Author Archive

When was the last time you asked a customer/client for a referral? So many times I hear that as a business owner it is uncomfortable asking for a referral. Yet last week I listened to three rookie insurance/financial advisors talk about how they began their businesses and what were the important keys that have made them successful. Asking for a referral was right up on top. Your current customers can be your best influences on prospective clients. So what can you do to break through the “discomfort” of asking for the name of someone they know that could use your product or service?

If you had to guess, what percentage of people are visually oriented: that is, they need to see something before buying it – you know they need to drive a car, feel the material of a suit/dress or preview a house before purchasing it? More then 95% of people are visual consumers. So how do you a service provider create this opportunity?

Why not start with a testimonial from a client who has had a very positive experience working with you? How many times have you heard, “I don’t know how to thank you”? That is the perfect time to ask them to put their gratitude in writing. Testimonials can become part of your powerful arsenal for opening the door to new prospects. Something magical happens when you read those testimonials, a special relationship develops with that customer opening the door to relaxing the “discomfort” of taking the next step and asking for referrals.

Testimonials should be used in all of your promotional materials, they can be developed into case studies that you can verbally convey when someone asks, “how do you do that?”. Testimonials are one of the most effective and powerful strategies, they create an air of credibility for your business and gives you confidence when approaching new prospects.

The Challenge: Review your marketing strategy and begin asking for testimonials! Let us know if you have any concerns.

Barbara’s Notes:
As small business owners it is important that we understand and follow the letter of the law with regard to the information we collect about our customers. Darity Wesley is the “privacy guru” for the real estate industry, but her information affects all of us both personally and professionally. Privacy Solutions offers on line privacy statement options for your web site that will keep you within the law, check it out if you don’t already have one, (www.privacygurus.com). The following article is reprinted with permission.

What is “Privacy”?
By Darity Wesley

“I also thought that privacy was something we were granted in the Constitution. I have learned in fact that the word privacy does not appear in the Constitution.”

-Bill Maher

To set the record straight, the U.S. Constitution does not provide any explicit right to privacy. The landmark ChoicePoint incident that compromised consumers’ personally identifiable information and made it available to identity thieves has been a hot topic in the news. Privacy and its role in our daily lives is an important discussion in our personal as well as professional worlds.

Privacy has been an issue over the millennia. In ancient cultures, the ability to run off from the tribe, to hide out in a cave and not participate was considered “privacy”. As we moved into the Industrial Age, a new concept was raised in an 1890 Harvard Law Review article written by Louis D. Brandies, who served on the U. S. Supreme Court from 1916-1939, and his Boston law partner Samuel D. Warren. The article, which was apparently a response to newspaper reports published regarding the behavior of Warren’s wife in social settings, defined privacy as “the right to be left alone”. Now engaged in the 21st century, we find our world evolves into asking what is our “expectation of privacy”? We have, or should have, different expectations depending what we are talking about.

I have found four general areas of privacy: bodily, territorial, communications, and information.

• Bodily Privacy
  We expect that our bodies are private, unless we as a society have agreed otherwise. For example, if we are in an airport security line and the metal detector beeps as we walk through the scanner. We expect to be searched. Or if we agree to having drug tests as a condition of employment. Or we are renewing our driver’s license and agree as a condition of having that license to submit a thumb print.
• Territorial Privacy
  We expect that our homes are private. However, when we walk into a convenience store or up to the ATM, we know or should know that we are being video taped. Or we are at an intersection with a red light traffic camera there to record violators of the red light.
• Communication Privacy
  We expect that our personal conversations are private. But our expectation changes, or should change, if we are on a cell phone versus a land line. We expect that our letters signed, sealed and mailed with the postal service are private but our expectation changes, or should change, when sending email. It is not in any way “private” .
• Information Privacy
  We expect that our financial information at the bank and the health concerns we discuss with our doctors is confidential. However, anyone can watch what our work-out routines are at the fitness center and we expect that a number of people will know what we buy at the store. The act of purchasing is a public act, for which there is no reasonable expectation of privacy.

When doing business the information you collect, like an email address or any financial information, is not public record. It is considered “personally identifiable information” under the new laws. What happens to that data after it is disclosed is up to you. And in today’s volatile privacy controversy, being the steward of that information can be a big responsibility. Understanding your clients’ and prospects’ “expectation of privacy” with the regard to the information they provide to you will add to their benefits of using your professional services, and you should tell them so. Additionally, you protecting their information will create an atmosphere of trust and loyalty which will make you stand heads and shoulders above the rest.

Darity Wesley is CEO and Legal Counsel for Privacy Solutions, Inc. a San Diego based consulting firm. Her team of Privacy Gurus® work with you to create policies and procedures to establish the expectation of privacy for your member, clients, customers, prospects, affiliates, associates, employees and vendors. You can reach her at (619)670-9462 or Darity@privacygurus.com, Visit our website at www.privacygurus.com

The Challenge: Review your policy and procedures with regard to how you handle, process, file and dispose of client information. You may be putting yourself and your business in jeopardy. Let us know if you have any concerns.

Customers make the heart of your business beat with their desire to choose products, services and experiences that meet their needs, fit their values, engage their emotions and respond to their desires. Your role is to transform prospects into customers and customers into fiercely loyal advocates. As your own marketer you have to be heard over the marketing noise that is everywhere, (TV, newspapers, on every street corner, now even at the movies). You then have to overcome the skepticism of the more sophisticated consumer.

Many of you have taken one of our “Personal Branding” workshops to learn more about standing out, creating interest so that people take action. It is important to understand that all of this starts with what you say about who you are, what you do, but most importantly what is the outcome you deliver that satisfies someone’s desire to buy.

I would like to suggest you start by asking yourself some questions that can flush out the things you need to know about your customer, and what your customer needs to know about you. If you have targeted a market, what is their challenge, issue or problem. The better prepared you are to answer that question the better prepared you will be to know what your customer needs to know about you.

What is the value of your product or service in terms of saving customers time and effort? Does what you offer add value by offering an enhancement – beauty, status, advancement or guarantees? Can you demonstrate that your product or service is not a cost but an investment? How about your competition, why do people buy from you rather than your competition? What makes you different? What do your customers tell each other about your product or service?

Amazon.com and eBay have capitalized on this by giving buyers a chance to comment and/or review what they purchased and in the case of eBay how well the seller fulfilled what he sold. You need to be able to tell the stories and quote the testimonials of happy customers so others can see how you are different.

Few products or services are unique, you make them unique by looking at your strengths to create your competitive edge. What strengths do you have that you can effectively capitalize on? When you have answers to the questions that apply to you, you must be able to deliver that information verbally and in all your written and hand out materials. Remember people want to know “what’s in it for them.” So what is the outcome and value you deliver; this is not the how, but the what, that will keep them coming back over and over again.

The Challenge: Review your marketing materials with these questions in mind.

By Debra C. Scheufler, Esq.

One of the most important and emotional decisions that entrepreneurs and fledgling businesses face is choosing a new business name. A name will identify the business for its life, so it should be something that the owners are satisfied with. It should also help to create the image and the mission statement that the company wants to project, and it should be easy for the public to remember. Think of names of popular, successful companies: Coca-Cola, Vogue, Micro-Soft, and Caterpillar. Say any one of these names and a particular image comes to mind. This phenomenon is known as “secondary meaning.”

Successful companies focus on “personal branding,” a marketing exercise which narrows the definition of the products or services offered by a business so that the public has something with which to identify. A personal brand should be directly reflected in a company’s name. As well, the intangible asset known as “goodwill” attaches to a business name. Goodwill is the value that a company builds based upon its reputation and longevity within its target market community. These attributes, secondary meaning, personal branding and goodwill apply to all businesses from the local sole proprietor to international conglomerates, and they can be the focus of litigation when a name is infringed upon regardless of the size of the company.

One of the first steps that many new companies or individuals take is to file a Fictitious Business Name Statement with the county in which they intend to do business. Others choose a corporate or Limited Liability Company (“LLC”) name which is registered with the chosen domicile state, and other states in which the company wishes to qualify to do business. Some companies register their names as state or federal trademarks, for the sale of products, or trade names, for the sale of services (we typically use the term “trademark” generically when speaking of trademarks or trade names). And one of the first steps many companies take is to register a domain name.

The first concept one must grasp in dealing with business names is that of common law trademark rights. The common law doctrine says that the first party to use a name in commerce has the exclusive right to use that name, whether it has been registered anywhere. Any subsequent or “junior” user of that name or a name that is so similar that it would or does confuse the public is infringing on the senior user’s rights. The senior user may take legal action to prevent the junior user from using the infringing name.

The second thing to keep in mind is the reason that registration is required for business names. When a lawsuit is filed, the filing party or “plaintiff” is required to personally serve the defendant. This means that the legal papers must be handed to an individual person. Registering a fictitious business name (FBN) or a corporate or LLC identity provides a paper trail to the appropriate individual the event a business is sued. These registration systems, excluding actual trademark/trade name registration are not concerned with infringement or first use rights, only with providing the public a paper trail for the purpose of service of process.

Some start up companies and sole proprietors file FBN statements with the county in which they intend to do business thinking that this will provide them with the protection they need for their newly chosen business name. An FBN filing only provides that no other business in that county has filed an FBN statement using that exact name. Keeping in mind common law trademark protection, think of the possible problems that may arise if a registrant relies on the fact that no other business in the applicable county is using the exact registered name. A senior user may have a corporate or LLC identity using the unwary FBN registrant’s very name or even one that is confusingly similar. If this senior user discovers the infringement a year after the junior has been using the name and forces the junior to cease and desist marketing under its trade name, the junior can suffer extensive financial loss from marketing dollars and building up goodwill. It must choose a new name and start the identity process all over again.

The same problem arises when a company files articles of incorporation or articles of organization with a particular state and begins marketing under the corporate or LLC name. Some states will register most names if there is no other business using the exact desired name. But in states such as California, there is no crosschecking between corporate and LLC registrations, so a corporation and an LLC in states like California may have the same name! How can this be possible, you may ask. Remember the state is primarily concerned with providing a trail to the entity’s agent for service of process, and since a corporation or LLC is required to identify itself as such, meaning identifying words such as Inc., Incorporated, Corporation, or LLC must accompany the name as it is used in commerce, the interest of the public is served. In other words, if two companies exist in California, one registered as ACME Corporation and one registered as ACME, LLC, a potential plaintiff would only need to check LLCs if it was suing ACME, LLC. So, there may be LLCs and/or FBNs that have senior rights to a name that a new corporation files and the company would have no way of knowing about it if it merely relied upon the registering body (state, county, etc.). Other states such as Illinois do cross check between corporations and LLCs, but there may still be common law senior users that can pose a risk.

Many new companies register a domain name as a first step. Here again, registering bodies will register a domain name as long as there is no other registered name that is exactly the same as the desired domain name. This includes the suffixes, .com, .net, .org, etc. So a business may register XYZ.com and there may be a pre-existing website: www.XYZ.net. Not only would XYZ.com be infringing on XYZ.net, but potential customers would surely be confused and in some instances be led to the wrong website, causing one or both companies to lose revenue.

Even when registering a trademark with a state or the United States Patent and Trademark Office (” USPTO”), there are risks of senior users. Although registration provides a “rebuttable presumption” of first use in commerce, a company may get through the long process of registering a federal trademark and still be challenged by a senior user who is able to rebut the presumption by proving actual first use.

Federal registration is a long process which begins with filing an application, submitting a fee and waiting while the USPTO searches for potentially conflicting names. This search is not comprehensive and only includes registered names and applicants that are also in the process of being approved for registration but it does include confusingly similar names. Once the name is approved for registration it is published in the USPTO Gazette. Senior users have thirty days during which to challenge registration. The entire registration process can take a year or longer.

State registration is a shorter process, typically less costly but protection is less certain because some states, California or instance will register a name as long as there is not another user of the exact desired name. So confusingly similar names may be registered in the same state.

How then, does one navigate through all of the laws pertaining to trademarks and tradenames, deal with the registering bodies and choose a protectable name and then go about protecting it? The first step is to obtain a comprehensive name search for same and similar names presently being used in commerce. Your attorney can provide this type of search. Once you are satisfied that a desired name is safe to use in commerce, Articles of Incorporation, Articles of Organization or an FBN statement can be filed. The filing of course depends on which entity is the best choice for the particular business operation.

If a website will be used, it is best to reserve the domain names with .com, .net, and .org so that no other junior registrant can capitalize on your goodwill.

Next, discuss using the name in commerce with your business attorney to insure common law rights to the name or mark. Your attorney can also assist you in making the decision to register your name as a state or federal trademark.

The process of choosing a new business name is relatively simple but too often minimized by companies and their attorneys. A name identifies a company and great value attaches through marketing and creating a reputation in the marketplace to that name and identity. Laws applicable to business names are designed to provide a way for the public to accomplish effective service of process, and to protect businesses from others who may try to capitalize on painstakingly created identity and goodwill. A comprehensive search and proper registration will ensure that a new business name will add to the success and profits of the company for as long as that company exists.

Debra C. Scheufler is a business and corporate attorney practicing in San Diego, California. Ms. Scheufler has been serving business and estate planning clients in San Diego since 1996. She has assisted in forming hundreds of companies in that period of time, and has litigated trade name infringement and unfair business practices violations. Additionally, she has negotiated and overseen both domestically and internationally and she is regularly published on subjects related to business formation and operations. Her website is www.scheuflerlaw.com.

The Challenge: Spend some time this month reviewing your plans with an eye to areas that need some outside support.

Happy New Year!!!!

Mind Masters started the year with our 15th Annual Planning Workshop, with a great group of entrepreneurs in attendance. There were sponsor tables with products and services for everyone, new materials, handouts and special ribbons. Larny J. Mack of Larny J. Mack Photography was the first Mind Masters member to receive The Entrepreneur of the Year Award. Although he struggled through the first part of the year, he found purpose in his work and the year turned out to be his best ever, his client list reads like who’s who in the building and manufacturing industry, not to mention the great work he has done for the Mind Masters Brochure and Pictures for the our web site. There were two runners up Kathy Cazin of Accountkeepers of San Diego and Todd Cazin (a chip off the “ole” block) of Consolidated Concepts. (Check out our web site for their profiles.)

This can be the year of your dreams, the year of great accomplishment, the year you realize and utilize your untapped potential; the year you achieve long sought after goals in all areas of your life. This year will be exciting and rewarding only if you make it so. You ask how can I determine to make it such a year? The year will hold accomplishment, realization and achievement only if you expect it to happen; only if you enter and live each day with POSITIVE EXPECTANCY.

Paul J. Meyer of Success Motivation Institute said “POSITIVE EXPECTANCY is the attitude you must adopt and maintain.” The greatness of your accomplishments depends upon your understanding and application of the principles of positive expectancy; you must positively expect things to happen by:

1. Vividly imagining – being able to visualize a concise and clear picture of precisely what you imagine yourself to be, have and do.
2. Activating your Desire with an intensity that creates in every new day an opportunity to earn and justify your rewards; to develop the consciousness and habits of success, to seek greater heights and accomplish your dreams.
3. Maintain and develop a sincere Belief in your ability and worthiness to attain your goals.
4. Be willing to take the Action necessary to see your Goals accomplished.

When you work with these principals your expectations when held over a period of time exert inexorable power on your outcomes – so plan this year with Positive Expectancy and make it your best ever!

The Challenge: Spend some time this month reviewing your plans with an eye to areas that need some outside support.

It’s that time of year again. No, not the holly, jolly holiday time but the end of the year tax planning time! So what can you do to keep more of your hard earned dollars in your pocket and out of the IRS’s greedy hands? These ten tax tips might be a starting point. Always remember – be equal parts honest and aggressive, and you will be treating the IRS AND yourself ethically! (Be aware, these tips may not be appropriate for everyone – always get the advice of your tax professional for your individual situation.)

1. Hire your kids

You can pay your child up to $4,850 for 2004 without triggering a tax liability for them. This money is passed through as a payroll expense and saves you the amount of your marginal tax rate (up to 35% Federal and 9.3% State), the 15.3% SSI, and California Disability costs. There are no age limits – your six-year-old can shred papers and wrap gifts – but be reasonable with the compensation. Paying an 8-year-old $50/hour to dust will not stand up to IRS scrutiny and will not give your child a true understanding of what it means to work for pay. Also, although college financial aid considerations may make this an unsuitable option, keep in mind that your child can put up to $3,000 a year of earned income into a ROTH IRA.

2. Open a Health Savings Account (HSA)

An HSA is a high deductible health account that allows all of your health costs to be tax-deductible. For a detailed explanation, go to www.SFSadvisors.com and click on SFS Articles.

3. Track all your expenses

It seems reasonable but many people don’t. Except for commuting from your home to your main office, all the miles you drive for business are deductible. You can either take a flat 37.5 cents/mile or actual costs. Don’t forget to deduct meals with prospective clients and business associates, and the percentage of your cell phone minutes used for business.

4. Deduct your home office

If you have an area of your home used 100% for business (including storage needs) you can usually deduct most of the costs associated with it, such as utilities, taxes, depreciation, cleaning services, HOA dues, and insurance.

5. Be aware of travel costs

Or as I say, “Fly first Class, Stay at the Ritz, Eat at Burger King.” Transportation and lodging are 100% deductible, meals and entertainment only 50%. For meals it might be easier to simply use the IRS allowable per diem amounts based upon the city to which you are traveling.

6. Max out your retirement accounts

Set up a SEP, Simple, Solo 401(k), or Keough and use it to defer taxes. Think about a pension plan if you are close to retirement, have no employees, and can defer large amounts of income.

7. Evaluate your income

In those years when you have an unusually high income (did you ever think that would be a problem?), fully deduct your purchases via Section 179, prepay expenses, defer income, and invest in new equipment and supplies. When your income is going to be less than normal, depreciate everything possible to get the tax benefit in later years, postpone expenses, accelerate income and contribute to a ROTH IRA instead of a traditional IRA or your retirement plan.

8. Don’t overpay FICA

You only have to pay social security on the first $87,900 of income. If you are both self-employed and an employee for another company, you may pay too much into the system. Use your 1040 to claim your refund.

9. Be aware of gifting limits

For years and years the amount you could spend on a gift to a fabulous client was $25. Unfortunately, it still is. Of course, you can still spend more: you just can’t write it off.

10. Deduct Educational Expenses

The cost for classes, seminars, and continuing education in your profession are a deduction. (If you are changing careers you may qualify for the Lifetime Learning Credit.) If you purchase books, newsletters, and magazines to maintain your skills, they are all deductible. And never forget that professional organizations, networking clubs, and skill groups like Toastmasters all qualify.

The Challenge: Spend some time this month reviewing your plans with an eye to areas that need some outside support.

Last month we addressed the need to prepare for and anticipate growth for your business in the New Year. The planning process is time consuming, but necessary. In the many years I have spent working with growing business owners on the goals that help them determine their success, I have seen how important it is for them to share those goals and plans with people whose experience and expectations can contribute to that success.

Napoleon Hill in his classic work Think and Grow Rich stresses the absolute necessity of having a definite plan for the accomplishment of one’s goals. But goes on to describe the need for “power” to accomplish those goals. Power refers to organized effort, sufficient to enable you to produce the results you want. Where do you find the support that produces that kind of power?

One of the fastest growing trends in business today are strategic alliances. These can range in scope from informal business relationships based on a simple contract or joint venture. The basic idea is to minimize risk while maximizing your leverage. You can do this through joint production, joint marketing, joint sales/distribution, joint design collaboration or R&D.

You can find “power” in trade groups and associations where you can keep up to date on industry changes, trends and competitors. Seeking out people that sell to your same market niche, can also help to keep you on track for what is working for them that may be of value to you. There are also centers of influence who have direct influence on people in your market place, whose interest in you can add power to your plans.

You are often faced with making decisions and would like to have the insight of other professionals, but fear the expense in hiring outside consultants. This is where a Board of Advisors or your “master mind” group can be invaluable. Large companies have used this form of accumulated knowledge and experience for years to address employee, technical, sales, financial and marketing issues.

In any of these associations it is essential that you are willing to listen and that you work with people who have your best interest at heart. That means there is a Trust relationship that can be developed. You must be willing to make commitments that will produce the growth and success you want, be accepting and open to criticism and be willing to give to the others who are giving to you.

The Challenge: Spend some time this month reviewing your plans with an eye to areas that need some outside support.

Here we are again just past the October 15th deadline! It has amazed me the number of people who were still racing to make that deadline. As small business owners it is important to be using this time of the year for looking ahead to plans and projections for the New Year. Growth in any business challenges your skills as a business manager and your financial resources, putting you on a tight rope.

One step on that tight rope involves a comprehensive plan that clearly outlines where your business stands now (not last year), its assets, debts and the current and future profit opportunities for your business. Those profit opportunities often get you out further on the tight rope as your accounts receivable and inventory costs begin to increase. Or perhaps with service businesses, marketing costs increasing.

Projections are often behind schedule of the goals you set and take longer than you initially planned, putting stress on your finances as well as managing the balance between growth, collections, higher credit requirements as well as sales, pricing and your personal involvement and time spent in the business.

This is the time of the year to do some tax planning (not tax filing), like identifying the needs for business equipment (a good tax deduction) and purchasing and using it this year based on the taxable income of the business. To monitor the progress of your business and manage it accordingly, begin now to catch up on this years accounting and prepare a spending plan for next year. In order to make it to the other side of the tight rope, an accurate budget is key to determining how much spending you can safely afford.

Managing your resources is important to the growth and stability of your business. Plan now to come into the New Year with a handle on growth, instead of behind it. Keeping your balance requires persistence, stay on top of your finances, it will give you the an excellent screening device for setting and achieving your goals for profitability and growth in the coming year.

As a growing business owner are you getting caught in the hyper competitive market environment? When you work alone it is often difficult to fulfill all the roles you have to play. So how do you stay competitive? I often harp on the importance of staying focused to the high priority, high payoff areas of the business, but when you are doing it all, everything seems “high priority”. But being in business means staying connected to the people who do business with you as well as the people who refer business to you.

There are three areas that can help you stay connected. To stand out in your market there needs to be a level of interaction that you consistently put forth; developing a personal brand answers to this idea of connecting. Your customers want to know who you are; remember the more they know about you, the more they can feel a sense of trust. One of my clients sends out her marketing material with a cartoon like theme of the “royal family” and fun pictures of her staff and her daughter. When people stop by her shop, it reflects the message she wants to get out, we are a fun place, and fun people to do business with, come and see! Your materials, behavior and connection with your audience help build your brand. Connect by being “real” to them reveal the person they want to know.

Another area for connecting is in your networking. I am not talking about going into a group and handing out business cards. I am referring here to meeting regularly with advocates who refer business to you. It requires “reaching them with information that matters to them” and having some real interest in developing the relationship. Ask them about themselves so that you can better support them with articles, events that may be of interest or people they need to meet. One of my clients who markets merchant services wanted some information for a prospective client to solidify the relationship. I was able to connect him with someone who works in that segment of the business. His prospect is now his client, because he was willing to take the time to research it and I got to go out to lunch.

Connecting with your customers requires some new approaches. Your web site will not create any significant prospect attraction for the person who has never met you, says Robert Krumroy, in his book, Brilliant Strategies and Fatal Blunders. His prediction that personal contact with customers will be solely through the interactive Internet and only businesses that adopt Internet technology as part of their marketing strategies will be able to survive in the coming years. Using e-mail as a means to keep connected will keep you ahead of the competition, and help you build on going relationships with customers. The information you send out becomes information they can pass along to others, you stay connected and so do they.

Challenge: Check yourself. How have you stayed connected lately? How have you promoted your personal brand, showed interest in your advocates or sent your clients and customers something that kept you in front of them? If something has worked for you, let us know, we’d like to print your story.

Your success in business comes down to the difference between managing your work or letting your work manage you. What’s it going to be? The biggest contributors to clutter are those good old fashion letters, junk mail, memos, e-mail printouts and sticky notes, So how do you sort through all the junk and all the distractions and concentrate only on the things that are important to you and your business? In business ownership and management, as in war and other activities, you are only as good as your last success. Just as you always have to be on the lookout for the next opportunity, you also have to be on the alert for the next crisis. That is what being organized is all about. You don’t want to waste your time on useless trivia when important issues that have significant impact on your customers or your organization deserve your attention.

Delegation is an ideal way that allows you to work on important tasks. As your business grows, your functional responsibilities normally grow past the point where you can cope with all the duties which must be handled. As this process of growth occurs, you must begin to delegate specific duties to insure that all necessary tasks are carried out. This means hiring someone on a full or part time basis and properly training them. It is important to have performance guidelines with proper follow up procedures for the delegated assignments. In some instances people who do outside services can take up the slack.

Remember, a well managed business achieves results. Good management requires passing down the authority to get the job done and allows you to get on with the high priority, high payoff activities of your business.

One of the most important steps in the Mind Masters program is planning. A business plan requires an action plan that will have specific and measurable results. Here is a suggested proven planning method that if you are truly committed to improving your management skills you can become a planning master overnight. What would it mean to you if you planned every business day on paper prior to the day starting?

1. Block 30 minutes each week to review the week and your Quarterly plan and determine the actions you will need to take that week to achieve those results.
2. Block 10-14 minutes daily to plan the day. No cell phone, no e-mail, no distractions, just planning.
3. With your goals in front of you ask yourself if the activities you listed will help you achieve those goals.
4. Prioritize your action items for the day. Put an asterisk next to your 5 most important (valuable) action items.

I challenge you to prepare for business growth through better organization, delegation and time management. Remember as a business owner setting a standard of consistent behaviors leads you to achieve results that carry over to all areas of your life.