Did you know, if you live to 85, you will have lived 31,025 days. How many of those could be considered masterpieces? Quite a thought, isn’t it. Well, how many would you say have been masterpieces in your life so far? 50%, 25%, 80%, 2%? What would it take to make every day a masterpiece? What would your life and legacy look like if you actually did that and…. how could you possibly do it? Oh, yes, two more questions.

Do you have a desire to make everyday a masterpiece and do you believe you actually could do such a thing?

Personally, if the greatest basketball coach ever, gave me that challenge, and he did, I would try to accomplish it. So let’s take a look at this tremendous concept.

First, what makes a day a masterpiece? Let’s look at some ideas and see if these could be characteristics of your days and lifestyle. Obviously, you do not have to do all the things I am about to mention every day but in doing a number of them in a day, you’ll be doing well. Let’s take a look.

• Tasks completed… you get a lot done.
• Lives touched.. you made a difference in other people’s lives today.
• You had a gracious and thankful heart today.
• You planned today and acted proactively rather than reactively.
• You had a disciplined day.
• You spent some quality time with the family.
• Today you had some personal growth; you read a good book, listened to some good teaching.
• You had a healthy day in eating right and exercising.
• You had a creative day.
• You had a day with laughter.
• You overcame a fear today and acted out of faith and not fear.
• You appreciated the arts and or literature today.
• You faced a challenge and met it head on and dealt with it, and finally
• You made the world a better place today.

Well, how did you do today on some of those items? Is there room for improvement? Where do you need to do some work and where are you already excelling?

Rate yourself for a week and see how you are doing. At the end of every day, keep score. Give yourself a 1 if you had a miserable day, missing the mark on all those items and give yourself a 10 if you made your day a masterpiece. After one week you ought to have a pretty accurate picture of your life and whether it is a masterpiece or not.

If you want to take this a step further, keep a journal and at the end of every day, write your thoughts and accomplishments concerning the day just ended. You can additionally rate yourself from one to ten. You can be your own accountability partner knowing that at the end of the day, you will be rating your day.

Before you beat yourself up and feel like throwing in the towel, remember one fantastic thing about this life that we have been given. The fact is that every day is a…. brand new day!!! You get to start all over again, so no matter how bad yesterday was or last week or last year, everyday is a new day. You have 24 hours just like everyone else. Each day is a gift and that is why it is called “the present.”

Not only can you attempt to make every day a masterpiece, you can attempt at making every moment a masterpiece. For that thought and lesson, I defer to my dear friend, my mentor (in a way) and my best buddy, Braeden, my two year old grandson. For him there is no past, no future, actually not even one minute ago or one minute into the future. He completely lives in the moment and for the most part has a fabulous time. Now don’t get me wrong, I am not saying always act like a two year old, if you do you’ll be bankrupt and very ill in no time, but I am saying let’s learn from someone like him. The average two year old laughs 485 times a day and the average adult 17. Something is not right here and something terrible happened. We lost our curiosity, we live in fear, and we do not appreciate the simple things in life. I take a walk with Braeden and he is fascinated by leaves and sticks and rocks and nearly everything that he sees. It’s all fresh and new and he has given me a great appreciation for the simple things in life. When we go for a walk, it takes forever to get somewhere because he is observing everything and I have found that if I walk slow, too, I can have a fabulous time. Our modern life with the fast cars and the fast internet and the TV picture changing every three seconds has gotten us so wound up that we miss so much. Slow down, enjoy, smell the roses when you walk past them and listen to the birds and enjoy the butterflies and the flowers and the clouds and the sunsets. They are free.

Finally, Here Are Some Ideas To Make Every Day A Masterpiece In Your Business.

• Start your day with a “to do” list.
• Do everything that is on your “to do” list.
• Don’t waste time needlessly looking at your email, surfing the internet, or other time-wasting activities.
• Analyze your day when it’s over and ask yourself if you did the things necessary to get you to where you want to be.
• Do 10-20 or more marketing actions that will make your phone ring in the future.
• Have control of your company. Understand, use and like your KPI’s (Key Performance Indicators). Do a search in www.icsmag.com for “key performance indicators” and read the article.
• If you are not cleaning, you are marketing.
• Take massive action.
• Maintain a positive attitude and feed your head with good material to grow your business.
• Be perspicacious. i.e. “Put together the elements that matter, take action and don’t get distracted by the noise.”

I have always been a goals guy but after meeting this fellow, I realized that it would be a great idea to place all kinds of important numbers on the walls at my office for myself and others to see. At the present time I have six 8’ x 4’ dry erase boards at my office which contain valuable information that I can readily see at a glance. Also, of course, all of my employees see them, too, and it helps us all keep ACCOUNTABLE. Accountability is one of the most important factors in running an efficient, profitable organization and these boards play a major role. The more accountability, probably the more money you will make. Let’s face it, most owners are hardly held accountable for anything. Why not use this simple, inexpensive method to increase your bottom line and keep important numbers in front of you.

Great Dave, I am glad they work, so tell us what you put on these boards. OK, I will and before I forget, I’ll tell you where to purchase them inexpensively. My digital photography friend gave me that great secret. Go to the big box hardware stores and ask for 8’ x 4’ shower walls. They cost about $12 and are the exact same material that you pay $35 for a 2’ x 4’ board at the office stores. Now, for what I put on them.

Technician up-sells. On one board has all the technicians up-sells for the previous month. It makes it very easy for me to see and better yet, for all the techs and employees to see. If one is doing a great job, everyone knows it. Conversely, if someone is slacking off, all will see and myself and my Operations Manager will deal with that situation.

Weekly Sales Going Back Three Years. In my office, I have the sales of every week going back three years. This is so important because we can see if we are improving or going backwards and since weeks are seasonal somewhat, we can compare apples to apples as we look at previous weeks and years. Additionally, we have our weekly sales goal in huge bold writing, so as to remind us what we want to do in sales every week. This is the board that gets us fired up because we want to be anywhere from 10 to 40 % ahead of the year before. One other great thing this board has done for us. Three years ago we noticed that every week that was outstanding was a week that we did a water damage job. Due to us noticing that obvious fact, we decided to go big time into water damage and the rest is history. Our water damage business has taken off and that dry erase board played a major role in it.

Marketing Director’s Goals and Projects. Right behind her desk she lists all her projects and goals for the next four months. I can look at them, review them with her and applaud her when things come to fruition. For the last two months she had a goal of bringing in $80,000 in new business and her total turned out to be $102,000. Everyone can see what a great job she is doing and the dry erase board is like a big announcement to all of her fabulous success.

Office Assistant’s Duties. Our office assistant has many day to day, weekly and monthly tasks and the vast majority of them are listed on her board. I need only to look at the board to see if she is doing her job or not. Naturally, there are other systems in place to check her work and the accuracy of it, but the board is another valuable arsenal in that battle.

Office Manager’s Duties. Like the office assistant, the office manager has many similar duties that can be reported on the dry erase board. We have regular meetings where those tasks are looked at and summarized on the board. It is easy, it’s efficient and it’s simple. Always remember….

If You Can Measure It You Can Manage It, If You Don’t Measure It, You Won’t Understand It.

Owner’s and Operation Manager’s Tasks. The other board I have in my office is the list of projects, with completion dates, of projects for myself and my Operations Manager. This board keeps us on track and gives us “Top of Mind Awareness.”

The boards are an easy way to track many important parts of your business. The things I have on my boards may be different from what you would put on yours but There just seems to be no downside to their use. Over the last five years of coaching businesses, I have had many clients tell me how happen they have been because they began to use these boards. Accountability is everything, so why not use this easy method to track your business, get your employees involved and take your business to another level.

How Bad Do You Want It? I hope you want it really bad. Why? Simply Because It Is The Greatest Life There Is. I say that because there are plenty of people who make big six figure incomes but their profession keeps them working. Doctors, lawyers, and dentists make big bucks but they must keep working. You can make as much as them and let others do all the work. How cool is that!! If don’t want it all that badly, chances are you won’t make it because you will have to overcome a multitude of obstacles.

When Do You Want It To Happen? You’ll need to make a goal for it to become a reality. I made a goal in my business to have it turn-key by August 1, 2008 and that is just about the exact time it occurred. Planning is essential and picking a date is important but, of course, it is merely wishful thinking unless you have a plan with detailed strategies.

Do You Have A Plan? Your dream-come-true turn-key business is not just going to miraculously appear out of nowhere. How is it going to come about? The best way to develop a strategy for its creation is to pretend that you did it and then look back and imagine what you did to pull it off. Write as much of that thought process down as you can and formulate a plan from your writings. Have fun with it and take your time, it is extremely important.

Do You Have The Money? It takes a good, healthy business to create a turn-key business. Is your company already there or is it at least heading in the right direction? Normally, higher prices and a significant profit margin are the key to this factor. Sure, many companies have achieved turn-key status with low profit margins and tremendous volume but I definitely believe that higher prices and a large profit margin are the best and easiest way to go.

Do You Have The People? Having a profitable business as mentioned in item number four is a must for having the ability to obtain and keep great people. There are other important issues in having fabulous employees but you must be able to pay them well. Praising them, making them feel a part of the mission and having an overall culture of success goes a long way in keeping them around.

Good People Can Stay In Your Company As Technicians But The Leaders and Management Team Must Be Great, Not Good.

If there was one single factor in achieving a turn-key business, it would have to be that last statement. You can have all the policy and procedure manuals in the world but there will always be situations that arise that fall through the cracks and need sound judgment. Those are the situations where your great people step up to the plate and you, as the owner, don’t have to be called for anything but major concerns. One other important matter in the people aspect of a turn-key business has to be mentioned. Low performers must go. They cannot be tolerated and must be dealt with. Either fire them, help them quit or move them up but do not let them poison your business. If you like babysitting people, then you can let them stay but forget about your beautiful turn-key business dreams. Did I make myself clear on this point? I am adamant about this because this was the factor that prevented my business from being turn-key. Had I know this and done something about it, my business would have been turn-key years earlier than it was.

Do You Have Good Books? A turn-key business has an accurate, up-to date profit and loss report, balance sheet, budget and known KPI’s (key performance indicators.) The owner spends most of his time looking at the numbers and they are an true barometer of the health of the business. Every area of the business is measurable and this enables the owner to be hands-off yet right on top of the condition of the company. If you can measure it, you can manage it. If you can’t measure it, you won’t understand it.

Every business has four parts which make up the whole. Management, Sales, Operations and Administration. A turn-key business has all four areas in good working order and the owner is merely the overseer. Concentrate on making those four areas run smoothly with written systems and great people heading them. When that happens, you can wave to your doctor, dentist and lawyer friends when they go to work in the morning while you head out to go fishing. Be nice, you just happened to somehow get involved in one of America’s great secrets and an industry where a turn-key business is quite attainable. Remember to be thankful!

• How do you spend your day, having so many businesses?
• How do you treat your employees?

The answer to question number one ought to inspire you as it did me. He said that he looks at the numbers. If a company is doing well, he leaves it alone. If it has some numbers that don’t look as they should, he steps in. Let me ask you this question about your company. Do you have those types of numbers handy in your business? Can you look at your P & L, Balance Sheet, Up-sells, Phone Log, Marketing Report, etc. and get an accurate picture of your company’s health? That ought to be the goal of every entrepreneur. IF YOU CAN MEASURE IT, YOU CAN MANAGE IT. IF YOU CAN’T MEASURE IT, YOU WON’T BE ABLE TO UNDERSTAND IT! Every business owner needs to be able to look at reports and then either step in or go fishin’.

The remainder of this article will focus on question number two. How do you treat your employees? When I asked my neighbor this question his answer was quite simple. He said that he finds great people, let’s them have plenty of responsibility and pays them very well. As I already mentioned, when the numbers look good, he leaves well enough alone. If not, then a call or visit is in order. Fortunately, for those of us in the carpet cleaning and restoration industry, we can pay our people well because we are in businesses that can have a high profit margin. If your profit margin is less than 20%, you need to do something about that because you may not be able to pay your people in a manner that is going to keep them happy and around for a long time. I like my neighbor’s plan and you should, too. Find great people and pay them well. By the way, one thing that I found out the hard way over the years is this. If someone is a low performer, they have got to get better or they will be let go. Don’t let low performers destroy your company and your life and mental health.

OK, great Dave, so in our industry, what does great pay look like? I am going to tell you how we pay our people at my company, Pro Clean Restoration and Cleaning, located in Pensacola, Florida. Of course, every area of the country is different and has cost of living factors but you will get a general idea that should be helpful. For the most part, every job has some sort of incentive pay. When I went from strictly hourly pay to incentive pay, my profits skyrocketed. People ought to be paid on how they perform. If someone is fast and can up-sell, they should be rewarded for that and not be paid the same hourly rate as someone who can’t hold a candle to their abilities. So, here goes.

Our technicians are paid $8 to $9 an hour plus a bonus of 8% of the production they bring in. we operate one man trucks. Additionally, they are paid a 12% bonus on any up-sells. So, if they do a job for $200 and have a $100 up-sell in which they also do the work of the up-sell, say they clean a sofa as an up-sell, they will make their hourly rate plus 8% of $300 and 12% of $100.

Our office manager makes an hourly rate of $11, plus, if the company does over $20,000 for the week, she receives a $50 bonus. Also, any job that she gets over the phone in which she has to sell the prospect on our company, she receives a $3 bonus. Our office assistant is paid $9 an hour and she receives the same $3 bonus for booking a new job. She also takes flyers to our established customers on Fridays and if she finds a new office to display our material, she gets a $5 bonus. Notice, I always say bonus and not a commission because if you want to take a bonus away for any reason, tardiness or whatever, you can. You cannot do that with commissions.

Our operations manager is paid a monthly salary plus 3% of the gross profit. Why the gross profit, you ask? The reason being is that he is in control of the technicians’ hours and the more efficient they are, the bigger his bonus. The gross profit in our company is the sales minus service labor and chemicals. He supervises both service labor and chemical usage, so the items that he is in charge of, are the items that are part of his bonus.

Our marketing director is paid a salary of $30,000 plus a bonus of 3 to 5% of the business that she brings in. As long as she is employed by the company she will receive 3 to 5% of the sales generated through her efforts. She does a great job and has been averaging $30,000 and up per month in sales!

The only people in our company that continue to be paid and hourly rate are our restoration technicians. Incentive pay is a bit tricky to figure out for them. We want them to be thorough, so speed is not an issue and rarely can they up-sell anything. Consequently, we just pay them very well.

Finally, my vacation pay for all full-time employees is exceptional. They see me on vacation all the time and I figure that they can use time off, too. My folks get great vacation pay but I believe it keeps them happy, refreshed and with the company. After six months, they receive a week’s paid vacation. One year and they get two weeks paid. Three years, three weeks paid; five years, a month paid; seven years, five weeks paid; and twelve years, six weeks paid. You may think this idea to be very expensive but have you considered the enormous cost of training new employees? That cost is substantial and a vacation program like the one I just described, is one fabulous way to keep great people on your staff.

In conclusion, take heed to my mentor and find great people, pay them well and chances are you will be able to do lots of fishin’, golfin’ or whatever your heart desires!

If you could move your business from $150,000 in yearly sales to $400,000, how would that change your life? What about $400,000 to a million? Perhaps you have been working for years and years and can’t seem to get ahead or have a lifestyle that allows you to do what you really want to do. Let’s face it; you may be stuck and wondering what this “Be your own boss” thing is all about. Here’s one thought that may encourage you somewhat; you are not alone! Millions of business owners are stuck, so the more important question is, “How does one get unstuck?” Let’s examine 10 ways to get unstuck.

1. Ask yourself, ”Am I really stuck or it is something deeper that keeps me from growing?” Being vague can sometimes allow you to not really seek a solution but instead it can feel good and cause you to not look for real solutions. Just to say, “I am stuck,” can hide the real reason you are not bettering your life or business. Ask yourself more revealing questions. Am I afraid? Am I lazy? Am I overwhelmed? Am I doing the same thing over and over again, expecting different results?
2. If an industry leader bought your company what would that person do differently? If Bill Gates decided that your company, Acme Carpet Cleaning and Restoration, would be a good purchase and he took over your company, what would he do that you aren’t? Do you think your company would stay stuck for years into the future? Sure, he is really smart but don’t you think that you have some good business sense, too? I bet you do. Make a list of what a genius business mind would do with your business and do some mind mapping and free thinking. Have some fun doing it.
3. Examine your time spent outside of your comfort zone. If an outside business consultant came in and asked you to describe your work week and what you did Mon.- Sat., would he be impressed or depressed. Leaving your comfort zone to do those important things you don’t like to do but know you have to can lead to big successes. Are you spending the time marketing, planning and implementing strategies that you know you should be? If not, why not and when are you going to start?
4. Start today. Item number three is probably the biggest factor in being stuck and the best way to fix it, is to start today, one step at a time. Make your body and mind move. Often the problem seems so overwhelming that we think the solution is huge, when in reality, it is one small daily step at a time. In most cases an increase in sales will fix most problems, so decide to get out there and implement your marketing strategy.
5. Have a written strategy. It’s pretty difficult to get unstuck unless you make a game plan to change your workweek activities. Just going by the seat of your pants and constantly reacting to situations and problems is a beautiful example of how to stay stuck for a very long time. Taking control of your business by actually planning your future for some reason is very, very difficult for many business owners but is essential for growth and getting out of a rut. Great businesses plan…does yours?
6. Reward yourself. Hopefully in your business, the majority of your people are paid on some sort of incentive basis. Why not have an incentive program for yourself. When you accomplish a task, why not reward yourself with, depending on the size of the task, an ice cream cone; a dinner date with your spouse; a golf or fishing trip; a Disney vacation or, perhaps a trip to Europe. I find that I can very easily trick myself and make myself work harder when I have a prize waiting at the finalizing of my task. Try it, you might get addicted to it!
7. Will a coach help me? Sometimes we can use outside help to jumpstart our businesses. Good coaches are not cheap but the results can be life changing. If you are going to use a coach, make sure you know the terms before beginning and that you are comfortable with them and that you can drop out easily. There are times when just a few sessions with a coach is all you need and sometimes it can take years. Everybody is different, so just make sure that you are in charge of the terms, after all it is your life and, in the end, you know what is best for you.
8. Can you delegate better? Often business owners are stuck because they feel that only they can do certain tasks. You may be good at a lot of stuff but you will be pleasantly surprised that others can do jobs in your organization as good, if not better than you. Make a list of everything you do and then make a game plan for others taking those responsibilities over time. Look at every task in one of three ways… Can someone else do it (Is it something the owner should be doing)?…Does it really need to be done?…Can it be done in a better fashion?

9. Make a list. What two to three things could you do immediately to move forward to change your business for the better? We already talked about having a written strategy but that should be very extensive and a major project. Right now I am talking about doing a few items that you know you should be doing but for some stupid reason, you aren’t doing them. I said just two or three because if we concentrate on more than just a few, we won’t budge and we’ll be stuck again.
10. Do those items in number nine in the next 72 hours. Write your commitment down, watch how immediate action will change your frame of mind and be willing to enrich the world and not merely make a living. Real success is adding value to others’ lives so why not get started right now and perhaps great value will be added to your life, too.

A famous preacher once said that his parents taught him to expect great things and miracles every single day. When the telephone rang, they would ask themselves, is this our miracle today? When the doorbell rang or they went to the mailbox, they would ask the same marvelous question. What a fabulous way to live and why shouldn’t we all live and think like that. What harm could come of it? Try it for a week and see what happens. It could very easily turn into a lifelong habit and way of thinking.

After you write down your goals, do you expect them to come about? Why wouldn’t you? Write them down and then get excited about the possibility of them coming true. Believe in your dreams and goals and then do the necessary work to bring them about.

In my years in business, I have heard countless times, other employers moan and complain about how lousy workers are today. I can quite confidently say that I have found the opposite to be true. I have had great employees and always expect it to be that way. If you think your employees will be worthless, there is a good chance that they will be. On the other hand, if you expect to find, train and cultivate fantastic employees, you will probably get just that. Why wouldn’t most employers think that way? I certainly don’t know, but it is deep in the human psyche to be negative and we need to work feverishly to destroy that negativity in our lives and thinking pattern. You have a choice, so why not choose to think only the best for you and your business. You may say, oh that is easy for you to say, you’ve never walked in my shoes. It’s true that I haven’t, but I know that we are all made the same way and that life and circumstances can change and how your attitude is will be a huge factor in how your life is lived.

Don’t be surprised when great things happen to you. As a matter of fact, expect them. And, of course, be grateful and thankful at the same time. When you are in a raffle, be looking for them to call your name. This will be good practice for you as you work on your winning attitude. And then watch as your name will be called as the winner, more so than in the past.
Some good ways to feed this type of thinking is to listen to inspirational music, and read uplifting books. Stay away from negative people and when you hear them say, I never win anything, be kind and tell them that there is another and better way of thinking. You may get some odd looks but you may change a life, too. I do this all the time and it is rarely an unpleasant circumstance.

Along those same lines, why not become a teacher of expecting great things to happen. Family members and employees are a great place to start. This attitude can be contagious, just like expecting bad things can equally be catching.

You Reticular Activating System is a real part of your brain that is located at the bottom of your skull. It is an antenna that is always looking for information that you program for it. For instance, if you are a grandparent, if someone around you is talking about grandchildren, you will probably hear the conversation as your RAS is programmed to listen for such talk. If you are not a grandparent, you may not hear that very same conversation. When it comes to expecting great things and miracles to happen your RAS will be on the lookout for them for you. What a magnificent component of our brain, that God gave to us. It is up to you to use it to your advantage or disadvantage.

When it comes to business believe that your customers are going to love what you have to offer them. Most of the time, the negative person that resides in us gets the upper hand and tells us that the person is not going to like us and maybe even will throw us out on our ear. Why think like that, when you could just as easily think that they will be thrilled with your offer. In the sales world, this attitude is called, Assuming the Sale. You can assume the sale or you can assume getting rejected, it’s your choice.

Doing the necessary work and taking massive action is paramount, of course. I am not saying that wishing and hoping alone will get you anywhere. I am not describing a fairy tale but I am saying that hard work, combined with a fantastic attitude, can make your dreams come true.

I used to live next to the Berlin wall and I would walk up and down it every day, so appreciative that I was on the side that I was on. I felt so bad for the folks on the other side of the wall who had very little to hope for, or dream of. A tremendous bible verse says that hope deferred makes the heart sick. In those days the people of Berlin had a saying that said, “How would you like to wake up one day and there was a wall outside your door and you did not know which side you were on.” Be so very thankful that you are on the right side.

In so many countries, the opportunities are just not there to make a great business or career for yourself. There is extreme poverty and no infrastructure available to build a business. I am not saying it can’t be done but it is so very much harder than in the states or first world countries.

Bill Gates said that the key to success is to be in the right industry at the right time and take massive action. Ray Croc, the entrepreneur that developed McDonald’s said similarly, be in the right place and take action. Those two men are worthy of our consideration so let’s agree that being in the right place and taking lots of action just might be a simple formula for achieving the American dream. Ask yourself if this thought pattern describes you or if you are moving in that direction.

Most people are content with the security of their present situation. They like the four walls that surround them and three square meals a day. They are willing to give up freedom for the security of the present. Freedom might mean putting themselves in a scary situation where they could lose and so they are unwilling to change. The spirit of the entrepreneur is the spirit of risk taking and placing oneself in difficult situations. In essence, the entrepreneur is a gambler. When you read the biographies of great business successes they always put themselves in uncertain situations but they would have it no other way. For instance when Michael Dell was perfecting the laptop computer, he gambled everything on an unperfected lithium battery. Had it not worked, the company probably would have gone under but if it did work, Dell computers would be a gigantic success. Of course, you know how that came out.

Study the lives of highly successful people and see how they think and how they spend their days. Seek out successful people that you can meet and ask them questions about their way of thinking and how they became such high achievers.

Stretch your ability to think big. Realize that the sky is the limit and therefore don’t put a cap on your abilities or what you can accomplish. Unfortunately, many folks are as afraid of success as they are of failure. Train yourself to think bigger by reading, listening and making bigger goals for yourself and carefully selecting you friends. An interesting fact of life is that you will be like the five people that you spend the most time with. Who are the people you surrounding yourself with?

Another important factor in achieving the American dream is to make sure that you don’t do it at the expense of your family or your health. Too many people have sacrificed everything and when they got to the top of the ladder, they discovered it was leaning along the wrong wall. Keep your priorities in order and give yourself periodic check-ups concerning your life style to insure that you are not ruining your life to get what you want. Remember that a large part of the success story is just getting there. As someone most cleverly said, “The thrill is in the pursuit.”

Whatever you do, don’t give up. A few years back, I was having some difficult times in my business, questioning whether it was worth all the aggravation and I got some great words of advice from Donald Trump. I came home one evening from work and my wife was watching The Apprentice. Just as I entered the living room and having my sour, ready-to-quit-attitude, Donald happened to say, “Quitters are losers.” Well that statement hit me right between the eyes and I realized that I was having some “stinkin’ thinking” and it was time to dump that dangerous attitude. Low and behold, I can almost pinpoint to that exact time when my business turned around and it has been on a fabulous upturn ever since. I shudder to think what my life would be like if I had thrown in the towel, especially since I was so close to a turnaround.

The American dream is as alive today as it has ever been so why don’t you decide to grab your share of it.

• Determine what your dreams are in life. The reason that this is vitally important is that your dreams are your fuel to keep you going. When you get down in the dumps your dreams will stir you to action. When you might want to quit or get into a funk, remembering your dreams will get you back to work. Also, the bigger the dream the bigger the obstacle you can overcome.
• Make a goal book. I have one for every year. In it I have my personal and business goals for the year, business goals for each quarter, yearly financial goals, my affirmations and my lifelong bucket list. I look at it often and it keeps me accountable and it is lots of fun to make. It sits right on my desk, so I see it all the time.
• Determine your goals with the end in mind. This is an extremely important concept and I will use the illustration of my Sales Manager in making this point. Every quarter we determine her sales goal. As of today, we want her to bring in $20,000 in new business each month. By the way, she is paid a salary plus a bonus of three to five percent of what she generates. The $20,000 is the starting point and is the focal point of her planning. Great, so she needs to bring in $20,000 so the question arises, “Where is that money going to come from?” It won’t just walk in the door, so she has to figure out what referral sources will bring in that work. Once we have determined that, then she has to make strategies for talking to those people and then she has to plan when and where she is going to meet them. As you can see, a lot of planning goes into bringing in that $20,000 and without the planning, she would be very inefficient and would be just running to and fro. She takes one week at the beginning of each quarter to plan her next three months. Additionally, one day a week she spends in the office generating reports for me and then planning her next week. If you do not have a Sales Manager, guess what, that position belongs to you. For successful marketing you will have to set some time aside and make a plan and then work your plan. It certainly is time well spent.
• How high do you make a goal? One rule of thumb is very telling and works well. Your goals should make your stomach a bit upset. If that happens then your goal is probably lofty enough.

Finally, here are seven steps in creating your goals.

1. Make your goals smart. Specific, Measurable, Attainable (or Accountable), Reasonable and Time sensitive.
2. Decide what you want. Pretty amazing to think that PEOPLE DON’T EVEN KNOW WHAT THEY WANT BUT IT IS TRUE. Do you know what you want?
3. Write your goals down. Write them everywhere. At my office we have seven 8ft. x 4ft. dry erase boards. You can purchase them from a big box store in the shower area as shower walls for only $11. We have our past weekly sales for every week of the last three years. Also, we have our goals for the Sales Manager, tasks for the Office Manager and Office Assistant, weekly up-sell statistics for the past month for all of our techs and other important facts listed on these boards.
4. Determine the price to be paid. Your goals come at a price which might mean time, money, hard work and taking risks. Think about each goal and consider if you are willing pay the price to make that goal come true.
5. Take immediate action. If not now, when? The time for action is now and Bill Gates said the key to success is to Be in the Right Industry at the Right Time and take MASSIVE Action. Do something toward your goals every single day. Join the five o’clock club and begin your day with a couple hours of uninterrupted proactive quality time. You think you don’t have time to think and plan, well, do it in those two early morning hours and you will be amazed how much you can accomplish.
6. Make an affirmation. An affirmation is saying something about what you want as if you already have it. For instance you might say, “I have sales of $20,000 a week and make a profit of $15,000 a month. My technicians are incredible up-sellers and my office staff is magnificent.” You could go on and on but you get the point. Your sales may be far below what you say and your technicians and office personnel may be far from great but the affirmation says otherwise. The affirmation can be outrageous but it must be believable. Put it at your desk and on your mirror and say it out loud once or twice a day. Affirmations are powerful and they work and you ought to give them a try.
7. Decide to never quit, no matter what. The Spanish explorer Cortez landed in Mexico and promptly burned his ships negating any thoughts of turning back. You could say he was committed to his work. Being in the carpet cleaning and restoration industries, we are in the right industry at the right time so be grateful for all the opportunities that are staring you in the face. Don’t quit, get your plan and goals written down, roll up your sleeves and get to work. If others can be fabulously successful in this business, why can’t you? Plan on it!!

If you are a business owner, you are a gambler and I want to discuss that fact in this article. As I am writing this, it was just announced that Ford profited $1.7 billion dollars the last quarter. How did they do that? Two years ago, they took a huge gamble, borrowing tons of money and totally revamping the company. It worked. Michael Dell, owner of Dell Computers, risked everything by betting that a lithium battery that was just being developed would work and revolutionize the laptop computer industry. At the time, it was unknown if that battery could deliver what was needed but he took the chance and his company took over the market. Howard Schultz of Starbucks was already a gazillionaire when he decided to open up the country of Japan to Starbucks. All his advisors told him not to do it but he did anyways. When the first store opened there was a line two blocks long and people had been in line all night long just for the privilege of being the first ones in the door. The store and the Japanese market have been a huge success. He was already incredibly successful but took the gamble anyways because that’s who he is, he is an entrepreneur.

How about you? You can measure your success in a unique way that will tell volumes about your business. Ask yourself this question. How many things did you try this year? How many things are you going to try in 2011? The measure of a company’s success is how much they try to be successful. The ones that are the most successful are probably the ones with the most failures. In the last three years I have lost over $75,000 getting into the air duct business which I am now out of. At the same time, I ramped up my natural stone polishing business along with our water damage business and made a ton of money. Am I mad at myself for losing all that money in the air duct business? A little bit but what the heck, I did great in the others and know that you can’t win them all.

If you are going to be a good gambler in the carpet cleaning/ restoration business, it could be a good idea to do some of the following:

• Don’t hesitate to hire. So many companies won’t hire the office lady or the part-time tech because they are afraid they can’t afford them. Don’t be driven by fear. If you want to grow your company you are going to have to have other people do some of the work. Bite the bullet and hire them and then go get more business. I just had this discussion with my Operations Manager less than an hour ago. Should we hire another tech just to do night work? I told him to do it and now we will be forced to get more night work. We are up to the challenge.
• Make sure to plan. If you are going to take chances you must have a game plan. For instance, we are now going to hire a tech for night time work so we are formulating our marketing plan to get that work. The more detailed the plan the better. We will be working with our sales manager to determine what specific markets and businesses to approach with measurable goals. When you get as detailed as possible it takes away much of the anxiety and it can get pretty darn exciting!
• Have a budget. Good and precise accounting measures can lead to successful decisions. When you know your numbers, you can more accurately decide whether it is the right time to purchase that piece of equipment or not.
• Have fun. You are a gambler whether you like it or not if you own your own business. Might as well enjoy it. One of the worst decisions you can ever make is to make no decision at all. Don’t get frozen and don’t let fear rule the way you run your business. Realize that you are going to make mistakes but don’t dwell on them. Try and try again. May your 2011 be full of all kinds of new decisions and strategies. Go for it, America loves the person who goes for it all. Even if he is English and his name is Bond…James Bond.

In business, as in life, to choose wisely is about as important as it gets. The homeless person who lives on the street most likely made lots of poor choices. Let’s look at the fine art of choosing wisely and see if we can’t improve our chances of making good decisions.

First, realize that many decisions involve pain. It’s just a matter of choosing which pain to deal with. I give you an example that happens time after time in my coaching business. A business owner has an employee that has been with them for a long time but is no longer doing the job the way it ought to be done. That owner has a choice of keeping that person on or letting them go. It is an obvious choice of short term or long term pain. The long term pain is keeping the employee on and dealing with the lackluster results. The short term pain involves bringing the person into the office, firing them and then training a new employee. The short term pain can be quite painful but in a while it ends. The long term pain in this situation never ends.

Another example is the salesperson who has to do cold calling. For most people, there is pain involved in walking into someone’s office or store and trying to make a relationship or sale without any prior involvement with the potential customer. This is called leaving your comfort zone. It can be very uncomfortable in cold calling land. Here the short term pain is thinking about going there and then actually walking in and doing your sales pitch. Once again, this can be quite painful but once you leave the pain ends. On the other hand, the long term pain in this situation is not going to do the cold calling and the pain is not as severe as the short term pain but just like the fore mentioned case… it never ends. It’s painful either way but choose your pain. There is no big money made in your comfort zone, it’s all made outside the comfort zone.

Some other good ideas to be considered in making wise decisions are…

• Get good counsel, have a team that you can go to and ask questions and work with you.
• Hire a coach if necessary. It’s the rare person these days that couldn’t utilize a professional coach to help them get focused, plan, strategize and sort things out.
• Have a daily task list in order to choose your daily activities wisely.
• In making big decisions, write down the pro and cons and then look for answers in the list that you have compiled. Look for hints and answers as you go about your daily activities. Expect the correct answer to come your way and be on the lookout for it.
• Always remember, that no decision is a decision.
• Don’t let fear determine your decisions unless, of course, it is a deciding factor and you could be harmed. Fear can many times simply be False Evidence Appearing Real.
• Learn from your mistakes and you will never be defeated.
• One of the most important factors that I ever learned came from business coach, Jim Harris. He said in making a decision, always consider the downside risk. If the decision goes sour and doesn’t work out will you be able to deal with the consequences. I wish I had heard this profound piece of wisdom years ago and maybe in my life, I would have avoided a number of blunders. Another way to look at this same concept is to ask yourself, “Is the opportunity in the risk bigger than the risk in the opportunity.”
• Also, once you have made your decision, don’t second guess yourself and focus on reaching your desired outcome. And if the decision proves to be the wrong one, don’t beat yourself up, merely move on.
• A wonderful trait that is inherent in Americans is that we very easily forgive and forget failure. I truly believe that is a very big factor in why we always lead the world in innovation, creativity and patents. In many cultures failure carries with it a big stigmatism that is very difficult to overcome. I’m so glad that we don’t have to worry about that here. Remember, Zig Ziglar said that failure is an event, not a person.
• Finally, successful people feel the fear and do it anyway. Be prepared, make your decision and then believe in yourself and your choice.