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Ten
Steps To A Better Business — Less Work, More life, And
Balance.
The fundamental questions never change. They are “What
do you want?” And, “How will you get it?” Ten
Steps To Better Business, Less Work, More Life, And Balance
will make it possible for you to know the answers to the fundamental
questions, and to take charge of your life:
1. Define Your Future
2. Make Work More like Play
3. Work By Design
4. Build Systems To Run Everything
5. Go All-Out!
6. Beat The Clock
7. Market Like A Champion
8. Deliver +1%
9. Pump Up Your Accountability
10. Zap The Gaps
BONUS STEP
1. DEFINE YOUR FUTURE. Where are you going? What do you want? What’s the purpose of your life? For you to achieve the Big Picture results you want, how must you shape your future? Your business should serve this vision. To make this happen, you need to align your behavior today with the future you want.
Think big, but cover all the bases. Set goals and write them
down. Write a compelling, rolling three year time projection
of an ideal future and keep it fresh. Clearly defined desired
results will keep you on track. The intensity of your focus
must be steadfast as it is this vision that will keep you focused
and progressing.
This is the most important step…it requires the most thought, it creates the “Image of Your Achievement.” Define Your Future well, and the rest of the steps are simply nuts and bolts.
Assessment Questions:
• Do you know where you’re headed?
• What’s your “Future Self” have to say about how you are living your life?
2.
MAKE WORK MORE LIKE PLAY.
This is another simple notion. It is to get your enterprise,
your people, and yourself to treat work as if it were a game;
to incorporate the motivational aspects of recreation, as well
as the drive of organized sports, into your business arena so
you can work like you play. Describe the field of play, the
rules of the Game of Enterprise in your arena, and the score
keeping methods.
Evaluate every aspect of the Game of Enterprise at your workplace
in terms of the contribution to the income and value of your
company. Understand the exact, quantified impact every system,
process, initiative, innovation, and action will have on your
business. Know what’s important: Which product/service
are the most viable income-producers? How many new customers
do you need each year? What can you do to trim variable expenses?
And stretch yourself, do one hard thing every week. That’s
playing to win.
Assessment Questions:
• Do you have minimum performance standards for all major tasks connected to your enterprise?
• If asked, could you define what’s out of bounds in your workplace?
• Are you keeping score and can anyone see their score at anytime?
3.
WORK BY DESIGN.
Plan your career activities to continuously produce less work,
more life, and balance. Figure out how to get the right things
done right the first time, and every time, and on time, and
on budget, and with as much joy as possible for all concerned.
Multiply Your Efforts. Getting the results you want through other people is key. Hire the right people and take very good care of them.
Make your strategies work like they’re supposed to, this is most essential…if you cannot do this, you fail. Period!
Always be delegating and simplifying. And get rid of 20% of everything you own and another 10% every year thereafter.
As you Work By Design and follow the remaining steps listed below, you are creating the “Structure of Your Achievement.”
Assessment Questions:
• How well are you tuned in to what really works and what does not?
• Are you delegating more and more every year?
• What stands in the way of a quantum leap forward in your progress right now?
4. BUILD SYSTEMS TO RUN EVERYTHING. Establish and implement systems to run every aspect of your business. Marketing systems / production systems / personnel systems / management systems / administration systems / etc. Determine the best way to run key operations, document the behavior, and then do it that way every time. Especially important are systems for comprehensive financial reporting. These enable you to make wise decisions regarding cash flow, and to avoid reckless spending.
Assessment Questions:
• How well defined are the systems that run your business and your life?
• Are they documented in writing?
• To what extent are you and others following them?
5.
GO ALL-OUT.
Your leadership is pivotal. Leadership requires good communication
skills…the ability to influence the thinking of others
and to inspire them to action. Your values and the principles
by which you live your life…you need to talk about these
things. The people you lead want to know about them. Generously
share information internally; too many secrets can kill enthusiasm.
Think about what you can do to foster and enhance an awareness
of your vision in the minds of your employees, co-workers, customers,
and all others vital to your success. What can you do to get
them to behave in ways that genuinely help you and truly support
your purpose?
Let people know you…laugh a lot and be “real”
all the time. Live so that when your children think of fairness
and integrity, they think of you. Keep your own council on key
matters. Never “bad mouth” anyone. And follow-up with
everyone and everything forever. That’s leadership.
Assessment Questions:
• How do you talk to your people?
• Are you inspiring them enough?
• What do they think about your leadership style?
6.
BEAT THE CLOCK.
Make time serve you, not the other way around. Be anticipatory
and proactive not reactive. Implement The Three-Day Time System:
Free Days, Focus Days & Buffer Days. Learn how to be the
most productive in the least amount of time. Understand how
to use time to your advantage. Be sure you know what your top
money-making activities really are, then schedule uninterrupted
blocks of time to do what it takes to bring home the bacon.
Live “The Zen of Work”: Show Up, Be Present, Speak Your Truth, and Detach From Both Victories And Defeats, or you’ll get stuck holding onto the past and time will be your master instead of the other way around.
Assessment Questions:
• How often do you wonder how you could have spent all day at work and not gotten anything important done…again?
• When are you going to get control of the time in your life? Now? Next year? Maybe never it seems?
7. MARKET LIKE A CHAMPION. Make sure you know exactly who your target customers are and then align your strengths with their highest and greatest needs. Answer the following questions then act upon that information: What is the value of your product/service in the eyes of your customers? Are your customer acquisition methods consistently effective on a daily basis? How can you more efficiently communicate your message to more of your target market? Where can you strengthen your follow-through with your aftermarket and referral programs? If you wanted to double your gross income in the next 12 months, how could you do that?
Communicate value and benefit with marketing that works. Make enough hard to refuse offers to enough of the right people to close enough sales to meet your needs.
Assessment Questions:
• Who is your target audience?
• What do you know about their needs?
• What’s your “Elevator Speech?”
• How are you using it?
8. DELIVER + 1%. Do the work for which you are paid, and then do 1% more. Remove or find ways around any barriers preventing your customers from getting what they need. Always keep your promises to your customers in the most cost-effective manner possible.
Assessment Questions:
• What barriers keep your customers from getting what they truly need?
• How will you overcome those barriers and deliver the goods?
9. PUMP UP YOUR ACCOUNTABILITY. Find someone (or a few people) who will give you honest and candid feedback, who’ll ask you the tough questions and help you be accountable to what you say you want. Don’t isolate yourself, ditch the office, go see the people, and confirm your assumptions.
Assessment Questions:
• Where do you get perspective?
• Who holds you accountable to the things you say matter most to you?
• What could you do if you were really cooking on all burners?
10. ZAP THE GAPS. Make gradual, continuous improvements. Practice Kaizen. Seek life-long learning experiences. Keep your eyes and ears open. You never know where the next great idea is going to come from. Listen and diligently seek the truth. Dig down to the truth about your business. Try to be a little unreasonable every day. Think with clarity and purpose, and make all necessary adjustments to thrive in today’s challenging business environment. Keep innovating and getting better at getting better. But do not try to be perfect, good enough means just that. When you’re on the right track, going in the right direction, at the right pace…don’t stop.
Assessment Questions:
• The real truth about your business and your performance…what is it?
• How do you plan to keep getting better and better? What are the steps?
BONUS STEP. Everyone once in awhile go outside, lie down in the grass, spread your arms out, look up at the sky and realize that you are a small part of a greater whole. And understand this…you matter, you make a difference, and you are important. Have a Great Life.
Assessment Questions:
• Do you tell yourself this often enough?
• Do you believe it?
• If not, what would have to happen for to believe it?
There...just take these Ten Steps To Better Business, Less Work,
More Life, And Balance…then keep re-visiting them from
time to time, and there you have it. Life is beautiful.
Nothing to it! Piece of cake!
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