What’s Your Ticket To Greater Small Business Success?

Although small business success can be defined in different ways I have learned from my own businesses and from being a personal business coach that there is, in the long run, one thing that every self-employed business owner wants.  They want greater freedom.

In coaching success I have discovered that the entrepreneurs and solo professionals who are the happiest are the ones who have attained greater personal freedom.  Here’s the dirty little secret to being a self-employed business owner.  The small business you created to give you greater freedom and abundance ends up putting you in bondage.

It is ironic that the very thing you create to give you greater freedom and to experience more of what life has to offer ends up putting you like a hamster on a wheel.  Except, unlike the hamster, who can get off, you have to stay on.  You are held hostage by your own creation.

At some point, small business success and the dream of greater freedom and abundance disappears.  And the excitement and anticipation for a wonderful future gives way to a feeling that every day is the same as the last.  Business and life become a slog through the mud.

The good news is that it doesn’t have to be that way.  But, to have greater freedom and abundance you must be willing to grow.  By the way, no amount of business training courses, or new marketing business plans are going to give you the freedom you seek.

The freedom you seek only will come when you expand the thinking between your ears.  I had a client who for some time felt that by having employees he would become a baby sitter.  In fact, the thought of having employees was painful.  Is this a formula for small business growth?  No.

Is this a formula to stay in bondage and be unhappy?  Yes!  Finally, he got sick and tired of being sick and tired.  He took the plunge.  He expanded his thinking.  He looked at having his first employee as a way to achieve his goals and dreams.  He stopped looking at it as baby sitting.

What happened?  He changed his thinking.  He accepted the fact that he would have to embrace his own personal development.  In hiring someone, he would have to learn hiring skills, payroll, taxes and how to build an organization.  In hiring someone he would have to come up with a marketing business plan to increase sales to cover the expense of the employee as well as to continue to pay himself.


It was amazing what happened.  In 2 years time he added three employees and increased his sales by 200%.  Here’s the great news.  He spends less time working in his business.  During the busiest times of year he can take time off.  His outlook on life and his future are positive.

What is the formula for small business success and greater freedom?   It includes many things but first and foremost you, the self-employed business owner, must accept the challenge of personal growth.

As in the above case study, once you change your thinking that starts things rolling.  When you add people the next thing you must immediately do is create better processes to accommodate business growth.  Don’t just add people if your business is growing.  Add more to your processes or systems to support growth.

Put yourself in a position where you can hire average people and have outstanding results.  How do you do that?  Have a good process.  Think about this.  If you put above average people in a bad process you will have a bad outcome.  If you put average people in a great process you will have a great outcome.

McDonald’s is a great example of how process determines outcome.   Give yourself greater freedom and abundance. Seldom will your business or your life exceed your personal development.
Know that the freedom and small business success you desire starts with expanding your thinking and creating a process that will allow you to move toward greater freedom and abundance.  Once you see it and believe it then small business success can be yours.

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Business Keys To Success: Embrace Commitment

The world has never seen a great leader in the world or in business who has lacked commitment. If you want to be an effective leader, you have to be committed. Why? True commitment will attract and inspire people. They are attracted to your conviction.

To lead others you have to believe you must believe in your cause before they will buy into you. People buy into a leader and then a vision. In my experience in business and life, sometimes the vision comes first. If people buy into a vision that you present they will start being committed to you.

Commitment Versus Involvement

What is the true nature of commitment? Before we start on that I want you to think about something. Very often, people fake themselves out. They confuse involvement with commitment. Involvement may be a one time investment of time but commitment is about a consistent investment of time and being persistent in overcoming obstacles.

Some people take a test and pass. Others take a test and fail. Some people start a project. Some people finish it. Commitment is the cornerstone of long-term success. The people who pass the test or finish the project are showing commitment. Involvement will get you started but commitment will carry you across the finish line to success.

Commitment – It Comes From The Heart

I have read that the in the Kentucky Derby, the winning horse effectively runs out of oxygen after the first half mile, and he goes the rest of the way on heart. If you want to make a difference in other people’s lives as a leader, look into your heart to see if you’re really committed.

In the business world, whether you are a self-employed business owner, entrepreneur, solo professional, corporate manager or corporate executive the people who are following you must see that your heart is into what you are doing.

In my personal business coaching practice I have seen time and time again that passion from the heart will overcome obstacles and bring small business success. When things are bleak you must have heart to carry yourself and others through to a successful conclusion.

Commitment-It’s In The Action

Earlier, when looking at involvement versus commitment it is the intensity of the action and the consistency that separates the two. There is nothing wrong with involvement. But to succeed we must understand that involvement in the first step to commitment and ultimately the personal and business success we desire.

You can say all the words. But, if you don’t back them up with action then they are nothing and people will stop following you as a leader.

Commitment Is The Pathway To Achievement

One thing is for sure as a leader. If you are looking for obstacles and opposition you will find it as a leader. And when you have obstacles and opposition commitment is the only thing that will carry you forward.

Thomas Paine in promoting the American Revolution in 1776 wrote about “summer soldier and the sunshine patriot.” He was exhorting people to have commitment. War is tough and without commitment it is not possible to win.

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As you go through every day practice the commitment to win; The commitment to win in achieving your goals and dreams. Work makes life sweet, purposeful and fruitful but only if we approach it with commitment.

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Business Keys To Success: Turn Up Your Passion

Passion certainly makes things you more interested in whatever you are involved in at the moment. When you are displaying passion in response to a person, situation or event you are definitely more committed whether it be positive or negative.

What about the passion in your business and your life? In my personal business coaching practice I have observed the power of passion to move my clients, whether they be self-employed business owners, entrepreneurs, solo professionals, corporate managers or corporate executives to achieve more.

Passion: The First Step To Greater Achievement

When you are starting up your own business you have a great deal of passion. Yet, once you have made it over the initial hurdles to where it is not about survival but running a small business, I have seen business owners lose their passion.

How come? Many self-employed business owners love the creation process. They are very passionate about it. On the other hand, the maintenance of the daily routine to insure the continued growth and success of the business is not what they are passionate about.

In the corporate world I find that many people are doing well financially but they are not working well. They feel trapped either by the process or the people around them and they slowly lose their passion. They don’t see a way out. They don’t see a better future.

To have greater achievement and to live beyond the ordinary you must have great desire. Weak desires will bring weak results. Have passion to keep the fire strong for greater achievement.

Passion Increases Your Focus

Think about when you have been very focused on something. When you are focused and intense you are displaying passion. Interestingly, when you want something badly enough, your first step is to bring extra focus to making it a reality.

When you bring passion you are more likely to succeed because you are more focused on having a successful result.

Passion Will Change You

As Zig Ziglar once said, “Don’t be a wandering generality. Be a meaningful specific.” When you have passion and focus it will change you. You will become more dedicated and productive. And people will notice. Very often your passion will have more influence than your personality.

It has been said that “Enthusiasm makes things 1,000 percent better. Bring your passion and enthusiasm and it will increase your influence.

Passion Takes You From The Impossible To The Possible

As Audrey Hepburn once said, “Nothing is impossible; The word itself says I’m possible.” Let passion fire your soul and impossibilities will vanish. As John Maxwell says, “A fire in your heart lifts everything in your life.” That’s why passionate leaders are so effective. A leader with great passion and few skills always outperforms a leader with great skills and no passion.

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Keys To Success: Achieving the Vision

Visualization, of all the keys to success, is the most important.  Thoughts are things.  If you are thinking of starting your own business you have to have that thought.

You have to visualize what that business is.  If you are running your own business you have to have thoughts and visualize how you want it to run.

Keys To Success:  Visualize What Can Be

Whether you are an individual, self-employed business owner, entrepreneur or solo professional the first step to success is that you have to visualize it.  You must create in your mind a vision of what the future will look like.

As Napoleon Hill said in Think And Grow Rich, “What the mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve.”

Without a positive vision of the future it’s difficult for the present to be very exciting.  You can become like a rudderless ship going from one day to the next without any firm direction or purpose.

Keys To Success:  Believe In Your Vision

Now that you have created your vision you are now about to enter the hardest step for many.  In coaching success, I can assure you that nothing happens unless you absolutely believe that you can accomplish your vision.

After all, it is belief that provides the steam for your vision to take you to the success you wish to achieve in the future.  As a personal business coach I have found that the clients with the clearest and best developed vision of the future they desire are the ones who dramatically increase the odds of their success.

With a clear vision of what success will look like it is much easier to provide the enthusiasm that is necessary to sustain your belief.  To increase the odds whether it be for personal growth, small business success or small business growth you must have a strong belief in what you are doing.

If your vision is hazy it is hard to remain excited.  If you aren’t excited it is hard to keep your belief on the level necessary to achieve the outcome you desire.

And here’s one more thing about belief.  For most, they will need others to help them accomplish their vision.  It’s hard to lead yourself and others to a successful outcome if your belief and enthusiasm aren’t strong.

Once again, one of the keys to success is to have a well developed vision of the future.  It helps keep belief and enthusiasm high.

Keys To Success:  Achieving the Vision

A strong belief and enthusiasm are the fuel that will be necessary for you to achieve your vision.  Generally, nothing significant happens without a clear vision supported by belief and enthusiasm.  If your vision is to start your own business or be running a small business successfully, you must have a clear vision.

Once you start on your path to success remember that your original vision will have some alterations along the way.  These alterations are very important.

They are important because they will challenge you to create a variation on how you are going to attain your vision of the future.   Your mind is a muscle and as you continue to refine and enhance your vision of the future this will become easier.

At first, this is difficult.  If you don’t refine and expand your vision of the future then you will become stuck or possibly overwhelmed.  Welcome challenges.  They are the obstacles required to strengthen your belief and to make the changes necessary to achieving your vision of success.

Keys To Success:  Think it. Believe it.  Achieve it.

Visualize the future.  Believe that you can accomplish it.  And set out to achieve it.  And, when you come upon obstacles just go back to these three points.  Refine your vision as you need to.  That will restore your belief.  And with your belief is restored and strengthened you will ready to achieve again on the road to your success.

Keep visualizing the process. Know the process. Repeat the process.  Those are the keys to success.

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Business Keys To Success: Being Approachable

Being approachable over my career has brought me opportunities and contacts I could never have imagined.  I attribute much of the success I have experienced and continue to experience to being approachable.  Obviously there are other important factors.  But being approachable and having the ability to connect are in the top five.

Opportunity for a better business and life constantly pass by you but opportunity won’t stop if you are not approachable.  Someone gets the promotion.  The other person doesn’t.  One person gets the sale.  The other person doesn’t.  One person is told about an opportunity to give them a competitive edge.  The other person never hears about it.

In my personal business coaching practice I encourage every client whether they are a self-employed business owner, entrepreneur, solo professional, corporate manager or executive to be approachable.
There is an interesting law at work here.  The more approachable you are the greater the opportunities personally and professionally will come your way.  I’ve never met a rich hermit.

Are The People In Your Life Approachable?

I am sure you have met people who seem cold and forbidding.  And you’ve met people who treat you like an old friend from day one.  This isn’t an issue with just high profile people.  I can look at my associations in the various organizations I belong to and tell you who is approachable and who is not.
To get a perspective on you and your life you may want to ask this question:  How approachable are the most important people in your life? When you need to ask your boss a question, is it easy or difficult?   When you need to talk to your spouse about a difficult subject, do you expect a dialogue or a fight?

Are You Approachable?

As I said, “I have never found a rich hermit.”  What about you?  Are you approachable?  You may think you are.  And, you may be surprised at how others truly see you.  I have clients who are very approachable on what I call “logic” matters.  Yet, they are distant on “emotional” matters.  And, I have clients who are just the opposite.  They are very approachable emotionally but on the logic they are distant.

Can the people closest to you talk to you about nearly anything?   Here’s a test.  When was the last time someone brought you bad news?  Or when was the last time someone strongly disagreed with your point of view on an issue?  Or confronted you with something you did wrong?  If it has been a while, you may not be a very approachable person.
 
Be Approachable

Some people treat the idea of becoming approachable as frivolous; it’s a nice thing if one can be bothered to cultivate it.  I have three online training courses that can give you insights to being more approachable among other keys and ultimately garnering more of the opportunities life has to offer.

Check out the following:

www.BusinessKeysToSuccess.com
www.WinningPersonalDevelopment.com
www.WinningCharacterTraits.com

Being approachable is a key to your success.  It is a powerful asset to have in your relational toolbox.  In the words of the famous shoe manufacturer, “Just Do It.”  Be approachable.

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Business Keys To Success: Enlarging Others

Enlarging others is an important key to success. As a young employee and ultimately business owner I was striving for success and somehow it was always painful. It turned out that I had the wrong attitude. Instead of enlarging others I was always trying to beat them in an effort to win.

I had played team and individual sports in high school and college and understood the value of team. When I started working after college, initially for large companies and eventually on my own, all that sports training had no impact.

Step 1: Enlarging Yourself

I just kept getting it wrong. In sports I always valued my teammates. Somehow at work I looked at my co-workers as competitors. They were competition for me to overcome in order to rise in the company.

With this totally self-centered attitude I was miserable. Finally I realized that as long as I was trying to beat others or hold them down, that a part of me was down there with them.

At the time, I was working for a large metropolitan newspaper, The Denver Post. I realized that if I was to rise in the company that I had to believe in my teammates, not try to keep them down. This turned out to be a critical step in enlarging myself.

Some people enlarge themselves through more online training, corporate training, business training or business courses. These are all good but there is one thing that is critical to being an enlarger. Learning without application is nothing. And the first person that the learning has to be applied to is you.

So the first step to enlarging others is that I had to enlarge myself.

Enlarging Adds Value To The Team

As I enlarged myself and became more focused on the team and what we supposed to accomplish some great things started to happen.

I was able to have truly meaningful connections with my team members. Instead of viewing them as adversaries or impediments to progress I saw them as human beings trying to do their best. I offered encouragement. I started to receive encouragement in return.

Along with the encouragement I began to know what they liked, disliked and was able to connect with them even better. As I became an enlarger an amazing thing happened. I got promoted. Six months before I thought I was at a dead end.

Enlarging Makes You More Valuable

As I went through this transformation from a team member that detracted from the team to an enlarger I started a process where I became more valuable. I wasn’t doing this just for me personally, but also because it helped others.

Not only was I connecting better which allowed me to communicate and integrate at an improved level, I was making myself better which was making me more valuable.

In my personal business coaching practice I look for opportunities to enlarge not only my clients but how my clients can become enlargers in their companies. I firmly believe that a great deal of small business success in based on the business owner’s ability to be an enlarger.

As a self-employed business owner, entrepreneur, solo professional, corporate executive or individual how are others seeing you? Do they see you as an enlarger? Do you make them better than they are alone through your inspiration and contribution? Do you know what your teammates value?

There are many more pluses to being an enlarger. I learned an important lesson that has stayed with me to this day. Be an enlarger of others. When you are enlarging others the odds are in your favor that they will promote and enlarge you.

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Business Keys To Success: You Are Responsible For Your Attitudes

Life is full of surprises, and the adjustment of our attitudes is a lifelong project. Think about your destiny in business and life. It will never be determined by our complaining spirits or high expectations. In my business coaching practice and in my own life I had to come face to face with my attitudes.

For myself, self-employed business owners, entrepreneurs, solo professionals, corporate managers and all individuals our attitudes are what will determine in large part our destiny.

We Choose The Attitudes We Have Now

And it is an ongoing choice. And it surprises me, the large number of adults who fail to take responsibility for their attitudes. If they are unhappy they may something like, “I got up on the wrong side of the bed.”

If failure begins to repeat itself in their lives they often say, “I was born on the wrong side of the tracks.”

When their lives aren’t progressing while others and their family are still on the rise they may say, “Things would be different if only the birth order was different in my family.”

Whether you are running a small business or starting your own business it is a continual challenge to adjust your attitudes.

Attitudes

In all of the above examples there was one common thread. There is blame for everyone else or circumstances for their problems.

When a marriage fails they believe they married the wrong person. When someone else gets a promotion they wanted, it’s because they are in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Yes, in the words of Rose Ann, Rose Anna Danna, “It’s always something.” It’s always something except for them and their attitude.

Attitudes-A Summary

When John Maxwell talks about attitudes he has a great summary.

The pessimist complains about the wind.

The optimist expects it to change.

The leader adjusts the sails.

To be the leader in your life you must adjust your attitudes. The greatest day in your life and mine is when we take total responsibility for our attitudes. That is the day we truly grow up. When you grow up you choose to be responsible for your attitudes and how you view your circumstances.

To have small business and personal success be the leader in your life. Adjust the sails. With the right attitudes you will create the circumstances to have the business and life you desire.

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