Managing Partner Time To Be Great, LLC Global Independent Distributor Healy, Vollara, Xelliss, BEMER Business and Real Estate Coach, Consultant Professional Speaker, Author
Remember this was published in 2013 and an update is coming soon. Meanwhile the main principles are relevant today. Some of the content has links and examples that no longer work. I suggest focusing on nearly all that does work.
Thank you for your interest
Be well, be happy
Steve Pohlit
stevepohlit@gmail.com
“Productivity is never an accident. It is always the result of a commitment to excellence, intelligent planning, and focused effort.” — Paul J. Meyer
I’d be willing to bet one of the reasons you started your own business is to produce profits. This is quite honestly the central reason for a business to exist. A business earns profits helping people solve their problems, but no one needs a business to solve problems.
This book is written and designed to give you the necessary tools and advice to finally gain the massive profits you envisioned when you first opened your doors for business. That’s why it makes sense to start with the formula to achieving – even surpassing – your goal.
It can help you realize major profits.
As you read here and as you follow my coaching, you’ll be amazed at how simple major profits really are to generate. You’ll grow to understand why you’re driven to succeed and how to turn that drive into the energy that turns the gears and gets you where you most want to go. Getting to a sizable increase in profits in a short time is then simply a matter of implementing a very specific set of action steps consistently, to move yourself from where you are to your precise profit goals and beyond, just as you would do planning a trip on a road map or setting your destination in a GPS.
The following Top Five Action Steps are the beginning of the road to making massive strides in your income and success happen quickly.
First things first:
Any business you venture into should be something you’re passionate about. Do what you love! It should be something you envision doing day after day, something that aligns with your personal core values. If you don’t believe in or agree with what you’re doing, you’ll never be successful. You may make some money, but you won’t experience personal satisfaction long-term.
These positive attributes form the base of the building blocks you need to become financially successful quickly. They affect your energy and thus every aspect of your company, with or without employees.
Think of it as The Law of Opposites. This is best illustrated by the difference between hot and cold. If you have never experienced the cold, can there be hot?
In the same way, experiencing the “downs” in business or in life just provides you with the advantage of maximizing the “ups.” When life kicks you down, you have to have the strength and energy to get right back up again, because you know you just learned a lesson you don’t want to repeat. More important: the opposite of what just happened holds one or more of the keys to success.
Not everything you try will work, but you reading this book is already a positive step toward knowing what will work.
See? You’re already on the way and may not have even known it.
Second:
I once had the great opportunity to attend a three-day live seminar taught by the late Gary Halbert. Just Google “Gary Halbert” and you’ll see that he was a legend in his own time and he still is.
This special event was called “Root Canal.” Gary’s idea behind the title was that the seminar would be less painful than a root canal.
Fun name aside, the lesson I learned during that training was very clear. During the seminar, Gary asked everyone for a good example of a business that would be incredibly successful. The group of about 30 people shared many excellent ideas, but I’ll never forget Gary’s:
“Give me a fast food hamburger joint in the middle of a starving crowd.”
At that precise moment, I remember thinking I finally understood what so many people had been trying to tell me all along. The service or item you offer should be valuable to a large number of people who can and already want to pay for what you offer.
A related point to consider: give people what they want, not what they think they need.
Consider the iPhone … it revolutionized the smart phone industry. Do you think anyone was able to define all the features of the iPhone at the time and say “I need that!”?
Steve Jobs had the uncanny ability to see what people would want as soon as they saw it.
Research your target market and don’t assume you know what people want. Having solid information regarding who wants your product now and who can pay for it is worth its weight in gold.
In the real estate investment market, I know what my funding partners want. They want above average-rates of return on the money they provide for deals. How do I know that? Simple. I present them with deals that include projected profits – the basis for my projections – and they tell me they like it or they don’t. Over time, by constantly watching and adjusting my approach or the deals themselves, I know their individual preferences inside and out and can meet them to close deals more effectively.
As a result of working with hundreds of students and consulting clients, I know with confidence what each owner and business wants. What they want goes a long way beyond a profitable venture.
Continue reading and you’ll see.
Third:
Set a revenue and profits goal. Keep in mind your goal must feel attainable, but it also needs to be considerable. Stretch your goals outside of your comfort zone, but also keep it realistic.
I’ve often helped clients double or more than double the financial goals they originally set for themselves. I’m able to do this because I simply see what’s possible before they do.
For example, a husband-and-wife team who are current students had recorded just under $1 million in revenue from their business in 2012. They were profitable at that level. The forecast I helped them build, and that I’m now helping them implement, exceeds $20 million in revenue and a profit before tax margin of more than 25%.
In the first two months of 2013, the business has recognized over one million dollars in revenue and their profit percentage is greater than 25%. I’m confident we’ll be raising the annual forecast much higher than that initial $20 million soon.
If you asked them if they believed this was possible last fall, they would have said “no.” Now they see that it’s possible to go a lot farther than they ever originally imagined.
If you’re having trouble believing this is possible, read on. I’ll show you the fundamental tools required for you to attain profit goals well beyond your perceived limits faster than you ever thought it could happen.
If you find you’re having trouble setting and achieving the goals you need to set, coaching is a very powerful way to get headed in the right direction quickly. Coaching is a valuable resource when you’re staring at an empty bank account, despite what you might at first think. You immediately have someone on your side to guide you in tweaking your systems and thoughts to get the sales flowing again. Coaches are invaluable at getting the rudder turned in the right direction again.
You’ll be amazed at how valuable coaches are at helping you exceed the potential you thought you had. Of course, you must select the right coach for you and for your business. I’m thinking you might know who I’d recommend.
Fourth:
Make sure you understand your financial trends. Having a financial plan on paper is only half the battle. Take the future you’ve set for yourself and roll it back to today, to this week, and to each month, until you see what goals you need to hit right now to get to your ultimate target.
There is a bonus in this book with a sample financial plan for real estate investors and for traditional for-profit business models. This will save you an enormous amount of time in developing one for your business.
Stay focused on the goal and implementing the action steps to achieve the performance goal you set, including the ones that will make the most difference. I’m sharing those steps with you in this book.
A winning attitude coupled with authenticity while engaging your core principles will send out energy that will return to you. This is why a winning attitude, simple as it might sound, provides the potential for major profits.
Fifth:
There are several different ways to start digging down to mine for the gold waiting within your business. For a gold miner, it all has to do with the area, the climate of that area, the skill of the miner and the tools the miner has at his or her disposal.
My own Gold Formula™ operates in much the same way. Area, climate, skill and tools play a key role in your gold achievement. I’ve devoted an entire chapter of this book to this.
Much of what is needed often requires some minor adjustments to the way you normally think. The core of every presentation I give to audiences is, “Success Is an Inside Job.” I also focus a lot of my coaching on this point. It’s true for any business venture, regardless of the industry specialization: if you’re not healthy internally, you won’t grow profitable.
It’s important that I stress these vital steps again:
Look in the mirror. Say out loud what you want to achieve most and watch yourself say it. Then close your eyes and say it again. Envision your most desirable goal in your mind. Make sure that, in the core of your belly, you see the outcome of what you’re trying to gain. Start with a 30% increase in profits in the next 90 days.
Open your eyes and look at yourself. Is there a difference? There should be a difference you can actually see. Keep repeating this exercise until you do see that difference.
Focus on your ultimate goal in everything that you do – your personal life, your friendships, your business. Communicate to any higher power that you believe in and make it be what you envision.
Nothing New – Just Vitally Important
This isn’t a new concept, but it’s one that people forget or fail to implement over and over again. If you know any incredibly successful people, ask them how they got there. Then ask them how they stay there.
It’s through consistent positive reinforcement, every time.
If I were to give you a blank notepad and ask you to describe what you do, what would you say? How you describe yourself to others is a major step in achieving personal success. Don’t let this opportunity pass you by! Get a notepad and describe for me what you do or what your business is. Treat it like an assignment because that’s what it is.
Apply this concept fully. Say it and see it over and over again. This will help it become an everyday action that supports your ultimate dream of a much more profitable business in 90 days or less.
The power of positive thinking and the power of unwavering principles; bring these to the ballgame and just see what happens!
It’s been said before, but it bears repeating: the only way to move out of your current economic status is to own your own business. This enables you to take control of what you truly own, which really is nothing more than yourself and your potential.
With only these two things under your full control, you can achieve financial freedom faster than you ever thought possible. 30% increases in profit in 90 days will become a standard operating practice in your life. Please remember, however, financial freedom doesn’t equate to happiness. Go deep inside and you’ll find what drives your happiness. Then make that an integral part of your business. When you do this, the amount of money isn’t the priority, your level of happiness is.
Some will make millions or even billions. Others will make enough to have an organic herb farm and live quietly surrounded by nature. You’re not doing what you do because of what others think about you or about your purpose. You do what you do because that’s who you are.
When I paused and thought about what makes me truly happy, I looked at what isn’t fun for me. Then I started thinking about all those moments which were the most rewarding. Remember the “hot-vs-cold” thing? This is a version of that.
I realized the most rewarding moments were when something I was teaching or coaching resonated with a person and they took action that led to a positive outcome. Their feeling of joy and my knowledge that I was part of the reason for that joy was the most gratifying feeling for me. That’s when I knew that, while I’m in business, the greatest reward for me is experiencing those times that I help others achieve their goals.
This is why I write blog articles and it’s why I am publishing this series of books. I’m stepping up my coaching program and speaking engagements. All the while, I continue to expand my expertise and then I share all that I know that works — for the greater good. That’s why I’m here, in addition to being the best dad I can be for my daughter. There is no greater goal for me.
Action Steps:
“Leadership is a matter of having people look at you and gain confidence, seeing how you react. If you’re in control, they’re in control.” — Tom Landry
Are you ready to become a real leader? Are you prepared to be a person who gets consistent and reliable results with every decision you make? If you want to succeed in any economic climate, the advice you take from this book can propel you to unprecedented dreams.
There are a lot of decisions you need to make as you climb toward your goals. You need to have the confidence that the decisions you make every day are the best ones for the continued health of your company. Maximizing the support you have from the right people gives you more leverage and time to be an effective leader of your business, continuing to meet and then exceed the goals you’ve been laying out.
The Top Five System provides steps to financial excellence that will help strengthen your foundation for overall success in any business venture. More on that soon.
In the decades of my experience consulting business owners, Fortune 500 companies and running businesses myself, I’ve come across a valuable lessons that most other companies ignore or deem unimportant. Follow the steps and formulas that I’ve developed and proven are the most advantageous. I’m not saying you won’t hit occasional pitfalls. You most likely will. Just remember these pitfalls, when you’ve built a foundation and follow all the steps I’m providing for you, will only help build an environment for further success in the future.
When you can eliminate most chances of error and understand how to turn the remaining few mishaps that will still naturally occur into better planning for future growth, you’ve nailed it. You are on a clear upward path with the wind in your sails.
Solidifying Your Vision Helps Make It Happen
Vision can be defined in many ways, but if you know where your vision is now and you also know where your vision is moving you to, then it’s merely a matter of using some simple proven steps to guide you from point “A” to point “B.”
Your vision, plus action steps, is always your GPS for success.
At this point, you’re already more than a step ahead of most other people and businesses.
Define your path with the advice of other positive and honest people with character and your roadmap to massive profits will be reality before you know it. Who can you rely on for that advice? One person is the right coach.
Remember to keep your goals considerable yet attainable. What you can see, you can realize. Don’t get bogged down with scattered or negative thoughts and people. This only hampers your ability to create a clear paved way to the gold.
The First Step is to Define Your Business
I’ve made this point earlier and I want to repeat it now as part of the Top 5 System. It’s that important. Have a clear, concise definition of your business, including what you bring to the table and what will help propel your business forward. This is true whether you’re growing an existing business or starting a new one.
If you can see it, you can reach it.
The Second Step is Clearly Defined Performance Goals, Detailed In Your Financial Plan
Your financial plan is what maps out, month by month, what your performance targets are, in economic terms. Where do you need to be in 30 days, to see a 30% overall increase in profits within the next 90 days? What about 60 days? Where should you be each week along the way to that goal?
Breaking everything down this way completes a picture that forms a guidance system you can continually rely upon. Once you have your 90-day goal mapped out, you’ll quickly see it’s not an insurmountable goal, but instead a simple series of small steps leading to almost inevitable growth.
Now you can easily build out your plan beyond 90 days following the plan you’ve already been following to achieve simple small steps along the way to constant growth in your business.
The Third Step is: Define the Transactions That Result in Achievement of the Financial Plan
Here are two examples:
The Fourth Step is: Having a Clear Definition of Each Action Step That Will Result in the Achievement of the Transactions That Get You to Your Profit Goal Then Consistently Implementing Those Action Steps.
Again, I’ll illustrate this by examples:
It’s important that you know those actions that will result in reaching your well-defined business performance goals. Once you know them, then consistently taking action every day on each required step is the key to success.
But it’s not the only key. There’s more.
The Fifth Step : Your Daily Top 5
You should now know the transactions that drive your own business. In the examples in Step Four, if you’re a real estate investor, you need properties and money. If you’re the owner of a convenience store business with gas pumps, you need customer traffic that wants the merchandise and gas you offer at an attractive price that still ensures you the revenue required to reach your defined profit goals.
Three of the Daily Top 5 for Every Business Owner, Executive or Entrepreneur:
Accountability
Coaching will help you exceed your profit goals. The value of a coach is all about the experience they can share, the credibility behind the action steps they assign, plus holding you accountable for implementing the action steps on your own behalf. It’s been consistently true in my experience that the most successful students are the ones who follow my coaching instructions. My students reach the goals they set because I hold them accountable for the steps required to get there.
This process makes the most difference in following the Building Business Profits Fast system to reach your goals. Hiring the right coach with experience in guiding the development of successful businesses gives you a gigantic success advantage over all your competitors.
It’s not uncommon to utilize more than one coach as you grow, depending on which areas you have that are in greatest need of work. That’s something only you and perhaps your first coach can determine.
Use the tools I’m providing you for use in your business. Couple them with the all-important coaching I’ve mentioned and you’ll find you can take a huge step toward achieving your goals of Building Business Profits Fast.
It’s actually relatively simple and inexpensive to drive yourself and your profits forward faster and farther than you thought you could dream. I’m not saying you’ll be wealthy tomorrow, but use of my steps and courses will surely put you in the running for the massive profits that you plan for and even more than you can envision right now. This is important to remember as you continue to build and work your plan.
Your Goals Are Attainable
Following my steps, a 30% increase in sales and profits is more than possible within the next 90 days – it’s almost inevitable. Definitely keep reading.
Get focused, stay energized and keep the positive force in front of you at all times. Create a vision and plan for yourself and your business. Extract lessons that have been provided for you and practice them, over and over again, until they become habit.
These are the secrets – the priceless lessons which people ignore repeatedly. You are in control of everything described here. All you have to do is believe, envision your future, think positive and surround yourself with people who are even more successful than yourself. Remember always to stay on task and on target. Business is a living breathing thing and can change in an instant. What you’re doing successfully today may not work tomorrow. What you did last year to stay successful may not work again next year or even next week.
Never assume the conditions you’re currently experiencing will remain the same. Change is constant. Keep this in mind when things are going too slowly. It will help keep you focused and on track, knowing that change for the better is inevitable. Focusing on constant change is most often forgotten, however, when things are going really well. Know that this, too, can change in an instant and build your plan to include contingencies for either swing of the pendulum.
When you’re in control of and understand every bit of your market and your product, your life will keep you moving and changing with any economic climate you face at any given time.
Action Steps:
“The only true measurement of business success is the trend of your company’s cash balance when properly measured.” – Steve Pohlit
So far, you should have a clearer understanding of the inner processes you must develop to lead a profitable business. You’ve also started to build a customized plan to carry your specific business to its goals. It’s imperative that you also have a system in place to track your progress, to constantly stay on-track and know when adjustments are needed to keep moving forward.
This is a solid part of the system I’ve named my “Gold Formula™” We’ll expand more on the meaning of this term in a later chapter.
For now, you need to know that the main thrust of my “Gold Formula™” is that the gold is in the variance!
Your success is measured by the variance from your plan. Understanding your variance brings everything into much better focus and provides you with full control of the rudder as you steer.
My trademarked Gold Formula™:
Plan minus Actual = Variance
Understanding this equation is the key to keeping your business on track for rapid growth of 30% or more in 90 days or less. It also guides you down the path of achieving prosperity in all three pillars of life: health, relationships and money.
These pillars hold the structure upon which you’re building your plan firmly and concretely. Without success in all three pillars, any good business plan is sure to fail at some point.
Here are a couple of easy-to-follow examples:
Example 1: In the area of health, many people today think about losing weight. Let’s use The Gold Formula™ System for doing that.
First: Define the goal in very positive terms. “I am now renewing my energy and overall health with a healthier lifestyle that results in my ideal weight that is (for example) 30 pounds lighter than I am now.”
Second: Design a plan to reduce caloric intake by 500 calories a day or a combination of 250 calories less in consumption and 250 calories burned by exercise. This plan is designed so that my weekly calorie reduction is 3,500, which is the approximate equivalent to one pound. I now see that, if I stick to this plan, I’ll be at my goal in 30 weeks – or a little more than half a year.
Can I do this? It’s now clear that I can. Is this important to me? Yes, it is. But, do I have a big enough “why” to take consistent action on the plan? This is essential to moving forward and staying with what is required to reach your goals.
Maybe your “why” is because you don’t want to risk having to see a doctor or – worse – to have to go to the hospital. Maybe your “why” is you’ve let yourself go a bit and you don’t feel you’re doing your part to be the best you can be for your spouse or children.
All of us have to look for that truly motivating “why” or we run the risk of not sticking to the plan.
This might seem too simple to work, but consider that one of the major reasons for failure of any plan is not sticking to it. Your motivating “why” is both a gyroscope and an engine keeping you moving down the surest path to success.
Part of the plan may include finding pictures of people who are in shape, to reinforce how we intend to look. Our plan will also involve telling a couple of close friends or loved ones what we’re doing, for emotional support and accountability along the way.
Our plan now becomes more specific as we build out the sub-steps within each step. What exactly are we going to do differently that will result in consuming around 250 less calories and burning 250 more calories each day? Our plan would need to include our adjustments to our diet for those days we’re not able to exercise and, likewise, for those when we exercise more.
Our plan won’t include a day off, because we’re adjusting our lifestyle, not “going on a diet.”
Third: Keep a special journal for this lifestyle improvement program. This is how we begin to measure the actual results in comparison to the plan. For example, we might plan to stop drinking sugary soft drinks or skipping ice cream or reducing some other food or drink that’s contributed more calories than fit into our plan.
Every day, we calculate how well we’re doing according to the plan. If we reduced our calorie intake by 300 calories and our plan was a 250 calorie reduction, then our variance was minus 50 (250 planned minus 300 actual = -50). A negative variance in this case is good because we ate and drank 50 less calories than called for in our plan. If we planned on burning 250 calories on the treadmill and we actually burned 150, then the variance is 100. A positive variance in this part of our plan is not good. We planned on burning 100 more calories than we actually did, calling for adjustments elsewhere.
At the start of each day, we can now look at how we’re doing and easily adjustment our food and drink consumption plus our exercise program, so we stay firmly on track.
It’s the variance that’s the Gold because the variance tells us what we have to do to correct our course and how much adjustment is needed. We can’t have a variance unless we have a plan and we can’t have variance unless we measure our actual results against that plan.
This is so simple yet powerful. It also requires discipline, which again is another reason to have a coach. Just having to present and track the actual results to a coach is often the main reason people accelerate their results so rapidly with the guidance and accountability a good coach brings to the game.
Example 2:
In this example, the company has a defined sales funnel primarily using Internet marketing tools to identify interested prospects. Their lead-in products include one of a number of free reports, a mini-course and e-books. All are an enticement to attract people into their list. Once on the list, they can use an auto-responder system to demonstrate the value of a product line they sell with price points ranging from $9.97 to more than $30,000.
This model deserves an entire book in the Building Business Profits Fast series. For the purposes of this book, the company illustrates the use of the Gold Formula throughout their business and it includes a weekly plan for new leads into their auto-responder system.
Their past statistics show precisely 1,000 leads entering the auto-responder system each week. They’re confident they can achieve their current annual revenue and profit goals for this year, which are 100% higher than last year, by driving 1,000 people into their sales funnel.
This business further breaks down the 1,000 leads by primary source, including:
Each of these traffic sources has its own plan actual variance tracking system. Beyond that, each activity has a plan actual variance tracking system.
For example, if the goal is to publish six tweets and 12 re-tweets daily, then the actual is compared to the plan and a variance is calculated. Included are calculations of the click-through rate to the site and the resulting conversions to leads from those clicks.
“You Get What You Inspect, Not What You Expect.”
That is not my quote. I’d love to give proper credit to the person who originated it, but I don’t know who that is. The point is, as soon as this business started clearly measuring activities and actions against the results, they were always able to see what was working and fuel it, and also to see what was not working and fix it.
The Gold Formula™ may be the single most powerful tool in the toolbox, for not only increasing your revenue and profits by 30% or more – but doubling it or even more, as you continue to follow the plan.
Back to the Mirror
When measuring your business profits and looking at where the variance lies, make sure you look in the mirror and understand how your strengths match your goals, internally and externally. Continue to develop these skills as you surge toward the prize – your financial independence.
Remind yourself the results – 30% higher profits in 90 days or less – are well worth the additional work consistently strengthening your efforts and measuring your progress constantly along the way. After a while, it becomes habit.
In an earlier chapter, I discussed the use of a personal journal in connection with the time you spend developing your self–confidence and your value system and deciding what areas of your life you’re going to strengthen. Those areas may include relationships with your family, your health and, on a personal level, strengthening what may be less-than-optimal characteristics of your own thinking and behavior.
As a professional success coach, I have a great responsibility to guide others toward their ultimate success. It’s paramount to my own character to do this in a responsible and honest way. The same principle applies to you. Keep your eye on the ball. Don’t let others make you slide off your foundation. Remember that what you put out to the world is what you will get in return. Make sure what you put out there is valuable.
Character and Confidence Go a Long Way
Confidence builds with experience, but you can have confidence even without any experience at all. How you present yourself and who you surround yourself with builds your self-confidence, which will also make you appear more confident, creating the best climate for success.
Don’t forget the fundamentals of your own character. Who you say you are should be who you really are. Stay focused on what you’re trying to achieve and remember the variances that you measure will move your business forward. Be sure that forward movement is in the area of revenue and profits, following your plan to generate an increase in profits of 30% or more in 90 days or less. This way, it’s truly possible to achieve your goal and then easily duplicate the process again and again for even better results.
Above all else, remember that only 20% of what you do creates 80% of your profit. Make sure what you do is packed with purpose and never bend from your core principles, focusing most of your attention on the 20%.
Always hold onto the image of success. Be bold and confident in your decisions and remember to be daring – even when the stakes are high, if it also makes sense to take a measured risk.
Above all else, avoid anything that doesn’t align with your goal. It’ll take you off-course faster than anything else.
Action Steps:
The Gold Formula™ is very easy to understand. However, implementing and benefiting from this powerful tool is best achieved by working with Coach Steve. Drop me a note at stevepohlit@gmail.com or call me at 727-587-7871. I’d be happy to discuss helping you personally, too.
“You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, ‘I lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along.’” — Eleanor Roosevelt
If any of these questions or problems plague your thoughts and energy, or if you have any similar concerns, you need to get them under control fast. They’ll constantly pull you off-track in your quest to steadily grow toward your goal and prosperity beyond your goal. My Manifest Mastermind course will help you when it comes to handling these problems. You can find out more about this valuable free course at www.ManifestMastermind.com.
Let’s look at some of the best things you can do right now, to get yourself on-track:
Getting Unstuck
I recently listened to a presentation where the speaker listed four of the major reasons companies become stuck. They are:
None of these, collectively or individually, are the major reason most companies fail. The major reason most companies and people fail is fear. This isn’t the same fear as when, for example, someone breaks into your home. It’s the fear of failure, rejection and disapproval.
The fear that blocks business success is pervasive. It prevents the new distributor in a network marketing company from talking with anyone about the products and business opportunity. Fear prevents the real estate investor from announcing to a small group that she’s an investor and describing the deals that work for her. Fear is the reason for most people spending a lot of time on e-mails and on non-directed social media, when none of those activities make any real difference in their businesses.
Knowing All the Required Action Steps, Here Are Some of the Biggest Fears or Excuses That Can Still Block You From Taking Action:
I’m sure you could add to this list. These are real fears that have often held far too many people back, until their influence is eliminated. Your specific fears may vary, but remember that fears are often subconscious and not always clearly evident to you. You have to be willing to seriously drill down on your fears and identify them all – even when it’s a bit uncomfortable doing so.
In fact, this is important enough for you to warrant creating a list of all of your fears.
Immediate Action Step 1:
List all of your fears. If you have less than 20 – keep working. There honestly are a lot of fears you’ll have to dig even deeper to get at and identify. If you don’t identify your fears, you can’t do anything to stop them from driving you off the path to your goals.
Immediate Action Step2:
Use your daily journal and begin focusing on all the reasons there is nothing to fear. Begin to train your thinking by realizing fear is a product of how you think. Once you change how you think, you change how you feel. Once you change how you feel, you change how you act and, if you intend to Build Business Profits Fast, you will.
When you clearly see your fear as a creation of your mind, it’s time to concentrate on the action steps that will result in you Building Business Profits Fast by successfully marketing, getting systems in place and, finally, by gaining control of and aligning your capital.
Fear is a negative emotion. Negative emotions tear down essential building blocks in your mind and clog your path of success in life and in your business. If you find it difficult to identify all your fears and get them under control, they will definitely slow your progress and can often bring everything to a screeching halt. Your personal mindset work, when combined with coaching, will provide you with exactly the push past those fears you need, so you can easily climb higher and build faster than you ever imagined.
Be sure to register now to get on my email lists. You’ll get tons of valuable free information from me that will further help you eliminate fear and fuel your success here:
www.buildingbusinessprofitsfast.com
www.confidencesuccessblueprint.com
www.manifestmastermind.com
Remove the Emotional Roadblocks
Becoming unstuck from fear takes commitment and perseverance. Don’t go into this lightly. The action steps needed to overcome these hurdles must come from within you, so you must allow plenty of time for this process so you properly identify all your fears!
This step is vital to one of the other ingredients for rapid success I’ve mentioned earlier – your confidence. Once you get a handle on your fear, you find it’s always easier to decide and to act. All the other pieces you’ll learn and the execution of the custom plan you’re building will then fall easily into place. Be accountable and steadfast in getting over these bumps. Most people struggle with them, but they most certainly aren’t insurmountable.
Practice Will Make Perfect
Practice repeatedly. You can’t excel in any endeavor without constantly going through the motions until it becomes instinctive. Learn from the things you do that fail. Go back to before the times when things were not going as planned, or when you were not achieving your goal, and look between the lines. I guarantee you’ll find the source of the problem.
“The answer to the problem always lies in the action or situation that preceded the problem.” Meir Ezra
This means, when you experience a problem, you must look at the events leading up to that problem now declaring itself. This is how you’ll find the cause of the problem that created the situations preceding the problem.
For example: in the situation where a couple has a relationship problem, we can examine the situation and see a point in the relationship where communication changed – where the connection first became more distant. At that point, we can examine what brought about this change.
If the two people are authentic, the truth will come out. Once the truth is there – and this means the truth on both sides – then the couple is in a position to move forward or to realize there isn’t a point to it.
In every situation, it’s not about one person being right and another being wrong. In fact, it is important to never make the person wrong because the person is not. Their actions may not be ethical but each person is perfect. Those studying the essence of who we are will understand this. If you do not understand, then I highly recommend a course of study that examines the essence of who we are. The free course at Manifest Mastermind is a good start. Visit http://manifestmastermind.com
In every situation, it’s about each side being authentic in their approach to conflict or negative energy resolution. This is very important to understand. In business and in life, the degree of success you experience in your business and personal life will be in direct proportion to the authenticity of the people and of the relationship.
Making it Simple
After you’ve identified the source of the problem, all you have to do is re-create the missing element. What was different then from where you were when you last hit the mark, when you achieved a successful outcome? When you know this, you can learn from every mistake and miscalculation and achieve a lot more in your professional and personal life. When you apply this consistently, you’ll always have the confidence to make the decisions necessary to keep moving forward, because you’ll realize there is never a need to fear “missing the mark.”
Understand that you’re not alone, even in the low spots. You’re gaining the knowledge to climb out of them, where others may remain stuck or even hit bottom and stay. This won’t happen to you if you stay focused on what I’m teaching you.
Fail Forward
These lessons are solid. Following these steps can indeed be the key to reaching your goal. However, even these steps can fail if they’re not executed correctly. This is where I again urge you to consider coaching, not only because that’s what I do, but because that’s what’s needed, to help you see and to help you fill in the low spots in your potential so you reach your ultimate success.
Remember you really can do it all and do it successfully all the time, as overwhelming as that might sound at this time. The reality we experience is defined by the mindset of our limitations. If you tell yourself you have weaknesses, redefine this view immediately. Define and implement the structure that turns any and all views of weakness into opportunities for a huge surge of personal strength and organization so you’ll move consistently toward the huge gains in revenue and profits you seek.
When you understand the simple fact that all limitations are created in your mind, you’ll easily accelerate the achievement of your profit and lifestyle goals. The steps in this book, teaching you how to achieve a 30% increase in profits in 90 days or less, will become just like a “walk in the park.”
I’ve taken huge risks in my life. Not all of them have been successful. Some have been devastating disasters. Yet, even in the gloomy times, having the courage to get back up and learn from those mistakes gives you more tools you can then use to become even more successful than ever.
Learn from my personal trials and errors, but also learn from the others who will help build your weaknesses into successes. Don’t be afraid to work with more than one coach. I’m working with a coach who holds me accountable for executing my near-term action plan that fuels a bigger strategy. I’m working with another coach who advises me on how to structure deals with those who fund acquisitions of properties and businesses. My special coach is my spiritual coach who helps me focus on what’s really important – the inner game. I have another coach who critiques all my moves and offers guidance on how to think much bigger and progress much faster.
Every company has issues. When your company has issues, this doesn’t mean your team isn’t capable of handling problems. It often just means the issues have changed and the team hasn’t been structured to deal with a continually changing environment yet. Creating the right dynamics in your business can result in power-boosting the company to maximum efficiency and profits.
How do you create the right dynamics? While a subject of another entire book, I can tell you it’s a process of clearly defining the outcome of every process and function in your business. Having a structure where there is no overlapping of accountabilities and a culture where responsibility for decisions rests at the level best suited for the intended outcome. This sets up the perfect dynamics in your business for hitting your targets every time.
For example, in customer service, you know the company’s structured correctly when you make one call and the issue is handled without having any additional people involved on the other side.
Dare to be Different
I want to inspire you to dare to be different. Even during the shakiest of times, you have to be willing to risk much to gain much. The power of this prosperous thinking, shoving away those nagging negative thoughts, dramatically increases the potential of where you can go.
Discard relationships with anyone who is scattered and disoriented. Surround yourself with positive, organized people and thoughts.
Practice these principles daily as you would when you practice playing a musical instrument or getting into better physical condition. The more you practice, the more it becomes instinctive and part of who you are. Hold on to the rod of forward movement. Stepping back when times get hard makes it twice as difficult to gain your momentum once again. Only staying on the pre-designed path toward an attainable goal can set your vision forward in a positive way and keep you on your 90-day goal.
As in the gold miner example – background, analytical work, market trend analysis and technological goals play a huge part in understanding your business’ potential failure or success.
All Things Are Possible Through the Power of Thought. Find the Right Guidance System for You!
Find your guidance in the Universe. I found mine with God. Find what you need to constantly keep you in check of your core values and forever continue to increase that focus. Always continue improving personal skill, health, energy and efficiency.
Use the journals I recommended earlier. Journals help you focus on where you want to direct your thinking. I want to direct my thinking on positive personal and professional results. I want to focus my attention on all the things that I take for granted and that life would be more difficult without. I have a gratitude journal. In it, I write a growing list of what I’m grateful for. Here, you’ll also find things I’m repeatedly grateful for like running water.
“I’m so grateful for running water,” is how it reads. There are many more. Nothing is too small or seemingly inconsequential to include.
I’ve found that writing these things down cements your internal gratitude for everything you’ve been blessed with and creates a situation where you’ll find yourself constantly receiving more. If you want to smile the next time things don’t seem to be going your way, just make a list of those things you’re grateful for that you otherwise take for granted. This includes simple things that are huge conveniences such as electricity, cell phones or toothpaste.
Try it. Don’t let obstacles overwhelm you. When harder times bring you down, remember there’s no other way to move up from your current economic status that’s more certain to do so than owning your own successful business. In order to succeed in your own business fast, there’s no better way than to be led systematically by someone who has the experience and knowledge to help you rapidly increase your steps in the right direction.
Positive Demonstrated
A friend of mine has demonstrated being positive beyond what most people would ever be forced to endure. She is a positive thinker to the maximum. She surrounds herself with fun and positive people. She will dismiss any person or situation that’s negative or who tries to bring her down.
Knowing this, you can’t imagine how much personal loss and heartache she’s personally endured. When most other people would have given up and hung their heads, joining the ranks of the downtrodden and broken, she has risen even higher and held her chin higher and stronger than anyone I’ve ever met.
After the death of her husband and another committed long time-love, a string of other devastating events followed for this friend of mine. These include the death of her mom, who lived with her and was a big part of the person she is. Then there was the suicide of a nephew.
This woman is very close to her family. With all of this going on, she goes to work smiling and dancing. She’s a successful entrepreneur, a dedicated mother and a living demonstration of the power of character and principles in action, in spite of tremendous personal and emotional strains and tests.
She describes her principles this way: “Discipline yourself more; conserve your time and energy. Place the small voice of progress within your own heart. Laugh and dance all the time.”
I have the utmost respect and love for this woman. She serves as the best example I’ve ever met for the right way to enjoy life, even when it includes all the sorrows most of us might experience.
I’ve thought a lot about how I would summarize this great example of fun, happiness and success. She says it best: “Every day, I decide to be happy.”
Once you get the importance of this and consistently practice what you’re learning here, you’ll find it’s easy, any time you need to, to decide to be happy, too. This is a central element required for climbing to rapid-fire success despite any setbacks or trouble encountered along the way.
Action Steps
http://buildingbusinessprofitsfast.com
http://stevepohlit.com
http://confidencesuccessblueprint.com
http://manifestmastermind.com
“Perfect partners don’t exist. Perfect conditions exist for a limited time in which partnerships express themselves best.” —Wayne Rooney
Before you can hire and retain the best people, “best” needs to be defined. Best means best for you and for the culture of the company you’re building.
Consider a group whose purpose is to supply and use illegal drugs. We refer to this group as a gang. The gang does not recruit from the seminary working with people who want to be priests. They recruit those who will fit their culture, from the places where they can be found.
I use this unusual example so you’ll remember to define your company’s culture. What does that mean? Common attributes of ethical cultures include:
A Cultural Policy Statement is something I help all clients develop and publish. It becomes an important piece of the next part of the recruiting process.
Hire to your weakness and hire people with stronger skills in those areas where you should no longer be spending your time. Those areas probably include most of the things you’re currently doing.
No Job Descriptions
For maximum performance, people need to be clear on how they’re measured and evaluated. Develop a Statement of Accountabilities – your definition of what the person is accountable for. Remember everyone is accountable for adhering to the principles in the cultural document or to the ethics of the organization.
This is important because, at times, it will be important for people to step up and do what is not a part of their primary accountabilities. At those times, a comment like, “It’s not my job,” is not congruent with the ethics of the group.
Apprentice
Everyone is an apprentice at the start, including independent contractors. By apprentice, I mean in development – until a level of mastery of their accountabilities is demonstrated. A common target date for this first phase of demonstrated mastery is 90 days. That’s not cast in stone, but should be a good starting point.
Acknowledgement
Day One, you must let the new team member know how they’re doing. Then, a minimum of once per week for the first month, hold an informal discussion focusing on what is working well and what can be better. Acknowledgement is a complementary system as opposed to a performance appraisal, which is negative. When you focus on the positive and encourage your team members to improve to ever-increasing levels of mastery, you’re demonstrating that you’re in the flow of your defined cultural system that includes respect, harmony and more.
At 30 days, and 60 days, this acknowledgement process is informally written, focusing on successes. Remember – as a leader, your goal is to help them master Phase One.
What are Phases Two, Three and more? That part of the organizational development system is part of another book in this series. For now, think Kaizen gradual improvement every day, at every level, in the business.
What About Academic and Professional Credentials?
If you’re recruiting a lawyer, CPA tax specialist or other professional where the licensing designation is important, then you must focus on credentials. Otherwise, follow the advice of my friend, George Ross, who has been Donald Trump ‘s advisor for a long time. George says to focus on the initiative of the person, the energy you feel coming from them. Do you sense a drive and a desire to make a difference? Those attributes are what you’re looking for.
It’s very interesting to me when I think about how I first connected to the people I’ve now met, worked with and know. I never would have imagined the outcome of meeting these incredible people.
That’s what will happen for you as well. Once you focus on the outcome, the most amazing people and opportunities will appear.
Here’s my own story of two great people. One is a success story to this point and one is a failure. I’m responsible for both.
Success to Failure
The failure was in a relationship. There came a point where the confidence in performance was in doubt and, once that happens, the chain of trust is broken.
I met her in 2009. She asked me some questions online about The Law of Attraction as she was reading my Manifest Mastermind free course. I exchanged my life coaching for her administration and online marketing help. I was happy to help her, to some extent monetarily.
Our work together expanded when I started my real estate investment firm, Tampa Capital Partners. She is smart. Everyone she meets loves her. I always trusted her. Then, the day came when she was over-confident in her relationships with people in the real estate power team. That led to decisions that were not good for the projects. Those decisions resulted in time delays and work that had to be re-done, driving up the cost of renovations and more.
Losing money isn’t the end of the world. However, it does strain relationships when there’s a delay in authentic communication. Ultimately, we reconciled and, today, I still honor and respect her. However, there’s little or no communication and she has moved on to a full-time job elsewhere.
Lack of communication was the reason this relationship failed. Looking back, I still don’t know why the communication changed. But, it did and that’s essential for success in any business.
I wrote that I’m responsible. How can that be, if the other person is the one who stops communicating? I’m not able to identify the precise points where I could have done anything different, because the passage of time clouds some of the details. Read the next story and discover what I am doing now to minimize the risk of a repeat.
Current Success
Who would have imagined that an ad placed on Craigslist for a cleaning person, five years ago, would have resulted in one of the best people joining my team just four months ago. This person is now an apprentice in my real estate investment firm and a marketing support person doing Website work, online marketing, SEO and new business development.
I’ve known this lady since she first walked through the door with her partner, to clean my home. It took me nearly five years to recognize all of her skills. I simply didn’t take the time to pay attention. That’s a major lesson. She’s highly motivated and largely self-taught. Considering her skills and motivation, I’m investing a lot of time in her training and development. She’s receiving the same coaching program that my top students receive. In reality she gets more, because she lives five minutes away and it’s easy to visit in person and coach in person, which I’m not able to do as often as I’d like for most of my students.
In a short period of time, there’s already more real estate business in development than I’ve had in three years. In addition, there’s a new business venture that’s founded on branding, licensing and joint ventures, where my apprentice has been instrumental in helping the company grow.
She’s already on a profit share program and, based on the success path she’s on, she most likely will wind up an equity partner.
My goal is to make sure I do my part in helping her succeed at ever-increasing higher levels. Already, we’re working on finding a person who will be the newest apprentice, so we can continue to build the business with the right leverage.
This success doesn’t mean working together is absolute bliss every day. She’s very good at helping me see those times when I can do a better job teaching and guiding. Understand that, when you experience difficulty with a client, vendor or employee, it doesn’t mean they’re not valuable. Understanding where a person or company’s strength lies and where they’re best positioned is the key to understanding how to maximize the benefit of their relationship with you and with your company.
The Opposite of An Ethical Culture
On my blog, I published a story about a problem I had with AT&T and my iPhone. Regardless of how many people I talked to – including customer service, technicians and anyone they wanted me to talk to – my problem never got resolved.
I loved the iPhone and wanted to keep it. AT&T obviously, at the time, had in place a system that restricted them from doing anything more than checking their towers for an outage or sending patches to a problematic phone. I also knew that I was not the only one having problems with AT&T, and we all wanted to keep our iPhones.
Apple wasn’t blind to the trend of unhappy customers with AT&T and took action. They authorized Verizon to sell and service the iPhone, too. Now Verizon is selling the iPhone and most of the problems seem to have disappeared. However, Apple learned the lesson. Today, they don’t only rely on a robust Verizon to provide their valuable customer support culture. Sprint now offer the iPhone and there are many retail stores where the iPhone can be purchased today. Regardless where you purchase the equipment, your satisfaction is directly linked to the customer support for the servicer you select. You can buy an iPhone at Walmart and your satisfaction is directly related to how well the service provider has implemented the process described here regarding hiring, training and acknowledging team members.
In this scenario, Apple customers didn’t have to switch to another phone and could test the customer service culture of Verizon. Interestingly enough, after changing to Verizon and experiencing outstanding support, it changed. I began to feel like I was talking to AT&T again. My conclusion is that neither AT&T nor Verizon has a cultural mission of taking care of the customer, no matter what it takes. Now I’m testing another phone – a phone based on Google’s Android technology. The carrier is T-Mobile. I’ll be writing a book on my experience with this test – or at least a couple of articles, depending on the lessons I learn.
Every business has notable strengths. This is true for AT&T, Verizon and Steve Pohlit International. Each business must focus on what it does extremely well and build internally and externally to strengthen its weakness. In theory, customers don’t care if the person they’re talking with is located in Omaha or Dubai. The reality is, if they don’t connect with the person who’s there to help them, the customer’s lost. The loss can be immediate or longer-term.
In my experience with AT&T, I worked with them for more than six months before, one day, I decided no matter what, I’m changing carriers. The lifetime value to me changing was at least $50,000. Is my lifetime value for Verizon that amount? Actually, it’s much more. Because of the rate of business growth I expect, the lifetime value of my cellular account could easily be worth at least $1 million over time.
There’s no way to know for sure what the true lifetime value of a customer will be. Actually, that’s not the important point. What is important is that each customer today is totally valuable. Whether that customer buys one product for $69 or becomes one who invests $1 million or more with you, the key is treating each person who wants what you offer as royalty. Read that again – treat each person who wants what you offer as royalty.
This case study shows how AT&T didn’t have strength in the quality of coverage and customer care. Now, Verizon and others, including T-Mobile, are working to establish themselves as industry leaders. Either they will or others will invent the systems and skills that are what the market wants. When they do, they’ll dominate, as long as they deliver on their commitments and continue to innovate.
You’re Fired
Donald Trump popularized this phrase. My response is, any time we dismiss a person who has worked with us, it’s we who have failed. It’s I who have failed. You must accept the Universal Law of “I Am Responsible” to succeed.
“The inability to learn is not the problem. Ineffective teaching is the problem.” Meir Ezra
Are you challenging this point? Good. Now let’s look at just one example. Richard Branson was not a good student. He has dyslexia. He recognized that he could compensate for this problem by memorizing. Today, he credits part of his amazing success to his memory.
Do you want to learn more of his story? Read his book, Screw It Just Do It. I love that book.
This is an example of a person I personally know. I have information that he’s a billionaire. I have not confirmed that information. I can see he is very successful. When you spend time with him like I have, you learn his perspective regarding schools. He quit when he was 16 because he felt schools make you stupid.
Did he quit learning? Absolutely not! In fact, he is about 50 now and I’ve watched him conduct a seminar for more than twelve hours each day and he still continues to study each day for more than two hours. He’s used his self-study system to enhance and perfect a system for building successful companies. He now owns twenty six of them.
When I first met him, I simply introduced myself, complimented him on what I was learning from him and briefly mentioned some of what I do. He gave me his personal cell phone number and email address and said, “Don’t be concerned about my time. If there’s anything I can do to help you further understand what I’m teaching, just ask.” I did ask and he answered the same day. Now we have an agreement to have dinner with me and my apprentice, who has connected with others in his organization, will be with me. We all live within 30 minutes of each other. You would never know how successful he is by how accessible he is.
I give you this example because of what I’ve learned from him already. I’ve learned to memorize very important information. I’ve learned to step up my game and teach others what works. I’ve learned to listen more intently and to be more accessible. If a man who owns 26 companies and is a billionaire can do this, so can you and me. Many of the lessons that are in this book are enhanced by what I’ve learned from him.
What is the first lesson he taught? I am responsible. See the tie-in to Richard Branson? If you study successful people, you’ll find this principle is at the core of who many of them are.
The Degree of Success is Proportional to What You Measure
The systems you put into practice must always be tracked for effectiveness and consistent results. This is the only way you can ensure yourself of reaching a goal of 30% more profits in 90 days or less.
“You get what you inspect not what you expect.”
Examples of What to Measure
Meir teaches and now I coach on the 70 statistics every business needs to track. This applies if you are one person running all parts of your business or a large multi-national corporation. With these examples, you already see the benefits of measuring.
“You get what you inspect not what you expect.”
This chapter is about how to recruit and develop a successful team. The answer is that it starts with you. You’re the leader, you’re the inspiration. You are the example, so: be the example of what you want your business to represent.
Action Steps
You must, without exception, spend most of your time marketing your business. That’s a fact that will never change. Most companies and even successful executives don’t get this. If you spend most of your day attracting people to purchase your product, the other aspects of running your business are a cakewalk. Your goal of a 30% increase in profits within 90 days becomes entirely reachable when you spend about 80% of your time marketing. In fact, you’re likely to blow by that 30% in 90 day goal really fast if you follow only this advice and spend 80% of your time marketing.
When I coach people, this is the first and most fundamental challenge, beyond anything else I’m faced with. Intellectually, everyone understands that if you don’t develop strong relationships with your customers and prospects, someone else will. If others do, you’ll soon find yourself out of business. There are staggering numbers of people and companies looking for the same customers you are. You have to be on top of the game when competing for their business. As I said earlier – intellectually, everyone I talk with about this “gets it” and agrees – yet almost nobody devotes that kind of energy to it.
Imagine that you have a business that has $500,000 of revenue and $75,000 of profit before tax. Most people with a business like this spend 5% of their time on marketing. Maybe 10%. If the owner of that business seriously steps up to devoting 80% of their time and their company’s sales and marketing function’s time to marketing, revenue would increase from $500.000 to $2 million or more. The overall profit percentage may decline from 15% of revenue to 13%, but 13% of $2 million in revenue is $260,000 of profit before tax. That’s quite an increase!
Why is there a decline in the profit percentage, from 15% to 13%, in this example? The primary reason is, when the owner decides to spend 80% of her or his time on marketing as a percentage of revenue may go up, simply because leveraging the work of other people frees that 80% of his or her time and this additional help costs more. The principle here is that an owner/leader should focus their time and attention where they provide the most value and that value is in marketing. Spending a bit more, lowering the overall percentage of profit a bit, is well worth the additional returns in the profits from additional sales.
Develop and Implement an Effective Follow-Up System
Once you understand who wants what you offer and is willing to pay for it, implement a communication strategy to catch their attention. If you speak with a voice that communicates directly to your customers and specifically to what they want, they’ll pay attention.
The good news is that some of the best marketing methods have no incremental cost. These include: social media marketing, email marketing and follow-up telephone calls. The key is to have a follow-up timetable, based on your evaluation of the prospect as being an A, B or C. A’s are likely to warrant personal meetings and B and C are progressively less likely.
Whatever it takes to convert a prospect to a customer is what you need to do. Furthermore, no matter how long it takes you, keep doing it. I know some business owners who never drop a person from their contact management system once the information is captured. I know of instances where a prospect becomes a customer after seeing 20 or more messages. We simply don’t know how long it will take to develop that relationship that then turns into a sale.
The Best Way to Attract New Customers:
Happy customers refer others. Continually evaluate ways that you can increase customer satisfaction and then offer your customers incentives for referring others. In summary, satisfy your existing customers – exceed their expectations, then offer rewards when they refer their friends who will also purchase your product.
There are Only Three Ways to Increase Sales
It might not sound possible. Jay Abraham, the famous author, speaker and deal-maker, was first to teach me there are only three ways to increase sales – and he’s right. They are:
For optimum leverage, you want to do all three. In the service industry, I always look for ways to offer an up-sale or add-on purchase. For example, this book is an entry-level low-priced product. It may be developed into a DVD training program and certainly is encouragement for people to invest in my coaching. My coaching program has multiple levels, depending on the client’s needs and what they can afford.
Regarding affordability, I have creative ways to help people who are committed to doing the work easily pay for my coaching. Call me, Steve Pohlit, at 727-587-7871 for details.
Effective Marketing Requires Little or No Cash: Check Out These examples:
Your Online Brand
The Internet is critical for any business in our day. A Website is the foundation for your brand. You’re most likely reading this book thanks to the Internet. You search for things you want or need via the Internet and you’re far from alone. The fact is you have almost no credibility today without a Website.
Blogging is also a major resource for speaking directly to your customers. You have to have a voice that online customers can hear, seek out and follow and blogging is a major way to do this. Fortunately, Websites and blogs can be set up very inexpensively these days. You can learn to do this yourself. However, I recommend outsourcing the task. Most of the sites my clients set up are completed in less than a week for less than $500 when they outsource the work.
Once your site is set up you’ll need to invest some time communicating, using articles, email marketing and phone calls. Much of this can also be outsourced.
Your potential customers right now, all over the world, are typing key words into their Internet browsers and searching for things you might sell. You need to make sure you show up when they do. Brand recognition and being able to speak directly to your customers, conveying to them what they want and that you have it right now, is powerful.
Notice the title of this book: Build Business Profits Fast. Now, type buildbusinessprofitsfast.com in your browser. I chose the title of this book based because the matching domain name was available. You should select the name of your business, if you’re just starting, based on the availability of the .com domain name. This is important and it’s the foundation for building your brand today. Once you have your brand, then you need to have your site built in the format to best serve your target customers.
I chose to focus on the landing page or squeeze page for this book and put it in a separate directory on my site. I’m using the main site to offer information about the book and to encourage all who discover the home page to click and register for the first chapter free. I’m also using the main site for key articles that promote the book. My plan is to further support this material with select videos.
My preferred setup for all the sites I have is to have a full site support account for each domain with my hosting solutions company, Host Gator. A full support site is one where there is what’s called C-Panel access. Once registered, I then click the Fantastico icon in C-Panel to load WordPress. WordPress is the technology I prefer for blogging and sites of all kinds, because of its flexibility for creating pages that look similar to graphic sites and the ease of blogging it brings to the table.
All the details of how this is done are beyond the scope of this book. However, there is a free course I developed several years ago, named Blogging for Profits, that will walk you though the steps required to set up and get rolling with your own WordPress blogs and Websites.
Social Media
The most efficient way to drive traffic to your blog and Website is through the effective use of social media. This includes Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and LinkedIn. Stay up-to-date with what your target audience is following and discussing, then target your communication to address their problems.
Social media is one of the most powerful ways to reach your customers. Customer trends and conversations are important to keep track of and social media takes the guesswork out of doing this. However, the next couple of steps are very important, since social media connections alone likely won’t prove effective for converting connections to customers.
Relationships
You want to build and maintain relationships with people interested in you and in your products and services. Keeping up communication at this point is essential; you want your audience to go from following your social media posts to getting on your own list, where you can develop more direct communications, including sales messages.
Make it clear in all your communications with your customers that what they need is provided by your business. Tell them how following you and accepting your free advice will enhance their lives. Also tell them they’ll enhance their lives when they tell their friends to join your list. The good news: no “hard-sell” is required in these communications.
A Proven Approach to Increase Revenues Quickly
See the power of this approach? This is a simple and inexpensive communication process that will result in loyalty to you and what you publish. Their loyalty, to what you stand for and to the value you bring to the table, is the benchmark for your success you should focus on. The more value you deliver, the greater the loyalty and the greater your success.
This strategy has been instrumental to my own success.
I have several businesses that produced cash profits quickly as a result of the networks I built on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and YouTube. This work has been the foundation of my strategy to have a large base of people interested in what I offer. Possibly more interesting is the fact that I’m now launching a new business unrelated to anything I’ve offered in the past, and my entire contact list needs what this business will offer.
When you subscribe to my list at http://buildingbusinessprofitsfast.com you’ll receive updates on the latest actions that are working and those that appear to have changed. You’ll also be able to share your stories and questions related to your experience implementing the action steps in this book.
Once people connect to you and trust you, they’ll pay attention to your recommendations. At that point, you have the opportunity to market affiliate products, co-branded products and services, test joint venture ideas and more.
The new business I’m launching with services everyone needs is a perfect example. It has nothing to do with real estate investment, real estate investment consulting, business turnaround consulting or any of the other ventures that people associate with me. However, I’m confident my list will be ravenous buyers of the services offered.
The value is in the list. It’s honestly the most valuable asset in your business. Build your list as a database. Everyone that buys from you should be designated as a customer. All communication with customers as well as buying history should be retained an accessible for when you communicate with those customers or when there is a customer inquiry or complaint. This database can mean the difference between success and failure.
Here is one example: I have previously mentioned my Manifest Mastermind membership business and free course. I expanded my network on Facebook and Twitter in 2008 and then used that network to launch Manifest Mastermind in January, 2009. It was profitable month one. I launched it all for less than $1,000.
Do I recommend following this example? Yes, but I would also find ways to leverage my time better. As a reminder, register for my free course at http://manifestmastermind.com.
Bonus: I just recorded an interview with a person whose life was turned around and whose business is skyrocketing and he attributes the tipping point to my Manifest Mastermind. You must be a member of my list to receive this bonus. How much does it cost to become a member of my list? $0.00.
Are you seeing the whole picture…the overall strategy and the ease of attaining the success you set out to achieve when you picked up this book? Once the first idea flows, it’s like an avalanche of possibilities. Once you get what I’m teaching you here, you can create your future without limits.
Profiling for Profit
When creating your profile for each of the social networks you’re using, it’s important to use keyword descriptions that will attract your target audience. Notice one of my professional descriptions is “International Real Estate Investment and Business Turnaround Coach.” That’s considerably more powerful than simply writing something like, “Author.” However, I’m modifying my profiles to include the newest information, which includes, “Author: Building Business Profits Fast and Managing Partner – The Guys In Pink.”
Look at that last phrase again: “Managing Partner – The Guys In Pink.” Alone, it doesn’t speak to any target audience, or maybe to a group that I’m not personally interested in attracting. But, when I add something like, “Delivering Outstanding Satisfaction to Homeowners Wanting Lawncare, Pool Service and More,” along with the Website URL, not only will people “get it,” there are important keywords in that description to help them find it from search.
Social media helps solidify relationship capital. The greatest thing about it is that it’s a constant, ever-changing, living, breathing entity. Relationship capital provides us with a new dimension to relationships, available at our fingertips. That can be very positive for the goal of strengthening our professional and personal relationships.
The opposite can be true. One personal example was my experience on Facebook during the 2012 presidential campaign. I was very vocal and visible during the months leading up to the election, in support of the person I felt had the best platform to lead our country. I had hundreds of people unfriend me on Facebook who were not in alignment with my views. I was ok with that because I’m a person who is very clear as to what I stand for and I’m not going to make everyone happy.
Action Steps
It’s a simple fact. Marketing is where most of your energy needs to be focused. Without customers, you have no business. That means marketing must be your primary focus.
Most business leaders don’t structure their time to prioritize marketing. This is a major mistake, every time.
“Maybe I’ll get to it tomorrow,” is a common muttered phrase then someone wonders why the business isn’t moving forward or possibly even declining.
“If you are not growing, you are dying.”
After reading this far, you should understand excuses for not marketing don’t stand up to the test of real results. Don’t make the same mistakes others have and end up drowning with work that could have been done just as well by others, leaving the marketing funnel ignored.
You have a key advantage over most other companies as soon as you realize the power of focusing your resources and developing relationships interested in entering your marketing funnel, strengthening those relationships where they want your offer, having products to offer after they’ve tested your offer and they want more. Most importantly, when they’re your customer, make certain they’re treated so well they don’t want to go anywhere else.
This is a brief summary of a comprehensive process, a process that is the focus of most of my coaching work with clients, because the marketing funnel brings the most value to every business.
The next most valuable areas of my coaching process are having the right performance measurements in place and leveraging the work or having the right people accountable for all tasks that need to be performed.
If you were working with me and my team, you would find us using three foundation tools in the coaching process which are:
While each of these can be found in the bonus section of this book, there’s a lot more to having the right process in place for Building Business Profits Fast. The only way to appreciate that statement is to become a client and work directly with me. Call me – Steve Pohlit – at 727-587-7871, for a consultation or just email me at StevePohlit@gmail.com, with “Important – Steve” in the subject line.
While reading the rest of this chapter and following the sound, clear advice in it, take time to understand what each step represents and how you can maximize its potential. Answer the questions honestly and with purpose.
Making the Definition of Your Business Come to Life
Remember when we you read about the importance of having a clear definition of your business? You may recall I gave you several Websites as examples, including http://tampacapitalpartners.com. This is where you align your marketing strategy with that definition.
Consider these questions:
1. What is the purpose of your marketing? I suggest you think in terms of defining your Valuable Final Product and endearing your relationship to develop a lifelong loyal reception to your offers.
2. What is the main competitive advantage you stress? What is your unique selling proposition?
3. Who is your target audience? – Who is your ideal customer?
4. Which specific marketing tools will you use and how will you prioritize them and measure their effectiveness?
5. Within your market niche, what do you stand for? For example, as a coach, I am often told that people know I stand for profitable results and I have my clients’ success as the top priority.
6. What is your identity, your personality? This is very important. For example, I know that I’m a direct and focused person. I’m not as patient with people who are not in alignment with my personality type. When I recognize this incongruence, I have the client work with another coach who is more suited to their style.
7. What is your marketing budget in time and money? Remember, time includes using the time of others and, when you are at a stage where cash flow is very limited, structure incentives based on results.
The above “7-Step Simple Marketing Plan” was recently posted by Jay Conrad Levinson on Rich Schefren’s blog. Levinson is known for his advice on “gorilla marketing.” Rich Schefren is a very experienced and credible author and consultant.
I read this and thought it might be helpful as a guide. If you first remember to spend most of your time marketing and follow my advice on developing your credibility online, you can indeed market with little or no money.
Marketing means consistently testing and measuring results. The results will lead you to the next steps that will help you cement relationships with those who want what you offer.
These three resources are key. The first two lead to the third one, which is the foundation for all success:
1. A Web site. I continue to recommend using the WordPress blog format – http://buildingbusinessprofitsfast.com, for example.
2. Use social media and, especially, LinkedIn, YouTube and Facebook.
3. Build and maintain relationships – everything we do either results in relationships that fuel our growth or not. Relational Capital is the pivot point of massive success.
These three marketing tools and Jay’s list of seven steps are priceless. These steps also cost you little or no money to implement, although you do have to invest some time to execute them. I can’t stress this enough.
With the emphasis today on credibility on the Internet, it’s important to understand that relationships are built by personal contact. This personal contact opportunity can be developed using Internet tools, but there’s more. Personal contact includes using the phone, face-to-face interaction, direct mail, email, texts and greeting cards (a biggie).
Most important is a sincere focus on serving the other person. Many of my strongest relationships have developed from meeting people and from attending local, regional and national events. My closest professional relationships are with people who are or who have been clients. Nothing is more valuable than the right relationship…nothing!
Action Steps
It deserves repeating: The Gold Is in the Variance! After decades of working with large businesses and business owners of all types, I built and proved this simple formula while I was developing a way for any person or organization to rocket the achievement of their goals forward the right way.
One night, while I was registering the domain name, http://10minutemba.net, the springboard for a simple, straightforward roadmap any business could use to track its progress became a reality. My Gold Formula™ was born.
Just like any other great idea or formula, this technique takes time, effort and vision to define, create and fully test.
This is when my now-trademarked Gold Formula™ started its journey, from my vision, experience and failures, to become a tool you now have available at your fingertips.
Since the beginning of 2010, I had the honor of delivering presentations to many North American audiences. This was done as part of the JT Foxx educational program. I was preparing myself one day when I realized that the gold is always found in the variance. This is true, because it’s always the variance that tells us what to do. Very simply: a positive variance tells us to do more of what’s causing the positive variance and a negative variance tells us corrective action is needed. What’s also crystal clear is that a variance is not possible unless there’s a plan to measure against, so you can track your actual results against the plan.
The Gold Formula™ applies to everything in our life – our health and wellness goals, relationship goals, educational goals, and our business performance goals. The Gold Formula also applies to your spiritual goals which, in my view, are the foundation for everything else we accomplish.
I’m no stranger to variance analysis, since studying accounting at Clarion State University. However, really recognizing and understanding the power of variances has taken me a very long time. You, however, get my formula handed to you in this book, already tried, tested and proven.
It’s Been Here All Along
This formula was right there all along, in every business structure and accounting log ever created. But now, when you look at the big picture, you’ll understand that this is indeed a very important discovery, because gold indeed is in the variance!
My Gold Formula™ helps track the variances in your company and your life. Understanding and using this simple tool gives you the power to exceed your potential beyond your wildest expectations. When you track business performance goals with my Gold Formula™, it will spell out the variance that you’re looking for. This can be used not only for business, but in your life at home and for all relationships.
When you understand the variance, you control the profits. Imagine dominating your business potential with the Gold Formula™, which is very easy to understand and use.
My trademarked Gold Formula™ is the cornerstone of all my business ventures and consulting work. This formula also fits perfectly with the Three Pillars that we studied earlier; health, relationships and money.
My experience as a CEO and CFO and as a consultant with Fortune 500 companies (see my resume at http://www.stevepohlit.com) is now available to you and to your company. Call me at 727-587-7871 for a consultation or email me at StevePohlit@gmail.com with “Important – Steve” in the subject line.
The business climate is always changing and any business needs to change with it. With my Gold Formula™, you can constantly measure your individual and business climate changes and stay way ahead of the pack personally and professionally.
Action Steps
Chapter 9: Please remember this is from the original book. A small percentage of the content is outdated. The chapters are being provided in reverse order so they appear correctly on my new LinkedIn Group by the same name as the book.
Time Management Brings It All into Focus
In Step Two and elsewhere throughout this book, I’ve discussed leveraging tasks to those who have the appropriate expertise. In this chapter, I’ll further demonstrate how to leverage your time. Once you have this part of your system in place, you’ll be driving 30% or more profit increases every 90 or less, again and again.
I have several clients right now who are growing faster than this every month.
Brain surgery is an example of a profession where you may not think leveraging applies. This skill is so specialized, how can there be any leverage? Doesn’t the surgeon always need to be involved in the process?
If you take a step back and see the surgeon’s “whole picture,” aside from the procedure itself, everything else is done by support staff members, before, during and after. The procedure can only take place once the facilities, equipment and staff are ready. The surgeon then arrives, applies his or her skills then leaves the rest of the process to the support staff. The successful operation takes the specialized skill of the brain surgeon and his or her ability to trust and work with the right equipment and team makes that possible.
Most business people try to do all the steps themselves. Getting away from this is always a major focus of mine when coaching clients.
Your support staff, if you have employees, is a key element to time management. If you don’t have employees, you still have a support team or, perhaps your power team would be a better name for them. Your power team may include: a CPA, a lawyer, your vendors, realtors, bankers, coaches, contractors, sales representatives and more.
Your support staff allows you to focus on your particular skill, the areas where you bring the most value, while they handle the other things that need to get done to keep your business operating efficiently.
My friend, George Ross (of Celebrity Apprentice fame – the person whose office is next to Donald Trump’s), says 20% of what we do results in 80% of our income. There are others teaching this as well. George teaches the system behind the 80:20 rule, as do I, with all those I coach.
I host a monthly call with George and we regularly discuss this productivity enhancement process, as well as many other topics, including the principles of successful negotiations, an area where George is an expert. His negotiation skills are the number one reason he has remained Donald’s executive vice president for more than 30 years.
Personally, I’m very grateful for all that George has taught me in the more than two years I’ve been working with him. Here’s a gem from George, in response to my question regarding what is his number one piece of advice, when going into any negotiation? George advises that you know what the other person wants. While this seems so simple, most people don’t ever really know about it or apply it.
Visit Amazon and search on “George Ross.” Buy his books. They’re very valuable. George Ross, I’m grateful for you.
Wayne Allyn Root is another great friend of mine. Visit http://rootforamerica.com, for more on this remarkable man, who has the highest level of energy of anyone I know. He has taught me and others a lot about his uniquely powerful system of “positive addictions,” which includes action steps that develop mind, body and spirit.
Wayne is very successful and he attributes his success to the use of a very clear goal-setting system with your vision of longer-term and shorter-term results. He finds pictures of outcomes he’s creating and has a “dream book” he puts together using those pictures. He keeps this by his bed and he spends time with it every evening.
Wayne is absolutely relentless about goal achievement, whether it’s a daily goal or one that’s four or more years out. Very soon, you’ll be able to register for a monthly call with Wayne. If you’re subscribed to my list at: http://buldingbusinessprofitsfast.com, you’ll receive an announcement as soon as this is available. Wayne Allyn Root, I am grateful for you.
I could write a complete book on very successful people and notable people who are my friends and advisors. Maybe I will, at some point in the future. For now, I’d like to mention one more of my great friends and a remarkable man. I first met him when I was in the audience at an event in Hawaii. I watched him deliver a powerful presentation on the keys to his success and then, as started talking about his latest venture, he started taking off his suit jacket, then his tie, then his shirt.
Under his shirt, he wore a very tight athletic shirt and you could tell he was in tremendous shape. This is man is Joe Sugarman. He’s in his 70’s now. Joe’s a legend. He’s the founder of the Blueblocker Sunglass Company and, while his sunglasses are revolutionary, it’s his amazing marketing and copywriting skills that place him in the top tier of the elite. Google Joe and read all his books – if you can find them all. Several are out of print. You should get them, if you can.
Joe has taught me a lot about marketing and writing great sales copy. Knowing him has helped me in many other ways. Joe’s an outstanding, caring, giving person. Being around him is calming and he always listens as if he were still a newbie. Joe has coached me through an amazing physical tune-up process – and I’m now overdue for another one. How this relates to time management is that, by his personality, people will do almost anything for Joe. Today, he runs several businesses, keeps himself in tremendous physical and mental condition and nurtures professional and personal relationships. He does that and more because he prioritizes what’s important and accomplishes those tasks by focusing on what he does best, while always allowing others to do what they do best. Joe Sugarman, I am grateful for you.
Think about every process in your business that you personally handle now that could be handled by someone other than you, with less or different experience. Be sure to identify those processes that require your direct involvement at the management level. The principle is to leverage those tasks that should be done by others while remembering that, as business owners and leaders, we remain accountable for the ultimate outcome.
Remember the surgeon. What processes in your business are not uniquely tied to what you must handle for your business? For the surgeon, it’s the actual work performing the surgery. For you, it should be anything that’s essential to you achieving your revenue and profit goals. I believe you’ll find that most of what you absolutely must handle yourself will fall into the category of strengthening important relationships and building new ones.
There are many time management techniques. The one most important technique that can quickly get you from where you are to a 30% increase in your profits is breaking down and re-assigning all the processes in your business that can be moved off of your plate. This puts more time in your hands to focus directly on marketing and managing your business growth.
Most business owners and leaders I’ve worked with find that this one process results in the profit needle moving up very quickly. More important is the fact that it will result in the development of an increasing number of amazing relationships.
Action Steps
My book Building Business Profits focuses on the measurements important for The Gold Formula to work. There is more. Watch this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BwhGFK3LaBs
For me there are a number of wonderful lessons in this story.
As you read what is being posted about Building Business Profits Fast, remember the chapter summaries found here https://stevepohlit.com/2024/11/building-business-profits-fast/
Also remember I am here to help and I guarantee the results The main page is stevepohlit.com
Chapter 3:
The Gold Formula™ -A Gyroscope Keeping You Constantly on Course to Success
“The only true measurement of business success is the trend of your company’s cash balance when properly measured.” – Steve Pohlit
All the content of this book is important. This chapter is my favorite because it is very easy to make adjustments to your action plans if you follow The Gold Formula. Remember Guaranteed Results Coaching is available. That is detailed at the main page of StevePohlit.com
So far, you should have a clearer understanding of the inner processes you must develop to lead a profitable business. You’ve also started to build a customized plan to carry your specific business to its goals. It’s imperative that you also have a system in place to track your progress, to constantly stay on-track and know when adjustments are needed to keep moving forward.
This is a solid part of the system I’ve named my “Gold Formula™.” We’ll expand more on the meaning of this term in a later chapter. For now, you need to know that the main thrust of my Gold Formula™ is that the gold is in the variance!
Your success is measured by the variance from your plan. Understanding your variance brings everything into much better focus and provides you with full control of the rudder as you steer.
My trademarked Gold Formula™:
Plan minus Actual = Variance
Understanding this simple equation is the key to keeping your business on track for rapid growth of 30% or more in 90 days or less. It also guides you down the path of achieving prosperity in all three pillars of life: health, relationships and money.
These pillars hold the structure upon which you’re building your plan firmly and concretely. Without success in all three pillars, any good business plan is sure to fail at some point.
Here are a couple of easy-to-follow examples:
Example 1: In the area of health, many people today think about losing weight. Let’s use The Gold Formula™ System for doing that.
First: Define the goal in very positive terms. “I am now renewing my energy and overall health with a healthier lifestyle that results in my ideal weight that is (for example) 30 pounds lighter than I am now.”
Second: Design a plan to reduce caloric intake by 500 calories a day or a combination of 250 calories less in consumption and 250 calories burned by exercise. This plan is designed so that my weekly calorie reduction is 3,500, which is the approximate equivalent to one pound. I now see that, if I stick to this plan, I’ll be at my goal in 30 weeks – or a little more than half a year.
Can I do this? It’s now clear that I can. Is this important to me? Yes, it is. But, do I have a big enough “why” to take consistent action on the plan? This is essential to moving forward and staying with what is required to reach your goals.
Maybe your “why” is because you don’t want to risk having to see a doctor or – worse – having to go to the hospital. Maybe your “why” is you’ve let yourself go a bit and you don’t feel you’re doing your part to be the best you can be for your spouse or children.
All of us have to look for that truly motivating “why” or we run the risk of not sticking to the plan.
This might seem too simple to work, but consider that one of the major reasons for failure of any plan is not sticking to it. Your motivating “why” is both a gyroscope and an engine keeping you moving down the surest path to success.
Part of the plan may include finding pictures of people who are in shape, to reinforce how we intend to look. Our plan will also involve telling a couple of close friends or loved ones what we’re doing, for emotional support and accountability along the way.
Our plan now becomes more specific as we build out the sub-steps within each step. What exactly are we going to do differently that will result in consuming around 250 less calories and burning 250 more calories each day? Our plan would need to include our adjustments to our diet for those days we’re not able to exercise and, likewise, for those when we exercise more.
Our plan won’t include a day off, because we’re adjusting our lifestyle, not “going on a diet.”
Third: Keep a special journal for this lifestyle improvement program. This is how we begin to measure the actual results in comparison to the plan. For example, we might plan to stop drinking sugary soft drinks or skipping ice cream or reducing some other food or drink that’s contributed more calories than fit into our plan.
Every day, we calculate how well we’re doing according to the plan. If we reduced our calorie intake by 300 calories and our plan was a 250 calorie reduction, then our variance was minus 50 (250 planned minus 300 actual = -50). A negative variance in this case is good because we ate and drank 50 less calories than called for in our plan. If we planned on burning 250 calories on the treadmill and we actually burned 150, then the variance is 100. A positive variance in this part of our plan is not good. We planned on burning 100 more calories than we actually did, calling for adjustments elsewhere.
At the start of each day, we can now look at how we’re doing and easily adjust our food and drink consumption plus our exercise program, so we stay firmly on track.
It’s the variance that’s the Gold because the variance tells us what we have to do to correct our course and how much adjustment is needed. We can’t have a variance unless we have a plan and we can’t have variance unless we measure our actual results against that plan.
This is so simple yet powerful. It also requires discipline, which again is another reason to have a coach. Just having to present and track the actual results to a coach is often the main reason people accelerate their results so rapidly with the guidance and accountability a good coach brings to the game.
Example 2:
In this example, the company has a defined sales funnel primarily using Internet marketing tools to identify interested prospects. Their lead-in products include one of a number of free reports, a mini-course and e-books. All are an enticement to attract people into their list. Once on the list, they can use an auto-responder system to demonstrate the value of a product line they sell with price points ranging from $9.97 to more than $30,000.
This model deserves an entire book in the Building Business Profits Fast series. For the purposes of this book, the company in this example illustrates the use of The Gold Formula™ throughout their business and it includes a weekly plan for new leads into their auto-responder system.
Their past statistics show precisely 1,000 leads entering the auto-responder system each week. They’re confident they can achieve their current annual revenue and profit goals for this year, which are 100% higher than last year, by driving 1,000 people into their sales funnel.
This business further breaks down the 1,000 leads by primary source, including:
Each of these traffic sources has its own plan actual variance tracking system. Beyond that, each activity has a plan actual variance tracking system.
For example, if the goal is to publish six tweets and 12 re-tweets daily, then the actual is compared to the plan and a variance is calculated. Included are calculations of the click-through rate to the site and the resulting conversions to leads from those clicks.
“You Get What You Inspect, Not What You Expect.”
That is not my quote. I’d love to give proper credit to the person who originated it, but I don’t know who that is. There’s too much disagreement about the actual source to name one. The point is, as soon as this business started clearly measuring activities and actions against the results, they were always able to see what was working and fuel it, and also to see what was not working and fix it.
The Gold Formula™ may be the single most powerful tool in the toolbox, for not only increasing your revenue and profits by 30% or more – but doubling it or even more as you continue to follow the plan.
Back to the Mirror
When measuring your business profits and looking at where the variance lies, make sure you look in the mirror and understand how your strengths match your goals, internally and externally. Continue to develop these skills as you surge toward the prize – your financial independence.
Remind yourself the results – 30% higher profits in 90 days or less – are well worth the additional work consistently strengthening your efforts and measuring your progress constantly along the way. After a while, it becomes habit.
In an earlier chapter, I discussed the use of a personal journal in connection with the time you spend developing your self-confidence and your value system and deciding what areas of your life you’re going to strengthen. Those areas may include relationships with your family, your health and – on a personal level – strengthening what may be less-than-optimal characteristics of your own thinking and behavior.
As a professional success coach, I have a great responsibility to guide others toward their ultimate success. It’s paramount to my own character to do this in a responsible and honest way. The same principle applies to you. Keep your eye on the ball. Don’t let others make you slide off your foundation. Remember that what you put out to the world is what you will get in return. Make sure what you put out there is valuable.
Character and Confidence Go a Long Way
Confidence builds with experience, but you can have confidence even without any experience at all. How you present yourself and who you surround yourself with builds your self-confidence, which will also make you appear more confident, creating the best climate for success.
Don’t forget the fundamentals of your own character. Who you say you are should be who you really are. Stay focused on what you’re trying to achieve and remember the variances that you measure will move your business forward. Be sure that forward movement is in the area of revenue and profits, following your plan to generate an increase in profits of 30% or more in 90 days or less. This way, it’s truly possible to achieve your goal and then easily duplicate the process again and again for even better results.
Also remember that only 20% of what you do creates 80% of your profit. Make sure what you do is packed with purpose and never bend from your core principles, focusing most of your attention on the 20%.
Always hold onto the image of success. Be bold and confident in your decisions and remember to be daring – even when the stakes are high, if it also makes sense to take a measured risk.
Above all else, avoid anything that doesn’t align with your goal. It’ll take you off-course faster than anything else.
Action Steps:
The Gold Formula™ is very easy to understand. However, implementing and benefiting from this powerful tool is best achieved by working with Coach Steve. Drop me a note at stevepohlit@gmail.com or call me at 727-587-7871. I’d be happy to discuss helping you personally, too.
This it the name of a book I published in 2013 . The subtitle is How To Increase Profits By 30% or More In 90 Days or Less. It is available on Amazon. Just note I am in the process of updating it for latest business developments. Remote management for example.
A lot of information in the book is incredibly timeless. To give you and example here is a summary of each of the 9 chapters and this book is still the foundation of my coaching and consulting experience. My results guaranteed program is the featured article at stevepohlit.com
Chapter Summaries ChatGBT4 did this for me from my book in about 4 seconds.
Chapter 1: A clear definition of your business is essential, as it allows you to focus your energy and attention on the most profitable actions. Start by mapping out a realistic short-term plan (12-18 months), and regularly revisit and refine it.
Chapter 2: Develop insights into your financial future and plan your goals accordingly. Rolling back your long-term targets into actionable steps for today helps you stay focused and build a resilient financial foundation.
Chapter 3: Implement the Gold Formula™ by focusing on the essential areas, including market understanding, skill improvement, and utilization of available tools. Embrace a success-driven mindset as “Success Is an Inside Job.”
Chapter 4: Identify and eliminate fear-based blockages that hinder business success. Focus on emotional and mental clarity to overcome obstacles and achieve steady growth.
Chapter 5: Use an accountability-driven hiring process to build a strong team. Recruit individuals aligned with your company’s culture and create a clear accountability framework for each role.
Chapter 6: Dedicate 80% of your time to marketing efforts. Prioritize customer acquisition and relationship building, using measurable marketing techniques that allow you to optimize efforts and maximize profitability.
Chapter 7: Answer key marketing questions to clarify your target audience and refine your message. Develop a marketing funnel and consistently engage prospects to foster a robust customer pipeline.
Chapter 8: Apply the Gold Formula™ consistently in both personal and professional areas to ensure holistic success. Reflect on each decision to align it with your long-term vision and values.
Chapter 9: Time management is key to focus. Use tools like the Visionary Blueprint and the Accelerated Accountability Worksheet to track and prioritize tasks, ensuring each action supports your growth objectives.
If you are interested in exploring how I might help you just contact me
Steve Pohlit
stevepohlit@gmail.com
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