Best Small Business Idea -- It's All About You


Getting More Focused -- It’s All About You

Jeanna Pool from Catalyst Creative writes a great ezine on
marketing each month. In January she shared 5 Great Marketing
Tips for 2006. Number 1 was “Stop Focusing on You”. She declares
2006 the year of the client and exhorts you to focus totally on
your clients and their needs. I think she’s right on. And I
think she’s completely wrong. Why right and wrong?

Because if you’ve been in business for awhile and have great
products and great services and aren’t getting the results you
want, you may be too focused on your clients and not focused
enough on yourself. Last week, I encouraged your to revisit your
vision of your business and ask yourself why you started your
business in the first place. Now I want you to focus even more
on what you want. What exactly do you want out of your business?
Do you want more money? If so, how much? Write down a number. Do
you want more flexible hours? If so, write out exactly the
schedule you’d like. Do you want to change the world? If so,
write out specifically how that would look.

Why all this focus on you? Because if you aren’t absolutely
clear on what you want, how are you going to know if you are
successful? How are you going help your clients if you aren’t
taking care of yourself as well. Maybe you need to be making
$150,000 a year to provide your family with the life that you
wanted. You want to send your kids to college. You want to
retire while you are still in active and in good health. Or
maybe you want to just make an extra $20,000 a year working
part-time while you take care of your children until they are in
school. Or perhaps your goal is to make a million dollars a year
and live a really incredible life. Defining this is very
important. Why?

Because what you want will shape your business. It will
determine who your customers are and how you will help them. If
you want $5,000,000 in sales, your products and methods are
going to be a whole lot different than if you want $50,000 in
sales. If you want to work only afternoons, that is going to
shape your business as well. If you want to sell your business
and retire in five years, that’s going to affect your decisions
as well. So right now, get out a paper and pen and get ready to
write.

Did you get your pen and paper out? Answer the question, “What
do I want out of my business?” Write in as much detail exactly
what you want your business to give you. Be as specific as
possible. Write as much as you can. Think income, lifestyle,
schedule, partners, travel, location, employees. What exactly do
you want? Throughout the week, add to this and revise it.
Compare where you are right now to what you really want. How
large is the gap? Next week, I’ll help you create a plan to
narrow the gap with: Why Business Plans Don’t Work -- How to
Create an Effective Action Plan