Make A Simple Plan For Your Business With Three Questions
If you’re reading this, you may not be much of a planner. In fact, for most people setting plans and goals sucks. So with that being said, thanks for reading this far. Planning can be difficult as you sit and try and figure out what the right goals are and not make those goals feel arbitrary. For you haters of planning, here are three simple questions to get you started. Answer these and you are well on your way to having a plan that will make your year better. These questions are questions that we ask ourselves and our clients frequently. It’s also part of our Alignment Blueprint that we
The Best Initial Products For Your Business
When it comes to creating new products or services for your business, a common roadblock for business owners is where to start. Should you spend a lot of money? Should you hire someone? The best place to start in the product creation business is to start with a product with low overhead. When we started The Business Blueprint, one thing that I wanted was a great intro video to put on our website. I felt like having a really professional video made us look good and was a great way to connect people to our message. We didn’t spend a ton of money on it but it was significant for
What Do You Stand For?
What do you stand for? When was the last time you asked yourself that question? That question is relevant for you, your business or any other organization you are involved in. When I talk about standing for something, I am talking about taking a stand but what I am really talking about is clarity. Having clarity, particularly as a new business owner, is critical. Without clarity you lack the ability to properly position the way that you create value for the world and solve problems. One asset that clarity gives you is the ability to differentiate yourself. Whether you are a business owner or an employee of a company, you
Do Something Worthy Of Being Noticed
“ I can’t get anyone to pay attention to my business.” “My business isn’t growing.” Have you ever complained about the above scenarios in your business? I know I have. There’s a funny thing about the above statements. The funny thing is the above statements are about ourselves. What’s funny about that? We don’t create a business for ourselves. This is where I also have an issue with personal branding. While I do think that you need to build notoriety in your particular field, what gets lost in the process is that you are in business to help other people. Thus the title of this post. Do something worthy of
The Easiest Way To Get Things Done
The easiest way to get things done….Don’t do anything….The end….You’re welcome. OK seriously, you can’t just curl up in your house and do nothing all day. Well I guess you could but if you are reading this, you are probably not the kind of person who would do that. So back to getting things done, more specifically the easiest way to get things done. I have a specific weakness in that at times I can burden myself with tasks that I keep in the back of mind. I know these tasks need attention but I don’t make the effort to address these specific tasks. Two primary things happen when I
Be Smart With Your Smartphone
Smartphones are great and smartphones are dangerous. It is estimated that 478 million units will be sold by the end of 2011. 478 million is a big number and a dangerous number. Smartphones can be a great help for your business and here are some of the ways that is true. As I have been sharing my online system for productivity, the hub for a lot of what you do online is available on your smartphone. Tools like Evernote, your online calendars, e-mail etc. all have apps made for smartphone access. This is all great stuff. The key to any effective system for productivity is to have a centralized hub
How Running Helped Me Realize How We Limit Passionate Pursuits
Passion seems to be a polarizing topic in business. Is it or is it not important? Is passion all it’s cracked up to be or is it just one of those warm fuzzies that make people feel good down the road to ultimate failure? Is your passion enough? Are we too narrow with our focus on passion? If talent is overrated, is passion overrated too? Do we overstate what role passion plays in our success? That is a question that keeps coming to mind as I think about passion. My initial thought is that you can’t be successful without having some desire behind what you are doing. An example from
Everything’s Overrated…Except For This
How many articles have you read where someone says something is overrated? Leadership is overrated. Talent is overrated. Your sense of self worth is overrated. Athletes are overrated. I agree with every sentiment that has ever been written on something being overrated. I will tell you why in a minute. What I don’t hear about being overrated is doing work. So back to my point about agreeing with every article that has called something overrated. Think about the amount of information that we are exposed to. The depth and breadth of the information as well as the speed with which we get it almost guarantees that we are going to
Forget Jerry Maguire: Creating Mission, Vision and Values That Won’t Get You Fired
“Jerry Maguire” was a fictional sports agent and apparently a good one. Jerry had everything he wanted; the girl, the career, the fame. Unfortunately Jerry Maguire also aquired an ill that befalls many a successful sales person, he got a conscience. He looked around and saw the industry how it was and knew that the way they treated athletes wasn’t right. He had an altruistic plan to fix the sports agent industry. Then he created a mission statement. That mission statement got him fired. Around the time that the movie Jerry Maguire came out, mission statements were all the rage in business. Everyone had to have one and they were
How To Do A Joint Venture Without Feeling Like You Have To Shower Afterwards
I have spent a lot of time in the past week talking about getting your foot in the door. Creating winning partnerships is another way to help you get started and get your name out there by working with someone else. Joint venturing is one partnership tool that’s great for that. You know what else joint venturing is? Dirty. I have spent time running joint ventures for people and through that experience I can tell you there is a right and a wrong way to go about it. Do it right and you have created a triple win. A win for you, the partner and the end users of the
