Spring Clean Your Way to Success

grow your business, business growth, grow sales, make money save time, maximise potential, Tania Allen

“If you do what you’ve always done. You will get what you’ve always gotten” We’ve heard Tony Robbins say it, and many others before him including Mark Twain, Henry Ford and Albert Einstein.  In fact if you were at one of my events earlier this year you would have heard me saying it to a full house of business owners. Saying the words and even hearing or reading the words are one thing, but what do they actually mean and how can you change things up a bit if you’re not happy with your current results or you would like to shake things up,  drive your business forward and get the results you deserve.

As human beings, we are creatures of habit and unless we make a continual conscious decision to do things differently and make a commitment to taking consistent actions towards what it is we want, it’s no wonder many business owners become stuck, are working harder than ever before and are frustrated with slow or no real progress.

Continue reading

Mastering Franchise Recruitment & Selection

The importance of laying the right foundations for successful franchisee recruitment and selection is often times overlooked and perhaps even pushed aside, replaced instead with a sense of complacency that you’re the one who knows your business model best so recruiting franchisees should be easy right? Well not exactly.

Interestingly this is how many franchisors, both new and mature, approach franchise recruitment and selection. In a marketplace where competition is high, people are no longer looking for franchise opportunities that are relevant to their past trade or profession, instead choosing something completely different. An opportunity, a culture and a brand that will fuel their interest and desire to own their own business, ignite their passion and build a lifestyle they love.

So as a franchisor, the key question is firstly, how do you capture the attention of your ideal franchise candidate and; secondly how do you bring them onto a path of discovery with you, until they either deselect themselves, are deselected by you or,are granted one of your franchises?

 

There are 3 key selling skills all franchisors must have…

We’ve all heard it before…. Gone are the days where you just “flog” your franchises. It’s about granting them. Often times this is associated with a passive sales process and one that doesn’t fully support the fundamental function of a franchisor and that is to ‘sell franchises’. So if you are not in the business of selling franchises, yet your livelihood and success of the brand depends highly on it, it’s important to understand the key elements to success franchise recruitment and selection.

Build solid foundations with a solid sales process

When you understand the lifecycle of a customer in this case a franchisee and you, prepare and lay and develop solid foundations, you will accelerate your pace of expansion in the marketplace. The real statistics of franchisors and franchise sales people are dismal at franchise recruitment and only a small percentage however are real pros at it. It also helps if you’re supported with a robust system that can do a lot of the heavy lifting for you. We can talk about that a little later on. Old sales techniques simply don’t work anymore and short-cutting the franchise process won’t support you either.

So what’s a solid sales process look like and how will it support you? A well-defined sales process will clearly lay out what steps you must take in what order and at what time, so you help prospective franchisees make a smooth transition to franchisee. Take some time out now to jot down some thoughts about the steps you want your prospect to take as soon as they see your ad, land on your landing page, sign up to a webinar, or simply attend the first meeting. If you map it all out into a framework that enables the process to flow, you will be in a much better position to create leverage, scale and grow.

Building Strong Relationships

Back when I started in franchise recruitment I was a master of the Tom Hopkins style of selling. I led, influenced and convinced and won them over and yes that meant I then took their money. That style of selling just doesn’t work anymore. People are more aware; they are well educated and informed and are truly stacking your franchise opportunity up against another. I am a big believer that you just can’t possibly build strong, personal relationships with every prospect as there is simply not enough time in the day and secondly, not everyone will be the right fit for you and therefore doesn’t require as much one on one time and energy from you.  It could therefore be said that the key to building strong relationships is to have a solid sales process and follow up strategy in place that incorporates a balanced mix of personal, sms and email touch points. Prospects are still loved, and you get to focus your time and energy where it’s needed most.

Learning how to close effectively

When you listen to a beautiful music composition, you would never hear a complete pause or stop after it’s built up to a crescendo. The crescendo smoothly transitions to a decrescendo and then continues with the rest of the piece.The same can be said with closing the sale. The crescendo is the final step in the process, where the candidate must make that life-changing move and take a leap of faith into your franchise world.

Therefore it could be said that closing the franchise sale is an art and a science. One if mastered will serve and support your franchise brand in achieving both short term and long-term strategy. Closing the franchise sale requires confidence, leadership, and a clear understanding of who your ideal franchisee is and what they are thinking. It’s having clarity around what will comfortably lead the candidate to your franchise rather than further away. This one element alone separates the masters of franchise recruitment from the rest.

This is a topic that deserves a book, a suite of master class training and the rest, so keep an eye out for that on our website, however lets jump straight into how you can implement a compelling sales process as the foundation of you mastering and being more successful at franchise recruitment and selection starts exactly there, with your sales process. It’s the ‘anchor to embracing, informing, guiding and closing quality candidates who will help you build your system and franchise brand.

Your franchise sales process must be refined to work most effectively for your franchise business model and brand. Establishing your franchise sales process is about creating a solid plan for success. Follow the plan and the plan will work. Add a robust CRM and marketing automation program like Infusionsoft or Active Campaign and you will be recruiting more in less time.

Your franchise sales process is an evolving process that recognises the changing marketplace, competition, buyer motivations and current strengths and challenges within your franchise.  Every franchise brand may have a slight variation to the process however the principles are simple and highly effective. The execution is quite demanding, however when followed correctly and combined with some sophisticated automation to do some of the lifting for you, it can produce rewarding results.

The process incorporates self-qualifying and self-closing principles. These steps are:

1. Pre Qualification:

Determine WHO your ideal prospects are, pre qualify them quickly. Your initial conversation with potential prospects is critical. It’s about asking the right questions right upfront. Your closing objective is to move them quickly to the next stage.

2. Present – Explore – Qualify

Present initial information, qualify the prospect, build rapport and establish the process. It’s your role to take control and lay the framework for the next stages. Follow up can include one on one, and automated emails and sms. It’s important you explain your role in the process ie my role is to educate you about our franchise… This will help you easily transition the prospect through to the application stage. Probe with more open-ended questions to show interest and to discover more about the prospect. This will also help you guide their investigation more effectively. Having clarity around their hot buttons and where their interests lie is more important than raving on about you and your products and services.

Find out what’s the key to their decision-making and what has turned them off looking at other opportunities and dealing with other franchisors.

3. Application stage

 Request for application form, collect deposit, and move them to the business review. This stage should be short and sweet so your candidate can step into reviewing the business model in more detail.

4. 360 Review

This is the stage where you can present next stage information, webinars, videos, written material etc along with your Disclosure document and Franchise agreement. This can all be automated excluding phone calls of course.

A great closing and qualifying question to wrap this stage up is simply asking…’ now that you understand what our Disclosure Document and business model is all about, do you feel comfortable with how our franchise model works?’ franchising isn’t for everyone so make sure your prospect understands and buys into the franchise way of doing business. If not, wave the red flag and disqualify the candidate.  Bringing mismatched candidates into your franchise network will create more trouble than what it’s worth.

5. Granting the Franchise

This can be a very overwhelming and stressful stage for the incoming franchisee. It is important you support them and keep the energy up during this time. This stage includes: Franchisee approval, legal docs executed, training booked, pre launch execution.

6. Training & Launch

Before your franchisees can launch they need to be trained in how to operate you franchise system. This provides an important foundation for your new franchisees to build their success upon.

7. Ongoing Coaching & Mentoring

Many franchisors underestimate the power in ongoing coaching and mentoring. You can do this in a leveraged way using a combination of group coaching, monthly master classes, online tutorials and one on one support. Whatever you do, be sure this is part of your system.

Franchise recruitment and selection is a highly specialised process requiring sales principles and techniques foreign to most other business development strategies. New franchisors and sales personnel quickly realise the process is counter-intuitive, and doesn’t adhere to selling fundamentals you may have practiced in traditional business in the past.

 

 

 

 

Get More Customers, Make More Money and Get More Out of Business by Attracting, Selling & Wowing Customers

Chances are you’re a business owner who wants to grow, create leverage or simply make more money and have more time to do the things you love. We get it. Most small businesses are struggling because they don’t have enough customers, they don’t have enough sales or they simply don’t have enough money.

Tania Allen | Get More Customers, Make More Money and Get More Out of Business by Attracting, Selling & Wowing Customers

Let’s make it clear up front, not every small business is struggling. Some are thriving and want to build a better business, whilst others are literally surviving. We can therefore say small businesses fall into two categories. They either:

  • Need new life & are ready to get back on track and go from surviving to thriving or
  • They are thriving and are now ready to go to the next level

Regardless of whether you’re currently thriving and doing well or wanting to thrive, it’s important to look closely at the common problems that can arise in any business at any time and at any stage of growth. Generally speaking you do not have a solid system in place to help you thrive and continue to thrive most small businesses will always at some stage be challenged with:

  • Not attracting enough leads or prospects into your business
  • Not converting those leads into customers and
  • Not getting customers to spend more and more often.

It has been long known that in order to grow any business you either need to get more customers, get them to spend more with you and get them coming back more frequently.

This can be broken down even further by saying in order to grow any business; a business must focus consistently on:

  1. Increasing leads – attract the attention of potential buyers.
  2. Increasing conversions in other words turn those prospects into paying customers
  3. Increasing the average transaction – getting them to spend more with companion selling or upselling
  4. Increasing the frequency of purchase – encouraging them to buy again
  5. Increasing lifetime value – keeping a customer for longer
  6. Increasing profit margins and;
  7. Increasing the number of referrals from friends, family, colleagues and clients

So what does that look like for you and your business, so that you can easily and effortlessly create systems that will help accelerate your business growth? To fully create leverage, it’s important to understand the big picture view of your business.

A good place to start is to strategise your company’s Lifecycle Marketing strategies & tactics.

So what is Lifecycle Marketing?

The Lifecycle Marketing Model provides a simple framework you can use to design a marketing plan that will help you attract customers, grow sales and deliver an experience that wows your customers. When put into action, Ideal Customer Lifecycle Marketing will help you get more customers, grow revenues or put simply, make more money and ultimately it will help you create more time to focus on getting more out of business in general.

To grow any business it’s vitally important you know and understand and put systems in place to support the business in ATTRACTING more highly targeted leads who are eager to learn more about your solutions, SELL MORE and position your product or service as the obvious choice when customers are ready to buy and WOW Your Customers so they stay engaged come back for more and refer their friends.

Regardless of whether you are operating a service based or retail business it’s important to know your starting point. We like to start with identifying your ideal client.

Know Your Target – Who is Your Ideal Customer

Attempting to reach everybody with your product or service is not only inefficient; it’s also very expensive. That’s why it’s important to narrowly define your target customer, and focus your marketing dollars on the market that is more likely to buy from you than other markets. It’s also important to understand that it’s not about you or your product it’s about matching a solution to your prospects specific challenges, concerns, frustrations, desires and wants. You can clearly define your target market by taking a look at your current customer base, evaluating why they buy the product or service you sell, and more specifically why they choose to buy from you. It’s also a good idea to grouping them based on similar interests. Don’t be afraid to get specific!

Attract Traffic and Interest

It’s important to generate awareness of your company and your product or service before you can start capturing interested leads. The “traffic” may come to you through website visitors, phone calls, in-person visits, and more. Your methods of advertising and attracting interest will determine the quantity of leads, the quality of prospects, and the way they reach you. You may attract traffic with Pay-Per-Click ads on Google or Facebook, social media activity, partner referrals, print ads, networking, live events, or any number of other methods. Once you get the word out about your company and gain people’s attention, you can begin to capture their contact information and follow up.

Capture Leads & Nurture them by Educating and Adding Value if they Don’t Convert.

The most successful marketers understand that a customer once is almost always a customer again and strive to connect and build relationships with potential buyers. This comes from collecting the phone number, email or any other contact point for the customer so that you can offer free value, help solve problems and potentially sell more services to them in the future.

If your prospects don’t convert straight it’s important to develop and implement a lead nurturing program into your business. This ensures you have an opportunity to build a relationship with your prospects over time and allows you to educate them about what it is you sell and the benefits that will solve their challenges, concerns, needs and wants.

Offer & Close

I come across this time and time again. You’ve got to ask for the sale if you want the sale. You’ve got to offer the cake with the coffee if you want to increase your average transaction value and you’ve got to back yourself enough that you know and trust your product and service is solving the need and or want of your marketplace. Make the offer, ask for the sale and you will grow your business easily and effortlessly. Oh and one last tip on closing sales.   Success is in the follow through. If you are in a service based business follow up and follow up some more. This process can be a combination of automated follow ups and personal follow ups but no matter up the more you follow up the more you will increase your conversion rates.

Deliver, Satisfy & WOW, Get Repeat Business, Referrals & More

After the sale, it’s time to deliver the your products and or services and create happy customers or as we have heard before raving fans. Have a look at how you deliver your products and services. Are you wowing your customers? Are you delivering an experience they will never forget and will want to come back for more or refer their family and friends to. Don’t take your customers for granted, as the moment you do they might just go next door to a competitor. Deliver WOW and satisfy and not only will you get more repeat business, have more people referred to you, you will also watch your profits soar.

 

The Cost of Success – How to Balance Your Focus

It’s not that often as business owners we talk openly about the cost of success. For most of us we keep our game face on and rarely expose the  other side. Regardless of whether you’ve been in business for a short time or  as long as me or perhaps even longer, you will have some idea that there can be a huge cost to success and it can creep up from nowhere if you don’t take deliberate action to ensure you keep your focus balanced between business and life.

If you’re unfamiliar with my story let me give you a quick snapshot. I started in business at the age of 20 with my husband Simon. He was an electrician and like any young couple we had a dream to create success early on in life. We set out on our adventure of building an Electrical Contracting business. Running a business with many staff doesn’t come without a lot of hard work and long hours. We always had a belief that success would come as a result
of our hard work and commitment to best practice. All we had to do was bring the customer in, provide an exceptional service and then keep them coming back for more. Repeat and referral business came effortlessly as we built a solid reputation in the marketplace. We doubled and tripled our business year
after year and when we couldn’t keep up with the work we simply grew our team. Things were going very well, we had it all so we thought… great friends, great income, a 5 acre property, luxury car, two gorgeous kids, good health, a great marriage and friendship and a successful business. What more could we ask for?

We were young, and at the time we thought we had the rest of our lives to enjoy the fruits of our labour, so we were willing to work hard and that we did, working very long hours. Sure there was some down time and that was spent with our family and friends, but now, as a business coach & consultant looking back on how things were, our focus was completely out of balance.

My husband sadly passed away in 1999 and reality set in that we didn’t have the rest of our lives to enjoy the fruits of our labour. The gift is in the present moment, in the now. There is definitely a cost to success if your focus in unbalanced. Since then I have made it my life’s mission to help business owners grow, leverage and even franchise their business so they can build momentum faster, maximize their potential and create more time to do the things they love and want.

So today, let’s explore some quick ways that you can balance your focus, avoid looking at the downside to success and help you create a business & life you love.

Know your why and Balance Your Priorities

I love the teachings of Thought Leader Simon Sinek. Simon says it starts with Why. Knowing your why leads to inspired action. Why do you get up every day and do what you do? Is it to make a difference? Is it for your children? Is it for you? There’s no right or wrong answer, it’s a personal thing, however knowing your why acts as a driving force leading to inspired action and inspired action leads to you moving towards fulfillment. Fulfillment has never been lop-sided; it’s always balanced so this serves as a reminder of what’s important to you in all areas of business and life. If your why is for your children, then that means your children are a high priority in your life, so why do so many business owners work way too many hours and then realize they haven’t spent quality time to make a real impact in their children’s lives.

If you don’t know your why, take some time to reflect and get connected to your why. While you are working on that I encourage you to write down your top 10 priorities in your business and life. Put business on one side and life on the other. If they’re not balanced then you’ve got some work to do. Putting your priorities in a daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly and annual plan will provide some structure around what you want to achieve and need to achieve in the specific time frames. Planning provides a clear process to prioritize the activities that need to be done to ensure you achieve your business outcomes and leave room for the balance in your life.

Where Are You At Right Now?

Before you can make a change in anything it’s important to start with where you are right now. On a piece of paper answer the following questions:

  • How many hours do you work per day or per week?
  • How many business related items are on your to do list vs how many personal items ?
  • How often do you check your emails after hours?
  • Do you get through your daily activities with nothing left to do?
  • How many hours do you spend working after hours?
  • How often do you see friends and family?
  • How many quality time hours do you spend with your spouse and kids or other close family members?
  • How many hours per week / month do you spend on YOU? Meditation, Quiet, Reflective time, Massage, relax time.
  • How many times a week do you exercise?
  • How often are you eating out?
  • How do you naturally respond to stress? In other words what behaviours naturally come to the surface?

 

Now you know where you’re at right now, it’s time to write down what you’re prefer instead. Be honest with yourself and focus only on you. Don’t think about how it’s going to happen, just focus on what it is you want. We will cover the How briefly next.

Decide & Commit

Make a decision about when you will start to live your balanced life. A bit like goal setting be sure you put a date to it. It’s no use just dreaming about it and wishing for it. Make a decision to change.Commit to taking consistent daily action towards achieving your new balanced life. Being committed means you will do what ever it takes compared with just being interested which will see most doing what’s convenient. Do what ever it takes to make those daily changes towards what it is you want. It may be you finish at 5 every day or it may be you stay back half hour longer so when you get home you focus on you and your family. What ever it is be sure you make a commitment and take consistent action.

Plan and prioritize

Planning and prioritizing has been underestimated for centuries. Those who do it well, reap the rewards many times over.

  • Plan annually, quarterly, monthly, weekly and daily
  • Review the plan every quarter to ensure you’re on track
  • have a clear process to prioritize the activities that need to be done to ensure you move closer to your goals, not further away
  • Follow the rule of 5-learn to eliminate time wasting activities and implement the Rule of 5 by streamlining your focus and spending time only on tasks that will reap you the largest reward
  • What has to happen tomorrow?
  • Who do I have to call, see or spend time with?
  • Where do I need to allocate my efforts for the day (business & personally)

By writing it down and by ensuring you include your personal priorities too you will start each day knowing exactly what you should be doing in the time you have so you can start living a life outside of your work rather than your life just being your work.

Systemise and Automate

In todays fast paced world it’s imperative you systemize what you can and automate where you can. There are top systems out there to support you and the tasks you regularly perform. Take some time to determine what tasks are you doing over and over again that could be managed better, that could be systemized so you can delegate more freely or you can completely automate. Systemising and automating your business will give you your time back so you can start to live a life outside of your business. Some key areas to systemize and automate are lead generation and converting it. This is an important key area. Many business owners are working long hours to generate more leads. Stop chasing leads and instead turn to automating client attraction. This will bring in more ideal clients and literally put your lead generation on autopilot. Lead Nurturing and customer care is also vitally important so be sure this process is well laid out and systemised.

Systemization and automation will not only free up your time it will reduce the number of staff you need in your business, increase profitability and enable you to confidently delegate or have a task managed with confidence automatically so you have more time to do the things you love.

Delegate more of what you do

For most of us, delegating can seem to be more time consuming than doing the task ourselves. If you can successfully systemise and automate some key areas of your business, delegating will come easily and effortlessly as team members in house and those outsourced will be able to follow the systems and the processes to ensure the task is completed in the way you expect.Learn to lead and build culture.

Learn to become a true leader.

Gone are the days where being seen to be working longer hours makes you a better businessperson. In fact the opposite is said to be true. It’s about efficiency and with a world that is leaning towards more people focusing on balance, job sharing, 4 day work weeks, school hour shifts etc, it’s time you get into the flow of being more efficient and leading the way in the change. By leading the way and using leadership to build a new culture you will gradually re-educate your staff, your clients and suppliers about the new way of doing business. By becoming more efficient, delegating, systemizing and automating you will build a high performance culture, seize the day for what it is and give yourself more time to do the things that matter most to you.

Be the Change

It’s important to be the change. Don’t expect 100% change over night. Commit to taking daily consistent action and making a shift even it’s just a
1% shift every day will see you achieve so much more than you ever thought possible. Later never comes, so be sure you take advantage of today. As I always say Carpe Diem! Which means seize the day!

1 2 3 4 5
page 1 of 5

Is Overwhelm Sabotaging Your Success

How to get reduce everyday overwhelm and thrive in business

Remember when you first started in business, you thought it would be the most rewarding thing you’ve ever done. My guess is it’s also one of the hardest things you’ve ever done. At times, owning and running a business can be daunting, stressful and outright overwhelming and for some it becomes all too much. When you have more on your plate than you can handle it can derail even the best of us. If the overwhelm continues you can get to a point of really feeling stuck. 

Owning a business can doesn’t have to be this way. Some people say success is easy, you’ve got to know what steps to take and in what order to take them. When it comes to franchising you’ve been told it’s as simple as “following the system” but what if you’re doing all of that and you’re still stressed, filled with fear, worry and everyday overwhelm? How do you get out of overwhelm and into a place where both you and the business can not only survive but thrive.

It’s one thing to get overwhelmed, its another to stay overwhelmed and as much as we can probably admit to feeling stressed, overloaded and in a state of overwhelm more than once, what we don’t realise is staying stuck in overwhelm is literally robbing you blind of trying to achieve the dreams and goals you’ve set for your business and for yourself.

Overwhelm is simply a state of mind that can sabotage your long-term success. If you are someone who finds yourself very smart and capable but constantly in a state of stress and overwhelm then you are probably doing one of the most common triggers that cause you to become overwhelmed and keep you overwhelmed.

What I’d like to share with you today is 4 key triggers that cause you to get you overwhelmed and the things that keep you there, which ultimately can sabotage your success and then some ways you can overcome everyday overwhelm in your business and your life.

OVERWHELM TRIGGERS

1.     Busyness Addiction & Over Commitment. In other words biting off more than you can chew.

Busyness is literally when you are doing everything you can to move ahead, you are so driven and so compelled to do more and have more that you literally fill your life up with stuff

The key to stopping the busy addiction, is to understand the difference between being busy and being productive. Somewhere in your subconscious mind you haven’t realised that being busy isn’t getting you anywhere and being productive is what it’s going to take to move ahead. People who are busy addicted have a bad sense of time for themselves, they have low boundaries and have no system for doing or completing tasks and projects. Where do you need to say no and make a start to taking bite size chunks? You wouldn’t shove a whole block of chocolate in your mouth would you? My guess is you would break a square or two and eat it in smaller bit size chunks.

2.     Doing it Alone

When we start in business we can be wearing up to 10 or more various hats. We are looking after lead generation, sales, fulfilment, accounts, customer care, marketing and management and more. We become stuck in a rut and want to do it all ourselves and then when it comes to the time to recruit staff and delegate tasks and activities sometimes the mindset of “no one else can do it better than me” can lead to overload and overwhelm as we are trying to be everything to everyone. It’s important to understand that there will always be more to do than you alone can ever get done.

Doing it alone is one of the biggest triggers to overwhelm

Doing it alone for too long costs you and costs the business. It takes it s toll on you, your mind your body – your business. If you’re doing it alone and your business grows rapidly then it will implode on you or it doesn’t flourish because there’s so much going on and you’re doing it all yourself.

3.     Clutter and Disorganisation

If you’re currently spending countless hours looking for something in your office or desk or your environment is messy, cluttered and has no system or sense of order to it chances are you are overwhelmed in some way shape or form. When your environment is cluttered it’s like everything that’s going on in your environment is pulling at your eyes, there’s simply no opportunity to give your mind a break and work with ease.

Clutter in general can create chaos in your mind and your environment. That chaos is one of the biggest contributors to feeling overwhelmed. Take a quick look at the filing systems that support you both electronic and paper filing systems and be sure you make some shifts to clear up the clutter as your environment is dictating your outcome.

4.     Boundary Issues

One of the biggest triggers to overwhelm is not being able to say no and having weak or no boundaries. We do see this mainly in service based businesses but it can also happen in multi location businesses where the owner is managing more staff, attending more meetings etc.

When you don’t value your time, or what’s important to you its easy to lose your boundaries. They can get stretched or worn completely thin. Lose or no boundaries can lead to busyness addiction, complication and extreme overwhelm. There is an easy solution to this and that is stop being a yes person and know when its ok to say no.

 THE FASTEST WAY TO GET OUT OF OVERWHELM

 Overwhelm happens to all of us. What you do when it strikes you starts to sabotage your success. Let’s explore some ways you can eliminate everyday overwhelm:

 ·         Create space and stop overcommitting.
If you make a standard in your business that you only have a certain number of meetings a day or you only work a certain number of days or certain times, then you will become more productive in the time that you do work.  Stretching your commitments out by a day or two will have a massive impact on your levels of overwhelm and will certainly make a big difference in your everyday.

 ·         Learn when it’s ok to say NO .One thing I learned  in business is the more disciplined I am with my time, the more I get done. It’s important to know where your boundaries are being stretched. Most of us have very loose boundaries. New business or marketing ventures and other commitments require time and focus. If you have too many things to manage all at one time you simply won’t be at your best. Spread them out and be clear about how many you will say yes to in a month. Here’s a tip: ask yourself; “If I say Yes to this, how is it going to get me closer to my ultimate goal? How will this make me money? What will I be saying NO to if I say YES to this?”

 ·         Set Higher Standards and Value You

A commitment to high standards will always serve and support you.

  • Self-care & Time Out. Make sure you get enough sleep and fuel your body with good nourishment and exercise every day.
  • Systems. Systems are essential to reducing overwhelm for you, your team and the overall business. What systems do you need to support you in operating at a higher standard
  • Under commit and over perform. Be willing to start under committing and you will be amazed at how your performance levels will soar.

          Stop Doing it Alone –Stop wearing all the hats in your business and be willing to get the right help to take the pressure off. Having others support you in the day to day operations of the business will support faster growth, increased profits and a reduction in overwhelm.

 ·         Set realistic expectations for how much you can get done. One of the Overwhelm Triggers is thinking that you can get everything done in a short period of time. Start looking at what’s already on your calendar BEFORE you set deadlines for yourself. If you have to double the time estimated on all tasks until you start truly knowing how long things actually do take then do it.

 ·         Simplify how you run your business. If you have a habit of complicating things then you might need help with simplifying your operations. Complication leads to overwhelm so it’s time to get back to Keeping It Simple Sweetheart. J Sometimes the simplest solution is often the best.

 ·         Schedule tasks in your calendar. Develop a habit of scheduling your tasks from checking email and voice mails to completing other tasks. This will prevent you from running your day from your To Do List or worse still your INBOX.

 ·         Release things that no longer serve you. Letting things go be challenging until you realise that if it’s no longer in serving and supporting your bigger vision then it’s just holding you back. This can be staff, your emotions, your habits, your clients and even your family and friends.

 ·         Start your day off right. One of the best ways to prevent overwhelm is to start your day with a exercise and or meditation. When you set your mind and body on the right frequency for the day your brain will hone in on better choices and your body will feel energised.

 ·         Take time away from your business to recharge every week. One of the best ways to prevent overwhelm is to make you take time out every week to really to recharge your batteries.

 

Networking at Main Events – How to Get the Most from Your Time , Energy and Money

As a franchisor I’m sure you are familiar with networking and the importance of it among your peers (fellow franchisors), suppliers, associates and new contacts. You encourage your franchisees to participate in regular networking events, big or small, as part of their local area marketing. So how do you get the most from your time, energy and money when networking at events, especially big events?

Regardless of what size event you are going to, it’s important you know how to make the most of the event to get a good return of your time, energy and money. Here’s a Simple Networking

Formula that will give you the greatest chance of success:
1. Decide why & choose your event strategically. It is simply impossible to be at every event running on every single day of the year, so it’s important to choose the events you attend wisely, ensuring the event you choose
is in alignment with what you want to achieve. In other words, you have to know why you want to attend the event and what you want to get out of it. The clearer you are on why you are going, the more chance you have of
achieving it. Key outcomes may include: gain more knowledge; attract new prospects; more than likely outcomes will include attract new partners, colleagues and referral partners

2. Plan to connect with a certain number of people. Have quality conversations rather than quantity. If there are 50 people at the event, don’t expect to speak to all of them. Be content with a quality conversation with five to seven people who the next day will look at your card and remember you and what you spoke about, and more importantly remember you the next time they see you. If it’s a larger event and your objective is to connect with a lot more then be sure you have a plan on how you will connect with people, and know when it’s the right time to move onto the next person. When attending a big event such as a conference, be and stay organised and participate in as much as you can while at the event. Especially at a multi-day conference, people want to learn, grow and network so they’ll tend to be more open and approachable, ready to talk about their businesses but also ready to find out more about you.

3. Take plenty of business cards. Bring more than you think you will need, it’s better to have some extra than to run out. I like to write something on the card to help me remember something about the person I have just connected with. You will find it useful when you go to follow up with them.

4. Don’t sell your product or services at the event. Rather if a person expresses interest, suggest that you phone them to discuss further.

5. Prep your elevator pitch. You always want to be ready with a confident and compelling answer to the question “What do you do?” If you are a larger well known brand then most will have an assumption or knowing of what you do. As a smaller franchisor there may be some that are not familiar with what it is you do and offer to the marketplace so it’s always a good idea to have an elevator pitch ready. Rather than answering the question of what do you do with… “I’m a lawyer,” or “We sell burgers,” it’s always best to follow the elevator pitch formula which enables you to connect with the person you are talking to and flow with your response so that it allows the conversation to continue rather than stop dead in its tracks after you reply with I’m a… The easiest way to create an elevator pitch is when someone says: “What do you do?” you simply reply with… “Do you know how… (what follows is usually the problem in the marketplace your product or service solves) then you follow with… “What we do is… (and
then you complete this with your solution”) of course if you only have a brief 10 or 20 seconds to answer the “what do you do” question then simply summarise what you created in the
above into one short sentence.

Here’s our example for Vision Alliance…. when asked what do you do? We would reply with… “Do you know how most business owners, franchisors and franchisees are struggling to increase sales and profits, build more momentum and simply get more out of their business and their life, no matter what more means to them… well, what we do is… we work as an extension of yourteam putting programs in place to help you maximise your potential, enabling you to get more out of business, and more out of life.”

Our ten second snapshot version would be either… “We help business owners maximise their potential,” or “We are in the business of buildingpeople and building businesses.”

Your aim with any length of elevator pitch is to lead into the other person asking… how do you do that? Rather than having them say “oh ok i get it” and making their own assumptions about you.

6. Put a follow up system in place. I’m guessing some of you will have a great follow up strategy / system in place and some will not. It’s always a great idea to have a follow up strategy in place to ensure you know
exactly what your next steps will be when following up the individual. You may end up creating three different types of follow up systems. 1) for prospects, 2) for partners, 3) associates, peers and colleagues. Remember to incorporate a combination of email, phone follow up, social media using LinkedIn, Facebook or Twitter or send out cards.

7. The best networkers are the best listeners. Anyone will speak to you for ten minutes if you are not speaking about yourself.

Success is always in the fo llow thro ugh

Being a great networker is just the beginning to successful networking. As the saying goes… “Success is always in the follow through.” Therefore it is equally, if not more, important to follow up with the people you have recently connected with. Here’s a quick five step plan to support you in becoming a successful networker.

1. Make Contact. 97 per cent of people who ask for my card never do anything with it. If your initial aim was to build new relationships and you want to drive the relationship forward,

YOU have to take the action. For me, a followup email, rather than a phone call, is one of my favorite ways to reconnect with the person and continue the conversation. Another effective way is to send a LinkedIn invitation. Either way, the person can reply back at a time that’s convenient for them. Following the next four steps, you’ll increase your chances of a response.

2. Jog their memory. It’s a good idea to reference your initial meeting so they remember who you are within the first sentence or two of the email. Even better is to show that you were a good listener by mentioning something they talked about. For example: “Jim, I enjoyed meeting you at the Chamber of Commerce networking event last Thursday, and hearing about the successes you’ve been having this month with your new product launch…”

3. Connect the dots. Next, say why you think it makes sense to continue the conversation. Do you have some ideas to offer, some resources or connections? Do you see some natural synergies and think there may be ways to work together for mutual benefit?
4. Propose a low-barrier next step.

Acknowledging most business people are time poor, rather than dive into a face to face meeting as the very next follow up, perhaps suggest a 15-30 minute phone call which is a lower barrier for both parties and to be honest can be just as effective if you have a clear agenda and process for the conversation.

5. Make it balanced. Be sure to position this next step as a way to get to know each other’s businesses and goals, and uncover synergies between the two of you. That way, the other
person will feel there will be something in it for them and it’s not so one sided.

The Balancing Act

How to cr eate balanc e in the franchisor /franchis ee relationshi p It’s one of those areas that we know will never be perfect, and it’s one of those areas that if not right in the early development days of your  franchise network it can spin out of control quite
quickly with some, all or usually with just a select few.

So how do you achieve balance within your franchisor/franchisee relationship and how do you close the gaps in your current foundations to ensure the existing network of franchisees and your new incoming franchisees experience that same or similar relationship and culture?

Th e power is in your house!

Have you ever really taken the time to look at a light bulb that’s turned on at your front door or porch? What did you notice? I’m sure you would see what I see, an array of bugs and moths flying and crawling around the light? Have you ever wondered why they do that? It’s simple. They are attracted to the light. The brighter and more powerful the light, the more bugs and flying insects you will see around the light. In other words the bigger and more powerful the light in your business, in your team
and in your franchise network culture, the more positive people you will attract.
All too often I come into a franchise group and see and feel too much negative energy.

When negative energy takes too much power from your light, not only do you fail to attract good things, you are also pushing away or rejecting or even leaving no room at all for the good energy. When you apply negative energy in your network or when you fail to recharge your network with positive energy, you become disempowered and you also disempower people in your network.

When you intentionally apply positive energy in your franchise network, you become empowered and you also empower your franchisees who are attracted to and want to tap into your positive light.

So how do you keep your light bright? How do you maintain that positive bright energy within you and your franchise network as a whole?

The main thing to remember is that you must stay consistent in being empowering with everything you do. Simply by being empowering, you are generating more positive energy and adding more power to your light. Empowering is not something you be, it’s something you do every day – that’s blended into every interaction you have with your franchisees, colleagues and more.

It’s your ultimate responsibility as a franchisor to make sure that your batteries are always full of power so you can keep your light bright. Always remember: it takes energy to maintain energy, so if you are not adding to your positive energy, it’s automatically seeping away. WITH GREAT POWER COME S
GREAT RESPONSIBILITY

Understanding the three dominant relationship types

Before you can move into building and maintaining the ideal franchisee/franchisor relationship, it’s important to understand and identify with the three primary relationship types.

The dependent franchisee /franchisor relationship

00000

By looking at the illustration, the two lines represent two people in the relationship – usually the franchisor and franchisee. The dependent relationship is where one person is constantly holding up the other person and when one person places responsibility on the other person to fulfill his or her needs.

Generally, in a franchise relationship, this is usually the franchisor holding up the franchisee and the franchisee placing full responsibility on the franchisor for his or her success.

The franchisee becomes demanding and negative and nothing ever seems to please him or her. Over time the franchisor discovers there’s just not enough energy (time, money and resources) to hold the other person up because the dependent person is disempowering. No matter what the franchisor does, the dependent franchisee will still always place the responsibility on the franchisor for their overall success.

The franchisor generally feels the need to move away from this situation as a result of continual frustration and overwhelm, and support the franchisees that have a better attitude, a better commitment to the network and more positive
energy.

The challenge with this is, if the disempowered franchisee remains in the system, they will eventually steal and drain the energy from others within the network. This drain usually impacts other franchisees which results in total unbalance – not just in the initial franchisee/franchisor relationship but total unbalance in the network. So what’s the solution with this type of relationship? It’s important for the franchisor to start adopting more ways to empower the head office team in order to help empower the franchisees who are dependent to take responsibility for their overall success and happiness.

It’s also a good idea to review your recruitment process and truly identify who your ideal franchisee is so that these naturally disempowering franchisees just don’t make it
through the recruitment process.

00000

franchisor relationship
Now we know a dependent relationship is when one person places responsibility on the other person to fulfill his or her needs for success

What if both people in the relationship depend on the other person to make sure everything happens smoothly and everyone’s happy. This is a co-dependent relationship. The two figures in the illustration represent the franchisee and franchisor existing in a co-dependent relationship.

The challenge with being in a co-dependent relationship is that it doesn’t stay in balance. The illustration looks balanced, with each person holding the other up, but that’s not what actually happens.

One person is usually more demanding and needier than the other at different times. So
both sides are constantly drawing energy from the relationship, which is weakening it from both sides These are the franchisee/franchisor relationships that feel if they each give 50 per cent to the relationship, then their relationship will have 100
per cent. Here’s the problem with that: there’s still 100 per cent missing. What it really means is that there are two disempowering people in the same relationship.
To move past this stage of a relationship, you must again review your foundations of
expectations, the consistency of ongoing support and training and where the co-dependency started.

Perhaps it started with a lack of communication, perhaps a lack of follow through with regards to compliance or perhaps as a result of not setting the expectations and empowering each party to be responsible for the part they play in the relationship.

The empowering franchisee /

What makes a strong franchisee/franchisor relationship work is when you have two
empowering parties who take responsibility to make sure they are happy within themselves and are responsible for the part they play in the relationship.

The franchisor is responsible for ensuring they are empowering the network, fulfilling their responsibilities, following through on their word and their actions and ensuring they are coming  to the party when it comes to providing the right amount of support, ongoing training, tips, knowledge and insights.

The franchisee, on the other hand, is responsible for the part they play in the relationship. They have bought into a system, it is their responsibility to implement and follow that system, take the necessary actions consistently every day to ensure their success and to achieve their outcomes.

Just because the franchisor has provided the system doesn’t mean that the franchisee will be instantly successful. The franchisor fulfills his responsibilities in that role and then the franchisee must fulfill his responsibilities in his/ her role. You will see in an inter-dependent relationship there is a connection, there is a balance and each individual is responsible for the energy, the attitude and the actions they bring to the relationship.

Each individual is 100 per cent responsible for their role, duties and obligations in that
relationship. By empowering yourself and then empowering others to be 100 per cent
responsible for the energy they bring to the relationship and for the actions they take which are necessary to create successful outcomes, the relationship becomes more balanced and sets a solid foundation for a long and happy journey.

So as a franchisor, how do you move towards creating more balanced inter-dependent
relationships? Well the only thing in the entire universe we have control over, is changing ourselves. So it starts with you.

Ti me to Ta ke Action

In order to move towards building and then maintaining empowering franchisee/franchisor relationships, it’s important you get started straight away, taking the right actions and steps in the right order.

If you are an established franchisor it’s important to look at this from two viewpoints. Firstly, in the franchisee recruitment phase when you first start to engage with your prospective franchisees and secondly, with your current network of franchisees. As a new franchisor this will be something you must embrace right from the get go.
1. Review what is! Looking honestly at your franchise network, it’s important you identify exactly what types of franchisor/franchisee relationships exist within your network. Once you have identified what is – it’s important to then;
2. Decide what it is you want! How do you see your future relationships with your franchisees? How do you see the dynamic between each franchise unit? How can you empower your franchisees more to assume responsibility for the part they play in the relationship? How can you do the same with regards to the part you play in the relationship? Be sure to write this down or pop it up on a whiteboard with your team.
3. The difference between what is now and what you want to exist in the future is what we call the GAP. Knowing your GAP is vital in determining what steps you must take and in what order, and at what time you take them.
4. Re-educating your existing franchisees and introducing a new relationship culture won’t happen overnight, it’s therefore important you prepare a 90 – 180 day action plan that incorporates the delivery of some new innovations, communication and support models that encourages responsibility, empowers and inspires action and reduces reaction among the network. Your action plan should also allow for a complete change in your recruitment process, to ensure the new incoming franchisees are developed in an empowering way and understand the dynamic and type of culture you have right from the time they first make their enquiry with your franchise group.
5. If you feel the GAP between where your current relationships are and where you want them to be is large, then give priority to revamping your franchisee recruitment process with a vision of getting it right at the beginning of the relationship for new incoming franchisees.

6. Once you have a plan in action for your new incoming franchisees and your existing
franchisees, then may I suggest you put in place a 12 month change management, training and support program to ensure you create a long lasting result. It’s not always going to be perfect but I guarantee that you will create more balance within your network as a whole. A balanced and more empowered network will
ultimately influence the net worth of your group, so it’s something that’s well worth spending some considerable time on this area.

Change Your Mind: Getting the most from your franchisees starts with a change in mindset

As a franchisor, getting the most out of what we do can be challenging for even the best of us. So how do we empower the franchisees in our network to bring out the best in themselves? How do we create more synergy within our business network, decrease
feelings of being overwhelmed and ultimately produce higher levels of success?

We hear it and we see it all the time. Some franchisees just have what it takes to build momentum seamlessly, without needing or wanting much support from the franchisor, whilst others can’t seem to get it right and steer their ship to higher ground. So how do you, as a franchisor, assist your franchisees in new ways to help them build more momentum in their business and themselves?

Be sure your franchisees know their outcomes and take consistent action to achieve them

When we jump in a car, on a boat or on a plane, we always know where we want to go. In
fact, we humans spend more time planning our vacations than we do our business or our life. It’s no wonder so many businesses struggle to build the momentum they need and want. Regardless of what business or industry you are in, it’s important your franchisees (from the moment they make their enquiry about your franchise) are empowered to know and truly identify their desired outcomes. In other words, your franchisees need to know what they truly want.

It’s one thing for them to set goals and say they want a successful business. It is another thing to really define what success means to them and then know the exact steps to take to achieve this success.

A great place to start is by educating your franchisees in how to lay some foundations
around goal setting and goal achievement. I’m sure most of you are familiar with the SMART criteria for setting goals. What I have found though, is there is a major flaw in this criteria.

Most people know how to set goals; very few know how to consistently achieve their goals. Your franchisees will have a better chance at achieving higher levels of success if they:
1. Define what success truly means to them
2. Build a mindset for success
3. Use the SMART model – but add an A to the end

By adding the A – you include the missing element to setting goals and that is ACTION.
This gives you Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Time Bound and Actionable goals. By knowing what steps to take and in what order to take them and by taking consistent ACTION, your franchisees will soon be on their way to achieve their outcomes.

Encourage a mindset shift for more consistent results

With an understanding that human beings are conditioned by our past experiences, it’s vital to empower your franchisees to think differently and do things differently in order to have different results. If our thoughts and beliefs determine our behaviours and the actions we take and if the actions we take determine the results we get in our business and in our life, then isn’t it obvious what we have to change first?

For some it’s obvious. For most it’s not. Most people believe we just have to change our habits and actions and this will change our results. The problem is we find our old habits creeping back because we haven’t made a mental shift toward permanent change. Permanent change comes from strengthening the foundations and changing the core or root beliefs. This, in turn, will influence behaviours, habits and actions on a
whole new level. This new level will bring about faster results and more momentum then you ever thought possible.

How do you help your franchisees make that shift?

Based on this understanding, if we want franchisees to produce better results, we have
to go to the foundations and make a change within the mindset of each and every one of our franchisees. We have to change what they are thinking. This will then influence a change in their root beliefs, which will bring about a new sense of confidence and clarity and ultimately better results.

Now I know what you are thinking, “I can’t possibly help every franchisee change their
mindset.” That’s almost impossible. Here’s a mindset shift right now. Everything is possible if you put your mind to it. Using some simple belief altering techniques, you have the opportunity to help shift your franchisees mindsets quite quickly and effectively. Of course, they are responsible for their success, so ultimately it’s up to them.

Steps to changing your ‘mind’

Untitled

1. Have your franchisees define what success means to them.

2. Encourage your franchisees to set goals regularly. Be sure they are written down
and, more importantly, be sure there is an action plan in place so that they can take the
necessary actions to achieve these goals. Ninety day cycle action plans are best for
building momentum fast.

3. Have your franchisees commit to their success. Most people think they are committed and then contradict themselves by not being willing to do what it takes to reach their goals.

4. Hold them accountable to being 100 per cent responsible for their success.

5. Encourage them to say positive affirmations on a daily basis such as, “I am a confident and successful business person,” or “Each day in every way I am better and better,” or

“Increasing my business comes easily to me,” or “I live each day with passion and purpose.”
6. Empower your franchisees to adopt an attitude for gratitude. You simply cannot get more of what you want, until you are grateful for what you have.

Eliminating the F word

Ok, I know what you are thinking…what is she on about? The F word is something we see, feel and hear every day. It is something that makes us cringe. It can propel us forward, or more often, it can hold us back. It can be quite debilitating, creating a state of paralysis. It is the F word that prevents us from achieving all we want and more. FEAR is a silent killer within every aspiring entrepreneur and business person. Knowing how to help your franchisees control it and manage it will pay out dividends over and over.

The most common definition of FEAR is False Emotions Appearing Real. Fear is an emotion we feel. Fear is sometimes a good thing, as it can keep us safe from many a dangerous situation. The challenge is to know how to take control of your FEAR and move through situations that present opportunity and better outcomes.

Here’s eight quick ways you can help your franchisees overcome the FEAR factor and move forward in building more momentum in their business every day. Instill in your franchisees the following:

1. There is no failure – only feedback. This one statement alone can be extremely powerful. This enables one to completely eliminate the other F word from franchisees world. Imagine the world without the double emphasis on the F word. Failure and FEAR.
2. Take responsibility for all choices and decisions and then roll with it. Empowering your franchisees to be confident in their decisions will build more proactive franchisees for the long term.
3. B elieve in yourself. This is essential. I have met so many franchisees who just break down crying when they are with me. They just don’t believe they can do it. Changing core beliefs and achieving small milestones will help franchisees to believe in themselves.

4. Feel the fear and do it anyway – As Richard Branson has often said, “Screw it, Let’s Do it.”
5. B e aware of your inner chatter and have an alternative statement to end the negative
chatter. Being aware of the ANTs (automatic negative thoughts) is a great place to start.
Once you are aware of this process, you can make small changes to shift those thoughts in a new direction.
6. Make no-lose decisions. These are decisions that sit in the middle of both sides of what could be perceived as a right or wrong decision. Make no-lose decisions to move
forward faster.
7. Acknowledge that a high percentage of what we worry about never happens. So choose not to worry. Success is a choice.
8. Stop blaming and complaining. Take responsibility. Nothing is your fault, however everything is your responsibility.
9. Just nod your head and say, ‘Yes’.

Time to Take Action
• Have your franchisees refine their foundations by having them define what success means to them.
• B e sure your franchisees set out to take consistent action in order to achieve their goals – not just set them.
• Empower your franchisees and provide the necessary tools to help them change their
mindset first.
• Help your franchisees believe. There is no failure, only feedback, therefore they can bury the F word forever.
• Encourage your franchisees to maintain focus every day to ensure they are channeling their energy on high income and high impact producing activities.

Personal Attributes For Success

If you were given a magic wand and had the opportunity to wave it over your  business and your life what would you change? What things would stay the same?

Most successful people when asked what the secret to their success has been have responded with: it’s in the uncanny ability to channel focus in a singular direction. To focus is a two-part process: it’s a clear vision, and it’s waking up as the person who can make the vision occur.

Lets explore some of the key personal attributes for success.

Know what you want

It appears to be an obvious one however you would be surprised to learn that a very small percentage of business people know exactly what it is they want and stay focused to it’s achievement.  Most have a few options available to them and therefore fail to take the necessary actions that help them realize their goals faster. Not being 100% clear about what you want can open yourself up to falling short.

The first place to start is take a pen and paper and write down exactly what it is you want. Be sure you write down what you want in all key areas of business and in life. It’s important to be balanced in this. Writing down what it is you want will help clarify and solidify in you heart and mind whether it’s really what you want.

The best way to predict your future is to create it!

How you write down what you want is very important, so as you begin the first step of writing down your goals, make sure your outcomes meet the CREATE Critera.

C- Clear and Concise

R-Realistic

E-Ecological

A- As if Now

T- Timed and Toward What You Want

E- End Step/ Evidence

In short it is important what you want is expressed in a clear-cut way. It must be clear, specific and concise. Remember we don’t get what we want, we get what we expect, so it’s important when writing your goals be sure you set ones that are realistic and you know you can achieve them. It is a good idea to run an ecology check on your goals, which simply means looking at the consequences of achieving that goal. You can do this simply by asking yourself: is this outcome good for me, good for others and good for the planet?  Be sure to always write goals in the present tense as once the mind has fully imagined something, it makes it far easier to accomplish it. Although you will write your goals in the present tense you still must put a future date or time to your goals to indicate when you wish to achieve this outcome, even if it’s tomorrow or something small. The T in CREATE also stands for toward what it is you want. Your goals should always be stated in a positive way. State what you want rather than what you don’t want. Finally it’s important to know what the end step is for your goal. The end step or evidence is the last thing that has to happen so that you know for sure you have achieved your desired outcome. E.g. by 31 march 2014 you want to attract a new client therefore you may see yourself signing the agreement and banking the deposit.

Now that you  have clarity around how to write goals it’s time to implement it. Take action and come up with a good two week, one month, three month, six month and 12 month goal that will move you closer towards your vision and achieving what it is you want.

What You Focus On Really Determines Your Reality

Warren Buffet, believes what contributes to overwhelming success is…. “what we focus on and equally important what we choose not to focus on contributes to whether one achieves success or not.”

A successful person is one who has developed the ability to focus and maintain that focus on clearly identified and specific goals. Successful people also understand that for them to reach their targets they need to take consistent action to bring them closer and closer to where they want to be. Without action, nothing will be achieved.

Success is always in the follow through. How well you plan wont determine your success. Your success will always be in how well you execute and implement your plan.

You’re results are clearly determined by what you focus on.  This means you have every opportunity to change any and every aspect of your life, starting right now!

You Must Assume 100% Responsibility For Your Success

If you want to be successful, no matter what success means to you, you have to assume 100% responsibility for everything. There are no excuses. There may be set backs or economic down turns, or problems that affect your business. There may be situations you don’t like, peers within the network may irritate you, and the direction of the business may turn a corner in the opposite direction you were hoping for. While those things definitely have an impact on you, the way you do business and the sales you make, it is important to realise that regardless of everything, it is up to you, and you alone, to accept responsibility for the success of your business and do what it takes to make it a success.

Who are you blaming right now for your short falls? We never want to look at where the real problem might be, but it’s important to start to realise that your attitude towards your success starts with you.

Take some time right now to think about yourself just for a minute. It’s time to stop looking outside of yourself for the answers. What you sow, so shall you reap. If you are reaping well from the seeds you have sown then that’s fantastic. Think of some new ways to challenge yourself and reach new heights of success. If you are just not happy with what’s happening in your world right now, you MUST assume 100% responsibility for everything; your attitude, your beliefs, your actions, your wins and your shortfalls.

 

Model The Change You Want To Be

Modeling is something you have been doing your whole life without being aware of it. The only problem is that most of us model haphazardly without conscious awareness.

There are two types of modeling: inside and outside modeling. In the simplest form modeling allows you to access the tools, strategies, and mindsets of successful people so that you can expand your references and play a different game of life on a larger and more exciting playing field. Fake it til you make it is a long held paradigm for success. Far from being dishonest, this principle simply harnesses the power of the mind for accelerated change. Your mind does not know the difference between something that has happened and something you vividly imagined. By identifying new beliefs, values, attitudes and decisions that have already worked for someone else you get the inside knowledge of the rules by which to play your new game. Then you can set out to master the same skills and employ the same strategies. Why reinvent the wheel when you can learn from the best? These individuals have become masters because they have crafted their rulebook and congruently communicated their vision to the world. They have been clear about who they are, whey they stand for, and what they want to achieve, and they have confidently expected to achieve it. You can do the same.

Discipline

Once you have decided what it is you want to achieve, you have your vision in place and you know how you are going to achieve it, a disciplined approach must be part of your every day.

Have you ever wanted to shift a few kilos, get fit or accomplish some other goal, only to find you have lacked the discipline to see it through? We expect everyone else to be disciplined in their workday so that they can achieve as much as they can, so it’s important to expect it from yourself.

Daily planning will help you maintain discipline. Knowing what steps and actions you need to take and knowing they are moving you closer to achieving the bigger picture (your desired outcomes) will make it easier to stick to your plan.

Adopt An Attitude For Gratitude

One of the best ways to start changing your attitude is to start adopting an Attitude for Gratitude. It’s very hard to bring good into your life if you are not grateful for what you already have. There is always going to be someone else in this world worse off than you are. They may be a competitor, a friend or a complete stranger. Start each day by saying thank you! Giving thanks for what you already have will open the doors for you, and faster than you think.

Being critical of others, blaming, complaining, feeling tension, rushing, choosing to be in a bad mood are all signs you are not being grateful. Gratitude can transform your life. Stop allowing minor things to get in the way of your transformation and the life you deserve.

Adopt Unwavering Self Confidence in Yourself

Most successful people have a certainty and willingness to do whatever it takes to achieve success, however it often comes across as brash. Success has nothing to do with luck, to be extraordinary takes vision and a willingness to work harder than most people would ever dream of doing. This is the attitude of every highly successful person. What people might perceive as arrogance isn’t always boasting. It can come from a strong commitment to yourself and to your dreams. That’s the foundation of your certainty, your belief, and your patience. The key of course is to balance it all with humility.

Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway

Now I am not just throwing this phrase out there because alot of gurus use it. Fear is a real contributing factor to many business owners not realising their true potential, including me. What is important to realise is FEAR is simply False Emotions Appearing Real. Once you acknowledge that, and take control of those emotions and manage your way forward through that fear to a place of power, energy, enthusiasm and success, you will never look back.

It’s important to also let go of all fear-based attachments. I have been working on this with one of my own coaches and it’s one that successful people before me have done. To be successful it’s important to release the fear-based attachment to certain outcomes and of being, doing or having anything that you don’t perceive to be currently in your world. It’s about releasing the fear and having patience, living in the moment and pouring your passion into every minute of the day.

TIME TO TAKE ACTION

Define what success means to you.

Decide what it is you want.

Be sure to write it down clearly and concisely.

Start catching your ANTS- automatic negative thoughts.

What new attitudes can you adopt? Write them down.

Adopt an Attitude for Gratitude. Start keeping gratitude journal and write in it daily.

Be clear about your vision.

Be sure to write it down clearly and concisely.

What can you do to ensure you stay disciplined and focused on achieving your desired outcomes?

What actions will you take over the next 30 days to help you move closer to your dreams and goals?

Business Growth Fundamentals

Acknowledging there is no one size fits all approach to growing your business, it’s important to constantly review the strategies and tactics you are implementing in your business on a month to month basis.  There are lots of other key areas that contribute to the overall success of your business but for the purpose of this article as I am limited in what I can include I review for you a simple formula that will help you consistently grow your revenues.  Revenues are what most business owners focus on so I trust focusing on this area is ok with you. Of course I can also only skim over this so should you want more comprehensive info and support please feel free to contact me.

As a business owner after you have laid your foundations and you are ready to grow your business. There are nine fundamentals that must be focused on and worked through in order to grow your revenues.

The nine are listed below so may I encourage you to consider each point and how each one relates to your own business.

jjjjjjj

Part One requires you to have a look at who your ideal client is. Your business will be more profitable if you deal with the customers you want to deal with and who are the best for your business. Now there is a process one must go through to really determine the ideal client profile for your business but for the sake of this article in short when putting together your ideal client profile be sure to work through and understand the elements such as:

  • How They Think
  • Why They Buy  (Want’s vs Needs)
  • What They Want -Hot Buttons  (remember people don’t buy what they need they buy what they want)
  • Who to Target – (Decision Makers & Influencers)

Part Two is all about Lead Generation and Your Sales Process. How do you drive hordes of customers to your business for the least amount of money? Lead generation is not just about the advertising and marketing you do it’s about ensuring you have a solid sales process  in place that covers lead generation, how and where do you find the best prospect s for your product or service, then leads into qualification of that lead and ensuring not only are you adding value in educating your prospect of the benefits of dealing with you, your sales process should also highlight the steps to follow when converting your lead and of course nurturing the lead that didn’t convert.

kkk

 

Only 4% of leads are ready to buy now. That means 96% are not ready. If you don’t have a process in place to nurture your leads you could be wasting your time and your money.

Part Three is all about Lead Conversion. This area of focus should include how you communicate to your target market, what marketing strategies you will use to communicate your message and then how you will make your sale. If you are in retail your distribution channel is of course retail but if you are in a serviced based business you may choose a couple of distribution channels which could include direct sales, online sales and phone sales.

 

Now’s the time to review your plan or create a new one for the coming year. Take some time to create your roadmap. Make sure it includes:

What level of revenues do you want? What products and services will they come from? What does your ideal client look like? How will you communicate with your ideal client and what message will you communicate? Remember your communication is very important. Your focus should be on the benefits and not all about how good you are. Your communication should speak directly to the decision makers wants and not needs.  Be sure your plan also includes what steps you will  follow in what order to make sure you either convert the lead or nurture the lead until they buy from you.