After the last two weeks of discussions with clients, other experts and reviewing hundreds of posts and email blasts about the economy, tapping into some quick cash flow ideas may likely benefit everyone I know. From client contracts getting cancelled to the banks pulling credit lines, very few business owners seem to be immune during this time.

True the economy is uncertain and most people are evaluating their buying opportunities even closer. But after attending the last Glazer-Kennedy Info Summit and watching 900+ attendees drop hundreds of thousands of dollars, I know that something is working for some business owners.

So if you are experiencing a cash flow crunch, what can you learn from the affluent bunch? We could go right to the mindset and say that they have wealth consciousness. But that’s just one part of it. The bigger part of it is the actions they take. It’s the choices they make. It’s the strategy of wealth building that they use. You can’t have the proper actions without the right mindset. So it’s like having two halves to make the whole picture.

I’m going to share with you three real quick fixes and three more lasting remedies that will keep you above the problem forever.

Let’s start with quick fixes.

1.  Look for the low-hanging fruit.
Low-hanging fruit are products, seminars, teleclasses, services that you can quickly and easily get in front of your target audience. Now this works best if you already have a list or have the ability to tap into someone else’s list or community quickly. The idea is to leverage your time, money and energy best by focusing on what’s already done or could be done quickly. For instance, if you have a consulting package, assessment or private coaching package, you could promote a few openings to your list and attract clients that are not only willing to pay you what you’re worth but who are the perfect fit for you and your business and who will receive tremendous value from the service and expertise you provide.

2.  Up your promotions of current offerings.
One of the biggest problems people face is not marketing to their community enough. I know you think you are offending or barraging people but the truth is…reminding people what you offer and how they can purchase it is how you make money. I used to get really worried about over-promoting to my list and would only send ONE EMAIL A MONTH! Can you believe that? When I began to communicate and invite people to take action more regularly my income went up about 7 times. And by the way, if your readers are complaining then they probably aren’t your target audience anyway.

3.  Pick up the phone.
This is something that doesn’t occur to most of us. My friend Martin Howey makes between $20k and $80k by picking up the phone and conversing live with his prospects. Sometimes what the prospect needs is the ability to feel connected to you, create rapport and trust, and have a conversation that allows them to overcome their obstacles. It’s a win-win-win. They need you, you need the cash, everyone wins.

So now that we have some quick fixes let’s look at a few more foundational tips to help make this problem go away – you know – so you don’t have to do the quick fixes.

4.  Reposition current offerings to different niches.
If your client base is significantly affected by the economy or you are susceptible to the ebbs and flows of your current target industry then you may want to reconsider your niche. Perhaps you are focusing in on a niche that is too volatile or too financially challenged. Maybe you need to take your current programs and position them to other niches so you are diversified. For instance, if you have a program that you currently offer to mortgage lenders or real estate agents you may consider repositioning your expertise to focus on the foreclosure industry.

5.  Think long term vs. short term
Often we make decisions today for cash that are not in alignment with our long term desired outcomes. And even worse, you probably don’t even have a long-term strategic marketing plan so every few weeks you think to yourself, “what could I do to make some money now?” Part of why some people are unaffected by the market is because they have a bigger plan. They plan long term and course-correct in the day-to day decisions.

6.  Strengthen your marketing systems
Another tip to help you keep consistent cash flow is to continually feed your marketing system. When I worked for Motorola, we always knew how many clients we had at each level of the decision “pipeline.” We continually fed the pipeline with our most reliable marketing strategies so new prospects were always entering in. If you don’t have consistent marketing activities that take place without you having to lift a finger, then this is a major part of your current cash flow problem.

I’d highly recommend you start with the quick fixes just to get yourself back up and running. Then within the next 30 days, start implementing the lasting cash flow fixes. Put a time in your calendar now – and don’t give me any of that crap about not having time. If you don’t fix this cash flow problem in a more lasting way you’ll never have time – you’ll be back in a job again!

I’d love to hear what strategy (or strategies) you put into place. Be sure to go to http://www.successconnections.com/articles/ and share what works for you!

About the Coach:

Melanie Benson Strick, The Million Dollar Lifestyle Business Coach, teaches entrepreneurs how to stop feeling overwhelmed so they can create more money, more freedom and more prestige.

Get the Entrepreneur’s Secret Weapon to revolutionize your results and get on the fast-track to a freedom based business at www.thepowerofthevirtualteam.com

A few months back I was sitting on a plane talking with a successful business owner who was fascinated by the idea that you could have a lifestyle AND financial success. As we talked about his business and what he spent most of his time on, it became clear that even though he was making a consistent six figure income, he was certainly lacking in the freedom area. With no shortage of enthusiasm, my new friend Bill (we’ll change his name to protect his identity here) shared how he had many successful business ventures in the works which caused him to work 80+ hours a week.

I asked him a few key questions about how his team was set up, who was responsible for certain strategies and roles, and how new programs were launched in his company. I asked about the timeliness of getting things done and how much time he spent making sure tasks were done on time (or resolving the issues of NOT being done on time). Very quickly I began to get a clear picture of what was contributing to Bill’s stress and inability to enjoy more free time.

Bill was a bottleneck in the flow of getting things done.

You see many of us, unwittingly, become the hub of a wheel that requires us to be in the middle to roll smoothly. For some, setting up a team that depends on us for critical decisions allows us to continue to feel important. Heck, what WOULD you do if you weren’t busy making sure things get done? For others, it’s a fear of losing control that keeps us holding the reigns so tightly. What if someone makes a mistake or doesn’t do it the way I would?

For all of us, if we want to grow, we have to let go. You have to be willing to eliminate yourself as the bottleneck.

In the 4 Hour Work Week, Timothy Ferriss shares a story about how when he began to outsource key tasks, he was spending just as much time managing the people to get things done. He quickly implemented a new decision making strategy where he gave his team a level of money they were able to make decisions about without his approval. He quickly freed up his time again to refocus back on important tasks only he could do. As simple as this sounds, it rocked the world of many service professionals with a vision to break a billion dollars. It just never occurred to them that they could eliminate thousands of questions a week by simply giving spending approval to their team.

So what are the signs that you are the bottleneck when it comes to getting things done? Here are five tell-tale signs you need to be aware of to stop being the bottleneck so you can make your billions.

• Your team constantly requires you to make decisions on how to complete a task.

• You are spending at least 20 – 30% of your time tracking down delayed tasks and/or managing team deliverables.

• When a new opportunity arises, you are the one who has to figure out the plan.

• You desperately need more help but you don’t have the time to hire and train anyone new.

• Somehow many of your delegated tasks end up back on your plate to get done right or on time.

So now that you know if you are the bottleneck, what should you do?

First, make a decision that you are a CEO and your job is to stay focused on the vision, mission and purpose of your business. Your job is to lead – not do! Now for some people this is really going to challenge your current thinking, especially if it’s still just you. That’s OK, just know this is who you are becoming, not who you have to be today. Remember, you can’t create a billion dollar empire (or even a six figure one) with the same strategies you started your business with.

Second, start building trust by handing over your decision making authority. Trust is earned. If you over-delegate to someone who isn’t ready, the results can be disastrous. Give responsibility for a series of small decisions and see how it goes before you hand over the big ones. For instance, hand off things like ordering office supplies and holiday cards to make sure they can handle things the way you want before you turn over bigger things like running your event or hiring new employees.

Third, start delegating roles and programs, not just tasks. Many people thrive when given complete authority to run the program and will be able to give you better results without being micro-managed. Start by setting the big picture goal, establishing measurable performance milestones and providing a budget to work with.

Once you free yourself from the bottleneck you will wonder why you waited so long. It’s time to start enjoying more of your lifestyle and refocusing your energy on your bigger fish. Hey, why don’t you just pack your bags and head to Disneyland! Oh, maybe Jamaica would be more fun. I think you get the picture.

About the Coach:

Melanie Benson Strick, The Million Dollar Lifestyle Business Coach, teaches entrepreneurs how to stop feeling overwhelmed so they can create more money, more freedom and more prestige.

Get the Entrepreneur’s Secret Weapon to revolutionize your results and get on the fast-track to a freedom based business at www.thepowerofthevirtualteam.com

I know you are probably thinking that slowing down to speed up is an oxy-moron. But it’s true. You have to slow down to speed up your results.

Let me explain. When I started my business, I had a brilliant coach named Michael Stratford who had a saying…

Slower + Smoother = Faster

At that time, I was running like a bull in a china shop. I was determined to make my life and my business a success. But the problem was…I was breaking things along my fast-paced journey to the top.

And when you break things, you have to slow down even more to fix them. It’s almost like you have to do double the work.

The truth is I hated him when he would remind me that slowing down would get me there faster. I didn’t want to slow down. I wanted it faster. (Maybe you can relate?)

It reminds me of how one of my friends tackles house projects. He will go to Home Depot with 17 projects that have to get done now. He gets his mind set on accomplishing it all in one day. Days later he will still be working on these projects because he didn’t measure everything properly (because he was in a hurry), didn’t think through everything he needed for the projects (multiple trips back to Home Depot and 4 – 5 times the cost) and his one day project has now morphed into a week of his time.

What finally got me thinking differently was a major realization. You know those a-ha moments when a light bulb goes off in your head and it’s as if your brain reprograms itself?

The cost of my fast-paced business growth was becoming too painful.

We call it in our Fast Track to Lifestyle Business Mastermind the “reckless” speed. Getting results quickly is the goal. Moving at a reckless pace is costly and time-consuming and ends up taking 5 – 10 times longer. Here are some things that I realized were happening in my life at the “reckless” pace. Maybe one or more will sound familiar to you too.

• I was exhausted and my body was exhibiting signs of chronic fatigue. I never had down time to take care of me.
• I was making expensive mistakes like picking a bad web designer, joining all the wrong networking groups and throwing money at any solution that promised to “fix” my problems.
• I wasn’t clearly communicating to my assistant so she was making mistakes.
• The quality of my administrative follow up was suffering so people were confused, frustrated or unhappy with the “process” of doing business with me.
• In my urgency to accomplish results, I wouldn’t slow down enough to plan so things cost more and took longer than I imagined.

Ugh. I still remember the feeling when I woke up and realized that trying to move at the speed of light was actually causing more damage than good.

The remedy was, and I still have to remind myself of every day, is to slow down to speed up.

Here are four new habits I practice that keep me in the slower + smoother = faster mindset:

• Create space for me first. I take Mondays and many Fridays off. I go to the spa, a lot. Sometimes I just sit in my chair outside and read a book. If I start to feel stressed, I ask my assistant to block some big chunks in my calendar to regroup. Taking care of me is vital to having the energy to manage my business.
• Start with a lifestyle plan. If you don’t know what you want your life to look and feel like, you will absolutely build a business that fills up all your time and energy. When faced with a decision for growing my business, I always ask myself, “How will this help me experience more freedom?” It’s easy to get distracted with what you “should” do versus what will get you the lifestyle you want.
• Plan first, execute second. My team and I have a process of meeting to plan out how we will accomplish a goal, then writing it all down, then starting the action. It ends up saving us tons of time, avoiding miscommunications and getting the desired outcome faster!
• Hire good people slowly. It doesn’t matter how great someone looks on paper. Hiring the best contractor or employee requires some certain steps and clarity on your part first. If you follow the proper process of bringing on good people, you will avoid the massive problems of having to fire a bad apple.

I know that you want to accomplish a lot of things this year. Your list is probably at least five pages long. Just remember to check in on HOW you are getting there. There are some costs you can never recover.

About the Coach:

Melanie Benson Strick, The Million Dollar Lifestyle Business Coach, teaches entrepreneurs how to stop feeling overwhelmed so they can create more money, more freedom and more prestige.

Get the Entrepreneur’s Secret Weapon to revolutionize your results and get on the fast-track to a freedom based business at www.thepowerofthevirtualteam.com

Have you ever said yes to something like a speaking gig, book deal, or even a client and soon wondered why you agreed to it? In the moment the opportunity sounded good…but when reality settled in you realized you’d said yes to something that either wasn’t a good fit or would simply drain too much of the energy you needed for higher priorities?

I had a client who was a people-pleaser once. This client had the “hand-raising” disease that many of us suffer from because we want to do the right thing. Every time a client asked her if she could take on a new project, whether or not it fit into her scope of work, she would raise her hand and say yes.

The trouble was that she was so busy doing things for everyone else (and usually not getting paid) that there was no time for the things she really wanted to be doing. And there certainly wasn’t time for the tasks that actually brought money in the door.

If this story is sounding familiar then I want you to tattoo this quote of mine to your forehead:

Everything you say yes to means you are saying no to something else.

Many of us say yes to things that prevent us from reaching our desired results. We end up becoming overwhelmed with tasks that don’t’ matter and we become the bottleneck to our biggest dreams and goals because we think we have to do everything ourselves.

Recently I attended a weekend event by Roger Hamilton of Wealth Dynamics. One of the key phrases he used all weekend long was, “It’s what you stop doing that will make you a success.”
It’s true. The truly successful people say NO more than they say YES. It’s not always easy but it’s necessary if you want to fulfill YOUR mission on this planet. You can not be everything to everybody and achieve your desired outcome. It’s just not possible.

So how do you know what to say no to?

Here is a simple formula that I use to help me make the tough decisions:

1. Will saying yes to this opportunity help me reach my desired outcome faster?
2. Will I feel excited and have fun working with these people?
3. Will I feel proud to be a part of it when it’s done?
4. Am I really focusing on my top 20% activities or is it a “Bright Shiny Object?”

It might help if I share a few examples of where this shows up for me.

• Speaking engagements. Identifying the ones best aligned with our target audience and the people I most want to serve. (PS Watch for a tool that I’ll release soon to help you with this one).
• Joint venture opportunities. Not every partnership is a good fit. Know what makes for a good fit and you will save a ton of time, energy AND money.
• Masterminds and special interest groups. I’ve been invited to participate in quite a few over the years and one thing I know is that you have to feel connected to the people and the process or else it ends up feeling like work.
• Marketing tactics. There are tons of “visibility” opportunities that we say no to because either they are unpredictable or not paying off.
• Travel. I could be on the road every day of the year but I say no to most of it so that I can focus on doing what I do best – mentoring, creating and leading my company.
• Relationships. Yep, I say no to a lot of people being in my life. Sometimes because I don’t trust or respect them, sometimes because they simply take too much energy to be around and other times because I just don’t have time. It’s OK to not have to fill your life up with requests to spend time with people just because they want you to. This can also include team members who are not in the right seat on your bus too!

The key here is to be willing to say no in order to get to the greater yes. This is a habit that you must adopt in order to be someone who can create consistent 6 & 7 Figure income in your life.

So what are you saying yes to? What do you need to start saying no to in order to get the results you want? Go ahead and post just one thing you will STOP doing now to create more room for what you do want!

Share your comments here.

About the Coach:

Melanie Benson Strick, The Million Dollar Lifestyle Business Coach, teaches entrepreneurs how to stop feeling overwhelmed so they can create more money, more freedom and more prestige.

Get the Entrepreneur’s Secret Weapon to revolutionize your results and get on the fast-track to a freedom based business at www.thepowerofthevirtualteam.com

What’s the number one difference between the hundreds of thousands of entrepreneurs barely making it and the top 10% who are wealthy, successful and living a life that they love?

Knowing the right opportunities to focus on.

Last week I was talking to a new client who suggested how frustrating it was to be putting so much time and energy into running his business only to find that he is barely making enough to pay his bills. I asked my new client to make a list of all of his projects and opportunities he is focused on. Five pages later, I realized what the problem was. It seemed that Bright, Shiny Object Syndrome™ was running amuck!

Let’s face it. There will never be a shortage of opportunities, great ideas and potential money makers. But how do you know what the right opportunities are so you don’t waste your time?

Last year I was coaching a man who is a brilliant idea guy. He called me up for a coaching session very excited about the radio show he decided to host. When I asked him how much time, money and energy he was planning on investing in this marketing opportunity, he said, “I don’t know yet. I just know it is a real opportunity for me.” Then I asked how it would translate into paying customers. He responded, “I don’t know yet, I just know I’ve always wanted to host a radio show.”

Sound familiar?

How many opportunities are you saying yes to simply because it sounds like a good idea or it seems like fun?

It is time to turn your over-committed, way-too-busy, laundry list of overwhelming to-do’s into a simple, power-packed strategy to skyrocket your success. Then let’s get clear on a formula to evaluate your opportunities against to make good decisions for your time, money and energy.

First of all, is this opportunity really aligned with what is important to you? Are your values being met? Does it pass your integrity check? Will you feel excited to be involved in this opportunity and move it to completion? It’s important to reflect back to your list of values and priorities (if you’ve got a copy of the ULTIMATE Success Generator then you have a head start here) and make sure that saying yes will keep you on track with what’s important to you.

For example, if making money is important RIGHT NOW then it doesn’t make sense to focus on creating an information product. The reality is you won’t see cash from it for at least 6 – 12 months. (Sorry, but that is the truth unless you have a really big list and a great team to delegate to.) But you could offer some strategy sessions or some kind of private event that people have to put a deposit in today for.

Second, how will this opportunity make you money? What exactly will have to happen for this opportunity to generate revenue? How long will it take to start making money? What is the profit? How much time, energy and money will it take to get it off the ground? There is a difference between seeding a longer term potential revenue generating project vs. something is guaranteed to make you short term cash.

For example:

An email campaign to your list with a specific deadline one week from now will generate immediate cash flow.

A teleclass in 30 to 60 days will generate cash flow in the near future.

A new marketing strategy like hosting a radio show, doing an interview for a magazine or article submissions are longer term, and more uncertain, payoff.

Third, who is going to do it? Just because it’s a great idea doesn’t mean you should do it yourself. Many times we hold ourselves back from playing a bigger game simply because we don’t know how to do it, or don’t have time. This is where delegating to other people’s strengths can turn a good idea into a money maker.

For example:

Could you say yes to putting on a live event if you had someone reliable to fill the event? That’s a big pay day, right?

Would you be willing to finally create your information product if you knew you had someone to format it, design it and create the sales copy? Sure!

If you can’t find all this data to determine if the opportunity is a good fit, then you need to make a grown up decision. Are you willing to take a risk with your time, money and resources for an unknown payoff? No matter how good it sounds, if you are up against the wall, it’s not really the best time to experiment with unknowns.

Saying yes to opportunities can sometimes be a gamble. If it is aligned with your priorities and values then it can be worth taking the risk. The more facts and data you have, the better decision you can make. You owe it to your business to have some kind of formula to run opportunities through before you jump on them.

Running your own business means you must become willing to make better choices for your time and resources. Put this simple strategy into action and I know you will immediately see better results!

About the Coach:

Melanie Benson Strick, The Million Dollar Lifestyle Business Coach, teaches entrepreneurs how to stop feeling overwhelmed so they can create more money, more freedom and more prestige.

Get the Entrepreneur’s Secret Weapon to revolutionize your results and get on the fast-track to a freedom based business at www.thepowerofthevirtualteam.com

How much debt do you have? That’s right, I’m just going to come straight out and ask. Is it $10,000? $20,000? $50,000? More?

And how did you get that debt? Investing in your business? Or was it buying TVs and traveling to Fiji? Chances are you obtained most of it while making purchases for your business like computers, coaching programs, and marketing tactics to help you grow. While you might refer to this as debt, it’s called leveraging Other People’s Money (OPM.)

Whatever you call it, the most important question is: How do you feel about that debt?

Do you feel worried? Lose sleep at night? Have a pit in your stomach that doesn’t go away? Excited?

Actually, debt is a just a tool.

The reality is that more than 60% of service-based businesses are built from credit-card financed start ups. Many of these business owners quickly find that they have under-estimated their start up needs and realize they need more money to grow quickly. With their credit cards maxed out, the entrepreneur begins to hold back from investing in much needed marketing, mentoring and resources because they don’t want to be irresponsible.

When you hold back, the life flow gets cut off (think stepping on a garden hose) and the inevitable happens. Your business growth stagnates, or worse yet, the business fails completely.

The reason: Many of us when we go into debt, we get into fear, and stop growing. We make up a story about debt based on other people’s beliefs and they have a disempowering awareness of how to leverage other people’s money to grow your business.

John Mackey, founder of Whole Foods, was interviewed in a CNBC series last year where he revealed that to start his company he borrowed money from family and friends. After the $10,000 he borrowed ran out, his father-in-law chastised him for being irresponsible and going into debt. John had a vision that was bigger than the immediate debt – he had a dream that he had to fulfill. Today the successful grocery chain has $10 billion in annual revenues and 300 stores nationwide.

If John had bought into his family’s beliefs about debt, Whole Foods organic health food stores would never have come to the masses.

Not too long ago a good friend of mine who has a multi million dollar company revealed that he has quite a bit of debt right now. It’s a number that made me squirm. When I asked about the strategy here is what he said:

“There is good debt and bad debt. Leveraging other people’s money
to grow your business is a solid business strategy.
It’s people’s beliefs about debt that makes it an issue.”

I guess he’s right. Think Donald Trump. Do you think he leverages other people’s money to grow? You bet. So do the most successful entrepreneurs on the planet. The problem is that most people get very emotional about the debt and emotionally “check out” because they don’t have a strategy of how to manage or reduce the debt. Here are some suggestions that might help on how you can leverage other people’s money to catapult your business forward.

A few years ago I realized that as an entrepreneur, I needed something more than the traditional mastermind. So I began a new kind of mastermind group that was focused on the challenges that all small business owners face: thinking bigger, discovering what works (and what doesn’t) from your peers, leveraging each other’s skills and education, sharing proven resources, etc. I quickly realized that I craved that kind of connection time as a way to leap forward in my thinking and results.

Today, in addition to being in my own private mastermind for my business, I now also run mastermind groups for my clients. As I watch the members of these programs thrive, leap and finally get out of their own way there is truly something unique that can only happen when you allow others into your life and business through this process.

A while back, one of my mastermind groups was sharing with me some of the insights of why this process has helped them catapult forward. Here are five of their insights of why a Mastermind helps you thrive:

Have you ever felt that achieving success is somewhat elusive? There’s always more to do, new marketing strategies, bigger accomplishments to pursue. So when is it that we actually can say, “I’m a success!”

In my coaching experience, people with the highest levels of stress are often the ones who have a general feeling of “I haven’t accomplished enough yet.” Interestingly, it’s typically tied to things like not having enough money, feeling overwhelmed with too many ideas, always having a 16 page to-do list that never gets done. But from my point of view, they are often quite successful and have plenty of cash flow.

So why do these people feel as if they aren’t successful enough?

Generally it stems from one of these three issues:

Issue #1: Comparing Yourself to Others

My client Jane often brings to our call a comment like, “Look at what Jeff/Alex/Mary/Shelby did in revenue last month. Why can’t I do that?” I often respond with, “Well, they have a system in place that allows them to market and sell products online. You are still setting your systems up.” Comparing ourselves to others creates negative energy. Negative energy attracts negative outcomes.

We are all exactly where we need to be. Mistakes, set backs, challenges, wins, accomplishments – it’s all a gigantic opportunity to understand who we need to be in order to fulfill our life’s purpose. When we compare ourselves to others who seem to be farther along we shortcut our own learning process. We also have no idea what life lessons that other person is dealing with…and trust me…they are there, somewhere!

Be willing to eliminate comparison and replace it with admiration. Admire what they’ve accomplished and ask yourself what you can learn from them that will help you on your journey. I often feel so much gratitude for my friends that are farther along the path than me…I get to implement short cuts because they worked out the bugs!

Issue #2: Setting Unrealistic Expectations

If you have four kids, two dogs, a working husband and have full responsibility for your domestic life, is it realistic to launch three new programs if you only have two hours a week to invest in your business? Setting unrealistic expectations is often a way in which we can fulfill our lifelong belief that we don’t deserve to be a success. It perpetuates tension because there is no way in which to fulfill our desire…only our negative beliefs.

Achieving success depends upon our ability to believe what we want is possible. If you believe in it, then you make it a priority and you will align yourself with the resources, time and energy necessary to make it happen. If you find yourself continually unable to meet your expectations of yourself (aka missing deadlines, always having big ideas but little results, etc.) then it’s time to evaluate your beliefs and do some “inner work.”

One of the exercises we teach clients in our Fast Track to a 6 & 7 Figure Lifestyle Business Mastermind is to upgrade your beliefs. Identify what the root cause is of that belief and then decide to create a new story that supports the success you desire. There are some great support systems out there to help you with this. If you aren’t a member of the Fast Track, perhaps book a breakthrough session with one of our coaches to get help with this process.

Issue #3: Pursuing Unmet Needs

An unmet need is often deeply rooted. It’s typically driven by security, love or self-esteem issues. Unfortunately for most of us, pursuing unmet needs basically means we make short-term choices that don’t align with our long term success goals. Or, we sabotage our success by not doing what works.

A simple “alignment” process can get you on track quickly. By becoming fully conscious about your values and priorities you can begin to make powerful choices that get you to your desired outcome quickly. The tool I recommend to align your needs and goals with the right action is the ULTIMATE Success Generator™.

If your measure of success has been off…then what steps can you take to get back on track quickly? As the saying goes, awareness is the first step towards the solution. Once you know what’s going on then you can take appropriate action to grow your business.

Here are a few things to start doing now.

Solution #1: Get Clear On What Success Means To You

How do you define success – for you? Not your friends, mentors, gurus or clients but for you. Is it how much fr.ee time you have? How much money you are making? How you feel inside knowing that you do what you love? Is it being able to check off action steps from the list?

When you take a vacation do you head off to the airport and just jump on the next plane leaving – no matter where it’s going? No, probably not. You would know what your destination is, buy a guidebook on the location, plan your excursions, buy some new outfits, etc. You would take action that is going to get you to your desired outcome.

It’s no different when you are creating a plan for success. You must be clear about what it will look like when you get there…or else you’ll continue to think you have to keep working hard. That doesn’t mean you won’t evolve your goals and want to continue to grow. What it means is at some point you have to be able to know you’ve achieved the outcome so you can feel that sense of accomplishment. There is nothing more exhausting than feeling like you are chasing success and never arriving.

Solution #2: Create Measures To Know When You Are On Track

A measure is a way of keeping track. It can be a well defined goal, an amount of money, or maybe even certain feelings or emotions that are present. When you have a way of keeping score then you have the ability to know where you are on the path to your desired outcome.

One of the exercises we have our Fast Track members do early on in the program is to design their 6 – 12 month roadmap. We identify what financial and lifestyle goals they aim to accomplish and then decide how they will track their progress.

This technique is essential if you have a team approach to getting things done. If you are delegating to someone whom you are paying, you will want to measure the success of this investment in your business. If you establish specific items they need to accomplish within a certain time, then measure the success of meeting these outcomes on time, then you will know what your return on investment truly is…and if this process is paying off for you.

Solution #3: Focus on What’s Working

My last suggestion is one that can work for every area of our success. Remember Jane from the example above? Well the one thing she found worked the fastest was changing her focus. If you spend your time focusing on what you don’t have, who has more than you or what you haven’t yet accomplished then you will always feel down and depleted. The simple act of being grateful for what you do have can shift your energy from the negative to the positive immediately. It sounds oversimplified sometimes but it works.

It’s amazing how much more successful we can feel when we view the world through the lens of “wow, look at all I’ve accomplished” vs. “crap, I still have so far to go!”

Remember that the law of attraction works by bringing more to you of what your focus is on. Just like a flashlight in a dark room, what we shine our light on is what we see. Shine the light on the good stuff and you’ll be amazed at how successful you already are!

About the Coach:

Melanie Benson Strick, The Million Dollar Lifestyle Business Coach, teaches entrepreneurs how to stop feeling overwhelmed so they can create more money, more freedom and more prestige.

Get the Entrepreneur’s Secret Weapon to revolutionize your results and get on the fast-track to a freedom based business at www.thepowerofthevirtualteam.com

So why then is James spending so much time and energy learning how to do the shopping cart so he can outsource it to someone else? Why is Amy investing $2000 on a “learning to blog system” when there are other’s who can do it better, faster and cheaper than her?

Maybe it’s the compelling feeling that many of us have to learn. The quest for knowledge that somehow validates a deep need to know it all. And I think for some, it provides a sense of security or control to know how everything is supposed to work. But is it really serving you to spend your valuable time, money and energy learning all the ins & outs of your business?

I remember the feeling I had when I graduated from San Diego State with my Bachelor’s Degree in Business Management. After getting past the culture shock of not having piles of assignments and the constant pressure of assignments due, I felt like there was a big gaping hole in my life. I missed learning.

So what did I do? I of course took on more learning…taking every class that Motorola offered on leadership, team building, project management, and soon found my way to my Master’s program in Organizational Management. Not too long after graduating again…there was that old “void” again. I needed my learning fix…and I started taking spiritual classes at my church (which 8 years later resulted in my spiritual counselor license) and at the same time I decided to get trained as a coach. Then it was on to marketing, online traffic generation, blogs, social networking…you get the point I think.

As I got serious about my business I had to reflect on how much time and energy I was spending learning new things. What was my time worth and did it really make sense to keep investing in all this learning? What was it getting me? I began to ask myself the tough question with every learning opportunity “Is this going to make me more money?”.

The truth is I was just feeding a little gremlin inside of me. For me, learning gave me a sense of control and power. If I knew what to do and when to do it, then maybe I’d be good enough to have my dream lifestyle and business. What I realized is that learning kept me from doing what would actually make me successful. It was like a big cozy comfortable blanket that kept me safe…and kept my worst fear in front of me…a real lack of financial results.

At some point I had one of the “I should have had a V-8 moments”. It hit me that no matter how much I learned it was not helping me get there any faster. It was much more cost effective to hire someone who knew how to do it so it would get done faster and hence, make a lot more money. If I had to learn it first, then I became the bottleneck!

The key to mastering delegation is adopting this CEO Mindset:

“Know enough to set the vision, goals and desired results. Delegate the tactics to people who can do it faster, cheaper or better than you.”

Here is an example. I have absolutely no idea how to update my website. I know what I want it to look like, what should happen when a visitor is on the site and even what experience I want them to have. But I made it a point to not learn how to update it.

Same thing with most of our marketing efforts. I know what I want done and I hire talented people who already know how to do it. I have a vague idea of what steps my team goes through each month to publish this ezine but I have no idea how to publish one myself. Set up a bridge line? Nope. I’m talented enough that I could probably figure it out (and I know my team has the system published in our online procedures guide) but why bother?

My job as CEO is to stay focused on my top 5 – 10 high payoff activities like writing, mentoring entrepreneurs on how to create their ideal business, designing powerful programs that serve my clients, and planning out where I want to be in 90 days to 5 years from now!

My challenge to you is to look at where you are holding yourself back by being the bottleneck. Where is your need to learn and be in control getting in the way of what you delegate? What are your false beliefs about what can be delegated well costing you playing the bigger game?

If you haven’t yet downloaded our free report on the 101 Ways to Triple Your Income by Outsourcing Your High Payoff Activities, I highly encourage you to do it now. This process will help you get clear on your highest payoff activities and bust this delegation dilemma for good!

About the Coach:

Melanie Benson Strick, The Million Dollar Lifestyle Business Coach, teaches entrepreneurs how to stop feeling overwhelmed so they can create more money, more freedom and more prestige.

Get the Entrepreneur’s Secret Weapon to revolutionize your results and get on the fast-track to a freedom based business at  www.thepowerofthevirtualteam.com

John had a dream. He wanted to live his passion and make a difference in the world. He knew that self-employment was a key to creating wealth and freedom. So John set out to be the owner of his own business. He did everything right. He watched what other successful people were doing. He modeled their behavior, their choices and implemented their strategies for success.

Every day he got up and envisioned his successful business – how he was making a difference in the world, creating 200k+ revenue, and speaking all over the country spreading his message. He even saw clearly how his best-selling book would transform the lives of his target audience. He really was building a successful business and his friends were envious.

One day, he woke up and just couldn’t do it anymore. He was burned out, frustrated and overwhelmed. It was like he had “lost that lovin’ feeling” and his dream was crumbling.
John asked me to help him stop feeling overwhelmed so he could put the fun and freedom back into his life. Within our first conversation, John realized…

He had climbed someone else’s mountain!

The success he created belonged to his colleagues and friends – it is what they wanted! By asking for their help and support along the way, he had successfully built THEIR DREAM. Not his.

Ouch. Now what? John needed to reconnect with his own dream.

Following are 5 Strategies to Turn Your Business Around in Record Time so you can have more time off, rekindle the passion and grow your revenue exponentially.

1. Identify What is Currently Working. No need to throw the baby out with the bathwater. Start by writing down what’s working and what’s not. Then take each “not” and figure out how to switch it to something that will work. Having a business that you love is based on aligning your passion with money-making opportunities. Sometimes we’ve just been living in our “old box” so long we can’t even see how to repackage it so it works better.
2. Get Specific About Your End Game. What DID you want your life to be like when you started your business? Did you choose a path that would allow you to experience it? Or did you basically just recreate a job? Often times we lose the connection to why we created the business in the first place. Just because your mentor or idol loves traveling all over the world, 325 days a year doesn’t mean that you will. By creating a business that serves YOUR lifestyle goals, you will experience greater passion, momentum and speed. Your job is to make choices every day based on your values, priorities and highest ROI opportunities.
3. Create Space Immediately. The most difficult conversation I have with my clients is the one where they have to say no to money in the short term to make room for their longer term dream. In order to turn your business around, you have to reestablish your foundation. That might mean taking a week off to complete the exercises I give you on values and priorities (you can find them in the ULTIMATE Success Generator as well.) it might mean investing in building your team now vs. spending all your money on marketing strategies. You need to realign your resources on the business you want, not the business you have!
4. Make “Big” Decisions. Your success will hinge on whether you decide to play your biggest game. If you are on the wrong mountain, you must be brave and courageous enough to reroute your path immediately. Sometimes that means creating an exit strategy from your current role. Failure occurs when we don’t listen to that voice inside saying, “this isn’t working for me.” No matter what you think will happen, your life and business will be 10,000 times better by saying yes to more of what you love.
5. Live by Standards. Be very clear with yourself and the world around you about what you will (and won’t) do. Set an intention to uphold these standards and watch how the world shifts to accommodate it. When you follow other experts and how they built their path to success it’s easy to just duplicate their steps. But that’s how you can end up in the wrong place. Your life, your priorities and your values are unique to you! So be sure to take the gems from your mentors and morph them to your standards.

When you are crystal-clear about how you really want to live and climb your own mountain, you will have an experience of effortless action. It’s almost like you would pay someone else to show up every day and do your work. It’s not a job, it’s an indescribable passion that you are compelled to express. Nothing and no one can stand in your way.

By the way, John decided to follow my advice and give up speaking across the country. He adapted a new standard of speaking only for his target audience where he got paid over $20k and could sell his programs from the stage. He built up a very amazing business coaching and consulting with other speakers who wanted to learn how to build their own speaking business. He now spends 300 days a year in his home town making 3 times as much as he did on the road. Congrats John!

When you reconnect with that lovin’ feeling, watch out world. You will be unstoppable!
What brave choice will you make to get on the right mountain for you?

About the Coach:

Melanie Benson Strick, The Million Dollar Lifestyle Business Coach, teaches entrepreneurs how to stop feeling overwhelmed so they can create more money, more freedom and more prestige.

Get the Entrepreneur’s Secret Weapon to revolutionize your results and get on the fast-track to a freedom based business at www.thepowerofthevirtualteam.com