means you constantly have to ‘re-sell’ your customers over and over again. These 3 steps will completely smooth out your cash flow:

1 – Think about the work you do most often, and the average number of hours that you’ve used to deliver it. Give those work efforts names based on the results they create for your customers.

2 – Create 3 levels of programs with 3 different prices so you can offer choices. Most buyers will crave your top program, and often select the middle program.

3 – Always speak in programs when people ask you “How do you work with…?”

Bonus Tip – Only offer programs! Even the prospective customer who just wants ‘a couple of hours’ should be told “I have a service I call the quick assessment” or “Let me tell you about my Start Up Program to see if that’s a fit for you.” Once they are in the program mindset you’ll have them signing up over and over and you’ll be using your own time much more efficiently and profitably.

And now I’d like to invite you to learn how to create new low cost highly profitable streams of income. You can check out The Business Accelerator TeleSeminar Club at http://www.TheBusinessAcceleratorClub.com

You’ll receive hours of coaching, all about how to take your experience and expertise and turn it into – Marketing That Pays For Itself – Programs Your Clients Are Hungry For – with all the how to’s set out for you.

Technorati Tags: New Streams Of Income, Productivity

“Change One Thing, And You Can Change It ALL!”

Your products, your services, your customers, your team, your personal productivity.

20 Percent More Productive In A Day

“Come on Linda, that’s not really possible, its it?”

Not only possible, not as hard as you might think. Here are some tips that can pull it off.

1. Let’s start with your mindset – most people believe they must keep doing what they’re already doing… That’s the worst mindset you could hold because it cuts you off from seeing the 101 possible ways of doing things with less effort, less attention, less energy. Shift to a mindset of “How can I reduce 20 percent of the effort put into this, today” and the ideas will start showing up immediately.

2. 20 percent up or 20 percent down – you decide. Do you want to get 20 percent more out of the system, or put 20 percent less effort into the results you’re now getting. Either choice will serve as a starting point.

3. Remember the 80-20 rule – it’s practically universal that 20 percent of your clients or customers are “high maintenance.” They’re creating 80 percent of your distractions, disruptions and diversions. Keep them but change your pricing structure to charge them 20 percent more.

4. 80-20 redux – If those high maintenance customers take their business elsewhere, they’ve given you back a lot of your time and resources to go after serving your ideal clients! Feeling pressured by a potential drop in revenue – then now is the time for…

5. Be a brainstorming wizard – the fastest path to change is being open to changing. That doesn’t mean that every task, activity, process or technique in your business must change. It only requires making it safe to raise new ideas that could boost productivity. One idea breeds another and another and in those discussions will be gems that never would have seen the light of day without stirring up the thinking on purpose.

Bonus Tip – use time blocking. Don’t believe reducing the interruptions can work? Well, I got an email from my client David O. in Los Angeles that reads “Linda, I didn’t’ believe you when you said time blocking would increase my productivity. I decided to try the 45-minute hour. I ‘knew’ that the project would take all that time… and when I looked at the clock after 20 minutes I realized that not only was I done with the project, I had also started working on the next one!”

Are you up for the challenge, the relief and the results?

And one way to grow your business to the next level is to join the Business Accelerator TeleSeminar Club at http://www.TheBusinessAcceleratorClub.com – come on board and join for $200 savings the first month.

Come join me and like-minded business builders and learn all about how to run your current business ever easier, AND how to take your experience & expertise and turn it into – Programs, Products & Services Your Clients Are Hungry For – with all the how to’s set out for you.

Technorati Tags: Productivity

Here are 7 ways to get leverage working for you:

1. Leverage your time – Most of us have been trained to think in 60-minute hours. Well, studies have shown that we all tend to spread tasks to fill the allotted time. Break that habit by scheduling meetings for 27 minutes, and blocking off chunks of uninterrupted work time for 45 minutes.

2. Leverage your intelligence – Plan on doing a task 3 times: the first to work through the possible steps, the second to work on getting the kinks and obstacles solves, and the third to document it. Next teach it to someone else so you’ve transferred the ‘know how’ to others.

3. Leverage your energy – Many of us are working in office environments, doing very little movement of our bodies the entire day. Set aside 5 minute per hour to leave the desk, and walk briskly for 4 minutes. It’s even better if you’re in a building with stairs – go up and down the stairs for those minutes and your alertness will soar and the pounds will drop off from keeping your metabolism up all day.

4. Leverage your team – Begin every day by listing everything you want to accomplish. Then create a separate list with the 3 key goals you will focus on. Take all the other goals and assign them to other people to get done.

5. Leverage your systems – Assign each system for the work you do in your business to another person. Give them the task of evaluating “all the ways it might be done more efficiently, effectively, productively and profitably.” You’ll be leveraging everyone’s attention – stirring up the best thinking of everyone in the company AND their enthusiasm as well.

It’s really amazing! When you use “leverage” as the key to running your business, you’ll continually find ways of creating more results with less effort and energy.

And one way to grow your business to the next level is to join the Business Accelerator TeleSeminar Club at http://www.TheBusinessAcceleratorClub.com – come on board and join for $200 savings the first month.

Come join me and like-minded business builders and learn all about how to run your current business ever easier, AND how to take your experience & expertise and turn it into – Programs, Products & Services Your Clients Are Hungry For – with all the how to’s set out for you.

Technorati Tags: Productivity

It’s not that people get out of bed in the morning thinking “How can I stall the thinking and motivation of my team today?” It’s most often that people never have experienced being in a meeting that was well run, so they never had a chance to see a model, to copy it and become a meeting master when it was time to run a meeting themselves.

“Meeting Constipation”

I usually see this in my brand new students, some new managers and even experienced professionals, who “constipate” their team by the way they let meetings drag along without a clear purpose.

At the same time I see many business leaders, even more experienced ones, not getting the results they want from that very expensive gathering of a group of professionals. This can happen even if the meeting is well attended and the topic is clear.

A good example of what not to do

Let’s say there is a business issue that needs to be solved. Someone calls a meeting, everyone shows up around the table, and for an hour everyone tosses opinions and ideas at each other. I’ve even seen it become a blame game rather than a clear assessment of what’s not working well at the moment. Worse yet, people start to use the gathering as an opportunity to bring any and every other topic into the discussion.

Since nothing is being solved, everyone is trapped at the conference table, looking at their watches, thinking about what they could be getting done if they could just get away…

A better alternative:

If you’re bringing people together to discuss an issue, make sure you’re using systematic techniques to getting them prepared before they come, to keep the discussion to a single topic, to summarize what’s been decided and get agreement on the clear actions that will be taken following the meeting.

A well run meeting will actually perk up everyone’s energy and enthusiasm and carry over after the meeting into smooth flowing productivity for everyone.

And one way to grow your business to the next level is to join the Business Accelerator TeleSeminar Club at http://www.TheBusinessAcceleratorClub.com – come on board and join for $200 savings the first month.

Come join me and like-minded business builders and learn all about how to run your current business ever easier, AND how to take your experience & expertise and turn it into – Programs, Products & Services Your Clients Are Hungry For – with all the how to’s set out for you.

Technorati Tags: Meeting Management, Productivity