Article Directory | Steve Pohlit

Success Mastery: Classic Positive Think Literature from Success Magazine

How

Many of These Do You Own?

How Many Have You Read In The Last Six Months?

Of The Ones You Read, List Three Lessons That You Remember and Are Using From Each

It is not about how much you have read, it is about the quality of your reading and how you remember and use what you have read.

Here Is The List from Success Magazine – A great list by the way. My answers to the questions below.

1. As A Man Thinketh, James Allen
2. Think and Grow Rich, Napoleon Hill
3. Success Through a Positive Mental Attitude, Napoleon Hill
4. How To win Friends and Influence People, Dale Carnege
5. The Power of Positive Thinking, Dr. Norman Vincent Peale
6. Man’s Search for Meaning, Victor Frankl
7. Learned Optimism: How To Change Your Mind and Your Life, Martin Seligman

My Answers

I own the first 5 in print and now Kindle

I have read or scanned the first 3 in the last 6 months

I can tell you a great deal about the first 4 and how I use key lessons in my life and business. I speak regularly at The Genius Tour events and incorporate these lesson in my presentations and work with coaching and consulting clients. Please call me and let’s discuss the coaching program that is right for your business. 727-587-7871.

I just purchased 6 and 7. In 2-4 weeks I will be fluently talking about and acting on the major lessons of all 7. Now your turn. I look forward to your comments.

BTW there are many great resources and this is just one source. It is a great start and if you only studied these books and followed the guidance in my book Building Business Profits Fast, I am sure you will being doing just fine.

May Your Success Exceed All Your Most Amazing Expectations

Success

Success is the experiencing of your ever expanding potential and helping others do the same.

Think about that and I will expand upon that in a future article. In the meantime, please click here and register now Even if you cannot join us at one of the cities, there are many benefits for you.

For Your Success,

Steve Pohlit

Author of: Building Business Profits Fast
International Business Turnaround and Development Consulting
Real Estate Investment Consulting
Executive Coach

Click Here and Discover If Coaching or Consulting Is The Right Answer For You

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Success Mastery: 2012- My Best Year Since 2007 and Why

Sharing the best ideas for achieving success in all areas of your life.

I am a very experienced international real estate investment and business turnaround coach. My success rate is 100% with those people who follow my coaching instructions. This means they take action, they do the homework. In addition to coaching I have my own real estate investment firm and an on line continuity business.

2012 was a very good year for me. My business results were greater than any year since 2007. What was different? I began working with people who coach me. One of my coaches has 9 coaches and I personally know four of them and work with two of the four. Two of the four are coaching me. I pay very close attention to those achieving great success and do what they do.

In addition to working with coaches, I have a very targeted personal and professional self-development program consisting of books, mp3’s, daily inspirational literature and more. You may recall one of more recent articles titled “Success Is An Inside Job”

Energy is required to do all this. My energy is not drained by my profession. I really enjoy most everything I do. In addition, I have exercise regularly, eat mostly organic foods and use the most valuable nutritional supplements that I know of.

My purpose in sharing this with you is for you to know that in our challenging economic and political climate there are a lot of people achieving and exceeding their goals. Most of the people I know are being coached. Do you see the common denominator here?

My highest recommendation is that you begin now to work with a coach. Am I the best coach for you? I don’t know that until I know more about you. Once I do I can determine if we are a good match. If not, I will recommend one or more other great coaches for you to consider.

Steve Pohlit

International Business Turnaround and Development Consulting
Real Estate Investment Consulting
Executive Coach

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PS : I am very happy to share with you the link where you can get your copy of “The Remarkable Results of The Enthusiasm Factor In Business and Entrepreneurship” instantly for FREE. Click Here and get yours now.

Success Is An Inside Job – Here Is One Story When You Have Doubt

Steve Pohlit

United Air Reports Successful Transition To Continental Air Systems ..or How Not To Do It

Business Building Principle 101: Take Very Good Care of the Customers You Have While Marketing For New Ones

I am a frequent traveler and have earned status with United Air. I also have a significant number of points with Continental Air. I have been looking forward to combining all of that into one account. Beyond that I simply want the continual ease of booking reservations and online check in. I particularly enjoy having my boarding pass available on my iPhone when it is not convenient for me to print one out.

Overall United treats me well and they take the opportunity to let passengers know on each flight their advancements and plans for new equipment and technology. With all that marketing promotion I am surprised at how poorly the systems conversion this past weekend was handled. Specifically,

There was not advance communication of this conversion along with contingency plans in the event of any snags.

There is no information that I have found on the combining of frequent flyer accounts.

Saturday when I was trying to simply confirm my Sunday morning flight and retrieve my boarding pass I could not. I read a message to get to the gate early which is not very comforting. I also noticed a number to call for help. I did call and it took 40 minutes for the call to be answered. While on hold I heard more than 20 times a prerecorded message that United was investing 500 million in new equipment. I wanted to scream ..invest a few bucks in people staffing the phones so customers can be helped. Once connected it took another 10 minutes for the issue to be resolved…which thankfully it was. Normally it takes me about 2-5 minutes to log in, check in and confirm my boarding pass so 50 minutes was not fun.

Now that I am able to see my account under the new system I noticed today the payment information and some of my profile information is gone. I have to re-enter it. I noticed there is no evidence of my frequent flyer accounts being merged. There is not communication on these items. In fact there was nothing more than a press release this morning saying this merger was largely successful.

United Airlines Should Fire The Executive Responsible For Customer Relations!

Other business owners use this example of what not to do and more specifically when you have major changes planned over communicate with your customers and set up contingency systems should things not go according to plan. This is fundamental…United Airlines did not ask me in advance. I am telling you now!!

Steve Pohlit

International Business Development Consulting
Real Estate Investment Consulting
Executive Coach

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Steve Pohlit is a CPA,MBA and has been the CFO of several major domestic and international companies. Today Steve is an expert international business and real estate investment coach focused on helping companies improve their business performance including growing profits, revenues and customers. For a FREE 6 week mini course where you will receive 10 easy to implement action steps guaranteed to increase business revenue and profits by at least 30% in the next 90 days, please visit www.StevePohlit.com All articles published by Steve unless specifically restricted may be freely published with this resource information.

When There Is No Way, We Make One – Chrysler 2012 Superbowl Commercial

Does This Capture The Spirit of America?

The message is inspirational. Inspirational material can be very powerful. Each person I coach, uses the accelerated accountability worksheet I have developed for planning weekly optimal performance. This plan is linked to a longer term financial goal that we reverse engineer to what is required today in order to meet and possibly exceed the goal. The first line of the accelerated accountability worksheet is “self development..mindset”. I started with that line for everyone based on my own experience observing my own life when I did this work first and when I didn’t. huge difference.

This video is a call to action and a reminder of being focused. Each of us has different interpretations of what the second half means and what we need to do to win the second half. The teams come out with a plan and adjust the plan based on a continual evaluation of new information. Each one of us can view videos like this one and other resource material and do one of two things:

1. smile and say “that’s nice”
2. develop an action plan on how we can become better in the second half then implement that plan.

I have already picked #2…. and you?

The Fastest and Most Efficient Way For Most People and Companies To Achieve and Exceed Their Goals Is By Working With A Coach

Contact me now.

Steve Pohlit

International Business Development Consulting
Real Estate Investment Consulting
Executive Coach

Social Media Services
New Digital Media, Inc.

Connect With Steve On:

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Facebook

Linked in

727-587-7871

Steve Pohlit is a CPA,MBA and has been the CFO of several major domestic and international companies. Today Steve is an expert business consultant focused on helping companies improve their business performance including growing profits, revenues and customers. For a FREE 6 week mini course where you will receive 10 easy to implement action steps guaranteed to increase business revenue and profits by at least 30% in the next 90 days, please visitwww.StevePohlit.com All articles published by Steve unless specifically restricted may be freely published with this resource information.

Dunkin Donuts vs. Starbucks

Dunkin Donuts wanted to know. To find out they offered to send their customers to Starbucks and paid them to go there and drink and eat. But they also paid Starbuck customers to come to Dunkin Donuts to eat and drink. In exchange, the people involved agreed to answer Dunkin Donut’s questions.

This test was reported by the WSJ and what Dunkin Donuts discovered was that there are very loyal people to both businesses and they are not interested in the competitor. The Starbucks Tribe will continue to go to Starbucks and the Dunkin Donuts tribe will continue to go to Dunkin Donuts. That was the conclusion.

Why did Dunkin Donuts conduct this test? The business of Dunkin Donuts has a strategy of growing and attracting more customers. So they want to know more about what appeals to people. Of course they could have their customers in a data base and communicate with them regularly and offer them incentives for answering survey’s, but that is all the subject of my rant in other articles at www.stevereports.com

Duncan Donuts used a traditional focus group approach. Duncan Donuts is to be commended on testing. They are to be commended on wanting to know what changes, upgrades, new product offerings will appeal to their customer. When you review their history, you may conclude they should have done this more often. The facts are most companies fall into the trap of not reinventing themselves. Why is this important to do? Well, look at Kmart. Do you recall when they were in Chapter 11? How about Delta airlines and General Motors? Do you think Microsoft can be in trouble? What about Google and EBay? Interesting to look at history and then ask the hard questions?

There are lessons to be learned from the work done by Duncan Donuts. I remember working with the leaders if The Limited when they were the premier retailer in America. The culture was amazing. New fashion ideas, new store formats, new promotions were always being tested. Merchandise managers were expected to bring their insights of what the competition was doing to the famous weekly Monday meetings where performance was scrutinized. The point is every company has a development history and at a point in time if you become a champion, a challenger emerges. This is the “king of the hill” game and as kid we didn’t know it was a universal law but it seems that it is. Whenever you are winning someone will be out to take your place.

How do you sustain revenue and profit growth long term? How do you do that when as soon as you are on top there is a challenger? In The Profit System I teach how to track information that tells you how you are doing. Initially, the information is developed for you to track actual vs. plan and the plan is your own performance improvement plan. This evolves to where you are confident in your ability to achieve internal targets, then you set your site on local, regional, national or international champions. At that point your goal is to be the champion. By the way The Profit System course is FREE.

Why is that? Why do I offer something that I promote as being so valuable for FREE when I should be selling it for a million dollars or 10 million dollars or more? Simple, I know this works, and as Joel Bauer says (www.joellive.com) my life does not change at all if you use what I teach. But yours is likely to change a lot. If I can be a catalyst of positive change for you and your company, I am delighted to offer these principles and The Profit System to you at no charge.

Wait there is one more thing. There is a major price to pay for using this system. This price is your time, attention and action to implement. My material is FREE. Even if I were to charge $50,000 for the this material and I am considering that, it is a small sum in comparison to the time you and your company will invest to apply the principles of The Profit System. Return on investment is off the charts. So if you want to make a lot more money go to The Profit System and register for the FREE course.

Will Ducan Donuts’ latest testing mean new store formats will be hugely successful? I don’t know but I do know this if they keep monitoring and keep testing they will figure it out. You can also solve the issues facing your business with a rational management system. I have given you one source for a management system roadmap.

Contact me now.

Steve Pohlit

International Business Development Consulting
Real Estate Investment Consulting
Executive Coach

Social Media Services
New Digital Media, Inc.

Connect With Steve On:

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727-587-7871

Steve offers his build business profits expertise to companies and entrepreneurs with business coaching and business consulting. His focus is on building business profits and net asset value at above average rates. Steve incorporates health and wellness plus relationship guidance in his work as they are at the foundation of achieving all goals.

All articles published by Steve unless specifically restricted may be freely published with this resource information.

Six Ways To Turn Desires Into Gold – From Think and Grow Rich

If you have read it, it is worth reading again and making notes. If you have not read it, you will be well served by reading it. The book “Think and Grow Rich” by Napoleon Hill is readily available on line. It is priceless.

I am writing formula “Six Ways To Turn Desires Into Gold” as a reminder for myself. I hope you benefit from this formula.

“Every human being who reaches the age of understanding of the purpose of money wishes for it. Wishing will not bring riches. But desiring riches with a state of mind that becomes an obsession, then planning definite ways and means to acquire riches, and backing those plans with persistence which does not recognize failure will bring riches.

The method by which desire for riches can be transmuted into its financial equivalent, consists of six definitive, practical steps:

First: fix in your mind the exact amount of money you desire. It is not sufficient merely to say “I want plenty of money.” Be definitive as to the amount.

Second: determine exactly what you intend to give in return for the money you desire. There is no such thing as something for nothing.

Third: establish a definite date when you intend to possess the money you desire.

Fourth: create a definite plan for carrying out your desire, and begin at once, whether you are ready or not, to put this plan into action.

Fifth: write out a clear concise statement of the amount of money you intend to acquire, name the time limit for it’s acquisition, state what you intend to give in return for the money, and describe clearly the plan though which you intend to accumulate it.

Sixth: read your written statement aloud, twice daily, once just before retiring at night, and once after arising in the morning. As you read – see and feel and believe yourself already in possession of the money.

Action Steps

Get A Business Coach who will help accelerate your realization of goals! If you already have a business with more than 10 employees, Hire A Consultant who is able to work with you part of the time on-site.

Would you like to be in the next group of very successful companies and entrepreneurs?

Contact me now.

Steve Pohlit

Business Development Consulting
Business Coach
727-587-7871

Social Media Services
New Digital Media, Inc.

Connect With Steve On:

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All articles published by Steve unless specifically restricted may be freely published with this resource information.

Service Wins The Game

“Being on par in terms of price and quality only gets you in the game. Service wins the game.!” Tony Alexandr

During a recent call that I co-host on a monthly basis with George Ross for a select private group of business owners and entrepreneurs, we discussed how to create the “wow factor” in non-real estate businesses like a convenience store or hardware store. George advised all to focus on the personal touch. Sure appearances and merchandising are important. Getting to know your customer, demonstrating a sincere interest in the person is what keeps people coming back.

I have no favorite stores any longer. I mostly shop on line and even the on line experience is mixed with ease of shopping. I do have a few favorite restaurants and as a business traveler I have a few (very few) favorite hotels. However, nearly every day there is an opportunity for a business to provide memorable service and they do. Trouble is the memories are not very positive in most cases.

Here is a recent example. It happened this morning. Jos A Bank is offering a two day buy 1 get 2 free special. There are a couple items I really like from that store. This is a great opportunity for a deal. However, their on line shopping cart is not working properly for the special. So I called and a pleasant lady helped me by phone. When I received my order confirmation, it was wrong …very obviously wrong since there was only one of an item I order instead of three. I called back to customer service and hopefully the order will be correct now.

Look at all the steps and look at the additional time and look at the impression I have of this business. Now I will shop again when I see a great deal since there are items where I like the fit and quality. Guess what there are many places where I can get the right fit and quality. I am not finding places where I feel I am honored as a customer. See the opportunity?

I know if I were to visit certain specialty stores I would receive personalized attention. However, I do not have the time and neither do a lot of other people. There are a growing number of businesses that promote deals: Groupon , Deal of the Day and many more. Nobody is promoting service…big opportunity.

Speaking of service ….that’s my business. Actually your success is my business.

Action Steps

Get A Business Coach! If you already have a business with more than 10 employees, Hire A Consultant who is able to work with you part of the time on-site.

Would you like to be in the next group of very successful companies and entrepreneurs?

Contact me now.

Steve Pohlit

Business Development Consulting
Executive Coach

Social Media Services
New Digital Media, Inc.

Connect With Steve On:

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Facebook

Linked in

727-587-7871

All articles published by Steve unless specifically restricted may be freely published with this resource information.

An Entitlement? What The Hell Is Wrong Here??

(Author Unknown)

Remember, not only did you contribute to Social Security but your employer did too. It totaled 15% of your income before taxes. If you averaged only 30K over your working life, that’s close to $220,500. If you calculate the future value of $4,500 per year (yours & your employer’s contribution) at a simple 5% (less than what the govt. pays on the money that it borrows), after 49 years of working (me) you’d have $892,919.98. If you took out only 3% per year, you receive $26,787.60 per year and it would last better than 30 years, and that’s with no interest paid on that final amount on deposit! If you bought an annuity and it paid 4% per year, you’d have a lifetime income of $2,976.40 per month. The folks in Washington have pulled off a bigger Ponzi scheme than Bernie Madoff ever had.

Entitlement my ass, I paid cash for my social security insurance!!!! Just because they borrowed the money, doesn’t make my benefits some kind of charity or handout!! Congressional benefits, aka. free health care, outrageous retirement packages, 67 paid holidays, three weeks paid vacation, unlimited paid sick days, now that’s welfare, and they have the nerve to call my retirement entitlements !!!!!!…..scroll down…………..
Emergency Rooms for their general health care -At just one hospital the cost to tax payers totaled over 25 million a year!!!

Someone please tell me what the HELL’s wrong with all the people that run this country!!!!!!

We’re “broke” & can’t help our own Seniors, Veterans, Orphans, Homeless etc.,???????????

In the last months we have provided aid to Haiti, Chile, and Turkey. And now Pakistan home of bin Laden. Literally, BILLIONS of DOLLARS!!!

Our retired seniors living on a ‘fixed income’ receive no aid nor do they get any breaks while our government and religious organizations pour Hundreds of Billions of $$$$$$’s and Tons of Food to Foreign Countries!

They call Social Security and Medicare an entitlement even though most of us have been paying for it all our working lives and now when its time for us to collect, the government is running out of money. Why did the government borrow from it in the first place?

We have hundreds of adoptable children who are shoved aside to make room for the adoption of foreign orphans.

AMERICA: a country where we have homeless without shelter, children going to bed hungry, elderly going without ‘needed’ meds, and mentally ill without treatment -etc,etc.

YET………………….
They have a ‘Benefit’ for the people of Haiti on 12 TV stations, ships and planes lining up with food, water, tents clothes, bedding, doctors and medical supplies.

Imagine if the *GOVERNMENT* gave ‘US’ the same support they give to other countries.

SAD?

YEAH, OK, SO WHEN DO WE GET SICK AND TIRED AND
DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT?????

99% of people won’t take the time or have the interest to forward this.
I’m one of the 1% — I Just Did

——————————————-

Action Steps

Start Paying Attention To Every Elected Official’s Stance On Our Economy and Government.
Advocates of government being the answer should be fired.

Get A Business Coach! If you already have a business with more than 10 employees, Hire A Consultant who is able to work with you part of the time on-site.

Would you like to be in the next group of very successful companies and entrepreneurs?

Contact me now.

Steve Pohlit

Business Development Consulting
Executive Coach

Social Media Services
New Digital Media, Inc.

Connect With Steve On:

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Facebook

Linked in

727-587-7871

All articles published by Steve unless specifically restricted may be freely published with this resource information.

How To Quickly Build A Successful Business With Almost No Money

Almost No Money Needed To Start A Profitable Business And Earn $50-$100,000 In Your First Year

There are two industries where you can start making money as an independent contractor and then business owner with almost no money. I use the work almost because you will need a car that runs, buy gas for the car and have a presentable appearance.

Considering these basic requirements, you may need to work for expenses like gas for your car and food while taking the action steps to building your business. One lady who started working with my firm Tampa Capital Partners currently borrows a car and spends maybe $50 per week on fuel and expenses. She is on track to make more than $100,000 this year.

The Top Two Industries For Earning Six Figures From Your New Business In The First Year Starting With Almost No Money

The really good news is these industries are proven to produce the income for people willing to follow the directions. Following the directions means coachable. Don’t worry…it is true I am a business coach and business consultant, there are many people who will help you for no money. You will need to be careful in selecting these people so you are not wasting your time with inaccurate advice.

I encourage you to keep an open mind about the two industries I am writing about. They are:

Real Estate Investing and

Network Marketing or multi-level marketing (MLM).

Right up front there is a disproportionate amount of negative information published about these industries. It is beyond the scope of this article to address those inaccuracies. For now consider the following:

How Do You Get Started With Almost No Money

Network Marketing or MLM

Here is one way and there are others: find a company with a wholesale sales program for a product that retailers would like to sell. Find a distributor of that company who is willing to lend you some sample product and teach you how to approach retailers for selling the product or product line in their stores. When orders are received, the distributor pays you a portion of the profits.

Once you have made enough money to become a distributor (usually between $200 and $2,000 then you can develop your business using all the avenues for building profits that you will be taught. MLM companies are often a great resource for learning business, marketing and presentation skills. You will meet great people who are very willing to teach you. One company that is very friendly to wholesaling is Organo Gold. Their product line appeals to everyone and is great for church and charitable fund raisers.

Real Estate Investing

The best way to start in real estate with no money is to work for a real estate investor who will teach you in exchange for the work you do. The work will include networking, sending letters, going to the courthouse, evaluating deals and more. I have developed a special program in the Tampa market to attract people who want to learn. It is called Tampa Capital Partner’s Apprentice Program

Other Ways

I look forward to your comments on other ways to quickly build a successful business with almost no money.

Action Steps

Get A Business Coach! If you already have a business with more than 10 employees, Hire A Consultant who is able to work with you part of the time on-site.

Would you like to be in the next group of millionaires?

Contact me now.

Steve Pohlit

Business Development Consulting
Executive Coach

Social Media Services
New Digital Media, Inc.

Connect With Steve On:

Twitter

Facebook

Linked in

727-587-7871

Steve offers his business building experience to companies and entrepreneurs with business coaching and business consulting. His focus is on building business profits and net asset value at above average rates. Steve incorporates health and wellness plus relationship guidance in his work as they are at the foundation of achieving all goals.

All articles published by Steve unless specifically restricted may be freely published with this resource information.

Do You Know These Guys? They Know All About The Top 1%

George Ross, Donald Trump’s right hand man and as seen on TV

Wayne Alyn Root, first very popular as he replaced Jimmy The Greek on TV and is the Vice Presidential Candidate for the Libertarian Party

Joe Sugarman, an icon in direct response marketing industry

Wayne Palmer, financial advisor to Robert Kiyosaki

Bill Glazer, expert on direct marketing, partner with Dan Kennedy and much more

Kent “the shark” Middleton, expert real estate litigation attorney and very open with his advice on how to never need his services.

There is a lot more including mp3’s of conversations with each of these outstanding people at
Mega Partnering where you can meet them plus more than 300 successful people who are focused on taking their business to the next level. People who understand it is their network that makes the difference.

Did you know there is a very small difference between those who achieve their goals and those who don’t. Watch this amazing video then come back to the Mega Partnering website
( Click Here) , read about what you will experience. Join me there and if you have any questions my contact information is all over the place including at the end of this article.

Questions about Mega Partnering? Call me…my number follows.

Steve Pohlit

Business Consulting, Executive Coach
Turnaround/Crisis Management
Temporary CEO, CFO, Controller Services

Social Media Services
New Digital Media, Inc.

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727-587-7871

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About: Steve Pohlit CPA,MBA has been the CFO and COO of major domestic and international companies. Steve has extensive business ownership experience having purchased and started off line and on line businesses. Steve offers his business building experience to companies and entrepreneurs with business coaching and business consulting. His focus is on building business profits and net asset value at above average rates. All articles published by Steve unless specifically restricted may be freely published with this resource information.

Fast Start To Success With The Accelerated Accountability System

As a business consultant and coach I continue to work with people every week teaching and helping them implement the skills and action steps I know work. My experiences being employed in very successful organizations, consulting with companies across numerous industries as well as running my own businesses have shown me certain fundamentals are pervasive in companies that are successful regardless of size.

The number one attribute that I find in everyone who achieves continually expanding goals is a disciplined focus of their attention on purposeful action. This means that with any goal there are certain steps that are needed if that goal is to be achieved. For example in the real estate investment business where the model is to buy property, add value and resale the property, there needs to be a supply of the right deals, a supply of money for the initial purchase plus renovation and then money from an end use buyer. Intellectually you can understand this formula but to turn the formula into profit there must be action. If you short cut the steps including the analysis there may not be any transactions or if there are, the profit you projected can be elusive.

Name a goal and the steps to achieve that goal can be mapped and once followed the goal will be achieved. This doesn’t mean the exact course is predictable. Taking action on anything is no different that what we experience in say traveling across town or the country. The route is mapped but the experiences can be surprising. When we encounter a delay or cancellation, we move around or through it. Business is no different. Enjoy the process or get out of the game.

So what does all of this have to do with Fast Start To Success With The Accelerated Accountability Program? I will use a recent example with a lady who I coached in front of a live audience at a JT Foxx 360 Millionaire event. Her mission was to become a successful real estate investor and she had done a great job of clearly defining her income goals and time line for earning that income. I challenged her on the amount and time line as they seemed somewhat aggressive considering her experience. However, she supported the amount and timing very well so they remained in tact.

Next I asked her how much time she had to devote to her business and she replied at least 50 hours. Given that I then asked her if she was committed to following the action steps necessary for her to take to achieve a successful transaction in 90 days or less. She said she was. With that response we were now able to move to the next phase which was to detail the steps she needed to take on a daily basis to achieve her goal.

These steps need to be planned by day so it is important to use an Excel spreadsheet or its equivalent for tracking your time. For example, one of the steps is to contact people who may be a source of real estate deal transactions. That amount of time planned for that step will be more in the early part of the 90 day time line as deal flow is key to beginning the process of finding a transaction that will meet your profit goal.

The idea is to have this activity and time plan at the beginning of each week and to track your actual time spent and results of your actions. The accountability part is that this schedule is shared with your coach and if you are not using a coach, it can be shared with a business partner, spouse or a friend. Knowing someone else will be reviewing this information is a powerful motivator to keep your commitments. This is intended to be a valuable tool and not a restraint on your life. The idea is to track chunks of time and evaluate the results. So if you are making calls and having meetings what are the results? You are either making progress or not. If not, how you are implementing your action plan needs to be modified.

I consistently teach The Gold Formula. The gold is in the variance and this applies to anything you intend to accomplish. There cannot be a variance calculation without a plan. Once you have a plan you can compare that to what actually happened and most of the time there will be a variance. The variance will be positive or negative. When positive, keep doing more of it and when negative, make some adjustments.

Will the lady achieve her 90 day goal? It is early in the process and we will know in less than three months. Maybe your goal is to start a business, expand your business, find a new job or a job. Maybe your goal is to be in a relationship or improve your health. Whatever your goal, once clearly defined you can use what I just described to achieve it. Now you know. Now go do it.

Steve Pohlit

Business Consulting, Executive Coach
Turnaround/Crisis Management
Temporary CEO, CFO, Controller Services

Social Media Services
New Digital Media, Inc.

Twitter

Facebook

Linked in

MySpace

727-587-7871

Email

BP Oil Spill Results In Predicable Political and Media Response…and Predictable Consequences

The media and government is taking the predictable “finger pointing” route in connection with the BP oil spill. Screaming someone is surely to blame attracts attention to the publications and politicians screaming the loudest. Fingers point to BP and Obama.

BP accepts responsibility and has allocated $20 billion for the cleanup. Citizens and politicians say Obama isn’t acting fast enough. Obama apologizes to no one, blames the MMS (Minerals Management Service) and appoints Michael Bromwich as its new head.

What if this ecological disaster is actually no one’s fault. There is that strong possibility. Recognize that in spite of everyone’s best efforts, sometimes things fail. Consider this excerpt from an article by Carl Hoffman explaining what most likely happened:

“No oil company wants to have a blowout and these companies spend vast sums of money and expertise to ensure that they never happen. But happen they do. If this was a blowout, it’s the first deep-water one in the Gulf of Mexico that I can think of. And for that to happen requires the perfect storm of scenarios.”

I totally support an independent investigation to confirm what really happened. There are two possible outcomes of such an investigation. First, all practical steps were taken to prevent this event and it still happened. Second, preventive measures were known and not implemented.

In the first case, we learn and get better. In the second case, there would be a violation of fiduciary responsibility and appropriate measures taken.

Related to investigations, I am wondering what information on preventive measures was provided at the Board of Director’s level at BP. This is a public company and Boards have very clear responsibility for asking the tough questions and getting answers. At the government level, appointing a new head of the MMS now is interesting. Obama failed to act following two scathing reports on the MMS by the Inspector General in recent years (See full article by the The Washington Post ) What if the MMS was operating as intended? Would the BP Oil Spill have been prevented?

I am a major advocate of a system of accountability in business and government. The media is accountable for accurate reporting. Citizens are accountable for holding government responsible for upholding the values of our constitution. All of us are owed accurate information as to what happened and what steps are being taken now to minimize the risk. The problem with the finger pointing culture is that the truth can be obscured or even ignored. That would be the ultimate disaster.

Steve Pohlit

Business Consulting, Executive Coach
Turnaround/Crisis Management
Temporary CEO, CFO, Controller Services
International Business Resources

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New Digital Media, Inc.

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How To Set Up The Simple and Powerful Top 5 Priority System With Google Docs

I have been testing a simplified tool for moving business forward fast and it is working very well. I use it and all of my clients are using this. It is easy to describe and free.

This tool is linked to the business evaluation and resulting business planning process that are the front end steps of every coaching and consulting client. In summary we arrive at a very clear definition of the client’s business and target market. Now if your reaction to that first step is that everyone in business knows the definition of their business and target market, then next time you have a chance ask them and ask them to explain it in less than 30 seconds.

That one exercise usually takes most people between 2 and 8 hours to master and some actually never get it as they really cannot decide what business they are in. There are clients where I have had to define their business, target market and business goals otherwise we would not have been able to move forward. Regarding business goals, I am mostly interested in measurable goals starting with financial performance and liquidity optimization. Once there is agreement on the financial targets then we can move to the next steps which are designed to define the key actions that are needed to achieve the financial goals.

The end game of all this is the tool that is the topic of this article. Using a Google Doc which can be shared, a Top 5 doc is created. The top part is labeled “Todays Date Top 5” This list the five most important things that need to be accomplished today in order to achieve the financial target. The profit goals you have set this year are met or not by what you act on today. Those five action steps should be ones directed on completing profitable transactions that will achieve your profit plan.

I have been using the Top 5 System for about 2 months now and having all my clients implement it as the results are so powerful. There are two reasons for these successes: First the Top 5 System means you are focused on precisely what is most important. Second I am now implementing an accountability process where each client is required to share their top five with a person they are working with who could be their business partner, spouse or another in the business. They are also required to share their daily Top Five with me while the coaching or consulting engagement is active.

The following video demonstrated the basics of getting started. The video starts right in at the screed for setting up a Google Gmail account. The start page can be found at mail.google.com

Steve Pohlit

Managing Director
Top 1 Coaching, Consulting
JT Foxx Organization

Business Consulting, Executive Coach
Turnaround/Crisis Management
Temporary CEO, CFO, Controller Services
International Business Resources

Social Media Services
New Digital Media, Inc.

Twitter

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727-587-7871

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About: Steve Pohlit is a CPA,MBA and has been the CFO of several major domestic and international companies. Steve is The Managing Director of Top 1 Coaching/Consulting of The JT Foxx Organization. He is an expert business coach and consultant focused on building massive business profits and net asset value. He is very experienced with Internet marketing and social media marketing. All articles published by Steve unless specifically restricted may be freely published with this resource information.

Comments On The WSJ August Retail Sales

The Headline Reads: Retailers Report Weak Sales For August (Click For The Story) Then highlight is:

“Industrywide, same-store sales fell for a 12th straight month — highlighting the woes retailers have been under as consumer spending continues to decline.”

Then there is discussion as to what will happen this holiday season as well as the impact of the clunker program. This is followed by reports of what key public companies in the retail industry reported. Remember there is a lot that is not reported. Also remember, economic recovery is driven by consumer spending and there is little evidence that is strengthening.

The point made that I commented on was that going forward the monthly same store comparisons will look better because you are comparing against increasingly weak numbers from last year as retailers tanked in the fall of 2008. Here is what I wrote:

The comparison may show less dramatic declines and even a greater number of positive percentages when current year sales are compared against months last year when retailers began to experience sharp declines. Those may be feel good metrics. However, the key is what are the volumes and margins that are planned in connection with an acceptable profit plan and how are actual revenue and profits doing against that?

Typically that information is a bit more difficult to extract. The well run retailers have a profit plan by location that is based on category proformas. The key is to be profitable at each location and in each category within that location. I still see very little advancement in the use of direct response marketing and social media marketing. Tools and technology that have been readily available and proven to work for quite some time.

There is a lot of the “same ol same ol” and that is not going to work in an economic climate likely to be very soft for quite awhile.

Steve Pohlit
http://newdigitalmediainc.com
http://stevepohlit.com