MOST of these online marketers started 10 – 15 years
ago and have worked hard to get where they are today.

And for that I congratulate them! What I have no
patience with is their ’stories’ that leave you believing
that getting where they are is Easy. Affordable. Not
Risky. Fun.

==> NO ONE is talking about how to build a sustainable
profit model.

==> NO ONE is talking about how to manage your cash.

==> NO ONE is talking about the steps it takes to PLAN to
be profitable.

==> NO ONE is explaining that running ANY business is
all about RISK. And that to mitigate that RISK you
have to understand the foundational aspects of business.

Stop Chasing Those ‘Shiny White Objects’!

I talk to business owners all the time! And too many are
struggling because they believe that if they just chase
the next ’shiny white object’ they will succeed!

If they just set up a Sales Page and learn how to
write copy for a Sales Page, they will get rich!

No one is asking business owners if a SALES PAGE is
a part of their OVERALL BUSINESS OBJECTIVES!

One of my clients recently tried to set up teleseminars.
She had been swept up in the rhetoric of one of the
online gurus who promised she could make 6 figures in
income by simply learning how to conduct teleseminars!

You know what? She gave it the old college try and she
failed! Why did she fail?

Because, when I asked her to step back and remind herself
about what her Vision was for her business, teleseminars
weren’t a part of that vision.

Her Core Competency is Speaking. And she has been a
successful speaker for over 20 years. Yet she was
ready and willing to ignore her core competency, jump
on the teleseminar bandwagon JUST BECAUSE SOMEONE TOLD
A GREAT STORY ABOUT GETTING RICH ON TELESEMINARS!

STOP! THINK!

What is your overall strategy for YOUR business?

What is your Vision? Where do you SEE your business in
18 – 24 months?

THERE IS NO QUICK TRIP TO THE TOP!

There is hard work, focused energy, critical planning
and a strong vision.

Are you ready to try for some of that? Even if I can’t
promise you ‘6 figures’ in income in 90 days, would
you be willing to spend some of your hard earned cash
to learn how to:

1. Set up a business to make and keep money

2. Make plans that works

3. Manage your cash so you have more of it to spend

4. Stop spinning your wheels and never getting ahead

5. Start building a foundation for a long term business

I’m not suggesting that teleseminars aren’t a viable
delivery mechanism for your business.

I use them every month.

BUT — I SET MY VISION for my business and I researched
how teleseminars COULD HELP ME REACH MY VISION.

I didn’t just start offering teleseminars because I could.

Anyone can offer a teleseminar. The people that pump you to
use teleseminars are also getting an affiliate hit for
everyone that signs up under their affiliate link.

So of course they want you to use Teleseminars!

You Are Critical to Your Success

The question ONLY YOU can answer is this:

==> WHAT IS YOUR PLAN?

<== THAT is the BIGGEST single issue that business owners struggle with
ALL THE TIME!

It’s why we chase every ‘new online marketing idea’
that comes into our in boxes. When you don’t have a PLAN,
it’s easy to think ANY PLAN will work. That’s where you would be wrong.

The only plan that will work for your business is the plan
that you develop based on:

1. Market research – this requires a plan
2. Identifying your ideal customer – this requires a plan
3. Setting up a plan to make a profit — this requires a plan
4. Managing your cash – this requires a plan
5. Driving revenue into your business – this requires a plan
6. Building a list of people who believe in you – this requires a plan
7. Knowing how much money you can spend – this requires a plan

I get so frustrated listening to all the successful online guru’s
attempt to make you believe that the success they have achieved
was easy – that they had one difficult time – then an epiphany – then
succeeded beyond their wildest imagination!

And they make sure you know that if you BUY THEIR Product or Service,
you will achieve the same results.

Make a Plan — Implement the Plan

Here’s what I believe.

==> You will be successful in business if you create a plan that outlines the HOW.

==> You will be successful if you create a plan that outlines the WHAT.

==> You, and only you, can determine the WHEN.

==> You and only you can determine the WHO.

No one can do this for you. To think that if you just apply what
someone else is doing — with blinders on to the uniqueness of what
you do and how you do it — you will more than likely fail.

Building businesses has been done successfully for centuries.
While the ability of a business owner to reach larger audiences
has never been easier, building a successful business still
requires sound decision making skills, a solid plan, money,
and solid thinking.

Laurie Taylor is a business growth specialist. Her program Destination,
Greatness will begin soon. For information on how to help your business
make and keep more money, visit http://www.destination-greatness.com
and listen to Laurie’s FREE video on the 3 Critical Concepts to Grow a
Grow a Successful Business.

http://www.destination-greatness.com

Here are 3 activities you can do TODAY to start making and keeping more money.

1) You have to have a plan. This isn’t a 15 page document with charts and graphs. I’m talking about what you need to do in the next 3 months to make more money. Start short term. Evaluate what will land you more business. If you’ve been blogging and no one is reading your blogs, find out why. If you have been networking and none of those leads have panned out, find out why. If you’ve been calling people and they aren’t getting back to you, find out why. I’m all about starting with REALITY and going from there. So what plan do you need to start revenue flowing your way in the next three months?

2) You need to create a profit plan. This is a budget but I get all kinds of push back when I talk to business owners about budgets. So I call this your Profit Plan. It’s how you will plan to be profitable. By projecting your financial vision for the rest of this year, and identifying what revenue goals each month that looks like, you have put a stake in the ground. Now you need to make a plan on how you are going to meet those revenue projections. If you are also projecting your expenses each month, you’ll know how to adjust your thinking months before you end up in trouble.

3) You need to track and measure to see what works. If you don’t have a goal, say you want to land 5 new clients in April, then landing no new clients in April will be ok. Set up key success indicators to track so you can evaluate what is working. As entrepreneurs we love to chase that ’shiny new object’. Chasing isn’t intentional. Chasing can take you a hundred miles out of your way. And it can cost you a bunch of money.

Want to have help in creating your Path to Greatness? My Destination Greatness program could be your roadmap to a sustainable and profitable business.

http://www.destination-greatness.com

However, you can be a powerful sales person and an extremely effective marketing person and still struggle building your business.

Why?

Because you don’t want to be bothered with the financial aspects of your business. You hand over the financials to a bookkeeper or your CPA and you trust that they will take care of the most critical aspect of your business.

And they will. To an extent. They will make sure your entries are correct in your accounting software. They will send out invoices. They will pay bills. They’ll figure your taxes.

I have several examples of business owners who abdicated all responsibility of their financials over to someone else only to find out later they were in a world of hurt. One bookkeeper decided to not pay quarterly taxes. When the business owner received the tax bill of thousands of dollars in back taxes and penalities, the bookkeeper was fired. And the business owner almost went under trying to pay off the debt. Who is really at fault?

Another business owner found out their bookkeeper was skimming off the top, writing checks to bogus companies and depositing the funds into a personal account. Another example of a business owner abdicating authority to someone else when it came to the financial aspects of their business.

These are the stories that make you cringe. And they are so preventable.

There is nothing more important for a business owner to understand then the financials of their business.

You don’t have to handle all aspects of those financial pieces. However, you do need to understand what is going on and you have to direct the activity.

This responsibility for a business owner never stops. The level of involvement changes. But a business owner can never step away from understanding the financials of their business.

Two critical financial concepts every business owner should focus on from day one:

1) Understanding how your company is going to Make Money: This is all about intentionally determining what your product or service is going to cost you to produce, understanding at what volume you’ll have to sell to breakeven and setting out a 12-month profit plan in order to stay ahead of problems and capitalize upon successes.

2) Understanding your cash flow cycle and managing Cash Flow: All businesses are not equal when it comes to their cash flow cycle. Some businesses collect money when they sell a product or service. Their cash flow cycle is at point of sale. Other businesses collect a set amount up front and collect the remainder when a project is completed. Their cash flow cycle could be 30 – 60 days or more. Running cash flow reports at least every 2 weeks when a company is getting a handle on receivables and payables is critical.

If a business owner attends to these two financial priorities, he or she will set in place a solid and predictable foundation on which to build a successful business. Anything less is a disaster waiting to happen.

Watch for more of my Solutions to Ignite YOUR Business!

That’s true. Good marketing followed by great sales will bring in money.

However, the main purpose in setting up a business is to make a profit. Bringing in money is one aspect of running your business. The other aspect is making a profit. And that can’t be done without a plan.

Here are the 7 reasons why business owners don’t create financial plans:

1. You fear money or what you think money will do to you.
2. You won’t like what you see.
3. You don’t think it’s important.
4. You don’t think it’s necessary.
5. You don’t know how.
6. You’ve managed without one for so long, why start now?
7. If you ignore it long enough, you won’t need it.

Which one works for you? Your business should have been designed to bring in a profit. If you are profitable, congrats!

If you aren’t profitable or don’t know if you are profitable, start making a plan to be profitable.

It’s my goal to teach business owners the financial basics so that they can sustain their business through good and bad times.