It’s that time of year–when businesses seeking success are busy creating their written three-to-five
year Business Plans with mission statements, innovative, profit-producing strategies and
dynamic action plans.
Sadly, many businesses don’t plan at all. That’s probably because many businesses are created by,
owned by, and managed by people who don’t plan.
“Let’s just keep doing what we’ve been doing–but add about 10% more next year,” some business
bosses say, unwilling to really plan, dooming themselves in the process.
Harvey MacKay, author and motivational speaker, replies saying “failures don’t plan to fail, they
fail to plan.”
Karen Schmidt, an Australian professional speaker and author, says “most people don’t have goals.
They have dreams instead. Some 97% of people don’t take the first step, writing down goals. They just keep dreaming.
Millionaires, on average, read their written goals daily. “This cements them (the goals) into their minds,” says Schmidt.
Billionaires use “the power of three.” Billionaires read their written goals an average of three times
daily, three times more often than mere millionaires.
Schmidt asserts that goals are SMART. Her acrostic: S=specific, M=measurable, A=attainable, R=reward based, T=time bound.
Well, what does all of this have to do with being a self-employed business owner?
EVERYTHING!
What you do with that business is up to you–how ambitious you are, how well you plan, whether you’re just a relaxed dreamer with no goals or a hard working, focused, future millionaire. It’s up to you.
If you want succeed, you must create and write a multi-year business plan. A three-to-five year plan is typical. I always use three years. It’s almost impossible to plan intelligently beyond that.
If you are a dreamer–with no written goals–it’s necessary to change your thinking now.
Here’s how millionaires differ from middle class people, according to author Keith Cameron Smith, in his book “Top 10 Distinctions Between Millionaires And The Middle Class:”
1. Millionaires think long term, middle class people think short term.
2. Millionaires talk about ideas, middle class people talk about things and people.
3. Millionaires embrace change, middle class people are threatened by change.
4. Millionaires take calculated risks, middle class people are afraid of risks.
5. Millionaires continue to learn and grow, middle class people stop learning
after they’re finished with school.
6. Millionaires work for profit, middle class people work for wages.
7. Millionaires believe in being generous,middle class people believe they’re unable to be generous.
8. Millionaires have multiple sources of income, middle class people have one or two income sources.
9. Millionaires focus on increasing net worth, middle class people focus on increasing their paychecks.
10. Millionaires ask questions that empower, middle class people ask questions that disempower.
Change your thinking.
Change your life.
By all means, even if you’re broke, the first thing to do is to get rid of your middle class mindset, which confines you to a life term in your own mental prison of
self-limiting beliefs and the low expectations paupers accept passively.
Start thinking, then acting, the way millionaires do.
Whether you succeed or not, whether you are financially blessed or dirt poor, it’s up to you–not an employer and certainly not the government–to make yourself financially successful.
Please don’t misinterpret writings from the Bible and other spiritual literature to justify perpetual poverty.
Simply stated, God wants you to have more than enough and be a good stewart of that. But you
have to work for it.
If you’re poor, don’t blame God. Look in the mirror instead. Then get to work.
Become a student of business. Learn all you can. Never stop learning. Turn your TV off. Keep it that way.
Finally, don’t plan to fail by failing to plan.
Start creating your 2009-2011 Business Plan today.
