Lesson of the Five Balls (borrowed from James Patterson)
Do you read James Patterson? I love his books! Recently I listened to a surprising one on CD, Suzanne's Diary for Nicholas. As I was researching this post I ran across another blog post on this topic that described the book as "sappy". Well, it is a bit of a "chick" book but you never know where you're going to find little gems of info. First, I wish I'd done for my kids what Suzanne did for her son-write him a very personal diary. What a gift that would have been!
Second, Patterson gives us all a gift, The Lesson of the Five Balls:
Imagine that life is a game in which you are juggling five balls. The five balls are: family, friends, health, integrity, and work. And you are keeping all of them in the air. But one day you finally come to understand that "work" is a rubber ball. If you drop it, it will bounce back. The other four---family, friends, health, and integrity---are made of glass. And if you drop them, they will crack, chip, or shatter. Once you truly understand the lesson of the five balls, you will discover balance in your life ---James Patterson
For the business owner, this lesson is even more important. It's sometimes simply impossible to drop the "work ball" and let it stay dropped-even for a short time. I don't think it's just a rubber ball, I think it's a super ball! BOING, BOING, BOING, BOING! Balancing the building and growing of a business with the other parts of your life is a real feat. In fact, I've found it to be like having a baby. All consuming at first but eventually, if you raise it right, it blends into the balance of your family.
Maybe that's the trick: blending the balance. Instead of juggling all five balls (I might also argue for a 6th-spirituality) separately, how about placing them all together on a platter and then just having to negotiate the platter like a waiter does? Smaller the platter, easier to keep all the balls in place. This method of balancing the balls of life would give us a bit more flexibility to deal with the realities of a complex schedule. It it's
- crowded- lift the platter (holding the balls) high overhead
- chaotic-hold on with both hands
- calm- set it down for a while (and give yourself a rest)
- busy-hold on with one hand while using the other for another task
- earth-shattering-move the balls to a cushioned box with a lid
- overwhelming-pass a ball to a friend
Are you ready to shift the balance of your life? Is your business ready for that shift?
Say YES!
To YOUR success,
Peg
Innovation Drives Sustainable Growth_June2010
(This post was originally written for and published in the Northeast Cincinnati Chamber Navigator.)
In my last “Teaching Moments” post I referenced the fact that Growth will not continue unless Innovation happens. While this is certainly true and probably obvious, I think we should explore “why?” or, the purpose of Innovation.
Innovation to the small business (or any business for that matter) is like a piston to an engine. It takes the raw ideas (fuel) of the innovator and, through a process of creativity, assessment and application, drives new opportunity. This is the “R&D” department of your business.
The problem for most of us is that we’re the R&D, marketing, finance, legal, operations, HR and more departments all in one! That’s probably why Innovation gets put to the back burner. Here’s the problem though (remember last month I talked about the importance of AWARENESS? Here’s a chance to become more aware….). If you don’t establish Innovation as part of your routine, you don’t acknowledge it in your cycle of entrepreneurial development, you don’t pay attention to it, and you don’t cultivate a culture of innovation; your business will stagnate. Notice that I didn’t say that it might stagnate, it will! You might be able to ride a wave of good fortune but the minute the economy changes, the traffic pattern changes, your customer’s needs/wants change, or your competition catches up to you you’re sunk!
This has happened to many companies in our current economic situation. All was well, business was coming in and then…..crash! Companies that were already seeking new opportunity had a leg up and were able to shift gears faster to create new opportunity. Don’t misunderstand me, the economy has thrown a lot of good companies for a loop and there are many economic forces, not just Innovation or lack of, that have lead to disaster or even in some cases, massive growth.
Back to purpose….in short, the purpose of Innovation is to create new opportunity for the business. Opportunity has many faces though:
- A new product line
- A new service
- A new relationship
- A second business
- A strategic alliance
- Greater efficiency
- Expansion
- Reorganization
- Etc.
As the entrepreneur, I believe that one of your primary roles is as that of innovator. Yes, another hat that you have to wear! Next month we’ll talk more about how to adopt innovative mindset but before we close here, let’s do a check on your overall vision and strategy. One thing that innovation should NOT do is pull you off focus. For some, like me, it can easily do that. I LOVE to be creative and work on problem solving! If you’re anything like me, you’ll want to impose a little discipline. I like to have a journal that I can “deposit” my ideas in. It can be a dedicated journal or maybe just the back section of one. This way, you record your ideas so you don’t lose them but you also don’t have to feel like you need to act on them right away.
We’re just over half-way through the year. Let’s pause for a check-up before we even think of starting something new!
Vision check: Are your actions and performance of the past months keeping you/your business in line with your overall vision (you have defined that, right?)
Strategy check: Review your goals. Are you on track? If not, what needs to change to get you back on track? Is it a slight tweak or do you need a major innovation?
To your success!
Peg
Strategic Growth Systems_May2010
Success Tools for Sustainable Growth: Strategy
(This post is a portion of one that was originally written for and published in the NEC Chamber Navigator.)
I hope you’ve having a very prosperous spring! Last month I introduced you to the Legacy ACCESS system of accelerated entrepreneurial development, our cyclical development model and the concept of Growth Purpose. Today, I’d like to dive into the Strategy of Growth in more depth.
Once you’re able to see the vision and articulate your purpose you need to strategize the growth of your company (or a new project, opportunity, etc) to reflect and manifest that purpose. In other words, you want to create a strategy that will get you to the end game. Strategy will change depending on what the goal is but in general you will
- Articulate a goal(s)
- SWOT analysis
- Outline a plan
- Decide on measurements
- Following this you will begin to implement and measure (next month’s Teaching Moment).
Let’s talk a little more about the above steps.
- In articulating a goal you’ll want it to be:
- Relevant-In line with vision & purpose
- Stated in REAL time
- Accompanied by a deadline-long or short-term?
- Realistic-can it be accomplished
- Measurable-how will you know if it succeeds?
- SWOT Analysis
- What STRENGTHS do you and does your company bring to the goal?
- What WEAKNESSES do you need to address?
- What OPPORTUNITIES do you see?
- What THREATS do you foresee?
- When outlining your plan you’ll want to
- Be specific and detailed
- Assign tasks-who will do what?
- Create a timeline-by when will what be done, in what order?
- Measure
- What will you measure?
- How will you measure?
- How will you report the measurements?
- What will you do with the measurements?
- i. Continue with, revise, or dump the plan?
How does this really work? Let’s look at a personal example. I’m trying to build my organization so that we can help more business owners achieve sustainable (lasting) success. One goal that I have is to work with organizations such as the NEC Chamber to .provide additional benefit to their members. Now that the initial goal of making the relationship has been met, we can look at the strategy of growing this program as our example.
Collaborative Partner Strategy
Overall Legacy Vision: To accelerate the growth of the Legacy Community to 500,000+ members. (Is this strategy in line with vision? YES!)
Purpose: To help business owners build & grow successful, sustainable businesses. (Does this strategy serve our purpose? YES!)
Strategy: To partner with other business organizations to create win-win-win collaborations, benefiting their members and their organizations.
Now that the initial relationship has been forged we need to have specific goals to maximize the collaboration. For the sake of space I’ll only address the first step of creating the goal. In order to be complete, I do have planning and measurement in place!
Step 1: Articulate the goal for the NEC Chamber (a partnering organization) Collaboration: We have 50 NEC Chamber members participating in the Legacy ACCESS Development Program by June 30, 2010. Let’s put it to the above test: Is it
- Relevant?-Yes, accomplishing this goal will help us toward our overall vision and stay in line with our purpose
- In REAL time?-Yes. Stating it in present tense helps the mind believe in the possibility and, more importantly, FOCUS on the positive outcome, not the roadblocks.
- Accompanied by a deadline?-Yes, a short term one.
- Realistic? Although aggressive, I believe it to realistic especially given the dedication of the Chamber leadership to the program.
- Measurable? Yes-we have an affiliate program that will help track referrals, leads, inquiries, etc. so that we credit the Chamber with originating the lead.
Now, to complete the strategic process I will want to (and have done) a SWOT analysis, outline the plan and measure along the way. See how simple that is!!
Simple-yes, easy-not necessarily. It takes discipline and commitment to build and grow a successful business. I hope that this strategy outline will be one more tool to help you accelerate your success!
To your success,
Peg
Creating Competitive Advantage-Why a Book Study?
Hi!
If you've seen or heard me talking lately you've likely noticed something about a book study program that we're starting. I'm really passionate about this opportunity and thought I'd share a little more about why. Before I forget, it's not too late to order the book (at either Peg's Place or Legacy Connection). It's a quick read and the video book study is archived at Peg's Place!
So, why a community book study? This is actually something I've wanted to do for a long time. The benefits of learning together are well documented. Being guided through the book AND coming together, in person, to continue the learning is a very powerful combination. If you need more reason than that, a couple of blog posts ago I shared a post from Bill Glazer that talked about the 3 habits that all successful entrepreneurs have
- They READ
- They CONTINUE their EDUCATION by attending LIVE learning events
- They create and use S.M.A.R.T. goals
I also mentioned that I'm a life long learner and that the above 3 practices are things that I not only do but that we model and offer as opportunity for our members. Through our Peg's Place book study of Creating Competitive Advantage by Jaynie Smith we're taking the learning from this book to the next level. We're modeling the best practices of READING and attending LIVE learning events. Very simply, I would not be where I am or able to go where I'm headed without the learning that I've engaged in. I want to share that practice with our community. I've been answering many questions about this program as I've been networking and talking about it. You might have some of these same questions!
Q: Do you have to be a Legacy Connection member to participate?
A: NO! The Peg's Place video book study is open to all! The iConnection session is free to members and first time visitors. Others pay just $10 at the door to join us!
Q: Why Creating Competitive Advantage?
A: Larry Watson is in an ACCEL group that I facilitate. He's talked about the impact of this book MANY times. I finally bought it and understood his excitement. Jaynie Smith, the author, correctly states that most business owners DO NOT understand their competitive advantages and CANNOT communicate them. Doing so can change the course of your business. THAT'S WHY! What have you spent $15 (or less) on that you can say has changed the course of your business?
Q: Do you know the author?
A: No, I don't know the author but Larry Watson, our study facilitator, has participated in one of her trainings and has been strategizing with her to faciliate similar studies for her clients.
Q: I don't like to or have time to read, is there an audio?
A: On Amazon, it says that the audio is out of print. With a little more searching it might be possible to find one. I know that everyone learns differently but most learning requires some form of reading. Here's what I do that might help you too! MOST business development books have the most important information in the beginning and at the end. So, I read the beginning, skim the middle (if I think it's important I dive in deeper) and then be sure to read the last chapter for the summary/recap/conclusions. Having said that, Creating Competitive Advantage is a book that I read cover to cover-twice!
Q: Why the book study AND the in-person session?
A: I recently read Know Can Do by Ken Blanchard, etal. It's a great book for both learners and educators/trainers because it talks about how to turn what you learn into what you do. I'll save you some time and share the "secret": practice (if you're the learner) or offer (if you're the educator) spaced repetition of the learning. Spaced repetition practices could include
- skimming the book and highlighting points of interest (this is why I like to have the book rather than an audio of a book that I believe will be impactful)
- re-reading it and making notes of the important points
- Tell someone about what you learned-if you can "teach" it, even better!
- Discuss it with a group that has also read the book
- Practice what you've learned!
If you follow our book study (and this is the first of several we have planned!) you will be practicing spaced repetition:
- Read the book (highlighting optional)
- Take notes on the book (optional)
- View the video guides at the Peg's Place website
- Take more notes!
- Check out our newsletter success tips (many will be about the reading) (Not on our newsletter list?-sign up at the Legacy Connection website!)
- Attend the iConnection, in-person, session on August 18th!
Q: What will the iConnection session be about?
A: iConnection is always about Interactively Igniting Innovation. For this session we'll be brainstorming the question, " What did you get out of the book and what did others learn that you can use in your business?" NOTE: While I REALLY hope you'll read the book, you'll still get a lot from this session if you didn't read it!
Please let me know if you have questions or comments. Will you be joining our book study?
Say YES!
To YOUR success,
Peg Stookey
What’s an Auto-Responder, Anyway?
This post should really be called, What a Day It's Been!!! What started out as a good idea to help our new subscribers has turned into a circus!
But, I digress! What is an auto-responder, why use one and how do you do it correctly?
First, if you're reading this it's very likely that you receive our Legacy Connects weekly eblast/newsletter. A regular newsletter is a very important community tool for us. We use it to inform our readers of upcoming events (saving them from having to go to our website to find the details); I share "teaching moments" as does my right hand gal, Hilairy; we do some marketing, we highlight community members and speakers, and, in general, we keep our community informed.
I've had people join our community membership after receiving the newsletter for 4 years and never come to a meeting! That's a pretty powerful communication tool! In fact, I've recently read that electronic newsletters were surpassing blogs in effectiveness. As I'm writing a blog about newsletters I have to say that I think both are necessary and each has its place!
Anyway, I've also been learning about the importance of auto-responders. An auto-responder is a series of emails that you write, choose the frequency of and schedule the delivery. This can all be automated in a newsletter system such as iContact, which is what I use. In my case, I wanted to use an auto-responder to share more information about our weekly eBlast and Legacy Connection in general. I chose to send an initial, brief welcome to the new subscriber and then 5 informative emails after that.
This is where it gets tricky and also where I have another opportunity to share my hard won learning with you! When I initially set up the auto-responder last May, I guess I failed to complete the process. It turns out that I needed to "enable" it for it to work. Here's the "my bad": I didn't check on it! For some reason I assumed that it was being deployed and that I just hadn't received any feedback. I really should know better. People send me feedback ALL THE TIME! (This is a good thing though!)
So....today, I realized my mistake and "enabled" the long forgotten auto-responder. YIKES, OOPS, MY BAD, I'M SORRY, and I'M SOOOOOOOOOOOOO VERY SORRY is how I've started numerous emails since! You see, the system thought it would make up for lost time and send all 6 emails at once. To make matters worse, I had scheduled a weekly email to go out as well so these poor subscribers received 6-7 emails from me today! Now, I know that people hang on my every word but really, 6 eblast type emails is WAY too many!
Here's an interesting thing though. It wasn't all bad!
- I've had the chance to communicate with people that I wouldn't otherwise have talked to today.
- I've have people step up and offer to help try to figure out the problem.
- I've been given the opportunity to look more closely at stats.
- I was able to fix a couple subscription problems that might have gone unnoticed.
- I learned how helpful iContact's customer service reps are.
- And yes, I've had a few complaints.
All in all, I learned a great deal and hopefully, so have my readers! I do feel bad that I lost some subscribers. It's likely, though, that if they didn't have the patience and understanding with my problem that they weren't all that interested anyway. This brings up another opportunity for learning: whenever technology is involved I try to have a policy of patience and flexibility. Yes, I made a mistake and yes, it would have been much better if iContact hadn't sent all the emails at once. Stuff happens though. Have you ever left a voicemail or an email and it wasn't returned to find out that something went wrong with the message? Stuff happens! Email communications are misinterpreted ALL the time. Stuff happens! Cars break down and the cell phone was left at home. Stuff happens! Cell phones die, the email address was entered wrong, the phone number is incorrect, and.......sometimes we make human errors too.
Here's my point---part of being in a community and in relationship with people is the need for flexibility and, as I recently wrote in another blog, curiosity. I SO appreciate Vickie, who ASKED me if there was a problem today. Heck, yeah! But guess what? A blog post was born and that's never a bad thing!
Do you have any stories of tech gone bad or flexible, curious people that have made your day? If so, will you share them with us?
Say YES!
To your success,
Peg Stookey
Successful, Sustainable GROWTH Requires:
Awareness, Education, and Implementation
Actually, ANY kind of success requires awareness, education, and implementation. First, let’s clarify what kind of success we’re talking about. In this case, because our focus this month is on entrepreneurial growth success, that’s what we’ll stick to but this is one of those “teaching moments” that can easily apply to many areas of your life: career, parenting, volunteering, etc. We’re not just talking about passive success though. This is a recipe for PROACTIVE SUCCESS. It won’t just happen. YOU have to take responsibility for committing to success and then taking the steps to achieve it.
Let’s rephrase and break down “the recipe” so you can see what I mean. How about this? PROACTIVE, sustainable success requires: Awareness, Education, and Implementation.
Peg’s “success recipe”:
- AWARENESS begins by defining the problem. What do you need/want to succeed at? It’s helpful to identify realistic, quantifiable (measurable) goals. Then, and this is very important, assume that you don’t know everything. I often say that the root cause of ALL failure is lack of awareness. It’s easy to say but not so easy to overcome. The only way to get past this is to consciously assume that you don’t know all of what it will take to succeed at this particular venture. Then, GET CURIOUS. Begin to ask questions, seek our experts and advisors, do some research, etc. Finally, ASSESS what more you need to learn in order to be truly successful.
- EDUCATION follows and can come in many forms. You might take an official class or course of study but much more likely is that you’ll “self educate”. Read a book, search the web, talk to experts, take a training class, etc. You can greatly accelerate your success in learning by surrounding yourself with the right people. If they don’t have the answer they can steer you in the right direction! By the way, I’m a HUGE proponent of continued education in the area of entrepreneurism. CE is generally required in the corporate world. It amazes me how people who have “grown up” in that world so easy step into the small business environment and think they don’t have to keep learning. (enough editorializing!)
- Implementation is where the rubber meets the road. How many times have you attended a workshop or seminar and then, DID NOTHING? Oh yeah! I’ve been there too. Taking ACTION is the hard part of being PROACTIVE. This is where an accountability system can really help. Do you have a partner, colleague, co-worker, friend, etc. that can help you? It’s great to set up this arrangement BEFORE you need someone. I have several accountability systems that I use for different purposes. I belong to a CEO roundtable, facilitate several small groups, have an advisory board, and, probably most importantly, have 2 or 3 friends/colleagues that I trust to give me good feedback-and I use them as sounding boards!
With this “lesson” we’re wrapping up 3 months of focus on “Growth”. In our Legacy ACCESS Entrepreneurial Development Cycle this means that next month we’ll move to Innovation (The 4 phases in this cycle are Discovery, Beginning, Growth and Innovation). As I’m sure you’ve seen and or experienced in this “new economy”, GROWTH does not continue unless you INNOVATE!
At our upcoming Legacy Connection Community meeting we’re honored to welcome Dr. Jay Kayne, director of entrepreneurship at Miami University. Jay is one of the regions best kept secrets! He’s an expert on innovation/opportunity seeking and has recently launched a new venture to teach and empower innovation.
You're invited....
July 1st
8:00 AM Networking
8:30-10:00 Working on the Biz!
4555 Lake Forest Dr, Blue Ash, OH 45242
Suite 590
I hope you'll.......SAY YES!
Peg Stookey
Founder of Legacy Connection
Teaching Moments_Purpose/USP_May2010
NOTE to reader: This is a continuation of a series originally published in the NEC Chamber Navigator
Success Tools for Sustainable Growth: Purpose
Before we dive into our Growth discussion I’d like to introduce you to our development program, Legacy ACCESS. This is the core educational platform of Legacy Connection and the primary reason that I have the privilege of writing for you today. ACCESS is an acronym that tells the whole story:
- Accelerated: This program helps YOU accelerate your success by proactively guiding your entrepreneurial development rather than standing by and watching you go back to the school of hard knocks again and again.
- Community: So important to accelerating YOUR success is our Community Approach. We leverage the knowledge, connections, support and accountability that comes from being surrounded by people that are doing the same thing: proactively building and growing a successful, sustainable business. Additionally, Community is vital to our educational programming. We design learning activities for our large and small groups that, again, leverage the knowledge, experience, etc. of your peers. Alone you are limited; together WE are boundless!!
- Centered: There are SO many challenges to being a business owner. We utilize numerous success tools to help you maintain focus: Vision, Purpose, Strategy, articulating your USP (Unique Selling Proposition), and many more. OH-did I mention ACCOUNTABILITY? What happens when you tell someone that you’re going to do something? YOU DO IT!!!!
- Entrepreneurial: This is not simply a category of business. It’s a MINDSET! A mindset that can be developed and utilized by business owners, service providers, employees, parents and nearly every other person that is interested in taking control. One important goal of our development process it to help our participants to transition from the more common “employee mindset” to the more empowering “entrepreneurial mindset (AND skill set!).
- Success: We encourage YOU to define YOUR own success. In general though, we seek to be more efficient, profitable and valuable businesses. We see that sustainability, or lasting success, is a common goal of our members. How do YOU define success?
- System: First, this is a process of development. It won’t happen overnight. Would you really expect a process that creates sustainable success to be an overnight wonder? Second, we put a great deal of emphasis on building and documenting systems within your business. Systems will directly affect the efficiency, profitability and value of your business.
Now that you know a little more about our underlying philosophies, you probably want to know something really useful-right? That’s fair! Our development system has 4 phases: Discovery, Beginning, Growth and Innovation. We’ll be talking about and working on Growth for the next 3 months. This month, I’d like to help you “center” your Growth strategy by first asking about your Purpose. Can you clearly articulate it? Do you know why it’s good to do so?
First things first: the WHY. Success is directly proportional to your level of passion around your purpose AND your ability to communicate it to your customers, partners, advisors, etc. Here’s a tool that will help with the communication.
Building YOUR Unique Statement of Purpose
- Will the focus be on you or your business?
- Who is your target customer?
- How do you help them?
Now, put it together:
______________________ helps____________________________
(“I” or the biz name) (target customer)
to/with_____________________________________________________.
(what do you do for customers?)
e.g. Legacy Connection helps entrepreneurs build and grow successful, sustainable businesses.
CHALLENGE: Get this down to 10 words or less! (It took me 5 years to get mine this clear. I REALLY hope that you can beat that record!)
NEXT MONTH:
- Legacy Community meeting on May 6th. Check out www.legacyconnection.com for details. While you’re there, sign up for our FREE newsletter to get more tips, updates, etc.
- Growth Strategies: Identifying and Developing Systems!
If you have any comments, suggestions or questions please direct them to Peg Stookey at peg@legacyconnection.com.
To YOUR success!
Peg
Teaching Moments_Beginning_March2010
NOTE TO READER: I've decided to post the articles that I'm writing for other groups within this blog too. This way, we can share the learning and encourage more interaction. Here's the first one that I wrote for the NEC Chamber Navigator....
The Beginning is a Delicate Time……
This is how Dune, the movie, begins. Whether we’re starting a new business, a new project, a new relationship or a new responsibility it’s important to get it right! Beginning has an important job. It sets the stage for what is to come. It paves the path of future success. In terms of entrepreneurial development, it lays the foundation for successful and sustainable Growth.
The NEC Chamber and Legacy Connection are experiencing an exciting Beginning, one that will offer you, the member, greater insight, accelerated development and sustainable success. WHO WOULDN’T WANT THAT? Our mutual goal is to provide more access to support, resources and continued education for the small business owner* so that they can grow, or continue to grow, into a healthy, sustainable business; becoming more efficient, profitable and valuable at exit. Again, WHO WOUNDN’T WANT THAT?
We’ll be rolling out the details of this program but for now we want to begin by inviting you to
- the March 17th Leads networking meeting-Peg Stookey, founder of Legacy Connection, will be presenting more details about this opportunity
- the April Legacy Community meeting
- April 1st, 8:00 AM (first timers info session), 8:30-10, meeting
- 4555 Lake Forest Dr. Blue Ash, NW corner of Reed Hartman and Pfeifer, suite 650
- Go to www.legacyconnection.com, learn more about the organization, their dedication to entrepreneurial success though continued education and register for the Legacy Connection newsletter where more information will be communicated.
*This program is described as entrepreneurial development and is valuable education for small business owners, inventors, non-profit directors, intra-preneurs (employees with an entrepreneurial role) and those that work with the above.
Peg will be sharing a Teaching Moment in each of our monthly newsletters. These “lessons” will be reflective of the Legacy ACCESS entrepreneurial development cycle, or phases, of a healthy, sustainable business: Discovery, Begin or…Begin Again, Grow!, and Innovate!.
With that introduction, Peg would like to share a teaching moment with you…..
The Beginning is a delicate time but what if you find that you didn’t get it right the first time? That you didn’t pave the path of future success? That you aren’t achieving successful and sustainable Growth? This is a place that many experienced business owners find themselves today and I have great news for you! It may be time to give yourself permission to Begin Again!
Beginning Again may not sound like something that you want to do. Who would want to return to high school or to the first few days of a new job? Sometimes, as the business owner, you have to stop, reflect on your goals, your performance and ask yourself, “Do I go forward with the model that has been successful in the past (but is no longer) or do I take the time to reflect, measure, readjust and…. Begin Again?”
Whether you’re in the process of Beginning, Beginning Again or simply making a few changes to your business model there are some teaching moments to share:
- The realization: You must come to a point where the writing is on the wall. You HAVE to do something. Keep you eyes open for the signs that change is needed.
- Due Diligence: Research, research, research!
- The commitment: DECIDE to give it a shot, to give it your all, to put everything you have into making the changes you need.
- Follow-through: Make a plan and put the plan into action.
- Measurement: Track your numbers- religiously.
- Community: Surround yourself with a strategic, purposeful community. Asking for help is hard, but accelerated success is rarely seen in a vacuum. You can’t do it alone-or at least, you can’t do it very well or very fast by yourself. On the flip side, do you have something to offer a community member? What or who do you know that could prevent mistakes and hardship for someone else?
Next month…we’ll be discussing the next phase of entrepreneurial development: Growth! If you have any comments, suggestions or questions please direct them to Peg Stookey at peg@legacyconnection.com.