Happy New Year

The economic forecast appears to be promising.  Most markets are recovering.  With that being said, it is at least reasonable to start this new year 2011 with optimism for your business and your career.

If you believe in New Year's resolution, now is the time to take advantage of the opportunity to list the things that you realistically want to accomplish.  Realistic is the key word because anyone can set high goals and give up after a few weeks or months.

If you establish some clear goals for yourself and your business in 2011, write them down, and visit this list often, you may be surprised at this tme next year on just how much you have accomplished.  So take a little time and write down your clearly defined and reachable goals for 2011.

Happy New Year

Success requires a team

Just like the old saying "it takes a village to raise a child," it takes a team for any business or organization to realize success.  It helps to have star players but for an organization to succeed year after year, it requires a great team with great leadership.

I am a sports fan and a very frustrated one because all of the Cleveland sports teams are suffering right now from bad records and failure.  At one time, our biggest rival in football was the Pittsburgh Steelers.  We love to hate the Steelers in Cleveland.

However, if you take a look at the history and record of the Steelers, you will find an excellent example of what I am talking about.  They have an excellent organization that takes great pride in success as a team.  They manage and optimize every aspect of their organization and thus they have realized great success.

The same is true in business.  It is the overall organization that must be great in order for any aspect of the business to experience year-over-year success.  The top management must be totally behind every facet of the business, behind every employee, and aligned with the goals of every division.

Success requires a team, and that includes ownership, top management, middle management, and every single employee.

The End of 2010

I wish everyone a very happy 2011.  Economically speaking, 2010 has been a recovery year for the most part.  All indications point toward a continued recovery in 2011.

This is a great time to take advantage of new business and career opportunities as the recovery continues.

Happy New Year

Great Financial Advice

Almost 30 years ago I heard a story called The Richest Man in Babylon and it left a lasting impression.  It is a parable about gaining wealth.  Although, I didn't really view it as gaining wealth as much as being about common sense money management.

The story can be summed up in one sentence and it is; a part of all you earn is yours to keep.  The story goes on with rich detail about the lessons learned by a young laborer who wanted to be financially independent.  He was neither greedy nor a cheat.  He simply saved his way to prosperity over a period of time.

I recommend reading The Richest Man in Babylon because it makes great sense.

Clarity in all that you do

Another key lesson that I have learned from several career coaches is that clarity is so important to success.  We really need to understand what it is that we want to accomplish and what direction we are seeking.

This falls in line with goal setting because with good goal setting, we clarify the direction of our work.  With clarity in objectives, we can establish a plan on how to get there.  If we know what we want, we can put together a plan on how to get it.

If the goal is higher profit, then we need to clearly set a profit goal so that costs can be structured to reach that goal considering our revenue profit.  If increased market share is our goal, then we can carefully measure our company or product's market share now and at the end of a campaign to raise that market share.

If our goal is to be well liked by everyone we encounter, we need to gear our every action and word to reach that end.  Without knowing exactly what we want, it is difficult to impossible to get there.

Clarity in goals and expectation as well as clarity in plans to acomplish them are keys to success.

The Value of Service

I have gotten ideas, training, and tips from many experts.  This coaching has been in the area of self improvement really although it may be sales training or management coaching.  The experts keep coming back to service.

At a recent conference, I had the privelige of hearing Tom Reilly speak and his topic was Value Added Selling.  The value that he spoke of kept getting back to exceptional service.  You can learn more from Tom by going to his website at http://www.tomreillytraining.com/ 

Another excellent speaker and trainer, Bob Prosen, who spoke to a session that I attended on management, also refers to excellent customer service.  You can find more from Bob at http://www.bobprosen.com/

I also refer you to the excellent book, Delivering Knock Your Socks Off Service.  I recommend checking out this book online at Amazon.http://www.amazon.com/Delivering-Knock-Your-Socks-Service/dp/081440765X

While hard work is certainly a main ingredient to success, providing service is s key guide to the right kind of hard work.

A follow up on hard work paying off

There are a lot of things that I do not know. I don't know how I can make a million dollars. I don't know how manipulators of large amounts of money benefit greatly from money changing hands. I do now know how to "manipulate the system."

I do know this. Hard work will keep you going. No matter what your job is, do it to the best of your ability and do it day after day after day. When you give your very best effort at all times, good things will happen. People will eventually notice, and you will benefit.

That is a very simple formula, hard work on a regular basis equals stability. If you can't work hard at what you are doing because it is over our under your head, or if you just don't like it, find something that you can love. There is no substitute for passion. Knowledge and experience can help but they do not take the place of passion.

My favorite expert on the subject, Brian Tracy, advises you to not only work hard every day but work on yourself. Train yourself to benefit from your passion. Whatever it is that you love to do and can do it for a living, train and get better at it.

In his book, Good to Great, author Jim Collins has a bit of solid advice for successful companies that can also apply to an individual.  In order to achieve greatness three things are required:  can you be the best at it, can it drive your financial engine, and are you deeply passionate about it.  He calls this his Hedgehog Theory.  I recommend reading the book.

If you have those things going on, you will automatically have hard work on your side, and you will be be successful.  Hard work does pay off.