Archive for December, 2009
Small Business Coach Top-Ten List
Posted by: | CommentsIf you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
Blast your business off this year with my small business coaching top-ten list. First, I start by giving you ten business planning tools to fuel your growth. Then, I fire you up with business coaching services, websites, and recommended books to give you a business planning boost.
Before we get started, I want to share this quote from Michael Jordan with you. It shows you how a real champion thinks about success.
“I’ve missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.” – Michael Jordan
Business Planning Tools
1. Work with a professional that has deep knowledge in business, financial, marketing, and technology. You need a small business coach who knows how to accurately calculate the cost of launching your rocket ship. You may need funding for your business plan. The more business, market, and customer analysis you do upfront, the easier it will be for you to execute on your business plan and get commercial funding in place to ensure you’re successful.
2. Analyze your current business and financial situation. Be truthful. What are your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats? What are your limiting beliefs that will stop you from getting into orbit and reaching your financial targets? As a small business coach, I can help you with this step.
3. Make a clear vision of where you’re going in your business. Use the analysis step as input. Break your vision down into a few high level goals, objectives, and key success factors. A clear vision and attainable goals motivates you and your team to sustain your financial trajectory.
4. Profile your customer – what they do from the time they wake-up in the morning until they fall asleep at night. If you don’t understand what your customers want and need and their problems, frustrations, and fears, then your marketing and sales messages won’t resonate with them offline or online.
5. Create a strong web presence. You need to master blogging and social media marketing to be competitive in business today. Without going into the details of the blogosphere here, you must understand it will get harder and harder to capture brand recognition in the future once your competition gains a strong foothold on your market. Lock down your brand on the web while your competition is asleep at the wheel. Sign-up for your free business plan consulting consultation with me. My business coaching services will give you powerful ideas to secure your brand space.
6. Complete your yearly business plan. It’s like a flight plan. NASA would be foolish to launch the shuttle with out having a detailed flight plan, right? Your plan lays out how you’ll reach your financial targets. I suggest you start with a high level five-year plan, and then break it down into the first year. You will need to further break it down by quarter, month, and week.
7. Create a separate marketing plan at the beginning of each quarter. You must market constantly so your target market knows you exist and what you’re all about! How many hours do you currently market per week? Layout a step-by-step plan for a unique blog design and specific post. You need to set targets in terms of traffic and conversions. This means you’ll be adding more money in your bank account. Identify the social media sites where you want to promote yourself and your business. Set specific goals for each of these sites: What partners do you need to be successful? Who do you need to build relationships with? What associations and conferences you need to target? Social media helps to speed-up offline and online relationship building. All this activity will help fuel traffic to your blog. Review my highly recommended eBook for doing blogs the right way. You’ll need to know how much this marketing plan will cost you. And if you need help planning and implementing your online plan, check out my business coaching program below.
8. Focus on flight execution. You can’t afford to fall asleep like the Northwest pilots did last summer over Minnesota and miss your financial destination! This is where most people have problems: financial focus. You’re in business to make money! Aren’t you? So you need to ensure the daily tasks add up to the weekly goals. Then the weekly goals add up to the monthly goals, and so on. This focus will ensure you reach your five year business plan successfully. Get targeted education and training to fill in the gaps. Consider hiring specific talent to complement your strengths.
9. Measure results. In the book, Psycho Cybernetics, the author, Maxwell Maltz, uses the analogy of a servo mechanism or rocket. Your rocket processes negative and positive input to stay on financial track. Measure for goals, set objectives, and determine reasons why you don’t meet your financial targets. If you find something doesn’t work well, revise your plan and continue measuring. If something works well, do more of it and you will arrive at your desired financial destination safely.
10. Guard your time. To use the analogy of a teenager, if you’re always texting someone while you’re driving your business, your negligent behavior may cause you to have a financial crash, run out of financial fuel, or burn your money upon take off. You’ll need to stop doing things that don’t produce financial results. If it’s not important to your financial goals, then don’t do it. Otherwise put it in your financial goals. Block off time on your calendar for tasks you know need to get done.
I think this is a pretty good map for creating your financial flight plan. My business coaching services help you define the costs, measure for success, and improve your plan during the year. For more powerful business transformation, sign-up for my free Business Survival Report right away. Or call me and we’ll schedule a time when you and me can discuss your unique ideas and goals.
Now I want to share some of my favorite resources with you to help motivate you to be successful, give you some business and financial planning tips, and help you with time management.
Recommended Reading for Your Business Success (Do You have any other books that you would add to this list?)
1. Think and Grow Rich: Napoleon Hill
2. As a Man Thinketh: James Allen
3. How to Win Friends and Influence People: Dale Carneige
4. The eMyth: Michael Gerber
5. See You at the Top: Zig Ziglar
6. The Power of Positive Thinking: Norman Vincent Peale
7. Awaken the Giant Within: Anthony Robbins
8. Rich Dad Poor Dad: Robert T. Kiyosaki
9. The Laws of Success: Napoleon Hill
10. Success Through a Positive Mental Attitude: Napoleon Hill and W. Clement Stone
11. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Stephen R.Covey
12. Maximum Achievement: Brian Tracy
13. Developing the Leader within You: John C. Maxwell
14. The Richest Man in Babylon: George S. Clason
15. The 9 Steps to Financial Freedom: Suze Orman
16. Who Moved My Cheese: Dr. Spencer Johnson
17. The Magic of Thinking Big: David J.Schwartz
18. The Way of the Peaceful Warrior: A Book That Changes Lives – by: Dan Millman
19. Acres Of Diamonds: Russell H. Conwell
20. The Seasons of Life: Jim Rohn & Ronald Reynolds
21. The One Minute Manager: Kenneth Blanchard
22. The Automatic Millionaire: David Bach
23. The Greatest Salesman in the World: Og Mandino
24. The Sales Bible: Jeffrey Gitomer
25. Chicken Soup for the Soul series: Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen, with other contributors
26. Good to Great- Why Some Companies Make the Leap and Other’s Don’t: Jim Collins
27. Break From The Pack: Oren Harari
28. Stepping Into Greatness: Daniel Gutierrez
29. The Secrets of Successful Inventors: John R. Hobbs
30. The Success Principles: Jack Canfield
31. Little Green Book of Getting Your Way: Jeffrey Gitomer
32. Secrets of the Millionaire Mind – T. Harv Eker
33. Money and the Law of Attraction-Learning to Attract Wealth, Health, and Happiness: Esther and Jerry Hicks
34. The 5 Laws That Determine All of Life’s Outcomes: Brett Harward
35. The Science of Getting Rich: Wallace Wattle
36. People and Performance- The Best of Peter Drucker on Management: Peter Drucker (and all other books by Peter Drucker
37. Re-Imagine: Tom Peters (and all other books by Tom Peters
38. Busting Loose from the Money Game: by Robert Scheinfeld
39. Three Feet From Gold: Greg Reed
Business Web Sites:
Small Business Blogging Information at About.com
Business Coaching Program
I occasionally do a free webinar I call “Wealth In Commercial Niches.” On my webinar, I give you powerful tips to win in this economy. I cover profitable commercial property types, business niches where demand is good, and show you what you need to know financially to launch your business plan.
Call me to find out more about my business-coaching program or schedule a complimentary consultation. I’d love to help you. I have an extensive business, marketing, technology, and finance background. I could be a very valuable member of your success team. I’m a unique small business coach because of my broad talents.
You can “Share” or “Tweet” this post below to help other small business owners and entrepreneurs in your network get fired up about their business and marketing plans.
Scam Warning to Distressed Property Owners From My Certified Financial Planner Training!
Posted by: | CommentsWatch Out for Multi-Level and Social Media Marketers and Especially Self Serving Mortgage Brokers!
I want to shine the spot light for you on a financial product being sold today by multi-level marketers (financial salespersons), which isn’t good for distressed property owners, and accounts for around 23% of homes in the United States. Now, this product doesn’t have the same magnitude of disaster we’ve seen so far with toxic mortgages, but you should be aware of a few important facts about this product. And I’m not going to be silent about its potential negative consequences.
This product is software that requires you to pay $5000 to help pay down your mortgage in half the time. If just 10% of homeowners would make this investment, these multi-level marketers will make a killing while pushing distressed property owners further into debt.
I began my Certified Financial Planner courses in 2005 at Kaplan University because I want to be more than just a financial salesperson. Every 30 days (for six months) I had to take a mind bending exam for my certified financial planner training. In 2006, I told friends and family to sell their homes because the real estate market in the U.S. was way overheated. Some listened. Others got out and reinvested in another state and ended up in foreclosure. I thought they realized it was a U.S. problem and not a California problem. And it turned out to be a world problem, didn’t it?
Mortgage conferences I attended summer of 2006 discussed the government requiring “suitability” laws in purchasing homes like we have for purchasing stocks. The U.S. government offered up homeowners as prey for ambitious financial salespersons. And after all of this, some politicians still think consumers don’t need to be protected from self serving financial salespeople. You’ve got to protect yourself!
I heard lots of financial professionals talking about how we were heading towards a big crash, but only a few warned the market about the fraud that was occurring. In 2004, Private Mortgage Insurance (PMI) in Walnut Creek, California, refused to write insurance on high loan to value debt because they believed the properties were over valued. Then, they went silent on the issue. I wonder who told them to hush. I’m sure you can probably guess.
My reasons for warning you about this product which promises you can pay down your debt in record time is based on my certified financial planner courses. Here is my analysis for why this product is not good for distressed property owners:
- Property values are still falling!
- Mortgage interest rates are at an all-time low
- Your age is a huge factor.
- You don’t know how long it will take for the real estate market to recover.
- You don’t need to buy software and pay $5000 to pay your mortgage down in half the time! And, you should think long and hard about sinking more money into your home than required while the real estate market is in turmoil. Diversify your investments instead.
- You simply need to understand the financial rationale for paying down your mortgage faster and just create a plan to follow and keep your $5000 in the bank or off your credit card. Most financial people can tell you how to do the same thing this software does yourself!
- You should pay down high interest rate loans such as credit cards. Pick the one with the highest interest rate to pay off first, and so on.
- Cash is king right now. You need reserves of six to nine months for emergencies. I’m sure you’ve heard Suzie Orman, the TV financial guru, talk about why it so important for you to have an emergency fund. Ms. Orman is also a Certified Financial Planner like me.
You can see my reasons why it is unwise for you to pay down your mortgage right now. The risk you are taking is huge to put more money into your home than your bank requires. If you’re able to cover your fully amortized mortgage payments at this time, then that’s good enough until we see where this economic crisis leads us. Paying down your mortgage in half the time while interest rates are at an all time low doesn’t make a lot of sense to me. You run the risk of throwing your money down the drain. Your property may continue to decline in value and who knows what other financial challenges life will bring your way! Does my analysis make sense to you?
It would be better for you to diversify your investments to reduce your risk. If you have extra cash to invest, look for investments that will give you cash flow or a positive return based on your time horizon. Diversifying your risk was one of the most important concepts tested in my certified financial planner training.
Consolidating debt also makes sense–home equity debt consolidation. If you can get a lower interest rate by consolidating, then you will benefit by lower monthly payments right away.
If I had to choose between paying down my mortgage faster or refinancing my home, I’d refinance to get a lower interest rate.
Donald Trump said “If it sounds too good to be true, then it’s probably not true.” If a multi-level marketer says to you to buy consumer or business products and services from them and they’ll give you points towards paying down your credit cards or mortgage, it’s too good to be true. You most likely can find the same products and services on the Internet for lower prices. I would suggest you try Wal-Mart first! Don’t fall for this multi-level marketing nonsense! They’ve developed a convoluted scheme to line their pockets with your money, which offer you no real value.
Social Media Experts!
If you don’t have a finance background, I’d suggest that you don’t promote financial products. I’ve seen social media experts helping to promote this financial product and other ones recently. They said they “felt” that the products and services were the best thing to help distressed homeowners. I think they were being paid handsomely and didn’t disclose it. Some internet marketers have gone to jail for this kind of scheme recently. One marketer even had testimonials which said thousands of homeowners felt they benefited from this product.
I think social media experts should stick with social media and let licensed professionals and people with certified financial planner training judge the efficacy of financial products and services.
Just because a home owner is happy with a financial product and gives it rave reviews doesn’t mean anything about its financial value. People loved “option ARMs” and other toxic loan products until they blew-up in their faces. And that really wasn’t their fault! People buy based on emotion and emotions are running very high at this time. And your friendly financial sales person wants to take advantage of your emotional distress with product and services which promise you good things, but in reality lack sound financial benefits.
Mortgage Brokers and Subprime Mortgage Lenders
You sold consumers toxic loans like “option ARMs” based on emotion. You said things to them like “Imagine what it’ll be like when you move into your new home”! You wanted them to convince themselves to buy right now. And you’re so hypocritical because you now say it was their fault they signed onto such a ridiculous loan. And now you’re selling this software product too because your loan commissions are down.
You depend on financial professionals to tell you your options with full disclosure so you can make an informed decision. When your financial professional is more motivated to earn a commission from your financial distress, you’re in serious trouble.
You might ask: are you the judge and jury? No. I am simply pissed off because I think these multi-level marketers know they’re taking advantage of distressed homeowners for their personal gain!
I had the opportunity to sell this product two years ago and I rejected it because I felt homeowners could do themselves what this product does if they only had a 30 minute consultation with a Certified Financial Planner. If it was free to you, it might have some value. But, $5000 (I would be willing to bet) is a bit of a stretch for you today! You want products and services which offer real value and make sense for your financial situation.
The United States and the world are in big trouble today because financial salespersons sold products which had huge risks built in for consumers. These financial wannabe gurus don’t know anything about tailoring financial solutions to fit your specific situation!
Who Can I Trust for Financial Advice?–Independent Financial Adviser
Given where we are financially in the United States, I’d recommend you speak with a financial advisor who’s been through certified financial planner training. Certified Financial Planners are held to a strict financial standard. If they sell you “crap” and you find out later that it was junk, you will have more success in taking legal action against them. Most Certified Financial Planners will help you make better financial choices for your life. My certified financial planner training prepared me to objectively look at my client’s specific situation, analyze their documentation, and make sound recommendations.
I passed my Certified Financial Planner courses in 2006. You can call me at (866) 323-9123 or sign-up right now for a complimentary consultation to get my advice on your financial case. I hope whatever choices you’re considering you will first speak with a Certified Financial Planner before you get involved in a financial scam.
During your consultation with me, we’ll cover ways you can diversify your investments and other financial options you should consider for your specific financial situation.
You can easily “Share” or “Tweet” this post below to make more distressed property owners aware of this scam.
If you’re interested in commercial finance and business “survival” tips for 2010, you can sign-up for my free Business Survival Report to the right of this post.
You will find all of my contact information at the bottom of every post.
An Incredible Book to Overcome Your Financial Challenges
Posted by: | Comments
Men and Women Survived Great Odds!!
Can you apply these tips in your business to overcome your financial challenges?
Dear Friend,
I watched a video on Saturday where a man spoke from a conference room in Austin, Texas. He talked about the most valuable thing he knows. What do you think it is?
I’ll get to that in a minute. But first, let me say that this man’s secret is linked to your survival right now. In fact, it is linked to your financial survival in 2010.
There’s a great book this man recommends that will help you a great deal. It’s called “The Survivors Club,” written by Ben Sherwood. In this book, there are over 300 pages of stories about men and women who have survived seemingly impossible odds.
I think these amazing stories will help you face troublesome financial challenges in your life. For example, one woman fell out of a plane that exploded without a Parachute. She fell 33,600 feet…and lived! Another person was on the 83rd floor of the World Trade Center when it collapsed to the ground. He lived. Another woman was attacked by a mountain lion while riding her bicycle in California. The mountain lion bit her face off! She prayed to God for help and somehow people showed up to help scare the mountain lion away. She lived.
I’m recommending this book to you because we all need more faith to deal with our financial challenges and personal struggles. The link to this book is not an affiliate link. It’s just a book I really want to share with you.
How can you survive the worst things in life? The first secret, according to survival experts, is faith. I’ve prepared a special report for you that details this and seven other business survival tips – and it’s yours free!
Sign-up for your complimentary copy of these incredible financial survival secrets right now. All financial cases we see at Donald Hunter™ Financial have one thing in common: your willingness to take corrective action and do the things you need to do to survive. And, sometimes, depending on your financial case, it may require you to demonstrate incredible faith. Call me today at (866) 323-9123 to discover how to make the best of your financial challenges.
You can share this blog post with your friends by clicking on the “Share” or “Tweet” buttons below.
Sign-up for your free consultation to discuss any financial challenges you’re facing with your business or commercial investments. I know this book is going to give you the courage to survive heroically in 2010! No matter what your financial case may be, I want you to know I will help you in anyway I can to survive prosperously.
Are You Stressed Out By Your Commercial Property Loan?
Posted by: | CommentsIf you are stressed out by your Commercial Property Loan, Commercial loan modifications, tax breaks, and cash flow financing are three ways to help you out of your hectic situation. One or a combination of these solutions may be what you need to get relief from a burdensome commercial property loan payment. It depends on the specifics of your situation.
In 1992, I ran into difficult times with my mortgage loan payments. I purchased a $325 thousand townhouse in Alameda, California, the year before. It was beautiful. Located on the estuary across from Jack London Square in Oakland, it was a 3 bedroom and 2 bath townhouse with cathedral ceilings.
My wife and I had been in this townhouse for a year. We loved it. Our second child was born in April, 1992. Shortly after our daughter was born, we received a notice from our mortgage company that our payments would increase from $2500 to $3500 per month. This was a shock!
You can imagine what it’s like to have two young children and all the expenses that go along with raising kids. You may even know first hand. Now our bank was telling us they were going to raise the payment to cover private mortgage insurance (PMI). We were not aware this was going to happen.
At the same time, I was planning to go to UC Berkeley to get my first degree. The real estate market in northern California was very slow in 1992, which made it impossible to sell. People were looking, but no one was buying.
Let me tell you, I felt so stressed and betrayed because nowhere in the loan process did anyone tell me that my payment would adjust $1000 per month for PMI. At $2500, we could have rented the place with a small negative so I could easily go to school. $3500 per month was just too much to swallow. This sudden increase in our monthly payments on top of falling property values threw a “monkey wrench” into our plans to get my degree.
We had to let it foreclose! It wouldn’t sell. We made the decision to let it go, which I regret to this day. The market turned around in the next three years and the property value more than doubled by year 2000. The tax savings plus the increase in equity was fantastic in retrospect.
Real estate is always a good bet in the United States. We still have the best institutions in the world such as universities, legal systems, and corporate R&D. Population growth and continued migration will bring back strong demand for commercial property in the next few years.
I want to help you keep your commercial property with less worry. I wish I would have had a service like the one I’m going to tell you about to help us keep our townhouse in 1992. Donald Hunter™ Financial created this desperately needed service for business owners and commercial investors to deal with troublesome commercial property loans.
I know you have lots of responsibilities that concern you today.
• Laying off employees
• Shrinking sales
• Falling product and service prices
• Poor cash flow
• Being upside down on your home mortgage
• Being upside down on commercial property
• Shrinking credit lines
• Pestering effects of a down economy
These decisions are on your mind all day long…and certainly create stress.
Avoid foreclosure. Today, I offer you a commercial loan modification service for business and commercial property owners. My program helps to improve your cash flow, lower monthly payments, and take advantage of tax breaks all aimed at helping you to maintain control over your commercial investment. One or a combination of these solutions could be what you need today. No one else in the industry offers this three-pronged approach to helping you.
Bankruptcy isn’t your only option to stop foreclosure. I recommend you look at our simple commercial property loan modification solutions before you decide what to do. A bankruptcy will stay on your record for years and will have a severe and immediate impact on your business and personal credit. I know from experience.
Call me at (866) 323-9123 to discuss how we can help you with lowering your monthly payments and getting you back to running your business. Relief is possible. So give me a call today.
I don’t recommend commercial hard money loans as a wise decision to solve your difficulties with your commercial property loan. It should be a last resort solution when nothing else works. Hard money lending has a number of drawbacks in terms of large upfront fees and it’s a short-term solution. Don’t get sold on hard money, especially when other financial solutions offer you way more benefits!
You can also sign-up for your complimentary commercial loan modification consultation online at a time that’s convenient for you. I will share with you several options that you can choose to improve your cash flow and decrease your monthly commercial property loan payments.
Get your Free “Business Survival” Report by signing up on the form to the right. You may want to read this report prior to our call to learn simple ways to improve your cash flow. I look forward to meeting with you soon.
To let other business owners and commercial property investors know about my services, you can conveniently “Share” or “Tweet” this blog post below.
Are You Slacking On Business Planning for the New Year? Don’t!
Posted by: | CommentsBusiness planning for 2010 may be the most important project you need to complete in 2009. I started planning for 2010 on December 1, 2009. That’s right, as of yesterday, I’m moving through my marketing planning process with a renewed sense of clarity and power.
My plan surrounds a few major categories. With a glimpse into my planning system, I hope you get a starting point from which to begin developing your own plan. Matter of fact, I want you to improve on what I’ve done. I’ve simplified the process for selecting my priorities from a big list of items with my “forced” ranking techniques, which will help you in making complex business decisions.
I’m not going to share the exact details within each category (sub-plan) with you because I’d be giving away major secrets; my stockholders wouldn’t appreciate that.
The Donald’s Marketing Planning System
Sub-plans
- Segmentation Plan (The segmentation is the basis for messaging and I use this category to define my “forced” ranking technique below)
- Blog and Social Media Domination Strategy (most other categories flow into this function. It’s a majorly powerful function)
- Blog Post Plan (Keeps me focused on my blog theme or purpose)
- Comments and Link Back Plan (Generates more traffic to my blog. You should see the tracking theory I’ve applied!)
- Competitive Analysis Plan (I don’t want to be like the other guy. You need to stand out, so check out other players in your market.)
- Blog Updates Plan (I’m incorporating what I’ve recently learned from my mentors into the mix! You probably already know, search engines love blogs that give your visitors relevant and fresh content)
- Keyword Research Plan (I’m all about relevance!)
- Marketing Plan for Social Media (Having special relationships is key to winning in 2010 you know. And, social media is the fastest and most powerful way to get relationships started!)
- Update Free Consult System (It’s about letting people have a risk free way of getting to know me. Well, I’m automating it and refining it. Notice I call it a system.)
- Update Free Report System (My free report is good now and it gets better all the time as I augment it with fresh ideas. It’s a living document.)
- Finance Products Plan (It is crucial for my firm to keep my finance store full of the best finance products available to satisfy your situation. It’s like a grocery store needs to make sure they keep the shelves stocked with items people want to buy.)
- Offline Marketing Plan (Because I love social media so much, I’ve been accused of not understanding terrestrial relationships. People will say and do anything to protect the “old” ways of doing things! In this plan I tie my offline strategy into my online strategies to make it easier for customers, suppliers, and joint venture partners to work with Donald Hunter™ Financial.)
- Product Development Plan (Innovation is the only way to stay relevant.)
All of these sub-plans compose my 2010 marketing plan. It’s a system. They all feed off one another to create exponential power. As you can see, I have a few things to do here. I’ve added a number of sub-steps in each of these plans, which I am keeping a secret.
Forced Ranking System (Segmentation example)
In a few cases, I used a “forced” ranking technique to help me zero in on my priorities.
For example, under segmentation I wrote down 25 different ways I could segment. To deal with this complexity, I first wrote my goal for segmentation, which had multiple criteria (criteria 1, criteria 2, and criteria 3).
Then, I created a measurement system to rank each one as (N) neutral, (S) Strong, and (W) weak.
My process was to go through the 25 different segmentation possibilities I wrote down and compare them to my goal criteria. In segmentation, my goal had three criteria, as shown above. The ranking process looked like this:
- Segmentation idea 1 (segment by industry): N1, S2, W3
- Segmentation idea 2 (loan product): S1, N2, S3
- Etc.
My goal measurement system (N, S, W) evaluates how the segmentation idea satisfies the goal criteria in a neutral way, strong, or weak. I selected the ones that had the highest ranking. Then, I picked two out of the 25 to simplify my marketing messages.
I have no doubt that I’ve picked the right segmentation strategy. If you don’t do “forced” ranking when you have more than three items, you’ll spend a long time trying to figure it out or you’ll really make a huge mistake. It’s not necessarily intuitive when you have that many choices as I had.
I feel that my segmentation strategy will set me apart from my competition as many of them use the segmentation strategies I eliminated, because I let my marketing goals drive my decision-making. Instead of following the leader, I focused on my core values to lead me to the answer.
I’m so excited because I can see by doing this planning; I’ve shaved off hours of guessing, rework, and eliminated problems I resolved in the planning process. By sharing a bit of my planning process, I hope it’ll give you some ideas and motivate you to stop “slacking” and get on your “JOB”! That’s a friendly push.
I did all of this work in about 6 hours of planning. It will take me a few more hours to complete my business and marketing plan for 2010 and the first quarter of the year. I’ll add a few more sub-plans as I move forward in the planning process. But, if I stopped here, I’d have some very powerful actions to act on in 2010!
I wish I could show you all the details in my plan, but I want you to let your planning process be driven by your own core values and goals.
Do you have any questions about my planning system? You can use the comments section below to ask questions.
Sign-up today for your free business and marketing planning consultation if you’d like help on your 2010 planning process. Take advantage of my years of marketing and product management experience too. Who knows, you might learn some powerful ideas about finance!
Sign-up for my free “Business Survival” report to the right. Be better informed than most real estate and financial professionals about your financing options and strategies. Happy Planning!
How Do You Make Good Financial Decisions In Business and Life?
Posted by: | CommentsI’m writing about “good” and “bad” financial decisions today because we’re all going through very emotional times. Balanced decision–making will help you keep your emotions in check so you don’t get caught up in making critical selections based on negative emotions like fear, worry, and doubt. Emotions can help you achieve good financial results, but fear, worry and doubt are not the place from which you want to make life changing decisions.
Over the past few years, I’ve spent a lot of time examining what drives people when making choices about their finances. I’ve spent time observing my clients, small business owners, entrepreneurs, and family members. I’ve even studied what people say and do on TV. In this post, I want to discuss with you what people almost always base their financial decisions on and how they defend their choices.
In the following personal example you will see:
- How good and bad financial decisions are in the eye of the beholder. I’ll let you judge my story below.
- How your financial selections may change from good to bad as time goes on.
- Growing older makes a huge difference in the financial decisions you make. Aging often brings newfound wisdom which plays a bigger role in our financial choices.
- How other people like your family and friends consciously and unconsciously assess your financial decisions although they often don’t share in the consequences of your results. Their comments or unspoken opinions affect us emotionally!
I could use the story which I’m about to share with you to explain almost any financial arrangement you could make. We could be talking about stocks, bonds, real estate, or purchasing insurance. It doesn’t matter. It’s all the same.
A Good Decision
First, what is a good financial decision? A good financial selection maximizes your desired outcomes, including: security, peace of mind, growing investments, and paying fewer taxes.
A Bad Decision
Now let’s look at why a decision might be considered bad. Well, bad financial choices cause more stress, drive investments to shrink, keep you up at night, and cause the IRS to send you scary letters.
Men Will Be Men!
This unusual story involves one of my own financial decisions. When I was 25 years old, I bought a fancy car. Even though I couldn’t drive, I needed wheels. Not just any old wheels. I bought a brand new 1985 baby blue Cadillac Seville, equipped with a Bose stereo, white leather interior, white convertible top, a Rolls-Royse grill, with wire wheels and Vogue tires. I loved that car!
My Seville drove and felt like a dream. It was! It even had my name engraved on the dashboard! I probably would never buy another car like that for myself. But, it made sense for me at the time. No one else my age had a car like that and it was very easy for me to get someone to drive me around town or go on trips.
I have to admit it was a bit stressful sometimes making a huge car payment and letting some friends drive me who weren’t very good drivers. My stress was compounded because I also owned real estate investments I needed to maintain and support. I kept this car for 20 years. The last few years I had it, I really didn’t drive it much. So I thought, “why should I keep paying insurance, registration, and maintaining it?” It was becoming more of a hassle than it was fun. And as I got older, I felt it was a risk to my financial security having people driving me around. I had to use my big sister as the primary driver to get my car insured because insurance companies wouldn’t insure a blind person. So I didn’t want to affect her too.
When I was ready to sell it, I advertised on Craigslist and told my friends. When my nephew Gregory found out I was selling my car, he wanted it.
I said, “Greg do you realize this car is getting older now, even though it only has 42 thousand miles on it. It will need some major maintenance soon and I can’t promise you how long it’ll last.” Gregory wanted my Caddie no matter what.
Gregory said, “let’s go for a drive and check it out.” After our drive Gregory was even more convinced that he wanted my car. And I fell in love with it all over again too.
A long story short, Gregory bought my car that very same day. To be honest with you, I experienced some separation anxiety. This Caddie was my “baby blue” that I had taken very good care of for 20 years! I only sold it to Greg because I knew I would still be able to use it when I wanted.
It was a holiday and the Department of Motor Vehicle was closed. So Gregory had a breakthrough idea. He wasn’t going to let anything stand in the way of him getting that car that day. I could tell he wasn’t going to risk me changing my mind because he knew how much I loved my baby blue Seville.
Gregory said, let’s go to AAA. You can transfer the car over to me and get insurance at the same time. I bet they’re open today.
I said okay, and we were off to AAA. Once we got there, we transferred the registration and title over to Gregory. Gregory was getting more and more excited. He knew he was getting a steal! Then we walked over to the insurance agent.
The agent gave Gregory his options and asked him what type of coverage he wanted and how much did he want his deductable to be. Gregory said full coverage. Well, I thought to myself, “full coverage?”
Before they would let us get insurance, we had to get the car smogged. We left AAA going to get the car smogged.
I said to Greg as we left AAA’s parking lot, “why do you want full coverage? You know that your insurance will only pay you blue book value if you total the car. It is a waste of your money to have full coverage.”
I could sense Gregory really mulling over my question in his mind. Then Gregory said 30 seconds later, “I feel better with full coverage.” I said to Greg, “even though your annual premium plus your deductable is around the blue book value of the car? And, you’re going to pay an extra $75 to $100 per month?” He said, “Yes. I feel better knowing I’m fully insured.” I felt his answer in my gut! I was a bit taken aback.
Greg taught me a lesson. I had just passed the Certified Financial Planner examination and thought I really already knew how to help people to make good financial decisions by maximizing their outcomes. Gregory taught me a lesson in how people make financial decisions. Greg was willing to give AAA an extra thousand dollars or so per year so he would feel good! Rational thinking is not the only criteria people use to make decisions.
The Gregory Effect
I bet you can see similarities in how you make your financial selections and how my nephew Gregory makes his financial decisions. What happens emotionally for you when you decide to make a financial selection? As I describe Gregory’s rationale for coming to his financial conclusion, tell me if it is a good or bad financial result? You can type your responses in the comment section below.
I was so bent on maximizing monetary outcomes to produce a tangible result for people. Greg taught me that it also has to feel good. I call this the “Gregory Effect.”
My friends like Donnie Moore from Levi Strauss always assessed my financial wherewithal when they saw me in my Seville. No matter how many times they saw me in my Caddie, they would always remind me that, “you can’t drive. You’re blind. Why do you need a car?” As if I didn’t already know. Now I know what to tell Don, “Because it felt good!” That’s why I needed a fancy car. It felt really good to me to own a fancy car and I had fantastic social experiences once I bought it.
Business Decisions
People make financial decisions based on emotions and justify their decisions with logic. Well, I want you to understand our emotions also play a big role in the financial selections we make in business. The same buying patterns we use in our personal life to buy things like clothes or cars come into effect when we make our financial choices in business. We need to recognize this phenomenon if we want to increase our “good” financial decisions. Intuition may keep you from making bad choices. You must learn to trust your feelings and not allow an aggressive advisor, supplier, or other’s criticism to force you into something you don’t “feel” is good for you.
Remember, your decision not only has to produce a good outcome, it also has to feel good! If it doesn’t feel good, you’ll always second guess yourself, and you’ll have lingering anxiety about your selection. A good financial planner will recognize not all of your financial decisions will be based on rational thinking. Your human side needs to be included into your financial plan along with your risk assessments, tax consequences, investment strategies, and financial calculations.
This is how I help you at Donald Hunter™ Financial. I personally want to know about your whole life and expectations. The “Gregory Effect” taught me to work with your personal convictions and your financial goals. I help you uncover the true emotions driving your financial decisions. Financial planning is not about numbers. It’s about people.
Sign-up today for your complimentary financial planning consultation to meet with me to see how The Donald can help you succeed financially. You can see from my story that my personal philosophy is to have fun early in life while you have good health. Health care expenses will be your biggest outflow as you age. I can’t wait to hear about your personal financial philosophy!
You should sign-up for my free business survival report to the right of this post. It’s packed with powerful information to help you understand your commercial finance options.
