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Who told you it couldn’t be done, and what great achievements has he performed that qualified him to set up limitations for you?
You will find as you go through life that those who give advice most freely are precisely the individuals who are least qualified to do so. Busy, successful people don’t have an interest in telling you how to live your life. They are busy living their own. Failures or mediocre people have all the time in the world. They also delight in seeing you fail, and are quick to say “I told you so” when you experience a temporary setback. If someone tells you that what you are attempting to achieve is impossible or not worth the effort, take a close look at them and what they have accomplished with their lives. The chances are good that you will find they haven’t done much. Successful people are optimistic people. They have the habit of success because they learned long ago to listen to themselves and not to those who would like to see them fail.
The individual with a negative mental attitude attracts troubles as a magnet attracts steel filings.
It is a curious fact of nature that somehow our minds find a way to transform into physical reality the things we think about most. If you expect to fail, you can be sure that you will, and if you find something negative in every opportunity, nothing will ever work out positively for you. Fortunately, the reverse is also true. If you are a happy, positive person, you will attract positive things. You can keep your mindset positive by eliminating negative thoughts the moment they begin to creep into your conscious mind. If you dwell on the negative aspects of every opportunity, you will never accomplish anything worthwhile. Be prudent about the risks you take, but don’t be paralyzed by fear of failure.
Boastfulness is generally an admission of an inferiority complex.
Really capable people don’t have to boast about their achievements; they let their actions speak for them. When you boast about your accomplishments, you are telling others that you are unsure of yourself and your value in the world. Baseball manager Tommy Lasorda once noted that there are those who watch things happen, those who wonder what happened, and those who make things happen. Strive to be one of those who make things happen. If you show others what you can do, they will respect you far more than if you had simply told them what you’d done. Anyone can quarrel with words, but actions speak for themselves.
Many small businesses are looking at their numbers and asking “can we get there from here?” That depends, are you going to leave it to chance or are you going to aggressively manage it?
To aggressively managing it doesn’t mean just more sales! It means making sure you’ve answered all the right questions to support more sales as well.
I often find that small business owners think that sales are the only thing that affects revenue. Not the case!
While sales is part of it. If the other things are also addressed all the sales in the world won’t get you to the goal! You need to make sure you have the answers to some key strategic questions.
Do You Know Which Revenue Predictive Metrics to Monitor?
This is the heart of Tuning Your Revenue Engine. Monitoring those operational metrics that allow you to see what’s happening both across your business and in the market so you can do something about it.
Do You Have Excess Capacity to Sell?
Selling more won’t help if you don’t have any more to sell! Do you know the maximum capacity of your operation? When do you hit it? How much will it cost to add more?
Not knowing the answers to these questions can kill your business. Not being able to deliver is a death sentence to a small business.
Are Non-Sales Functions Affecting Revenue?
Capacity is one of those “non-sales” issues that can cause revenue problems. Others include your price, your marketing, etc. Not addressing the entire problem will not help you increase revenue either.
Do You Have a Sales Plan?
A sales plan is a critical resource to hitting your revenue goal. Without one your sales team is just other there doing whatever to hit their numbers. While this may seem fine, it’s not scalable. So it always is dependent on the team you have and doesn’t allow you to expand when necessary.
Start With the Simple Stuff?
Many people avoid the sales plan because they think they need to be sophisticated with a sales plan. It’s really just the opposite. You want to start with the simple stuff. But, if you don’t spell it out for the sales team they may make it more complicated than it needs to be. Here are 4 Tactics to Jumpstart Your Sales that are simple and very easy to apply immediately.
Are You Investing Enough in Your Marketing?
At some point you’re going to need more leads than you already have in-house. Marketing is what finds you more! But, how many and how much do you need to market to generate enough
Five Things You DON’T Owe Your Employer
Lack of manager training has birthed flocks of horrible bosses. No more gold rings of retirement, sadly– you have to become as heartless a free agent as the vulture companies that lay off people to pad own pockets. Here are some clear new boundaries I draw—
Your Contacts
In lots of sales jobs and recruiting jobs, your contact list is part of what your employer expects to receive when you get hired. When you take a new job, clarify everybody’s expectations with respect to your precious contact list. Unless it’s been clearly communicated, your contacts are your own.
If your employer has an employee referral bonus program and you want to participate, go ahead and spread the news about job openings at your workplace, and with luck get paid for it. Otherwise, it’s not ethical for your employer to expect you to peddle its products to your friends, or give up your networking contacts to pad its prospect list.
Your Health
The tragedy of the white-collar working world is that we pretend our bodies don’t exist. Your brain can’t function unless your body gets rest and exercise. It’s not right for your employer to expect you to trash your health for the job. Speak up if you’re not feeling well.
Don’t let a weenie manager browbeat you into coming to work sick and infecting your co-workers, or worsening your own health. If they won’t let you work from home when you’re under the weather or take a sick day, get your resume up to date.
Your Personal Life
Everyone needs to learn the script we call “It’s Impossible” to deal with managers who ask you what you’ve got scheduled at night or on the weekend that would keep you from working extra hours.
What you have planned in your personal life is nobody’s business but yours. Here’s the script:
BOSS: Joe, can you stay late tonight to get those invoices out?
YOU: Not tonight, but I can do them tomorrow.
BOSS: What’s going on tonight?
YOU: Unmovable plans, but don’t worry — I’ll do it tomorrow.
Don’t start explaining that your kid has a hockey match or your wife’s barbershop chorus has a dress rehearsal that you have to attend because you can’t make the concert. The minute you open that vault, you can kiss your personal priorities goodbye.
Learn to say “Wish I could! – but it’s impossible” with a smile on your face.
Unearned Loyalty
Be wary of any employer that tells employees they should be loyal, just because they work there. Loyalty, like respect, is earned. You might be loyal to a boss who’s always had your back, but that’s different than being loyal to a corporation or an institution.
If you get a call from a headhunter about a job that sounds interesting, it’s your right to call back and learn everything you can. You don’t have to stay with a sinking ship and be the person who turns the lights out.
That’s what “stay bonuses” are for.
It’s appropriate and ethically correct to take care of your own and your family’s interests before your employer’s, and that’s what anyone would do unless there is personal loyalty in place – loyalty that’s been earned by past actions.
Run away from people who tell you where they think your loyalties should lie.
Your Soul
Your job might include unpleasant aspects, like bureaucratic processes or boring meetings, but your job shouldn’t require you to pretend to be someone you’re not. If you wake up at night with your heart beating too fast because you can’t stand the person your job requires you to be, get out!
You have one lifetime. You get to make your mark here on our planet, and that means you get to make choices, and you must. You don’t have time or energy to waste with people who don’t get you and value you the way you are right now.
2015 is on top of us and the whole world is waiting to see what you’ll accomplish. If your box is too small and confining, step out of it and move on!
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