I offered a few suggestions on ways to increase the number of class attendees and each idea was met with reasons why she could not do them. Now I know they work cause I’ve seen it work for other studios. So I just got quiet and changed the subject.

The minute the “but” word comes out I know it’s a business in a Constraint Box. If you’ve ever caught yourself uttering the words “I’d love to grow but [fill in the blank here]” then you probably have one too.

The Constraint Box is when the business owner has a limitation around what they see is possible to generate more sales or make the business more profitable. Often its outside of what they learned when trained for their craft or the idea is so far outside of their comfort zone they can’t see how they could make it work.

It usually goes something like this:

“It isn’t done that way in my industry.”

“I’d have to spend too much money to do it that way.”

“That won’t work — I tried it before.”

“I can’t afford to hire help to get more done.”

“I can’t do that with my license as a XYZ.”

“I don’t know how to do that.”

These statements cause an instant limitation in your view of what’s possible. That limitation shuts off all possibility of achieving the next level of success. You then find yourself struggling for answers, feeling stuck and wondering why everyone else is getting ahead but you aren’t.

Not only does this type of thinking limit your results, it also affects your ability to see the strategies that are RIGHT IN FRONT OF YOU that would work.

Nine years ago I caught myself in a place where I had very little client work and a mounting credit card balance. One of my colleagues suggested I hire a virtual assistant. I instantly said, “ I can’t afford that.”

I started thinking about how ridiculous that Constraint Box of “not being able to afford” what I knew could work was.  I was living in. I knew that if I wanted bigger success I had to be willing to change my thinking and my strategies. I made a decision that I wasn’t willing to live with that constraint anymore.

I decided to ask myself a better question. This is the question I now encourage you to use.

“What would have to happen so it COULD work?”

When you ask yourself this question, your Constraint Box will dissolve rapidly, new possibilities will drop in and options you never saw before will magically reveal themselves to you. All because you asked a better question.

You’ll discover one of three things has to happen:

1. You have to make a new decision.

2. Its time to upgrade your habitual thinking.

3. Its OK to do something outside of your comfort zone.

Your turn. Try it out. Let’s see how your Constraint Box becomes a Possibility Magnet quickly!

Let’s face it, every contractor, virtual assistant, online business manager or other service professional is running a business too. Their job is to make money and deliver the value they promised.

But, life happens and quite often their promise to be amazing turns into a distant memory.

Your launch is delayed by weeks because your contractor (or VA) hasn’t delivered.

Multiple attempts to contact them have gone unanswered (you suspect they’ve been abducted by aliens, or worse, left for Vegas with your money.)

The investment you’ve made in good faith is rapidly becoming a horrible waste of money.

It’s usually not THAT bad but at a bare minimum, if your expectations are not being met, it can feel frustrating.

So how can you salvage a situation where a promised result is turning into a frustrating energy drain?

Here are some tips:

1. Always have a written agreement on what will happen by whom and by what date. Most issues can be eliminated by having clearly defined working agreement to include due dates and deliverables. If your vendor doesn’t supply this, ask for it.
2. Handle delays or quality issues immediately. By accepting delays or issues more than one time you are sending the message that it’s OK! Time to put the brakes on and communicate that your expectations are not being met.
3. Approach the vendor and find out what’s really going on. A helpful way to handle it without thing getting ugly is, “When we agree to work together we discussed X but Y is occurring. I know you are very capable so please help me understand what I can do better to get the results we agreed to.” Often there are misunderstandings, miscommunications or other clients delays that have affected your deliverables. By talking about it the contractor recognizes it’s a problem to you and will regroup quickly if they value your business.
4. Course correct quickly. A common contributing fact is the client missing deadlines or not having all their information sorted out. If you are holding up progress by not delegating properly you’ll need to handle this immediately. Be willing to learn how to be a good client and you’ll reap the benefits from your team member.
5. Cut your losses quickly if the situation does not improve.  Some vendors just don’t have enough organization to deliver excellence. Others may try but you are not a good match. Don’t wait for a frog to become a prince (or princess.) Let them go and find someone who is a better match for your expectations.

Remember, when two or more people come together to achieve a shared goal, there will always be challenges. Everyone is different, which inherently means we all solve problems uniquely. The key to successful delegation and outsourcing is for both parties to be professional.

Would you add anything to this list? Have a challenge you can’t solve? Share it in the comments below.

Need help learning to delegate more profitably so you really feel liberated?

Get my ebook The Power of the Virtual Team. Discover simple ways to find the best people to free you up to do more of what you love. You’ll also get specific insights on how to pick people that will be your mini-me or your “balance.” Grab your copy now!

Even though she made decent money it never really seemed to be enough. All of her colleagues were making way over six figures and seemed to have a luxury lifestyle. As she compared herself to them she kept questioning herself, “I must be doing something wrong!”

Janeen was a DRIVER.

Eric on the other hand was super confused. Every other day he had a new idea that seemed just as good as the others. He couldn’t decide which direction to go so he spent months feeling lost – like he was spinning in circles with very little traction.

Eric had created some success in the past but for some reason once he decided to pursue his passion he just could not find his groove. His lack of momentum had translated to a lack of cash flow. Deeply in debt, Eric was beginning to panic and felt he could not afford to not get each sale opportunity that came in the door. His prospects felt his desperation so his sales were pretty low.

Eric was a STRIVER.

Interestingly enough, they both deeply desired something totally opposite of their current experience. As Eric and Janeen started their business they both wanted to feel alive, powerful, confident, free – they wanted to be THRIVERS.

If you can relate, you are not alone. Over 85% of all entrepreneurs find themselves locked into a pattern that holds them hostage in a business they grow quickly to resent.

To become a THRIVER you have to make an important decision. You have to decide that you will do what’s necessary to THRIVE. Which means that you have to:

1. Look at the mindset, beliefs and attitude you currently hold. Much of our self-abusive patterns come from an old paradigm of “work hard to create success.” I’m not saying you won’t put in effort but when you spread yourself thin over months and years, you’ve gone beyond investing in your success and into a strategy designed to keep you overwhelmed.
2. Implement THRIVE strategies. Simple little tweaks can make a HUGE difference such as focusing on making each product offering at least 70% profitable BEFORE creating more stuff. Or hiring one well-paid super-star helper versus two low-cost, micro-managed overseas assistants that require a ton of your time and energy.
3. Eliminate energy drains. These are the thoughts, activities and areas of your business that drain you. “I can’t afford it” is one of the biggest energy drain thoughts that enter our minds. Tasks that you procrastinate over and over again become confidence derailers. Identify what takes you out of your game and focus on spending 80% of your time doing what makes you feel energized.

Moving from Driver or Striver to Thriver might feel really far away and unobtainable at first. Focus on getting clear on what it would it looks like to THRIVE, what has to change to get there, and just put one small shift into place at a time.

Let’s hear from you now in the comments below…what zone are YOU in?

Want my expert help? Get my FREE CD on How to Find Your Thrive Zone in this month’s Beyond Optimum Performance Club. Each month I cover one small game changing strategy that will have a HUGE impact to your sanity and bottom line. Just cover the $6.95 for shipping and handling and I’ll send you the CD and 8 page color Newsletter and Action Guide right away.

3. The contractor or employee being delegated to does not have the habits and behaviors necessary to sustain growth with the new role.

A heart-breaking moment is when the entrepreneur recognizes that their break-neck pace can not be sustained by someone on their team. Or, when after repeated breakdowns, we finally realize the reason why certain tasks are always late is because the person doing them is not a good time manager or is distracted with multiple priorities and can’t focus well.

The good news is that habits can be changed, if the team member is willing. I’ve found that just like us, our support teams are bombarded with requests, changes and conflicting priorities so creating a new system to handle time management can often resolve the problem. Its important to create a time frame in which the necessary changes must take place, then be willing to end your working relationship if they can’t make the shift. In order to grow you must have a team that can keep up.

Keep in mind – if one person in the equation is not happy, then it’s not a win-win and neither of you will be happy over the long run.

4. The preferences, needs or attitude of the team member are not aligned with the business today.

A client of mine had a major breakthrough in the Build Your Dream Team System when she recognized that she had hired an online business manager (OBM) whose vision was being a well-known internet marketing super-star. When she finally realized that, for the level of growth she was experiencing, she needed full-time contractors dedicated to HER vision, she breathed a huge sigh of relief and let the distracted OBM go.

Another client was struggling with an intern straight out of college who was bright and promising but routinely was confused and overwhelmed by trying to take on more responsibility. After probing through the diagnostics, we uncovered the intern really wanted to be on the road in more of a sales job vs. being an admin type person.

You can’t change someone else’s preferences, needs or attitude – and if their focus is not in alignment with yours, then it may be best to let them go. Using this four step diagnostic tool will help you separate your emotions from the facts. Many of us become friends and grow attached emotionally to our support team (that’s quite natural) but you have to remember – you run a business!

If the team member is not a positive impact to the bottom line, you can’t afford to continue to invest in them. An excellent point made is “If you think hiring professionals is expensive, try hiring amateurs!”

Its our job to have the best talent we can invest in to propel our mission forward!

Have you made any of these hiring mistakes? You are not alone! Feel free to share them in the comments below.

Want a sanity boost? Discover simple, highly effective ways to outsource and delegate profitably with this FREE Webinar.

Hiring other people to help offset your weaknesses is supposed to help you grow, not make you resent having people to delegate and outsource to. Or worse yet, take the tasks back and do them yourself. That’s the definition of epic fail! So what the heck went wrong?

Often times it starts when you are ready to grow. Think about what’s happened in your business over the last few years. You start out, you have a certain goal or mission, and you know you have a certain budget to invest in your growth, so you hire someone who meets your budget and can do a satisfactory job of completing the tasks.

Problem #1 just started: you’ve hired someone to meet your budget instead of the role you are creating.

Then — Woosh! You take off at lightening speed – orders fly in, new programs are created that serve your high-end marketplace, customer service challenges arise more frequently, the level of detail management required has increased and your expectations have escalated to a whole new level.

Problem #2 just happened. As you grew you neglected to communicate with your team on what’s changing.  Did your infrastructure shift to handle the expansion? Did your systems and procedures progress with the increase in demand and quality? Are you introducing new offerings but your team is still producing the old ones?

Well when I’m working with an entrepreneur’s business as their coach, I evaluate many different parts of the process to uncover the real problem. Often it boils down to one of four areas (or a combination there of):

1. The skills and competencies of the team don’t match the role as its evolved.

If you experience a lot of breakdowns, mis-communications, or a regular inability to complete the task on time, and as the saying goes, you may be trying to squeeze blood out of a turnip. You can’t expect someone whose is new to internet marketing to be a whiz at getting savvy squeeze pages up in a day. It’s an unrealistic expectation.

Often when we outsource and delegate tasks in the beginning we hire for the current needs versus hiring someone who has the ability to expand and grow as you do. This issue can be resolved if both parties are willing to identify the gaps and create a plan to increase the team members skills.

ACTION: Educate your team on your new vision and how the role will change in order to achieve new goals. Meet with each team member to decide if they are willing/able to fulfill new role.

2. The systems, procedures and technology necessary to perform at optimum speed are not up to date; which creates tension and frustration for the person responsible.

For three years we knew we had a poor system for managing customer purchases and lead follow-up. But the investment and time it would take to fix the problem kept it on the back burner. This year we knew to make the leap we desired we’d have to bite the bullet and make it happen.

The result is less duplication of effort and more marketing efficiency. Not having the ideal CRM system over the years caused so much frustration, angst and breakdown between my fast-paced team that the cost of NOT upgrading the system became too great.

ACTION: Assess areas of breakdown, frustration or inefficiency. Invite your team to share their insights too. Then make a list of what needs to be upgraded and prioritize based on budget, time and cost. Don’t forget to evaluate the cost to NOT upgrade too.

There are two more Sanity-Saving Outsourcing tips which I”ll share later this week. But before you go…let’s hear how this is providing you insight into how to uplevel your resources for the kind of business you’ve always dreamed of. Share below in the comments – I look forward to reading them.

Need help hiring the right people? It starts with knowing the right tasks to get off your plate. Watch our free webinar at www.entrepreneursecretweapon.com.

Contrast that with a growing pool of people who are stuck, frustrated and constantly overwhelmed in their pursuit of success. Many well-meaning, passionate people have all the right ideas and no shortage of talent – but when it comes to profiting from their great work they feel perpetually trapped causing them to barely get by.

Its like there is a hidden barrier between where they are now and where they want to be. This barrier is their belief system. The struggling entrepreneurs belief system causes them to work way harder than they need to, make poor choices, procrastinate endlessly on important tasks, and stress out about money.

Here are five of the most common belief systems that cause smart, capable, heart-based entrepreneurs to fall short of their potential and feel hopelessly stuck (and miss the opportunity to prosper in their business.)

1. The amount of money available on this planet is limited.

If you believe on some level that there is a limited amount of money that can be accessed then on some level you will hold yourself back from accumulating wealth. Dan Kennedy in his book, “No B.S. Wealth Attraction for Entrepreneurs” refers to this limiting belief as Wealth Inhibition.

Money is energy. Wealth is achieved by directing the flow of energy repeatedly towards the life, impact and dreams you have. An energetic alignment with unlimited wealth potential generates more wealth. But, on the other hand, if you have a belief that acquiring more money will ultimately lead to someone else’s demise, then you will unconsciously hold yourself back. Most of us don’t really want to negatively affect another person so you will inhibit your success by only doing enough to keep yourself from financial ruin.

2. I have to work hard to get ahead.

Ingrained deep inside our culture is the belief that we have to work hard to become successful. From our mid-west roots to the corporate upbringing that many of us started with, sacrificing our life to get more work done is a persistent belief holding many entrepreneurs hostage. The truth is that wealth is created from leverage – not more work.

You may achieve your first level of financial success with investing 100’s of hours a week on the grindstone. But you will not be able to continue to work that hard to achieve your next level of success. When you discover easy ways to leverage your time, money and resources you will see that you can attract 10 times the level of success you have now with a few simple tweaks.

3. Big success changes people for the worst.

We’ve all seen people we know turn into ugly monsters when they start making the big bucks. All of a sudden they are “too good for us” or become so money-hungry they hurt others in their obsession to make more money. But I’ve also seen just as many people do good things with their wealth.

Wealth is only a tool. How you use that tool is not dictated by how much money you have but by your values system. If you have unconsciously made a decision to avoid becoming wealthy so you aren’t “like them” then you are sabotaging your success potential. It’s time to unhook wealth and evil as partners and make a decision to do good things with the wealth that you attract.

4. I can’t be trusted with money.

If you have filed bankruptcy, accumulated significant debt, or took a big financial risk and failed, chances are you decided that you can’t be trusted with money. If you’ve formed this belief then all of your choices will unconsciously be to keep your bank account small. The truth is that you can learn how to be good with money. But if you unconsciously believe you can’t be trusted with it, you will always find ways to make it then lose it – fast!

In my MoneyDNA™ program, I help people dissolve their blocks to creating success while developing strong wealth attraction and management skills. Until you dissolve your sabotaging beliefs you probably won’t want to learn how to be better with money.

5. No one will pay this much for my offerings.

There is a fascinating phenomenon buried deep in our psyche. If we won’t spend money on it, on some level we believe that no one else will either. If you aren’t charging enough for your services you probably haven’t ever been willing to invest the equivalent in yourself. Deep down inside you don’t get how someone would pay what you’ve been unwilling to invest in the past. Then, unwittingly, we decide for others what they are willing to spend. You immediately discount or offer a lower price without ever giving the prospect a chance to say yes to your full fee.

You have basically decided for your prospect what they are willing to pay – based on your limited consciousness.

Here’s the good news. All of these beliefs are simply a limiting decision you made that can be reversed. In order for you to prosper and achieve great things beyond what you ever thought was possible you’ll need to make three new decisions:

1. You deserve to have huge success doing what you love most. You just have to be willing to do what works and stop doing what doesn’t.

2. Your ideal prospects can and will pay big money to have their needs met (especially if it can happen fast.) You just have to know who they really are and how to align your offerings with their search.

3. Money is just a tool to make things happen. The more money you learn to attract the faster you can make a bigger impact on this planet.

I hope you’ll join me and the thousands of entrepreneurs who are ready to grow beyond their wildest dreams and shift out of those old beliefs into ones that will support you in achieving unlimited impact, wealth and success. If you are in, say so in the comments below!

It’s almost like you can’t turn off that part of you that continually generates new concepts. When you sit down to create something new time and space evaporates – hours later you look up and realize you haven’t eaten for hours.

Creative entrepreneurs thrive in the generation of new ideas, products and programs. It’s your life blood. The problem isn’t getting a vision of what you want…its sticking with it till its done.

And done doesn’t mean till its in the wrapper ready to ship. It means till you’ve maximized your profits and impact with your idea.

It’s the difference between being a starter and being a finisher.

Starters…

• Are pioneers and innovators who many think are “crazy”
• Can see the big picture vision (but lack the steps between today and the big vision)
• Tend to move at the speed of light
• Get things started fast
• Often over-stretch their commitments with a unrealistic idea of time
• Rapidly move from today’s hundred ideas to tomorrow’s next hundred ideas (and expect everyone else to keep up.)

Finishers…

• Love taking an idea and making it real
• Excel at getting things done
• Have an excellent grasp at prioritization and time management
• See the steps and can reverse engineer any big vision

Now if you are lucky you are both a starter and a finisher – but that’s rare! The key for creative “starters” is to align with someone who can help them get things done. Otherwise eventually their confidence erodes with a trail of half-baked ideas that never make any money.

If you are a finisher it’s tough for you to get started. A coach can be helpful for you to flush out your ideas or partner up with a big thinker that allows you to use your real genius – getting things done!

Which are you – a starter or a finisher? Let’s see if we can hook up some starters and finishers by sharing what style you are in the comments below.

Simply put by Vaynerchuk, by pushing our information out over and over again until someone eventually buys we miss the real value of social media. Social media is a powerful platform to UNDERSTAND what your prospect or client is thinking about all day long.

Here is where the game changing element comes in. If marketers would stop long enough to listen to what their prospects and clients are focused on in their own life, your engagement with them could knock their socks off!

Here are three very simple yet extraordinary ways you could transform the way your clients experience you – and up your sales, profits and rave factor in the process.

Humanize Your Brand.

The biggest mistake made is focusing all of your marketing efforts to tell people how great you are. A cleverly designed RT (retweet on Twitter) to share what a client said about you is still marketing. Don’t let all your interactions be selling. Pre-programing clever quotes and thoughts of the day are still…marketing. One-way transmission without any engagement is missing the boat.

We have so many tools today to provide a humane experience to our community. Be willing to invest in people to respond to their emails, blog comments and social media post. Having a humanized business is key to making people want to do business with you.

Slow Down and Listen

With Twitter and Facebook that’s easy! We have invaluable market research data at the tip of our fingers. Think about this: your clients and prospects spend all day long telling you EXACTLY what’s on their mind through their social media posts.

Vaynerchuk shared that he has invested a significant amount of resources in two “listening” strategies:

1. Following his customers on Twitter and Facebook. By following them and tracking what they are talking about, he is able to build a stronger loyalty base. He will often send a surprise gift based specifically on a desire they talk about on Twitter. Now, not only are they surprised they received a gift but they are baffled by how a wine company knows what they are passionate about! Game changer? I think so.
2. Using Twitter Streams to track comments on keywords like “wine.” Imagine that you stumble across a Twitter user who is talking about the problem YOU are having. You engage with them, say hi, maybe send them a resource THEN send them one of YOUR books with a note to say, “I hope this gives you some answers.” Even better, sent them flowers or even a card to say “I hope your day got better.” Do you think you would stand out? Create a loyal follower? Maybe even a new customer? Absolutely.

 Be The One To Call

Before email and internet, people used the telephone to conduct most of their business communication. In today’s world of fast-paced success, entrepreneurs over look the game changers that can make you stand out from the crowd. It’s time to go back to what works – be willing to pick up the phone and engage with your client.

Call new clients and thank them for their business. This isn’t a revolutionary idea…but very few people really do it.

Call people who leave your business. Do not try to get them back but simply just CALL them. Vaynerchuck revealed that over 40% of the people received a call from his staff to thank them for their business WHEN THEY UNSUBSCRIBED FROM THEIR LIST actually came back and bought more.

I love this quote from Gary Vee (as his fans call him): “As the world goes all Jetson’s the businesses that act like the Flintstone’s are actually succeeding.”

Be willing to change the game and really engage with people.

Resonate with an idea in this post? Thinks its crazy? Wish more people really did engage? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

In the show a billionaire, played by Andrew McCarthy, is courting a famous New York City clothing designer. He has his assistant call up the woman to ask for a date. He then has his assistant arrange the car service to pick up his date then pick him up on the way to the restaurant. As he leaves his home office to meet his date, his assistant goes out to the car with a bottle of champagne and two glasses.

The date, who is a bit miffed at this seemingly impersonal way to date a woman, says to the billionaire, “Why would you have your assistant call me to arrange our date?”

The billionaire says, “I’m worth over $5,000/minute. I don’t do anything I don’t have to do myself. If you had turned me down it could have cost me $25,000.”

Now granted this is a television show and a much exaggerated example but the point is crucial. Billionaires just think drastically different about their time than most people.

Whether your goal is to consistently generate income beyond six figures or to have more time to enjoy your life, what you spend your time on is crucial. You can’t allow yourself to do the things that someone else can do faster, cheaper or better than you. It’s literally a loss to the business when you lose the opportunity to make money by focusing on low payoff tasks.  Why would we do anything that would cause us to lose money?

Entrepreneurs waste countless opportunities to generate income every day. From managing thousands of emails, surfing the internet researching, to building their websites and managing their own projects, anything we do that is not “high payoff” is something we should delegate or automate!

This week reflect on what are you doing that you could hand off to someone who could do it better, faster or cheaper. Make a commitment to make a list of these items and get them off your plate quickly.

Here are a few ideas of what you could hand off or automate from my 101 Ways to Triple your Income and Time Off ebook: 

1. Follow up phone calls (time is wasted determining what the person really wants.)
2. Book your travel (create the right system and your assistant can do this for you.)
3. Sending out email broadcasts (oy all the formatting and testing is a waste of your time.)
4. Updating your bookkeeping system with recent transactions (routine activities are best done by others.)
5. Managing multiple email requests (many of these requests can be handled by your assistant.)
6. Coordinating speaking materials (systemize your material and your assistant can handle for you.)
7. Scheduling appointments (think of all the back and forth emails you’ll save)

As Timothy Ferriss in the 4 Hour Work Week pointed out – you have bigger fish to fry! Its time to get you liberated from the grind and back to doing what you need to do to grow faster.

What have you delegated or automated that has been a boost to your bottom line? What do you WISH you could get off your plate so you have more time? Share your thoughts below in the comments.

The problem is that most of us don’t have the time to do it all. So how do we stay focused in a world of overwhelming distractions?

Here are my Top 5 Tips for Fast-Paced Entrepreneurs to Stay Focused

1.  Have a Compelling Why

Have you ever noticed how much more driven you feel when you have a fire in your belly? That passion and excitement translates to a desire to make things happen – quickly! When you want something big, something that is so important to you, you will do anything.

The problem for most entrepreneurs is we lose the connection to the bigger why and just focus on the day-to-day minutia. Which usually isn’t all that fun. Stay connected to your compelling why by having a vision board or reading your vision statements. Get connected to a mastermind group or work with a coach to help you keep that fire alive! When you remember why you started your business in the first place things usually fall into perspective and you will make better choices for your time.

2. Know Your Priorities

This may seem oversimplified but I guarantee you that if you are not staying focused then you are losing sight of your priorities. Every day I review my month and week plan and get crystal-clear about what has to get done to achieve my goals. I use my “Top 3 High Payoff Activity” post-it notes (you get these when you invest in one of our self-study programs) to get clear about what must get done that day.

If I get off course, which I might, then I review my priorities and ask myself, “Is doing this task right now going to help me accomplish my priorities today?”

Now some people don’t even know what should be a priority. This was a big deal for a client of mine named Jason. Jason would often find himself pursuing tasks for the non-profit role, leaving his income producing business alone for weeks at a time. I helped Jason create a plan to achieve his revenue goals and highlighted his high-payoff priorities. Then we created a weekly calendar where he would focus on those activities.

3. Eliminate Distractions

A phone call comes in from your buddy. Checking your emails throughout the day. Getting sucked into the Twitter or Facebook black hole where you resurface three hours later wondering what happened. Not to mention the hundreds of bright shiny objects arriving in your inbox every day.

Distractions come in all shapes and sizes – it’s your job to eliminate them. Whether you put on a “Do Not Disturb” sign on your door or turn off your email and only check it twice a day, getting control of your time is essential to your ability to focus.

4. Get a System

Recreating the wheel every time you start a routine activity is a huge deterrent to getting your goals achieved quickly. In my experience there is no faster way to get derailed and lose your focus than when you have to figure out WHAT to do over and over again.

A clearly defined system will help you achieve your lifestyle and revenue goals faster. It’s about knowing what to do in what order to eliminate mistakes.

Two systems that entrepreneurs often struggle with for years, making countless mistakes is launching their next “big idea” and developing a reliable support team. Launching a new idea gets rushed and you forget to focus on even the most obvious steps that lead to more profitability. In a system like the Big Idea Incubator, a business owner of any level will be reminded to get clarity on why, understand what their marketplace really needs as well as take the time to plan the launch out effectively.

Hiring and delegating is also a sore spot – the rush to get help turns off our “logic brain” and we hire the first person that sounds great. That’s why our Hiring Checklist in the Build Your Dream Team program is a sanity-saving resource!

5. Make Time to Gain Time

Do you find yourself neglecting “working on the business” because you are so busy  “working in the business?” A common trap that has to be handled if you want to achieve the bigger pay off.

The trick is that spending an hour a week planning will actually save you 5 – 10 hours a week in unnecessary tasks. For instance, you go to Home Depot with the idea you want to put up shelves. You look at the shelves, pick the ones you want, and head home. You get home and realize they won’t fit, you don’t have any screws and now you have to go back.

If you had measured first and mapped out a plan, you would have known what size shelves to get and remembered the screws. 15 minutes would have saved you 90 minutes of wasted time.

Where do you lose YOUR focus? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below.