Hey Guys,

I’m back again with your next installment of my Make 2007 Your Best Year Ever Business Makeover Formula.

Remember, you can’t have a makeover if you don’t get in the game. If you’ve not done the ‘Power Lists’ from the first three posts, do not pass GO!

These things build on each other, so go back and do the lists of your successes, disappointments, and the things that are holding you back from greatness. You need all the pieces in place, or it’s like putting in the foundation after you’ve put up the siding.

Are you ready now? Let’s get started with this next Big Question, since it really shows you why I had you do those lists in the first place…

Your Next Big Question…
What Did You Learn from the Last Three Questions?

You may not even have to think about this question.

After you put together your Power Lists of accomplishments, disappointments and things that held you back in 2006, the lessons learned could have already hit you square in the head like a 10 pound brick!

Don’t worry if that didn’t happen right away for you -We’re all different and what hits someone else right away may take a little longer to sink in with you.

I’m here today to make sure you fully learn from everything you’ve discovered about yourself and your business.

Learning From Everything You Did Last Year

So you’ve compiled your Power Lists of what went well last year, what could have gone better and what held you back.

Now it’s time to take a step back and learn something from each and every entry from all three lists.

Taking inventory of last year will not help if you can’t learn from your mistakes and your victories…

Don’t only look at the failures and victories from the day to day activities of your business, either…

You should learn from entries in your Power Lists from your personal life, too. Especially the things you found that are holding you back…

Then apply what you’ve learned to your business and your life right away.

For example, if you have been struggling to write sales copy for your business and are still getting poor results, it’s time to outsource this task.

And if you want to have a pile of money for you and your family – even though your grandmother has always told you that money is the root of all evil… you’ll need to resolve the confusion created by trying to achieve something your subconscious mind thinks deep down is wrong.

Even though you have learned what your mistakes and victories were last year, it may not be completely clear exactly how you should take this information and apply it to your business and your personal life.

Well that’s where the next Big Question I have for you comes in…

After you read my next post, you will be very clear about just how to apply what you’ve learned about yourself so you can indeed Make 2007 Your Best Year Ever!

To Higher Profits,

Rich Schefren
Strategic Profits

Hey Guys,

Today I want to continue with the five questions that are going to Make 2007 Your Best Year Ever.

If you followed my previous posts you created two powerful lists that show you exactly what happened in your business and your life last year- what worked and what didn’t work – your successes and your disappointments.

And you probably learned a great deal about yourself in the process.

Well now you’re going to learn even more about yourself as we get into the next step of my 2007 Business Makeover Formula.

And today’s question may reveal some things you would have never thought of in a million years.

Are you ready?

Your Next Big Question. How Did You Limit Yourself Last Year and How Can You Stop?

You know how I feel about constraints. And you may not believe it, but there are nasty things hiding deep inside of you that have been holding you back from living the life you want.

And most are not your fault. They were placed in your head by well-meaning people. Some of this stuff you’re just thrown to based on things like where you came from, where you grew up, your family background, etc. And some of this stuff has been told to you by people who were really trying to help you by passing on what they thought was valuable advice to live by.

But what actually happened was that you got hardwired with programming that’s outdated. And yet it still influences your thoughts and day to day activities and beliefs in a negative way.

The part of your thought process that has been affected by this ultimately negative input is your belief system and your core values.

Were Your Grandparents Wrong?

Did you have an elderly grandmother that used to tell you things like “Money is the root of all evil” and “Rich people are all crooks”?

Well money is not the root of all evil, and all rich people are not crooks.

Each year millions of dollars are donated to worthy causes by rich people. Their generosity has brought forth breakthroughs in the fields of science and medicine that have made this world a much better place to live.

And even though the news media makes the public believe all rich people are crooks when a CEO is caught stealing from the company pension fund, that’s really not true.

What they don’t tell you is 99.9% of all successful business people have achieved their success through hard work and dedication, not by theft or cheating.

Exposing Your Pre-Programmed Belief System

Along with discovering and listing last year’s business accomplishments and disappointments, it’s time to take a good look at yourself on a very basic level.

This involves reaching deep into your core values and beliefs to see what’s holding you back.

And you may find that some of the things you thought were the truth are really just clich’s. Misguided ideas presented by narrow-minded thinkers and then passed down from generation to generation.

So be ready to find out that what you thought was bedrock in your belief system may not actually be true. For some of you, this may be really shocking.

If it’s your mission to discover exactly what’s holding you back from achieving your goals and dreams. Then do whatever it takes to stop doing or thinking those things.

Have You Been Operating from a Position of Strength or Weakness?

And along with those programmed beliefs, there’s the behavior of operating from your weaknesses instead of your strengths.

Personally, I know a lot about this one! Last year I did not leverage my strengths as much as I could have. And I was involved in some things that I don’t consider my strengths.

But I realized what was going on and fixed the problems. I hired people that are strong in things that I consider myself weak in. Their strengths complement mine.

This one essential move is already making a huge difference for my business this year.

What about you?

Are your daily activities based on your strengths? Or are you wasting your valuable time struggling to get better at things you know deep down are your weaknesses?

You know what I’m talking about here. Not things that you could get good at – but things that you don’t care if you ever get good at but need to have handled excellently.

Are You Ready to Answer Today’s Big Question?

It’s now time for you to get your treasured notebook of powerful lists that make up my formula for Making 2007 Your Best Year Ever.

And create another list – this one from your deep, hard look at the values and belief system that you’ve been carrying around for most of your life.

Then include all of the activities you’ve been doing that are not really your strengths.

It’s important to identify those activities that are definitely your weaknesses. The things you struggle with regularly that don’t produce the results you expect.

You’ll Soon Find Out Why You’ve Been Creating This Notebook of Life-Changing Lists

To be prepared for the next Big Question in my Business Makeover Formula, you must have completed all three lists we have discussed so far.

I kid you not.

It’s the only way this series of Make 2007 Your Best Year Ever questions will help you turn your situation around. It will mean the difference between you having an extremely profitable year, or just getting by again – like you did last year.

To Higher Profits,
Rich Schefren
Strategic Profits

P.S. Following this formula myself has enabled me to put my business on track to have a record year. And it wasn’t from just doing the three lists we’ve covered so far.

The next two Big Questions are essential keys to making this formula work for you. So make sure you move on to the next blog post when you’re ready.

Because I really want to see you make a splash this year.

And not just a hand-in-the-water splash. I’m talking about a take-a-running-start cannonball splash that gets everyone around you soaking wet!

Hey Guys,

I hope you’re having a profitable day.

So did you finish your ‘Victory’ list – you know the one that we talked about in my last post? Where you get to relive your glory days from last year so we can carry what worked forward into 2007?

If not, please scroll down to yesterday’s post and complete that exercise before you move on to Your Next Big Question for “Making 2007 Your Best Year Ever”.

When you’re ready to continue, here’s…

Your Next Big Question!
What Were Your Biggest Disappointments Of 2006?

Looking at your disappointments from last year may not be easy for you. Don’t worry – you’re not alone. It’s not easy for many people and so they white it out of their minds. They’d rather pretend it never happened and hope for the best.

But it’s hard to build a booming growing successful business if you live like an ostrich with your head in the sand. It’s with your eyes open looking around that you’ll make this year better than 2006.

Last year happened and you have experience from it, both positive and negative…

Today you’re going to learn the next step (#2 out of the 5) that will enable you to really profit from that experience.

First, you must start with this in mind:

As You Launch Into 2007 (it’s only January!!!) – Identify What You Did Wrong Last Year. No Pain, No Gain

It’s time for you to take out that treasured notebook or pad and begin a new list. This one steers clear of your accomplishments and focuses on what didn’t work in 2006…mistakes, missteps, failures, wrong roads, bad choices. Call it what you will, you know what it is I’m talking about.

And by the way SAVE YOUR LISTS!!!! They are the building blocks for your success. The more you put in to them, the more that comes back at you. Save them all! A treasured book of lists is really an excellent idea. You’ll see why.

Be Totally Honest with Yourself

When you begin to write up your list of disappointments, you may be inclined to just rush through them.

DON’T

The easy route here has no pay off. You know what went wrong and taking a good hard look at what happened is where the juice is. No one else has to see this list but you.

And, by the way, take a hard look not only at last year’s business activities, but your personal life, too. Lots of things go hand in hand.

Last time, we talked about taking an honest look at your situation… This is absolutely essential when building your list of disappointments and failures from last year.

You should not just be mildly honest with yourself – Mild Honesty is like lukewarm water.

Instead, go at your disappointments with gusto. If you’re ruthless in tearing your business and life apart, you’ll get a chance to find and face the core problems. You need more than a surface look. If things don’t jump out at you, look again and look harder. This really is a treasure hunt.

The harder you are on yourself at this point, the more ammunition you will have to make the radical changes that are crucial to making your life and your business better.

While you are working on your brutally honest list of disappointments and failures, it might help you to take a look at what I came up with when I did the same exercise you are doing.

What I Must Change In My Life and My Business to Make 2007 the Best Year Ever!

All of us have something we can improve upon from the last year, and that includes me.

Yeah, there were some things that I think could have gone better in 2006…

A big concern was all of the time I personally put into my coaching programs. This really turned out to be a problem for me.

I found it difficult to manage my time when working with over 750 coaching clients, working on my business expansion, entering into new partnerships and speaking all around the world.

All of this while spending as much time as possible with my two daughters Ava and Elle, and my wife Debi.

And I really don’t know how I did it… I sacrificed a lot of hobbies I enjoy – I slept less and read less. And I spent less time with friends. All in all, not too good.

But the pay-off was huge.

I am honored to have been able to help so many clients achieve and exceed their business goals in 2006.

And Strategic Profits is now set up to produce and deliver what I believe will be unrivaled in the business growth field of today and tomorrow.

So now that I have gotten Strategic Profits where it needs to be, I’m readjusting my schedule. This is bringing my life more into balance so I can dedicate more time to having fun.

Now I’m Not Claiming to be Perfect…

The facts are I certainly made some other missteps along the way last year. In hindsight, I did not do everything right.

Most people would have been happy with the numbers we did with our launch of Internet Wealth Alliance with Agora (a program we did together.)

But I thought the results were disappointing, considering the over the top track records of Agora and Strategic Profits.

And as I said before about my family life, I missed out on more than I care to admit. I wanted to spend more time with my wife and kids than I did.

I can’t undo what happened, but as you can imagine, these points are all very important to me.

How Important is All of This to You?

Taking a good look at your 2006 and building a list of all your disappointments and failures will be one of the most important exercises you do all year!

I’m serious here!

Take the time to do it right. Don’t get sidetracked – this is too important. If you face it now, you’ll be amazed at what you will find out about yourself and your business practices last year just from this one list .

Plus you will need this list, and your list of last year’s accomplishments, to be able to complete my business makeover formula so you can make 2007 your best year yet.

Your Next Big Question?

This is something that will make or break your business success and growth this year.

In fact, it is so important that without it, you are putting yourself in the position of reliving your mistakes over and over again, just like Bill Murray did in Groundhog Day.

And you’ll get to benefit from this next big question soon.

So make sure you check in with me tomorrow and make room in your notebook for another important list.

Soon you will see how these lists work together to help you transform your business and your life into that of your dreams.

To Higher Profits,

Rich Schefren
Strategic Profits

P.S. – I’m really looking forward to being able to help even more people in a different way coming up soon.

Since people are always asking me “So Rich, what exactly do you do every day?”… I’m going to let a few lucky people look ‘Over My Shoulder’ this year.

They will get to hear first-hand what I do each and every day and how I’ve used my actions to build my business into what it is today.

Gee, what do I want to do today?

If you ever started your day by asking yourself that same question then pay very close attention because the question above is the beginning of an ineffective day.

Strategic entrepreneurs don’t start out their day asking “what do I want to do?” They ask themselves “What are the most important, highest leverage activities that need to get done?” and create a list of the most important activities that answer the question.

After that, they estimate the amount of time each activity should take.

Next, they analyze the list of important activities that must get done and determine which activities they should do themselves and who they are going to get to do the remaining activities.

Then when they start work they tackle the most important, highest leverage task or activity first. They do not ask the question of themselves “which one of these task do I want to do now?”

Remember no entrepreneur is born effective you have to cultivate it and you do that by practicing the habits of effectiveness. You wouldn’t want an employee who worked on what they chose and you should respect your business at the very least as much as you want your team to.

Here’s a quote from the Harvard Business Review, June 2004 p59

“Jack Welch realized that what needed to be done at General Electric when he took over as chief executive was not the overseas expansion HE WANTED to launch. It was getting rid of businesses that, no matter how profitable, could not be number one or number two in their industries.”

Today be conscious of the choices you make when deciding what to work on.

Are you picking tasks based on what you want or are you picking your activities based on what your company needs from you?

If you pick the most important task to work on first you’ll be more effective, your company will be more profitable, and you’ll be able to work less so you can actually pick fun things to do outside of work instead of the poor substitutes you’ve been using to fill your work days.

So remember – it’s not what you want to do – it’s what your business needs done.

To Increased Effectiveness,

Rich Schefren

If you’ve kept at it and tracked your time you should now have crystal clarity about how you are currently using your time.

Any surprises?

Are you doing things that you shouldn’t be doing?

If so, it’s costing you a lot more than you think, here’s why…

When you study systems you learn that the maximum output of any process is set by its scarcest resource. Your business is a system.

And what are the key resources needed by your business?

1. Money

2. People

3. Time

Money

If you have the right business model and you are effectively progressing toward your business goals you should either have, or have access to enough money. And the ability to get more isn’t constrained, there are plenty of investors for the right businesses.

People – There is no limit usually to the people you can hire or outsource to, especially when you have enough money.

Time – Of the 3 major resources time is scarcest. It’s also totally perishable and cannot be stored. Yesterday’s time is gone forever and will never come back.

Everything you and your business does requires time.

All work (whether useful or not) eats away your time. But, most entrepreneurs (at least the unsuccessful ones) take for granted the unique, irreplaceable, totally perishable, and necessary resource.

Effective entrepreneurs realize that time is the limiting factor.

So, with your time logs in front of you answer the question:

What are some of the activities that I am currently doing that does not contribute to my effectiveness?

And once you come up with some answers the next question to think about is:

How can I either eliminate these time drains, automate them, or pass them off to someone else?

If you are not sure what are the activities that you should be doing, have no fear, I’ll quickly explain how you can arrive at the right answer.

Let’s pretend for a moment you were leaving your company for a while and you were going to hire a company president to grow your business while you were away. Before you left, the new company president asked you – what are the activities I must focus on, on a daily basis if I really want to grow your company as quickly as possible?

Your answer is where you should be spending your time. Because if you are running your company then you are the company’s president. And if you want to be effective you better be able to answer these two questions.

What am I getting paid to do?

What should I be paid to do if I am being paid for the right things to be done in my position?

Once you are clear about that – begin to ruthlessly cut away at activities that don’t make the list. In my upcoming notes to you I’ll show you how to do exactly that – get rid on the wasteful activities that clog up your cashflow.

To Your Effectiveness,

Rich Schefren

Since we’ve been talking about conditioning the habit of effectiveness it’s a good idea to address what to do when you slip and revert back to your non-productive ways.

Central to dealing with setbacks are three terms:

Lapse ——- Relapse ——- Collapse

When establishing a new habit that requires a behavior change, quite often there are a number of setbacks along the way.

How you react to these setbacks will ultimately determine your success or failure.

Listen, everyone makes mistakes. Some bounce back and use the slip as a signal to increase their commitment. Sadly, it is common though for a slip to cause a negative reaction which feeds upon itself until the desired behavior is totally given up.

There are two paths to success.

The first is to realize the importance of consistency when establishing any habit and commit to avoid and prevent slips all together.

The second is to respond to a slip by immediately returning to the desired behavior.

A lapse is a slight error or slip, it’s the first instance of backsliding to your former habit. It’s a discreet event like not recording your time in your time log all morning.

A Relapse occurs when lapses string together for a continued period of time.

A Collapse is when the relapse becomes permanent, and all hope of getting back into the grove are given up.

The important point to always remember is this:

A LAPSE DOES NOT EQUAL A RELAPSE.

You see, for some people, when they experience a lapse they feel as if they have nothing to shoot for – all they can do is start over. But the truth is far from that. And I want you to understand this point because it will make conditioning the habit of effectiveness easier over the long haul.

When you lapse, instead of thinking all hope is lost, consider it a challenge, can you keep it as just a lapse and immediately recommit yourself so your lapse doesn’t turn into a relapse or a collapse?

Of course you can. And obviously you should.

The point is this – even when you’ve slipped, you are still in control. Only you will decide the impact of that lapse – you
can get right back on track, or, postpone your re-commitment and have your entire effort collapse. The choice is yours.

Commit to yourself – that if your lapse or slip, you’ll remind yourself that you are still in control and immediately get back on track. This way you don’t risk ruining the hard work you’ve already extended.

To bring this point home – keep your time logs up to date – and if you slip and go some time without using your time log – just recommit as soon as possible (immediately as opposed to tomorrow). If you do you’ll be that much closer to becoming an effective entrepreneur.

To Your Effectiveness,

Rich Schefren

Being strategic and effective is all about getting the
right things done.

In order to become a strategic entrepreneur
you will need to build the habit of effectiveness. No one is
born effective – I repeat – it’s not an inborn trait, so…
if you never worked on developing the skill of effectiveness
you are not as effective as you could be or should be.

Therefore to build the habit of effectiveness you’ll need to
practice (consistent practice leads to powerful habits) the
five skill sets I laid out for you in the last post.

While the 5 skill sets above are all easy to understand,
they aren’t so easy to do well. In other words, you will
have to build and develop them (they don’t appear like
magic), just like you’ve learned how to do anything else
important in your life. You need to continually practice
over and over again until these five skill sets become
“The Way” you automatically go about doing your work.

Next week I’ll breaking down in detail how learning and
developing habits go hand in hand and the key distinctions
you must understand to be successful.

If you’ve been keeping up, today should be day 3 of your
time log. Is it getting easier? It should be by now, and
you should also start seeing how much time you’ve been
spending on tasks and activities other than your top
priorities.

Scary, isn’t it?

Just keep up the good work, make sure that you spend as
little time (none would be best) multitasking as possible.

Stay focused on one task at a time. It’ll be easier to
record, and its the work process of highly effective
entrepreneurs.

So just keep recording, keep focused and notice your
patterns, make today a super-productive day.

There are lots of entrepreneurs who are quite knowledgeable;
however, effective entrepreneurs are much, much rarer.

Yet
it is the effective entrepreneur who succeeds in building
successful businesses.

As an entrepreneur, you and your company make no money for
simply knowing. You make money and build your business by
getting the right things done.

How to decide what are the right things and how to get
them done will be the primary focus of your upcoming
ProfitNotes.

By highlighting both “what to do” and “how to do it” you’ll
learn (if you follow my lead and spend the few minutes each
day these emails require) what you do well, what you need to
improve on, what you are currently doing poorly and shouldn’t
be doing at all.

You’ll learn where you belong in your business, your niche and
your market.

Your first assignment:

(1) Take out a sheet of paper or open up a blank mindmap.

(2) Spend 3 minutes brainstorming what you believe are the
skill-sets an entrepreneur must have to be effective.

(3) Take 1 minute and rate your current level of performance
in these areas.

(4) Spend 30 seconds highlighting the areas you believe are
your biggest roadblocks to success.

(5) Take 2 minutes to answer this questions “What could you
do today (realistically) to be more effective?”

(6) Do the one thing you just decided would make you more
effective today.

That’s it for now, in the next post I’ll tell you what I believe are
the 5 skills every entrepreneur must develop to maximize their
effectiveness and truly be a Strategic Entrepreneur.

But for today, make sure to do one thing new or different that
you believe will make you more effective.

As your business begins experiencing growth, it’s vital that you bring on a right-hand man (or woman) to help you in your quest for success.

The sooner the better, because when your business is expanding, it’s difficult to take time out to train another person for tasks you need to delegate.

Still, you can’t just bring anyone into the equation. You need to make sure they have the same passion for your business and ideas that you do. How do you achieve that? By compensating them based on their performance or by giving them a percentage of the sales.

1 Use Performance Incentives

Incentives go a long way in motivating any staff, but with an assistant who works closely with you to realize the ultimate goals of the company, it’s even more effective as a benefit and reward.

You have to be willing to put all of your trust into this person. You don’t want to worry about what they’ll do or how they’ll go about something. They should always strive to make your company look good in the eyes of your customers and business associates.

The type of person you want to hire on as a right hand man or woman will be highly motivated and able to handle their tasks with minimal input from you once they’ve been instructed on how to do something.

The person should be willing to learn new ideas – and eager to take on more responsibilities in the company. Don’t hire anyone who sits back waiting for an opportunity, or who scoffs at the idea of having to do more work.

2 Motivate Them With Vision

Your goal is to get them excited about the business – help them recognize the possibilities so that they actively work with you on accomplishing everything the business needs to grow and succeed.

Someone once said that hiring the perfect right hand man is like finding the right suit – they have to fit in just right with the company or else you’ll feel uncomfortable allowing them to handle certain responsibilities.

In a best-case scenario, the right hand man should be able to fill your shoes in any situation – without missing a beat. But this doesn’t mean you have to look for someone exactly like you – in fact, it’s better if his talents and skills complement your own – skills he possesses, you lack, and vice versa.

You have to be careful not to hire someone whose only goal is to replace you within the company… or steal your idea to launch his own business. His loyalty to you should be paramount.

If there are other employees within the company, make sure you hire someone who earns the respect of the others. You can’t have a right hand man who treats your staff with disrespect.

3 Be Very Selective

You may have to go through several assistants before finding the right fit. You’ll realize that not everyone has what it takes to stand in such an important position. When you do find the person, you’ll know it – because you’ll instantly feel a sense of relief that your business is on the right track to success.

After finding the right person, the two of you will work in sync to help the business experience growth. Having a right hand man will free up your time so that you can focus on more important tasks.

If he’s good enough at what he does, then you can double up on tactics that show promise in your company’s financial future. If you’re both good copywriters, then you can double the amount of high-converting content you write.

If sales are your forte, but he’s better at customer service, then divvy up the responsibility for the betterment of the business. You can constantly assess both you and your assistant’s capabilities and leverage each of your skills to their maximum potential.

During a typical day in the office, you may waste a few minutes every hour.

It may not seem like a big deal, until you consider that those minutes can add up to hours. Those are hours you could be spending accomplishing more work or spending at home or in leisure.

Here are ten tips to help you make the most of every moment.

1. Get rid of the clutter in your office. If you’re constantly looking for things amid the junk that’s in your way, you’re wasting time. Get rid of anything that is making your office seem disorderly.
2. Set up an efficient workstation. For example, if you use your file cabinet often, put it close to the desk so that you don’t have to walk across the room every time you need something. Keep the things you use often near the area where you’re seated so that it’s always at your fingertips.
3. Focus on the task at hand. Multi-tasking is sometimes a necessary part of the workday. However, you may find that you’re flitting from one task to the next unnecessarily. Finish your current project before you go on to the next.
4. Keep your email organized. Delete the messages you don’t need and create folders for the ones you do need. That way, when you need to find something, you have a good place to start looking instead of having to filter through hundreds of messages.
5. Keep paper organized. Instead of having to sift through piles of paper on every surface of your office, spend 10 minutes at the end of each day filing away the things you aren’t actively using. If you do need to keep some things out, put them in a stand up file rack that will keep them organized.
6. Delegate tasks. Many business owners and managers have a hard time handing off work. You need to allow your staff to do what they can to free you up for other opportunities. Let your secretary handle phone messages or emails that don’t need your direct attention.
7. Return phone calls right away. Don’t wait for messages to pile up on your desk. Instead of having to spend 10 minutes returning calls, you may spend hours. It’s a lot harder to carve out an hour in your schedule than it is a few minutes each day.
8. Be clear about employee roles. Make sure that everyone understands what his or her tasks really are. Employees should not be duplicating each other’s services. Create standard operating procedures for each position in your company.
9. Create agendas for meetings and use them. Agendas should have time limits and you should assign someone to make sure everyone stays on topic. Keep them as short as possible.
10. Keep one calendar. Agendas should have time limits and you should assign someone to make sure everyone stays on topic. Keep them as short as possible.

You’ll find as you get more organized and delegate tasks that it feels like there are suddenly more hours in the day. There’s not – it’s simply the positive result of running your business in the most efficient way possible.