What's Important, Setting Goals, Establishing Priorities

Determining What Is Important,

Setting Goals and Establishing Priorities

As a successful entrepreneur, you perform these three actions every day, all day. Much of the time you do this tactically to achieve short-term objectives. Of course, running in the background is your strategic perspective. How today’s and this week’s achievements will fulfill your long-term targets for the month, quarter and year.

Today, right here and now, I invite you to put these ideas in writing. You know the power of written goals. Many studies have shown that written goals are much more frequently accomplished than great ideas merely thought or spoken. Many opportunities and brilliant plans are lost because they are not captured and acted upon.

Spend a few minutes now and draft out some ideas. What’s important? What are your goals? What are the priorities and sequences necessary for producing the results you see as possible and desirable? These can be for your business or personal life or both.

I look forward to hearing from you!

Develop Talent and Make Room

Determine what processes could improve the flow of work accomplished and customers served. Add value while you streamline actions.
Redesign your job descriptions and duties. Reconsider how the jobs interact. How is work handed off from one process to the next?

What are the skills and talents needed by a worker to best perform each job? Advertise for those abilities and recruit them. Then enhance the training you've done with crafted, written explanations to get consistent results.

As you groom your talent, you must make room for them to move up. To make room, you will need to get out of the way.

Exit planning, succession and transition strategy is a key to growing your venture.

Step into Tomorrow - Begin Exit Planning Today

This is the official announcement of our Business Exit Planning seven-class series from January 23 through March 5^th. I love new projects and this one with Dr. Gary Reiss has been very interesting over the last six or more months. It has been challenging putting together the business issues like delegation, compensation, and accounting together with the psychology of what stops us and conflict resolution.

The last few months have been hectic and exciting. We are working with several new clients using strategic planning around exit issues like succession, partner responsibilities and buy-sell issues, to name a few.

When we do exit planning we’re thinking of tomorrow for ourselves as owners, as well as for our customers, employees and community. Exit planning is recycling companies instead of just closing them and throwing years and years of good work away.

Environmental and sustainable consciousness is particularly critical for business because of how much business impacts the planet and all of us. But, what makes a company green? How green is a company shipping containers of goods thousands of miles and printing thousands of color brochures? Who decides what’s “green?” We believe “green business” is a gradual process in which we are becoming conscious of our footprint. Then we can begin to figure out ways to consider what we might do better. Every business wants to be sustainable, at least on a financial basis, having repeat and referral customers, employees who are competent, stable and have high integrity.

Exit planning is particularly important given current demographics. There are so many businesses owned by folks 40 to 80. Creating a bigger conversation about adequate planning may contribute to more ventures being effectively transferred to younger partners, kids and employees. Without planning, there will be many companies closing and disruption to customers, vendors and the natural environment.

Delegation and compensation are employee issues for all organizations, but for exit planning they are particularly relevant. What are the actions that a company needs to prosper and grow? Have you and your employees clearly identified these key behaviors? Do they have deleterious side effects? What are the behaviors that your company is rewarding? Let us tell you about the traits research has found contributes to a climate that fosters employee enthusiasm and productivity. Before you leave your business infuse it with possibility.

Come explore these and other topics in our Business Exit Planning series.