Dynamic growth in an organization works like atomic energy.

It takes only a MINUTE particle to create a potent process, a chain reaction that releases an enormous amount of energy. The momentum is dramatic and unstoppable!  But guess what! Your business works in the same way.

If little problems are left unsolved it can create an explosive chain reaction that can literally destroy the business.  On the other hand, you can make the exact same principle work for you in a dynamic, productive and positive way. Splitting an atom can create a nuclear blast, or a nuclear reactor that provides millions with electricity. The SAME force is at work.

One SMALL strategic change — even a slight improvement– when applied consistently, can create a powerful chain reaction that releases energy, time and money — for you to use however you want.

Remember…

• Always begin with small changes and then test for results.
• The only way to know if your improvements are really working is to analyze actual results. Not feelings, but real numbers. And those results need to be compared against something. Have before AND after numbers to compare.
• Don’t fall in love with your own ideas — ‘Feelings’ and ‘beliefs’ about what works, are often proved wrong when you look at the facts. Keep good records so you can assess what really works and what does not
• If you make a lot of improvements at the same time and look at overall results, how will you know which of those changes are actually working? Make one change at a time, check the results before moving on to the next thing.

What small change can you make in your business this week that will help catapult you to success in 2010? Leave me your thoughts below!

Do you often feel like you don’t have enough time to spend on marketing activities? Are you lost as to where to start?  Here are 5 quick tips to help you leverage your marketing efforts.

1. Focus your efforts on people who are already predisposed to buy from you instead of wasting your time on long shots.
2. Wherever possible, automate your regular client/ prospect contact. You can use email delivery, teleconferences, postcard follow-up, robo-calling (recommended for reminders or announcements — not for hard sales pitches) and phone texting. When necessary, be sure to get their permission before you start contacting them in these unusual new ways. Not sure you need their permission? Ask for it anyway.
3. If you are going to leverage your marketing dollars into untested media, proceed with caution. Find strategies such as Google Adwords that allow you to measure and test different approaches, while putting a cap on your outlays.
4. If your competitors are retreating, this is a great time to gain market share. Work on building relationships and keep in mind it is often quicker, easier and more cost effective to “buy” business than to build it. Can you buy up or buy out competition?
5. Get ferocious about gaining visibility. Position yourself as an expert in a specific area in your field. Offer yourself as a speaker to clubs and organizations in your target market. Seek opportunities to be a guest on radio or television. Use press releases and press announcements to highlight your expertise. Sign up for Free Speaker Bureau
   

Think you can easily implement some of these?  If you have any questions or comments please leave them below!

Current economic times call for creative thinking.  To help get your juices flowing, here are 8 questions to ask yourself about your current product and service offerings.  Taking 15-20 minutes to answer these questions might help you come up with a new 5, 6 maybe even 7-figure income stream.

1. Can you offer a budget-type option?
2. Can you use letters instead of expensive brochures? (Usually they are more effective anyway!)
3. Can you bundle services to create better value?
4. Can you make your product or service more tangible?
5. Instead of lowering prices, can you offer payment plans?
6. For what tangible reasons should your customers spend money with you NOW? Are those reasons stated succinctly and clearly in your marketing material
7. Who can help you? Get yourself into a good Mastermind group made up of rainmakers in different industries and/or create a board of advisors or people you admire who can become your advocates. As much as you possibly can, be their advocates as well.
8. Who targets your niche market and offers complementary services? Make a regular habit of networking with people who offer complementary services. Doing this continually will keep you aware of opportunities in your field AND alert you to opportunities you can share with others in your network.

Did that spark any creative ideas? Leave me your thoughts below.

DESPERATE FOR MORE SALES RIGHT NOW?

If you are desperate for more sales right now, here is a quick strategy to generate business.

Get a list of all the people that have done business with you in the past two years. Rank them in order with your best customers at the top of the list. Call the top 20% (or if you don’t have very many people on the list – call everybody!) and use this client interview:

The Client Interview

A quick fail-safe strategy for generating business – guaranteed. Select the kinds of clients you would like to clone and conduct a five to ten minute client interview.

The Set Up

You can set the tone for your interview with something like this:

“We are working very hard to grow our business this year and one of our goals is getting more customers/clients like you. Naturally we would really value your input and I wonder if you would mind taking five minutes to answer a few questions?”

Dos and don’t s

Give people time to answer the questions thoughtfully – don’t jump in and put words into their mouths. For best results, use the questions exactly as written:

1. Why did you decide to start doing business with me/us? (This is an important question that reinforces your customer’s decision to work with you.)
2. What do you feel are the strong points of my/our business/practice/service? (This question serves two purposes: it reinforces your strengths in the client’s mind and it elicits why people buy from you. You need to make sure you are communicating these strengths to all your clients and prospects)
3. How do you describe my/our practice or services to your (associates, co-workers, friends or acquaintances)? Note their answer, and then add your own description. Have a one sentence statement ready – one that is concise, easy to say (and repeat!) and is client-focused. Let them know how you describe your business.  (I will cover this specifically in another blog in a few weeks)
4. What changes would you recommend? This gives your customers an opportunity to air their complaints or concerns. And it gives you the opportunity to resolve problems before they threaten your business.
5. Either or both:
   a.  Which of these products/ services would you like to know more about? (Give them a short list of products or services you provide that they have not yet bought from you.)
   b.  What additional services or products would you like us to offer?
6. If you were not doing business with me, with whom would you be doing business? (You need to know who your competitors are so you can consistently communicate your strengths and give reasons why you are the best choice.)
7. Why is that?
8. What things should I be doing to attract more clients like you? (In addition to getting good ideas, customers will often come up with ways they can help you. You will also plant a referral seed in their mind with this question.)
9. Is there anything else I need to do for you to feel comfortable about introducing me to your (choose appropriate combination: advisors, vendors, competitors, clients, friends or family members) who could benefit from our services?
   a. If they are comfortable about introducing you, ask “Is there anyone you know that I should be speaking to now?”
   b. If they have indicated that they are not comfortable introducing you, ask if they would be comfortable introducing you once you’ve handled their concerns about referring you. After you correct the problem(s) let them know personally that you have done so, then ask questions 9 and 9a again.

You will be amazed at how quickly these questions will generate referrals and create new business from existing customers. It also gives you invaluable feedback for improving your business process and your marketing efforts.

To Your Success,

Mandy Bass

Priority Living Systems

Last week I suggested you use the Daily Goal enforcer questions to facilitate your progress:

In the morning ask yourself “what are three things I can do today to get to my optimistic monthly income goal of $ ___” (fill in your big, hairy  number.)

Next identify three specific activities that you can quantify. So for example you may answer “ Call four centers of influence, spend 20 minutes talking my coach about customer retention, register for the sales seminar at a cost of $797.” Everything should be quantified by time, quantity or dollar value.

Make your answers manageable activities, things you can accomplish five, ten or twenty minutes, leaving plenty of room in the day to do your normal stuff.  Make an appointment with yourself to budget the time necessary to complete these actions. Or better yet, do them immediately.

In the evening ask yourself “what did I do today to get to my optimistic monthly income goal of $ ___ .

The important thing you need to realize about this is that it is the asking of the question that will get you the results because it orients your brain in the direction you want to go. So even if you don’t complete the tasks you intended – you still need to ask the question. It’s the consistent focus question that directs your activity in the long run.

Questions have great power.

So what are you doing today to get to your bold, audacious, hairy income goals?

To Your Success,

Mandy Bass

Priority Living Systems

There are three fool-proof, proven strategies to raise your productivity, dramatically increase your income and zap away stress. Here is one:

The Daily Audacious Goal Enforcer

This is a search and rescue technique that gets you to find and take small, consistent, simple, baby steps toward big, hairy, courageous goals. The strategy consists of two questions: One you ask yourself in the morning. The other you ask yourself at the end of the day.

Obviously if you keep moving a specific direction, it is simply a matter of time before you get there. But first you have to decide where you want to go or what that optimistic income goal is for you.  Use your imagination. Think about what is it going to take to get you really excited –to give you the lifestyle you want and deserve?

Simplify your goal into a monthly number instead of an annual figure.

This is important because it:

1. Reduces the tendency to procrastinate
2. Provides a motivating scorecard to “see” improvement
3. Forms your goal into a smaller chunk that your psyche can more easily digest

Now for the questions:

You know how your computer has a search and find capability? That is because computers are modeled after the human brain. If you need a specific piece of information or an idea that you have somewhere on your hard drive – but you don’t know where it is? You ask your computer to do a search and it will run through you’re your programs and files to come up with the information. If you can narrow the search because you remember the type of document or the approximate date your created it, that makes it even easier for you to find.
Your brain is obviously a lot more sophisticated than your PC – and it knows how to run all kinds processes that you are not consciously aware – things that you don’t consciously know how to do – such as running the electrical impulses in your nervous system, regulating your metabolism, equalizing your temperature.  Just like your PC goes to work to find you answers your brain will too — but only if you ask it. And the more specific the question is the easier it is to find what you are looking for.

You may not always come up with the answers right away. But if you ask yourself the right questions consistently, your brain will automatically find the answers.

• Question 1 -In the morning ask yourself “what are three things I can do today to get to my optimistic monthly income goal of $ ___ “  (fill in your big, hairy  number.)
• Questions 2- At the end of the day ask yourself: “What did I do to get to my optimistic monthly income goal of $ ___ “  (fill in your big, hairy  number.)

To Your Success,

Mandy Bass

Priority Living Systems

The Buddha once told his followers that everything that they saw before them was dust. Histories are written in dust, entire civilizations are buried in dust. And whether it is gold dust, saw dust or the film that clouds much of our thinking, we must give some kind of attention to it.

A cluttered mind creates a sense of chaos and confusion.

Your physical environment has the same capacity. The weekly routine removes the clutter from your mind and your physical environment so you can stay relaxed, focused and in control.

Specifically you will:

1. Reduce the need for crises management because important things will no longer slip through the cracks
2. Sleep better because instead of your brain waking you up at 2AM to remind you to do something, you will have a system you can trust to remind you
3. Capture opportunities you may have forgotten about before
4. Spend less time looking for things and more time completing projects
5. Stay focused on your goals
6. Improve your follow through and reliability factor
7. You will make more, stress less and work smarter

Here is the 10 Step Routine to Stay-As-Calm-As-A-Zen-Monk-Even-Amidst-A-Whirl-of-Chaos.

To Your Success,

Mandy Bass

Priority Living Systems

Here’s a little secret I’ll tell you about my coaching practice…

Often the first thing I do with clients is help them master their Focus.

Why?

Because you can’t improve what you don’t control.

How would it feel to drive your car on the highway and then – poof – all of a sudden your car had no steering
wheel?

That would be stressful and overwhelming.

Does your workday ever feel that way?

Maybe you are buried in email, or have a to-do list that is constantly growing longer?

Maybe your attention scatters when you try to concentrate?

You already know what this is costing you. The lost income, the lost sleep,
the frayed nerves.

Mastering focus means getting your steering wheel back.

I had a conversation with Dr. Valerie Young about this very topic, and I’ve posted it on my site for you.

Bring a pen and paper, this one is going to help you make some useful
changes.

SOME of what you will learn on this call…

• How to stay focused on what is important.
• How to end interruptions
• The difference between “big verb” and “small verb” activities, and why this makes a HUGE difference in your effectiveness and income.
• How projects REALLY get done. (Hint: Forget to-do lists.)
• How to complete things faster
• How to decide the best use of your time.
• Why my coaching clients make more money when I show them how to create Focus days
• Buried in paper or email? How to get out from underneath.
• What to do when you feel like a workaholic with no personal life. (This one is so simple you will be amazed.)
• Waking up in the middle of the night to catch up on work? You’re not alone. Find out what high-performance
  people do to prevent this.
• Putting your to-do’s on your calendar? Why this is keeping you stressed and unproductive, and what to do instead.
• How to deal with the “time-thieves” in your life. Some strategies you can use to set and KEEP boundaries.   – Much more

Here’s a link where you can go and listen in on this call.

Dr. Young Discusses Power of Focus
For self-employed professionals and entrepreneurs, nothing is more important than focus.

To Your Success,

Mandy Bass
Priority Living Systems

The pareto priciple says 80% of your work is done in 20% of your time.

And my clients agree.

What if you could increase your productive time from 20% to 30%?

What could that 10% mean to you?

What if that 10% could get you a fifty percent increase in income?  Would you do it?

A client who is a financial services professional increased his income by over fifty percent in one year. This is how he did it:

In the prior year he made $99,438. Of the forty hours he worked a week, he spent 8 hours focused on income generation. He allocated one-and- a -half hours a day, four days a week to being on the phone calling clients and prospects with the specific intention of generating business.  The next year, he increased his focus time to 2 hours on all four days.   And despite the fact that the stock market was down the next year, he increased his income by $51,347 that’s more than a fifty percent increase in just one year.

He did not work any more hours than he had the year before. In fact he took three vacations that year. All he did was add thirty minutes a days four days a week to focused income generating activity.

With approximately half of his additional profits he hired an assistant to do the busy work that he was lousy at any way. He now plays golf one day a week and he still has more time for focused activity which will mean even greater income potential in the years to come.

I recommend you take a close look on how you have been spending your time right now. If the Pareto principle applies to you as it does to most people, I suggest you consider increasing your focus time. If you currently spend 20% of a forty hour work week or 8 hours on focused income generating activity, for example, work on increasing that to additional 10% of your time. The extra fours hours should translate into a fifty percent increase in income.

Put conscious thought into how you spend your moments so that you can leverage your time and accomplish your most important goals.

To Your Success,

Mandy Bass

Priority Living Systems

This weekly routine is simply a time for you to reset, clean up, review and get organized. Think of it as restarting your computer to get all your systems operating the way they should.

Step one: Clean Sweep.

Most of the stuff that you keep in your workspace has probably been put there to remind you to do something.  But they are not very effective. The problem is that after a while your conscious mind simply stops noticing them and consequently you forget to follow through on the request of a prospect —or an important detail that would have taken two minutes to resolve, goes unattended and a client is lost. Or the great contact you unexpectedly met is forgotten.
So instead of a center of influence you now have a business card of an acquaintance you never called.
The solution?  A proper system for handling the stuff that clutters physical space and the stuff that clutters your thinking.
Begin by collecting everything:  scraps of paper, business cards, receipts, and miscellaneous paper. Put it all in a basket to process.

Step 2: Process Your Notes

Review meeting notes, and miscellaneous scribbles on notebook paper, scratch pads etc.
Add action items to your action list.  Categorize lists or folders into “Next actions (single step items you can complete), Projects (multiple action items) waiting-for’s,  and “Someday Maybe’s”etc. as appropriate. For more information on this system, I suggest you read David Allen’s book “Getting Things Done.
”
Step Three: Look Back

Look at your calendar from the previous week to bring to light action items,  reference data and other reminders and transfer them into your system

Step Four: Look Forward

Look to see what is coming up in your Calendar – long and short term. What actions need to be added to your list?

Step Five: Look inside (aka, Mental Download)

Most people rely much too heavily on their own memories for all the things they want and need to do. This clutters your brain, inhibits right brain functioning (creativity and decision-making) and wakes you up at 2AM to remind you to do things.
The only way to stop those memory alarms from going off and interrupting your focus or your sleep is to have effective work flow systems in place.
When you have effective systems in place that are you are comfortable with, your brain power can be totally focused on ways to finding solutions to problems and seeking out strategies and tactics that will help you reach your goals.
Take ten, fifteen or twenty minutes a week to get everything out of your mind and onto paper.

Step Six:  Look Right

Go over your goal oriented lists — business plan, strategic objectives, projects etc. Evaluate status of projects, goals and outcomes, one by one, ensuring that you have identified at least one action item on each that you have on your action list.

Step Seven: Look Left

Revisit “Next Action” list(s) & other frequently used folders or lists and mark off completed actions. Note further actions steps left to do.

Step Eight: Look for Efficiencies

Are you making lists of the same things over and over again? If so create checklists and add to your system.

Step Nine: Look at what you are doing

Review Pending & Support Files – Browse through all work-in-progress support material to trigger new actions/completions/waiting for’s.

Step Ten: Get in the flow

Imagine what could happen if you unleashed your full potential. Allow yourself to be creative, courageous and resourceful. Think about possibilities.

To Your Success,

Mandy Bass

Priority Living Systems