Small Business Coach Top-Ten List
ByBlast 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.
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