What are your plans for 2012?

Do you have set week-by-week and month-by-month plans for the entire year ahead or are you hoping that you can just fly by your seat of your pants again?

You have heard many times that if  you fail to plan then you plan to fail. This is a very true statement as many people seldom plan the year ahead and wonder why when they get to the end of the year that they have not achieved the results that they were wanting!

A study was conducted recently at Harvard School of Business where they took a group of MBA graduates and divide them up into two separate groups; one group was to set goals and plans for the next five years and the other group was to do no planning or no goal setting. They went back five years later and interviewed the two separate groups to their amazement they found the group that did the planning and goal setting were earning nearly double that of their counterparts that had done no goal setting or planning.

This demonstrates how important it is to plan and set goals for the year ahead. Yes, you may not achieve all of them throughout the year but at least you have something to aim for. Having no goals or plans for 2012 is like going to a archery range with your crossbow in hand, loading in your arrow and setting up to shoot at something yet there is no target in front of you! So, what do you aim for? There is no bull’s-eye or any surrounding piece of the target for you to judge your results by, you might as well just shoot the arrow in the air and hope that you hit something! This is not the way to operate your business no matter how big or small it is!

Do you see how this relates to your business?

The most important thing you can do is sit down and plan your year ahead. In fact, in my business we have a very specialized 1-page business plan that we use to operate and manage our business by for the year ahead. It is constructed from a number of different documents, and then summarized onto a single page so that you have a document that is easy to follow, simple to understand and that can guide you for the year ahead.

There are many theories out there about the perfect business plan. The way I look at things is that I would rather have a 1-page business plan and a five year vision for my business. Yes, if you’re going to a bank for financing or looking for investors then you need substantially more than a 1-page business plan, but for managing your business and growing substantially in 2012 and monitoring your success, a 1-page business plan is more than adequate for you to guide your success by!

On January 19, 2012 from 9 AM to 2 PM I will be running a 1-page business plan course called Business Plan 101. I will be looking at all aspects of your business and completing very specific documents pertaining to marketing, sales, exposure, operations, systematization, focus and financial. I’ll be sharing all the details of how to take all the supporting documents and summarize them into a 1-page business plan. You will leave the event with a detailed plan of what you need to do for 2012, and your own personalized target knowing what you need to aim for in order to monitor and judge your success from month-to-month for the year ahead!

This course is only done in January of each year and if you’re interested in attending, please contact Karly at our office on 778 – 565 – 4090 or via e-mail at KarlyB@MYMsuccess.com.We have limited space available, at the time of writing this article there were only 8 seats available as the event is limited to a maximum of 30 people. Call now to ensure that you have a plan for 2012 for your business.

Here is the pricing for the event:

1. Non-Make your Mark students: $199.

2. Make Your Mark students: $149.

3. Make Your Mark Pinnacle Students: $99.

[Make Your Mark students are those people who have completed at least a full one-day event offered by Make Your Mark Training and Consulting Inc.]

Do You Have Challenges Managing Your Time?

Let me tell you one thing, “You are not alone!”

The #1 complaint of most Business Owners and Entrepreneurs is that they have no time and wish they could have more hours in the day… is this you?

If so, this post is something that will assist you in getting your time management back on track.

The joke of the whole thing is that you cannot manage time. There are only so many hours, minutes and seconds in a day, it’s what you do with them that is important!

You can truly only manage your commitments!

Here are a few major suggestions as we head into 2012:

1. Office Hours: If you work from home set office hours and only do income producing work during these hours! Print them out and put them up on the outside of your office door. I joke about it with my kids as I often work from home and I tell them that the only time they can disturb me is outside of office hours or if they have one of the following situations: blood, water, fire or wind.

2: Friendship or Personal Hours: Having lunch and tea with personal friends and not business opportunities during office hours is a loss of income producing time for your business. Book friendship times for evening and weekends – just like you would do if you worked in a standard office environment in a job.

3. Meetings: There are many people that will monopolize your time if you allow them. Ask people that want to meet with you to send you an agenda of what they want to talk about – you will be amazed at how short and focused your meeting become! Some people do get irritated when you ask for an agenda – it’s your right as your time is extremely valuable.

4. Saying NO more often: Often you say “YES” to all meeting and opportunities without understanding why you are meeting. If something does not interest you or someone will not send you an agenda, you have the right to say “Thank you for wanting to meet, and maybe we can do it another time”. There will always be opportunities out there, focus on meetings that can bring you results in your business. Learn to say “NO” more often and free up a ton of time in your business for growth and income generating meetings.

5. Set Intentions & Expected Results: Before you go to any meeting do you set intentions of what you want from the meeting? What results are you looking for; take the order, book the next appointment, have a demo, what are you after? You can sit and chit chat and have a meal or a tea meeting, but why are you there in the first place?

6. Set Your Commitments:

a. Take a weekly calendar and sit down on a Sunday evening and plan your week ahead.

b. Fill in all your commitments – eating, gym, yoga, kids to school, etc. All the activities that you have to do! Not your business activities.

c.  Now, fill in your weekly business activities you know you have to get done: blogging, marketing, emails, social media, follow-up, etc.

d. Now you will see the time you have left in the week to get all the other items on your to-do list done. Often, you will see that the time left over is a lot less than the number of items on your list. Great, you now know what you have to get done and what will have to wait for next week – this truly does assist you with prioritizing what needs to get done from week to week.

Planning your week and realizing that COMMITMENTS are your issue, not TIME MANAGEMENT!!!

In business we have limited time every day and by implementing the items above as you go into 2012 you will start to see that TIME is NOT an ISSUE!

The ISSUE is YOU and the commitments you make that uses up tons of your time doing activities that are not focused on growing your business.

I meet 1,000s of business owners throughout the year and it amazes me how many of them want to be successful, yet they are not prepared to do what ever it takes to achieve the results that they desire.

There is a huge difference between you having a DESIRE to be successful and having a HUNGER to achieve outrageous results.

You may ask what is the difference between DESIRE and HUNGER?

DESIRE is a nostalgic feeling that we get when we really want something – we can visualize it and feel it and that’s about how far it goes…

HUNGER is a deep seated core feeling that you will do whatever it takes to achieve the result you are after and you will not stop until you achieve it. In fact, you will not listen to people around you that are naysayers or have not built a successful business – you just go out and build until the result is achieved.

I often ask people if they want to be successful and they always reply “Of course I do!!!” then I say great, there is a networking event in Vancouver tonight where they expect 100s of business owners and potential customers… let’s go!

Then all the excuses start… I can’t, I have prior engagements, I am tired, I have had a long day already, I have to organize a sitter and it costs money… blah blah blah blah blah!

If you want success you have to cut the excuses and get off your butt and do whatever it takes – Cut the DESIRE and get a HUNGER for what you are doing!

People who are full of excuses & reasons & justifications are the ones who DESIRE to have success – and who bubble along and years down the line are still in the same place they were a few years back.

One of the key ingredients to convert you from DESIRE to HUNGER is making sure you are PASSIONATE about what you are doing. If you do not jump out of bed with a bounce in your step to go and do your business every day then how can you expect to have a HUNGER to do whatever it takes?

Are you prepared to do whatever it takes? And, I mean do whatever it takes?

You only have to be extreme for 6 – 12 months and you will be amazed by the results you will achieve! Let your loved ones know that you are going to be scarce and that it’s part of achieving results for the entire family!

This is a topic that I am hugely passionate about and it drives me crazy when people do not get out of their own way!

It’s really simple!

Cut the Excuses, Justifications and Reasons… convert DESIRE to HUNGER and you will be amazed by the RESULTS!