Work Smarter Not Harder and Fast Track Your Business

A systems approach to business is based on the idea of "ever more with ever less," according to ActionCoach CEO and founder Brad Sugars. It gives your business a real competitive edge by allowing you to increase the speed of production, reduce rework, and make better use of resources. Systems are made up of clearly defined, interconnected parts, each with its own set of goals, that work together to improve efficiencies and allow your business to leverage information and data, marketing investments, and even the skills of the employees across the business. A valuable benefit of a systems approach is that it's not dependent on top-down micro-management. A well-organized and supported system frees the business owner/leader from being the source of all information and involvement in every single decision and process. It frees you from your business and allows you to be a smarter business owner allowing you to work smarter not harder. You'll know you have a good system in

My definition of a successful business is a commercial profitable enterprise that can work without you. What I have seen over the many years of working with business owners just like you is that experiencing significant growth in our business can be both a tremendous blessing and a horrible curse.  If we've not set our business up properly to scale up, we've actually created unseen bottlenecks that slow a business down. We, the business owner, end up being the one that takes on that additional burden. We quickly find ourselves working 70, 80, and sometimes 90+ hours a week, trying to juggle all the balls of that incremental business.  Ultimately, not being able to keep all the balls in the air and now when they drop, customer service suffers. Over time we start to lose customers because they're not getting the service that they are accustomed to and expect. This makes us work harder having to deal with customer service issues and now we have to spend more time selling to ma

Are you spending your day putting out fires that are popping out of nowhere? Are you always trying to fix something that’s not working in your business? Or, are you working on fire prevention enabling it to be more valuable and sellable down the road? Let me tell you what I mean... If you’re spending your day putting out fires, the fire itself is not the problem. If you find yourself always fixing your business, you haven't put the right structure in place.  You haven't put the right systems in place to be clear on what your ideal customer or employee is that will represent your brand and fit in and align with the culture of your organization. You might not even have a well-defined culture for your organization. There may not have an onboarding process for your team to make sure they are trained properly and show them your unique way of doing business. If you don't have all these systems in place, you're consistently putting out fires and fixing your business. Syste

  A question I get asked a lot, as a small business owner I wear so many hats I don't have time to get things done. This common feeling for most small biz owners. Here are 6 keys to help you to gain focus to make sure you and your business are getting the most important tasks done. First, you need to step back and get a birds-eye view of your business, an objective look away from the day-to-day. 1. Determine, out of all the things you do, what do you do that brings the most value to your business. Your goal should be to eventually take everything off your plate and focus on just those areas. 2. Break your business down by function, 4 functions, Marketing, Sales, Operation, Financial. For each function determine the 5 roles or outcomes that each function delivers. 3. Next look at who currently owns that function. If you have employees does someone really own that function? Are they clear on what that means? You need to create how-to SOPs and a checklist for each of these funct

  Have you ever felt overwhelmed in your business? You know you've been working hard but don't feel that you are making enough progress. Or do you just have no time for yourself? I think we've all been there at one point or another, it's frustrating, isn't it? In this business tip, I'm going to share with you some strategies to help you go from being overwhelmed and stressed to being focused on your most productive tasks that you can execute to move you to your next level of success fast. As I mentioned before it's not unusual to feel overwhelmed in business. I see it all the time. Frankly, it's not sustainable, it leads to burn out and it's detrimental to your business. It's easy to fall into this trap as we overcommit for a project or get a new customer or opening up a new location This has got to stop and end right now. First, we must realize that it's normal to get over committed for a little while and feel a little overwhelmed. It&#

Someone once told me that to be successful you need to do the most productive thing possible at any given moment.   The only problem with that statement is most people don't know where or what their most productive tasks are.   I guess you could maybe just create lists of what you need to get done, and then prioritize that list.   The only problem with that strategy is when I used it, my list would seem to grow throughout the day.  I would have more on my to-do list at the end of the day than I did when I started. And that doesn't give you a feeling of being productive, does it? Just working off a list, doesn't make you more productive.   Here are three tips to help you to be more productive in your day so you can reach your goals faster.   1. Start with setting motivating goals. Without goals, there is no way to determine what is productive and what isn't. You can't determine what tasks will lead you to what you desire and what tasks are just wasting your time.  

Are you a super achiever or just average. The difference between them is a fine line that some of us find it hard to cross over on our own. Darren Hardy says that there are 10 x-factors super achievers have that make the difference: 1. Relentless Drive - Never satisfied. Urban Meyer sums it up with his +2 attitude. 2. Supersize thinking - Don't think small. Set goals so big you have to force yourself to grow into them 3. They find their Massive Leverage . They know that their super power is the one thing of value that they bring that no one else can and that will leverage their success by making them stand out 4. They have MANIACAL FOCUS . They know how to say no to things that will distract them from their mission. 5 Unrelenting Resilience - They "F" up a lot. They fail up. They know that each failure is an opportunity to learn, grow and get closer to their goal. 6. They have an Obsessive and Constant Pursuit of Better - The Japanese have a concept for this