Lies That Hold You Back

Step #1 To Build a Great Business

Beliefs are not all facts/truths - and there are many about business that are simply lies and they are holding you back.

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"What everyone knows to be true often turns out to be wrong."

- Jim Rogers, Investor

Which of the following can you identify as beliefs you hold as true today? Circle them:

To have a great business you must:

• Have an Annual Forecast
• Develop an Annual Expense Budget
• To Increase Profits - the only way is Cut Expenses and/or Raise Prices
• Manage our People better
• Answer questions with an open door
• We are a Family, I'm responsible for a stable, affordable team
• Recruit only when I need someone
• Staff meetings are the only way to ensure executing ideas and solutions
• I can't find good people
• I can't afford to pay for great people
• Focus on avoiding taxes
• Survive, do a little better, use your experience to set expectations 
• Goals, values, vision etc. are all soft stuff that my people don't care about
• Marketing doesn't work or at least I don't know if it does
• I just need to get my "name out there" more
• Planning - no time and it is of little value
• Putting out fires and answering questions is all I have time for

 

These beliefs are common knowledge, right? Wrong. They hold you back - I see it every day. In this series of blog posts we will dispel each one and offer a proven best practice to replace them with. 

20 Steps to Build a Great Business

This is the first in a series of 20 short blog posts I will share with you - posts that cover the secrets I have discovered and ingrained in my coaching over the last 10 years. These are the best practices and truths that have helped over 100 small businesses take their companies to the next level.

Below is a list of what we will be covering over the next 20 weeks. It will be a glimpse into my Online Coaching Course (link to overview shown above).   If you have thought about getting a coach but were unsure if it was for you, try it out with my online course. It is self-paced learning with the tools and actions to execute the concepts and best practices I will be introducing you to in this series.

It is a monthly subscription and you can unsubscribe at any time. If you are willing to take the actions and use the tools in the course it will transform your business.

Here is what we will be introducing over the next 20 weeks:

1. Beliefs are not all facts/truths - and there are many about business that are simply lies and they are holding you back. 
2. Success - how can we define it and where you are on the continuum.
3. You don't have to change who you are to be successful and lead and build a great company.
4. Every result we get has a process that is perfect for achieving it.
5. Essentialism/Deep Work - being your best more of the time.
6. Right people, Doing the Right Things, Right.
7. A Players in every position.
8. The Leadership Matrix  - the process for business success and execution.
9. What is your Why? Your Purpose? And why does it matter?
10. Culture eats strategy for lunch.
11. Leadership Planning Process and Document.
12. The 2 key numbers/metrics to profitability - simple numbers.
13. The Rhythm that ensures execution.
14. Coaching vs. Managing.
15. Weekly Coaching Conversations - not quarterly or annual reviews.
16. Stop answering questions.
17. Build your Virtual Bench all the time.
18. 2 Second LEAN - for total engagement and empowerment.
19. Marketing for small businesses.
20. Sales - the massive changes that have taken place and how to respond. 

Regards,

Rick Wallace

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Cut a Patch Out of the Fabric of Time

From Steve Chandler:

"Anyone can free up an hour a day for anything. And you can put anything into that hour. Anybody has time to put something into an hour's time slot and devote the fully-focused hour to it. Without losing a beat. Without losing any efficiency at all. Or any relationships.

In fact, here's the irony: if you singled out an hour for something special, the other hours of your life would probably improve! They would become more efficient, not less.

If you took an hour away from your life today, you would become more efficient in the other 23 hours than you were before. Because you would pay more attention to priorities. You would become more awake to your precious time. 

Work expands to fill the time allotted for it. 

So give yourself an hour. Start today."

Steve is right - anyone can find an hour. We tell ourselves we can't, we are too busy or have too much to do. There are too many urgent things, questions, problems to solve, and everyone needs attention right this minute. WRONG.

Take an hour a day and focus on your business. Look at something different each day like, recruiting for your virtual bench, marketing, coaching people, having your weekly huddle, then have a flexible slot each week focusing that hour on an aspect of the business. One week may be reviewing your team and rating them, another may be writing some content for your marketing machine,  and another may be talking to some customers about "how we are doing". You may even focus on an important project/Rock that needs to be worked on.

Block that hour at the same time every day to make it a habit. Don't answer the phone or do email - shut the door and focus on the task at hand. It is a proven fact you will get 3 times more done in that focused hour as a normal interrupted multi- tasking hour.

Don't let the voice in your head say you can't do this. Anything, other than a family emergency, can wait an hour. Block it and focus. Your business will get better and you will feel better about it.