- Gain clarity and focus about what you want.
- Take the action you need to take to reach your personal and/or professional goals with ease and grace.
A while back I heard Chris Flett, an author and dynamic lecturer give a talk that included "The 10 Deadly Sins of Business Development". Being a small business owner myself, they really resonated with me. I made a copy and have it hanging on the bulletin board in my office. I review it quarterly as part of my quarterly business planning (Deadly Sin #5 - Failing to plan). The great thing about Chris is that he not only lists the 10 Deadly Sins, afterwards he gives you a simple action to take to avoid each of them. Not big, hairy, audacious actions, just small steps to take toward achieving your goals. So here they are. I'll be interested to hear what you experience when you read them.
I. Double Dutch. Double Dutch syndrome is waiting for the right time to get into the market; and opportunity; call a prospect.
II. External Excuses. The second of the deadly sins are external excuses. How many of you have heard (or made) the following statements?• The market didn’t understand what I was doing• The client was too stupid• My staff aren’t passionate about what I’m doing• I don’t get any referrals from my partners• I don’t know why people aren’t sending me clients• I’m just waiting for my invoices to get paid• That client ripped me off.
III. Flying Solo. The death of the entrepreneur is solitude. How many of you are working your business solo?
IV. Trying a little bit of everything. How many of you do a little advertising? A little networking? A little referral work? A little newsletter work? Most companies aren’t sure what to use so they do a little bit of everything and find out that very little works. If you do three things on an ongoing basis, they will start to grow opportunities at a surprising rate.
V. Failing to Plan. How many of you plan your business development? Do you sit down weekly/monthly/even yearly and come up with a plan on what you are going to build and how you will build it? Only 10% of US businesses plan on a yearly basis; of that 10%, only 10% write down their plan and follow it. Of that 1% of all US businesses that write down a plan and follow it, their success rate is 98.75%
VI. Head in the Sand. Some entrepreneurs think that the market has upturns and downturns.
VII. Avoiding or not knowing what you do. Henry Ford has a Grade 4 education. He knew very little about financing, marketing, business development, human resources, management, procurement, and many other areas you would think him to be an expert in as he was building FORD. He didn’t need to know everything; he did however need to know people who knew everything and thus he put together his panel of advisors.
VIII. “Good Enough” mindset. Some professionals get to the point where they say, “My business is big enough. I can stop building it now.” WOW! Big, big mistake.
IX. Not asking for what you want. (Be Selfish) In business, in order for you to be happy and not resent what you are doing, you need to make sure your needs are met. How many of you have taken the time to write down what your professional needs are? This is really important to do. When you know what you need, then you can ask for them.
X. Playing small because of money. Many professionals don’t think they have enough money to build their business so they don’t. This becomes a self fulfilling prophecy. You don’t spend money because you don’t think you have any so you don’t build your business which doesn’t bring new business which crunches your cash issue even more.
Tomorrow I (Chris Flett) want you to consider doing the following things:
• Do something that you have been waiting for the ‘right time’ to do.
• Put an elastic band around your wrist and every time you blame something externally, give it a snap. No one is impressed by excuses and it takes away your power to be responsible.
• Look at bringing people into your life so that you stop doing your business all by yourself.
• Choose three business development tools that you will use religiously for the next 90 days.
• Sit down every week and plan what you are going to do to build your business. Make this a practice. Also look to do this yearly with goals in mind so you can track your progress. Remember if you can’t measure it you can’t manage it.
• When things aren’t working, don’t ignore them. Instead, face them head on and deal with them and then put a system in place so you don’t have to deal with it again.
• Find advisors to give your information on parts of your business that you don’t know.
• If you find yourself saying it’s good enough, look at ways to ensure that it will always be good enough by having backup opportunities.
• Put yourself first and be clear on what you want and then ask for it.
• Finally, don’t let money be the deciding factor. Rather than why you can’t do something, look for ways to make it happen. It gives you a chance to be creative.
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