When your thoughts are in a knot and your mind feels chaotic, it is inevitable that your business will follow down that same path. Tony Robbins uses the 80/20 rule when discussing success, stating that success consists 80% of psychology and 20% of mechanics. Therefore the root of a start up business is fundamentally the psychology and skills of the leader. A noteworthy understanding that is commonly overlooked by business owners is that your business is yourself. With this in mind, it becomes apparent that if you can change your own mindset and well-being, you can change your business.
This is the first step in building a better business… Mastery. This step involves taking full control of the chaos going on in your mind and business. Within this step, there are four substantial elements. Believe it or not, but having these four simple elements in place will avoid future disasters and will get your business headed in the direction you want it to go.
As business coaches, we see a start up business go from chaos to control within a few months. The difference it makes, not only in their business but their life and well being, is truly magical. Any mastery gaps within a business can be identified during an initial analysis of a business and fixed usually within a month of business coaching with us.
Over the next couple months, I will be posting blogs about each of the mastery elements. Here is a quick summary on each element to begin your process of achieving mastery to help you in your business…
Destination Mastery
This component is all about getting clear on where you want to go. In my next blog, you will notice a strong correlation between those who have a written goal and those who succeed. Their secret is that they start with the end in mind which, simply put, is setting goals. Actually… not only setting goals, but also writing them down.
Money Mastery
Most would believe that this element is all about making lots of money. More importantly in this stage of a business’ evolution, money mastery is about knowing where your money comes from and where it’s going. You will be surprised to learn how easy it is to have control of your money. It takes me a whole 10 minutes a week to have complete money mastery… Yep, you read that right. 10 minutes out of your 10,080 minute week. Since I began taking 10 minutes out of my Monday morning to update my cash flow forecast, I have had a clear view at all times of the financial outlook for my business. Combined with a monthly Profit & Loss statement, clarity on my Break-even point and good invoicing processes, this gives me complete control over my business’ money!
Delivery Mastery
Whether you like it or not, you have no business without your customers. With this in mind, it would make the most sense to excel in your customer service in order to keep your customers happy and coming, right? Unfortunately, this is not always the case… but it should be! In his book ‘The Absolutely Critical Non-Essentials’, Dr Paddi Lund stresses that all business owners should systemize the ‘little things’ in their business. By doing the ‘little things’ to deliver an incredible experience for his customers, Lund created one of the most talked about customer service experiences in the world. And what did that give him, you ask? Raving fans.
Time Mastery
The most common excuse used in today’s business world is “I have no time” or “I am too busy.” I am here to tell you that you most definitely do have time and that it should be planned and managed in a way where 60% of your time should be spent working on tasks that are important, but not urgent. These are the tasks that build a great business. Take out 10-12 minutes to plan your day, and I guarantee that this small investment of time will save you up to two hours in wasted time and unproductiveness throughout the day.
Once these steps are in place, a start up business can really begin to shine and start using growth strategies to take it to the next level.
Your business will not grow unless you grow as a person. If you want to lead others, you must lead yourself first.
P.S. Whenever you are ready…
- Get the ‘finish your business’ checklist: The complete step-by-step recipe to have all the ingredients in place to actually finish your business. That means it works without you and gives you a great life. Click here.
- Join and connect with other entrepreneurs that are building great businesses: It’s our Facebook community where smart business owners are learning to get more customers, build winning teams and put their businesses on autopilot. Join now.
- Apply to become a member of BGB: If you would like to be considered for membership and go from working in your business to working on your business… send us a message and put ‘membership’ in the subject line… tell us a little about your business and what you’d like to work on together, and we’ll get you all the details.