It can be a terrific tragedy when you find yourself sleeping in your truck.
As my cold toes peeked from beneath the blanket, there was a bit of comfort, in my discomfort; knowing that I could at least pay my employees this week.
Now, I want to be completely clear on something.
I NEVER signed up for needing to sleep in my truck to run my business.
The biggest desire in my life was to get OUT of the ghetto, not put myself in worse circumstances.
My father did a pretty good job getting us out of the downtrodden urban area, working in an oil refinery in Chicago.
But, I still felt this hunger, a drive.
It was a determination to get out of Small-Ville USA and create more in my life, for myself.
I’m sure you can relate.
As business owners, CEOs and independent entrepreneurs, we thrive on hunger and turning the impossible into something achievable when our backs are against the wall…
…or, when cramped up sleeping against the steering wheel of your vehicle.
Obviously, Chicago isn’t the smallest town around but; the West Coast was calling me.
You, like me, want the nice car and not having to worry about the size of the payments.
We want the nice house, without having to be in debt for the rest of our lives.
What REALLY gets us juiced up is…
…owning and growing our OWN companies, not having to answer to others and the hustle and discipline of growing forward fast and BIG.
Hunger means being the kid with a bunch of brothers or sisters and, if you weren’t at the table on time, striving to be first in line to get the biggest serving of dinner on the plate, or…
…being served the leftover scraps if anything at all!
At least that’s what it was like when I was a young.
The hustle was having the discipline to get done, get good at getting done and being the first in line to claim your reward.
In today’s business climate, the hunger is HUGE but the hustle has become watered down for some reason.
Oh, sure, the term HUSTLE gets thrown around as the power word of the day…
…when most business owners aren’t hustling.
Instead, they’re working their tails off, staying busy, while staying stuck at one revenue bracket or going broke in the process.
But, that’s not you.
No. YOU…
…the CEO of your company or firm, is moving forward.
You are NOT the undisciplined amateur who makes no profit, you simply want to add some zeroes to your bottom line.
You are NOT the lazy street hustler just looking for your next big score, you are the driven business owner who creates long lasting, growth-enabled revenue which will provide your family and future generations with the golden ticket.
You are DEFINTELY not the daydreamer.
You are the dream maker for your family.
That’s why, today, right here and now, I’m going to tell you exactly what you need to know to…
Build Momentum, Get Productive and Grow Your Profits in Business
Businesses and business owners, alike; need to create effective strategy, get deep to the heart of what their customers want and work on their own hunger, desire and productivity to grow year in and year out.
Business growth isn’t always about increasing ad spend, developing more marketing or learning new skills.
It IS, without a doubt, your ability to get to the heart of your customers desires and your ability to enhance your productivity so you can be more energetic and effective as each day unfolds.
I’m sure you’ve hit a wall from time to time, not knowing what to do next to increase your profits.
We’ve all been there but, if you’d allow me just a few short minutes of your time, I’ll show you easy examples of what is most likely holding you back and how you can cut that fat away…
…IMMEDIATELY!
Let’s start with how to research what your customers REALLY want from you, that will have them paying you more often!
How to Research Your Customers’ Desires Correctly
Look, your customers don’t care about buying your product.
Seriously!
This is where the rubber meets the road in growing some momentum in your business.
Years ago, I spent $40K I didn’t have, borrowed money from a girl and hit my mom up for some cash.
All this, to invest in hiring Jay Abraham.
Through this experience, I learned what you are going to realize right now, only you don’t have to invest $50K plus to learn it.
Here’s the deal. Jay turned me onto Chet Holmes, who I later became partners with. Chet taught me about educational based marketing and how it will reveal what is EXTREMELY important to my customers and clients.
I realized, quickly, customers don’t care how much your product cost.
They don’t care about getting something on sale.
They definitely could care less the kind of effort you went through to manufacture the product.
What you need to find out is EXACTLY what they care about.
This is how you begin to build momentum in your business.
By identifying what is the most important thing to your customer, and relaying that message to them effectively, they will pay your price and order without complaint.
Do they want to save money?
Do they want better health?
Do they want more energy, when they come home from work, to play with the kids?
You MUST identify what is EXTREMELY important to THEM!
You are HUNGRY to make things happen, and I understand that.
But, your customers are HUNGRY to get what they want.
Many of us push what WE believe our customers need, not necessarily what they want and what is crucially important to them.
When you find out precisely what this is, your business will start to increase, even double your sales, as long as there are a few other factors in place.
Before we get to these sales exploding factors, you may be wondering how to find out what is extremely important to your customers.
It’s Simple.
Ask them what is extremely important.
Send out an email, a survey, ask while they’re in your store.
Ask as many of them as you can, over the next couple of weeks, and I know you are going to find out; and it’s not what you think it is.
By knowing this critical information, you will be able to construct a message that your market is drawn to and will have them begging for your solution.
So, how can you take the next step toward becoming more explosive in business and see a rise in profits?
We’ll be covering customer and market research more in depth in the future, but let’s get to the meat of what I mentioned earlier…
Education Based Marketing
Before partnering with Chet, I was selling health supplements to chiropractors. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t grow my profits to explosive levels.
That was until I began to implement educational based marketing.
By realizing that, although health for their patients was important to them, they were concerned about growing their practice.
Medical insurance companies were leaving them with bad debt instead of cash for services rendered.
These folks were HUNGRY for growth and that’s when it hit me.
Although health supplements was my primary business, they needed me to teach them how to grow their practice.
So, that’s what I began to pitch them on.
All of a sudden, they were seeing an increase in sales and growth in their practice.
They began to ask me what else I did, and that’s when I told them about my health supplements.
I would speak at their events and they would speak at mine. Together, we began to grow one another’s business simply because I decided to educate them on what they really wanted.
As a result, THEY began to grow my profits in my primary business.
It was a win-win and that is what got me out of my truck, helped to grow my success and start a family.
Through this entire experience, I realized that getting better skills and honing those skills to master my company was what would keep the momentum going.
So, let’s talk about skills but, more importantly; let’s talk about what is more critical to your business growth than skills alone.
Business Skills Development vs. Business Mindset Development
Right now you may be expecting that I’m going to teach you about all the skills you need to develop, as a business owner.
Actually, it’s not your skills that will take you to the next level of your business growth.
First, you MUST develop your mindset, your hunger and your feelings about your adequacy as a business owner.
So many times, prospective clients have come to me wanting to develop the skills they need to grow more sales, marketing their business better and increase the lifetime value per customer.
That IS what I help business owners with but, before they can develop the critical skills towards sales growth they (and you) must first develop your mindset to create a compelling future in your own belief system.
You do not lose profit because you don’t have the skills to make more sales.
You lose profit when your belief in your skills are lacking.
Today, you must begin to etch out your belief in you to create that compelling future.
Write down your current annual income.
Next, divide that number by 365.
Do you have the answer?
THAT is what you need to make, each and every day to make your annual revenue.
Now try this.
Add just 11% to that daily total and multiply THAT number by 365.
Here’s an example of what the above looks like.
Current annual revenue = $685,000
Divided by 365 days = $1876.71
Current Daily times 0.11 = $206.44
11% + Current Daily = $2083.15
New Daily times 365 = $760,349.75
Why all the math? If I asked you what it would take to grow your annual revenue by $80K you may draw a blank and get a sick feeling in your stomach.
But, if I asked you how easy it would be to increase your prices by 11%…
…you’d probably think, “Well, that’s not too difficult.”
You see, growing your revenue and developing your business is not always about skills. It’s usually a case of shifting your focus to believe in your capability to take simple actions to yield bigger results.
I’ve been asked what skills I expect business owners to have before I would consider working with them. Not that I’m trying to piss you off, but I could care less about your skills. Heck, I can teach you the EXACT skills you need.
What we have to care about, before you can work with me, is your mindset, beliefs and willingness to develop your hunger to grow.
When you work on those three or four things, skills for growth are EASY to put into action.
You have to understand, when you have the mindset right, how to have a better day, managing and leading your organization is KEY to business strategy.
“At T3, we help entrepreneurs better implement untested, proven strategies and tactics for helping them design and grow their business.”
Ted Miller III
Let’s talk team for a moment…
Get the Most Out of Your Sales Team that They Have to Give
Are you a dictator, or are you allowing them to grow and shine?
Are you having workshops, to train your folks, or; are you having meetings that gives everyone an opportunity to complain?
As a team leader, or business owner, you must learn to provide constructive and creative workshops.
Training your sales people and employees to be better at their job is great.
But, training your team to shine in their own brilliance and explore their creativity is an awesome environment that makes your people feel larger than themselves.
By fostering an environment of creativity, problem solving and allowing your team to expand and develop their own environment, you create passion, commitment and stellar results in the workplace.
Today, like many past businesses in history, business owners think more training, more meetings and more communication is the key to growth.
The issue EVERY business owner faces with this is, because you are having trainings and meetings to fix problems, these sessions end up being reactionary debacles instead of constructive solutions.
You have the ability to foster skills, grow relationships WITHIN your organization and teach your team to take action when a great idea comes up, instead of reacting to a problem as it occurs.
Being a leader is more than telling people what to do and dictating your doctrine to them.
You must bring them into the fold, help them shine with creativity and THEN, train them to better develop their skills.
If you are looking for substantial growth in productivity and sales, and I know you are, then these are the first steps to get there.
Until business owners realize this, they will spend most of their time trying to add on new “skills” before getting the most out of their sales team that they have to give!
Productivity, Efficiency and Choice Management in Business
You and I, both, are given the same amount of time throughout our day.
Throughout this brain dump of excellence, that this guide truly is, you’ve already learned the deepest recesses, of psychological reasoning, you will ever likely find about true business development.
The trouble is, without engineering a proper thinking and working environment, you’ll still be living in a corporate exclusive environment, which only fosters followers…
…instead of a team oriented inclusive environment that will produce leaders who will always want to be part of your business.
Time management, productivity and efficiency comes down to a matter of choices.
Will you have a meeting, because there was a problem with a client account?
Perhaps, better still, you will conduct a project management training to hone your team’s, already stellar, tracking skills.
Maybe you want to see sales happen faster, without so many business lunches. This would foster faster sales, less overhead in getting the sale and speed to market.
Allow me to ask you this, then…
Is the way you plan and conduct your day or projects liken to the way you want your team to plan their projects?
You may think, “Well, I “try” to schedule and plan effectively, but then a call comes in or a meeting crops up and we’re back to having a disjointed day.”
Think about this for a moment.
We’ve talked about:
– Building momentum, getting productive and growing your profits in business
– How to research your customers’ desires correctly
– Education based marketing
– Business skills development vs. business mindset development
– Getting the most out of your sales team that they have to give
– …and here we are at Productivity, Efficiency and Choice Management in Business
Just imagine, for one moment, you walk into your business and instead of you see your crew yawning, drinking coffee and talking about last night’s game…
…they are already working, before you even walk in the door.
They know what their daily, weekly and monthly tasks and goals are and they are building momentum, being productive and growing your profits in YOUR business without any hand holding.
Your marketing team is diligently researching your customers’ current desires and creating a proper customer avatar.
Your business development, sales and marketing teams are all sitting down with the copy writers to develop a stellar education marketing campaign.
At lunch, that you decided to cater for your team, you are holding a short workshop on project management and allowing your team to share what has been making them unstoppable at getting things done before deadlines.
You have business development skills trainings scheduled for next month, but right now you are immersed in developing your explosive mindset as a business owner.
You are a leader of independent, creative thinkers who are giving you the most they have to give in sales, marketing and service.
Productivity, profit and efficiency in your business comes down to managing your choices, rewarding excellence with allowing creativity and being able to step away and know your business is in good hands.
For you, as a CEO, it’s your time to focus on better offers, networking in your industry and having productive workshops with your managers.
Just think.
It’s 3:30 in the afternoon, you just signed your last performance sheet and you are on your way home to your family.
Tomorrow morning, you’re going to have breakfast with someone you truly care about, workout at the gym and come in a little late…
…to get some work done before your golf lunch with a new prospective client.
As you roll back into the office, at 2pm, you catch up on the day’s progress and tell your managers what you would like to see happen tomorrow.
Tomorrow… that day you’ve decided to take off for a morning out with the kids, play a game of pool with the fellas in the afternoon and wrap up the night with dinner out with your spouse.
Without a care in the world, you are a HUNGRY CEO who has become a leader that creates leaders within his organization.
It only takes 1…
…short step…
…to reach excellence in business.
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