Getting More Centered — It’s All About You. Jeanna Pool from Catalyst Creative writes a great ezine on promoting every month. In Jan she shared five Great Selling Tips for 2006. She declares 2006 the year of the customer and exhorts you to focus absolutely on your customers and their wants. Because if you have been in business for awhile and have wonderful products and great services and are not getting the results you need, you could be too targeted on your customers and not targeted enough on yourself.
Last week, I inspired your to revisit your vision of your business and ask why you started your business in the 1st place. Now I need you to focus even more on what you need. What precisely do you need out of your business? Are you wanting more money? If that is so how much? Write down a number. Do you need more flexible hours? If this is so write out precisely the schedule you’d like. Are you wanting to modify the world? If this is so write out particularly how that would look. Why all this target you? Because if you are not completely clear on what you need, how are you going to understand if you are successful? How are you going help your customers if you are not looking after yourself too. Perhaps you must be making $150,000 a year to provide your folks with the life that you wanted. You would like to retire while you’re still in active and in good health. Or perhaps you need to simply make an additional $20,000 a year working part time while you look after your youngsters till they are at school. Or maybe your goal is to make 1,000,000 bucks a year and live an awesome life. Because what you need will shape your business. It will determine who your clients are and how you will help them. If you need $5,000,000 in sales, your products and techniques are going to be a lot different than if you’d like $50,000 in sales.
If you need to work only afternoons, that is going to shape your business too. If you need to sell your business and retire in 5 years, that is going to impact on your calls too.
So at this time, get out a paper and pen and stand by to draft.
Did you get your biro and paper out? Answer the query, “What do I want out of my business?” Write in as much detail precisely what you need your business to offer you. What precisely do you want? Across the week, add to this and revise it. Compare where you are now to what you desire.
How enormous is the gap? The week after next, I may help you create plans to narrow the opening with : Why Business Plans do not work — the easy way to Create a useful Action Plan.