Archive for January, 2010

It use to be that to start a business, you simply decided on a name and a concept and hung out your shingle. Success was based on bottom-line revenues and numbers of items sold – period.

No more! Success in the new Entrepreneurial Renaissance requires that you look much more deeply at why you started (or want to start) your business, and who can benefit from what you are selling. Connecting with these ideal customers (what we call your “tribe”) is then the key that opens the door to long-term relationships, larger impact with your work, and ultimately more sales too.

In this series, we reveal the 12 factors that are required for a successful Purposeful Entrepreneur™ business, two each week.

1. Purpose: the Essence of Your Business

The first factor is Purpose. Every business has both an implicit and an explicit purpose, and ideally both need to be aligned and congruent. For example, if a business says it is committed to timely delivery of its programs, but every communication is late and deadlines are frequently missed, its implicit and explicit purposes are incongruent.

The foundation of a business that will succeed long-term is a commitment to center all of its decisions regarding which products or services to launch, which staff to hire, what policies to adopt, and which customers to serve around a cohesive business purpose, consistent with the owner’s life purpose. It is then clear to both internal staff and external customers what the essential benefit and purpose of the business is – and what values flow from it.

This factor answers the question “Who are we/what do we stand for?” for the new business.

2. Passion: Fueling Your Vision

Whether you are the only person working within your business or you have dozens of staff, how you each“feel” about the business, its products and services, and their role within it comes through on an energetic level in every business interaction. The level of passion in the business is indicated by such things as the “mood” of the owner and staff, how they communicate with customers, even facial expressions. Whether or not customers are valued and respected – or whether staff go the extra mile to ensure that the customer gets what he/she needs – are additional external indicators of the internal passion.

This factor answers the question, “How do we feel about what we do?” for the new business owner.

To assess your business on all 12 factors, take the Purposeful Entrepreneur Compass assessment here.

You know how important your brand, target market and niche are to your success, right?  But it can be difficult to see your own ideal brand (which is often so obvious we overlook it) without outside help.

We are giving away one FREE Brand Makeover to a deserving business owner who is ready to get your business on purpose and on the track to profits this year!  Here’s what you need to do to win:

Between Jan. 27 and Jan. 31, submit a COMMENT below stating your:

• name
• phone
• email
• businses name
• web site address
• why you deserve a makeover

We will announce the winner on Mon. Feb. 1.  Good luck!

Many coaches and other information-based business owners are not making the kind of income they would like to make.  But you don’t have to be one of them!   The following principles are a proven way to double (or more!) your income in the coming year – if you not only read them, but implement several of them in your business.  Some of the rewards will be increased revenues, increased number of clients, and even a greater enjoyment of the work you do.

I will assume, since you are working in the coaching field or another information business (or want to be), that you are doing work you love and want to share that with others in one way or another.  Whether you are a coach, consultant, author, speaker or other infopreneur, your business provides a service to others.  And unlike many fields, your service to clients fails to ring true unless you, too, are passionate about what you do.  Not making enough money can zap any passion you had when you started your business, fast!

So here are 3 of my proven ways to increase (by at least 100%) your income – while  actually working less time than you do now! 

 1. Choose to challenge any aspect of your life or business that is not what you want.  Even those of us who enjoy our work may have areas that we would like to change.  The best way to find these areas for yourself is to reflect on what you repeatedly feel frustrated or upset by (or ask your spouse what you complain about the most!).  While we can’t usually change our lives overnight, we can change one thing at a time.  How?  By choosing to do so!  If you don’t feel successful, what would have to happen to change that?  Consider this quote from Spiritual Economics:

“Success is the most natural thing in the world.  The person who does not succeed has placed himself in opposition to the laws of the Universe.”

When we feel that urge to make change, to improve, to get better (which is what New Years’ resolutions are all about, right?), author Eric Butterworth tells us that “your desire to get ahead, your urge to succeed, is your intuitive awareness of something within you that wants to succeed through you.”  And the factor that distinguishes someone who feels successful from someone similarly situated who does not is on the inside of the person.  It’s like the person who says “My job is not imaginative; there is no future in it.”  In fact, “there is no job with a future in it – the future is in the one who does the job!”

Question to Ponder: What one thing in your life or business, if you changed either the activity itself or your attitude about it, would make a significant difference in your coming year?

2. Give yourself the benefit of “recycling.”  No, I’m not talking about what you do with your newspapers and plastic containers!  In studies of more than 60,000 people over the past 15 years, psychologist Dr. James Prochaska and his associates have found that only 77 percent of New Year’s resolutions survive the first week. A month later, it’s 55 percent.  This may not surprise you…but the term we use for this experience of not fulfilling our resolutions can make a big difference in whether we “get back on the horse” after a fall and try to ride again. 

Prochaska has analyzed how people successfully make change, initially studying people trying to quit smoking to see what led to some people’s successful efforts. His resulting model of change doesn’t blame unsuccessful attempts at change on lack of willpower or motivation. Instead, it outlines six stages and contends that by identifying and understanding where we are in the process, we can gain control over the cycle of change and move through it more quickly, efficiently and with less pain.

His six stages are:  pre-contemplation (denial), contemplation (thinking about change), preparation (ready to change within 30 days), action (here we go!), maintenance (holding onto the new behavior despite challenges) and termination (when the old behavior or situation no longer beckons to us).  What’s interesting to note is that, although many of us expect to go from A to Z in a straightforward path, that is a rare feat!  He says that although it is possible to progress linearly from one stage to the next, only 5 percent of people have no setbacks.  Most successful self-changers go through the stages three or four times before they complete the cycle – and he calls these repeated cycles “recycling” rather than “relapsing,” maintaining the sense that a process is still in motion.

Question to Ponder:  How can you be kind to yourself as you begin to change what isn’t working, allowing more than one try at the new behavior before you throw up your hands in despair?

3. Leverage your “synchronous” time.  What is the most common response people give when you ask them how they are these days?  “Wow, I’m really busy!”  Right?  The fact is, each of us has 1440 minutes each day – and we also have many choices as to how we spend it!  People who seem to be on top of things don’t have more time than we do; they have simply learned how to honor their synchronous (or clock) time, and leverage it to create asynchronous systems that continue to work when they’re not!

 Here’s an example:  for years now, I have been teaching coaching, how to launch and build a coaching or consulting practice, and similar topics.  Most recently, many of my classes have been done via teleclass.  Those required that I be physically present, on the phone, in real time.  But in the past few months, I have consolidated this course content into a textbook and workbook format, recorded lectures and coaching demonstrations on CD’s, and radically altered my business model founded on this asynchronous, self-paced model.  What has that done for me as the developer of the materials?  Freed me to develop new products, do the marketing, and otherwise manage the business – while all the time students are signing up and learning the content “asynchronously,” i.e., without my real-time presence being required.  And students gain the benefits of greater flexibility and significantly lower costs for the training.  It’s a win-win proposition!

Questions to Ponder:  Think about the services you offer to clients, and the projects that you’ve spent inordinate amounts of time on (e.g., a narrative executive bio, a web portfolio, etc.).  How many other ways can you think of to use that same content or format with other clients?  In other media?  Spending just 30 minutes each day developing a system that will run asynchronously will free dozens of hours of your time over the course of a year.

 Here’s wishing you a prosperous and successful 2010!

I have been reading Ken Dychtwald’s latest book With Purpose, exploring the shift in mindset from success to significance – getting off the “fast track” of what everyone says will lead to fulfillment, and going within to find out what means most to you as the ways to invest your life energy.

It is that very shift to which Shunryu Suzuki refers in his writings on quality of being:

“When you do something, if you fix your mind on the activity with some confidence, the quality of your state of mind is the activity itself. When you are concentrated on the quality of your being, you are prepared for the activity. Movement is nothing but the quality of our being.”

By January 14 each year, most people have virtually forgotten about their New Years resolutions. But there is another way to move toward our goals without strain or struggle.

In the Western culture, we are taught to focus on the activity, not the quality of who we are being while we are doing it. But this is exactly how we get overwhelmed: we get into our head (and out of out body) and get caught up in the tasks instead of what we bring to the task – or what its ultimate effect and outcome will be.

True freedom and peace come when we relax into our activity and live totally in the current moment (versus thinking about a past similar experience or worrying about the future).

Here are 3 tips for bringing a full quality of being into everything you do – even as you resume your activities after the holiday season:

1. Before you begin doing something, breathe, focus your mind, and become intentional about what you are doing and how – as well as “who you are being” as you do it.
2. If your mind begins to wander, simply notice it and bring your attention back to the task – but stay conscious and intentional.
3. Don’t multitask! Once you have completed one task, take a moment to acknowledge your success, then consciously choose what is next. A great question to ask is either “What would bring me the most joy now?” or “What am I feeling led to do next?

Enjoy celebrating your being this week!

We just wanted to take a moment today to thank the DOZENS of you who submitted your names and background summary to be on the planning committee for the upcoming First Annual Purposeful Entrepreneurs Conference April 8-10 in Phoenix, AZ. We were overwhelmed (but grateful)!

We will be reviewing the applications on Monday and choosing our committee of approximately 12 people to help plan and create this wonderful, industry-leading event. (If you still want to be considered, email coaching@purposefulentrepreneur.com and tell us why you would be perfect for this.)

Meanwhile, be sure you submit your name to be among the FIRST to find out the advance details about this unique experience here: http://www.purposefulentrepreneur.com/conference.html

And if you have ideas for us on what we (or who) we should include for program topics, speakers, etc., please comment below – and the committee will carefully consider them!

We expect to have more details for you by February 1 at latest… (this is going to be so exciting!!).

“Change always comes bearing gifts.” – Price Pritchett

You have heard it said that “the only constant in life is change.” But are you creating the change you need to become who you want to be in your life and business, or simply reacting to the external events that are happening?

We must do both to step fully into our Conscious Calling.™ When unexpected change happens to us – sudden job loss, health diagnosis, or a shift in a relationship – Shunryu Suzuki, in Zen Mind, Beginners Mind, recommends that we embrace this reality rather than resisting it. “When we realize the everlasting truth of ‘everything changes’ and find our composure in it, we find ourselves in Nirvana…Because we cannot accept the truths of transiency, we suffer. So the cause of suffering is our non-acceptance of this truth.”

It is the season for New Year’s resolutions…and the experts tell us that by January 14 more than two-thirds of people have already abandoned the new behaviors they said they committed to January 1. Why does this happen?

I find there are two primary reasons:

1. Our subconscious rears its head and the momentum of our past, very familiar habits drags us back down to that way of being. To “do” different, we are really being called to “be” different…and that means shifting our mindset, our activities, our language, our surroundings – anything that would get in the way of the person we say we want to be.

One way we can change our surroundings is to create support systems for ourselves – whether we join a structured training program, hire a mentor, meet with like-minded friends on a regular basis, or post intention statements or a vision board where we can see it. These are reminders of what we have committed to, which we can use to reinforce the person we are becoming.

2. The second reason people abandon their resolutions is they would rather play small than really step into who they are. Perhaps others are doubting – or even directly ridiculing – their efforts to change. Or perhaps it just seems too hard to do things differently than most people around you. Knowing that less than 6% of the population reaches a $100,000 or higher income, you will definitely need to do things differently than the majority to reach ambitious income and impact goals for yourself!

What are you being called to shift today that will support you in becoming the person you want to be? Do you need to surround yourself with new support systems or structures to reinforce your new way of being?

Please feel free to share your responses as comments to this blog post, and we’ll look forward to reading them! Our series will continue next week.