by C.P.B. on January 14, 2010
In this economic climate, it’s easy to feel out of control. Profits are down, clients are disappearing, and right when you need the most help, your budget is cut. But instead of throwing your hands up and blaming the state of the nation, take responsibility for your future. Ignore the bad news and take action now to make the most of your business.
Yes, profits may be down. But do you know why? Does your product or service really meet your clients’ needs? Paul Zane Pilzer says too many business owners get set in a pattern and forget to adapt to changing markets or demographics.Other business owners are simply running the business that’s convenient or economical, without ever determining if it’s the right fit for their skill set and talents.
Read more here.
Credit: Ken Blanchard | Stephen R. Covey | Jeffrey Gitomer | Harvey Mackay | Paul Zane Pilzer | Gary Vaynerchuk | Success Magazine
by C.P.B. on January 14, 2010
When we were kids, we thought we could write down everything we wanted and mail it to the North Pole, and then, magically, all our desires would appear, on schedule, under the tree in our living room, complete with pretty paper and a bow. When we grew up, we realized there wasn’t really a big roly-poly guy who fl ew around the world in a single night on a sled pulled by reindeer, squeezed down our chimney and delivered those presents. We found out a real person had to go out and sacrifice, earn the money, march through the shopping malls, wrestle the thing home, put it together, wrap it up and place it under the tree.
I think many people must still believe in Santa Claus. You cannot simply write down a list of wants on New Year’s Day, stick it in a drawer for the rest of the year and wait around for your life to change. Sorry, but it’s time to grow up and get serious. Most people know how to write down their goals, but few know how to achieve them. I would like to help you move from goal-setting, rainbow-chasing, wishing upon a star and lamp-rubbing to achieving actual results in the areas of your life in which you dedicate yourself.
Help get your start here.
Credit: Darren Hardy | Success Magazine
by C.P.B. on January 14, 2010
Ticktock. Ticktock. Ticktock. For some, that’s what the passage of time sounds like. For others, it goes more like this: Cha-ching. Cha-ching. Cha-ching.
The most productive people—from Fortune 500 CEOs to 20-something yuppies— view their time in dollars and cents. Yet many of us persist in thinking, “It’s cheaper to do it myself,” or “Why pay someone else to do something I can do?” The answer, of course, is that your time is precious and could be spent on activities that ultimately reap great rewards—financial, as well as personal.
Even if you aren’t a victim of your own misguided work ethic or thriftiness, it’s easy to get sucked into a time-wasting task—filing, doing laundry, entering data. You think that chore will just take a few minutes, but over time, all the busywork adds up.
Learn how to capitalize on time here.
Credit: Chelsea Greenwood | Success Magazine
by C.P.B. on January 14, 2010
Hi, my name is Chelsea, and I’m a listaholic. At any given time, I have multiple lists outlining chores to do, people to call, things to buy, etc. Even the fun stuff somehow makes its way into list form, from movies to watch and books to read to places to visit.
Sound familiar? If you, too, live by the list, consider this: How many of those list items ever get done—and how many of them really need to get done? Sure, it would be great to finally send in that $15 rebate or reorganize your file cabinet. But, by constantly nagging yourself about accomplishing these not-so-consequential tasks, they wind up hanging like millstones around your neck. Who needs that added anxiety?
“In the rush of our intense workdays, our instinct is to focus on ever-expanding to-do lists,” says Matthew Cornell, a personal-productivity specialist and a consultant at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. “This is natural—being busy feels like being effective. But fixating on doing takes us away from two important things: doing what has the biggest impact on the bottom line (ours or our organization’s) and reexamining at a higher level what we’re doing in the first place.”
Read more here.
Credit: Chelsea Greenwood | Success Magazine
by C.P.B. on January 14, 2010
Prioritization, an aspect of time management, means deciding what’s important and spending time on those priorities.
Small-business owners and entrepreneurs find prioritization particularly challenging because they are seduced by the urgent and that which is not important. They find those things that become pressing are proximate or popular and often have the appearance of importance but are really only urgent.
Take more control here.
Credit: Stephen R. Covey | Success Magazine
by C.P.B. on January 14, 2010
The day I took control of my income was the day I quit my job. Of course, my timing was perfect, as my husband had just gotten laid off the week before. Two missing incomes, one mortgage and a lot of bills. But it pushed us to talk seriously about our potential to make it on our own, to build our own business and open the doors to even more success.
We both knew it was a huge risk and put plans B, C and D into place, but we also both knew that our happiness with our careers would determine much of the happiness of our lives. I realized that I needed to take a big risk to find the success I was looking for.
Read more here.
Credit: Carmen Ulrich | Success Magazine
by C.P.B. on January 14, 2010
A LITTLE OVER 20 YEARS AGO, motivational speaker and author Willie Jolley was an award-winning jazz singer who made his living as a nightclub feature performer. One autumn evening, just after Jolley had delivered two exceptional performances in a row, the nightclub owner called him into the office and promptly let him go, citing the club’s need to cut the significant cost of a high-caliber singer like him, not to mention his backing band. Though Jolley couldn’t have realized it at the time, this bitter pill was actually the beginning of unimaginable future success.
Read the rest of this adventure here.
Credit: Liz Davis | Success Magazine
