As we head into an exciting new year of opportunities, and I work on updating my marketing plan for 2010, I reflect on what makes me good at what I do. What clients often tell me is that I best help them focus, set priorities that make sense for them, and help them organize. Without these pillars, we are less likely to see the success we envision for ourselves.

I thought it would be good to discuss these three ‘kings’ of building a successful business.

1 – Focus: Do you find yourself jumping from idea to idea and potential opportunity to potential opportunity, only to find yourself feeling overwhelmed and overworked? Yet, you are NOT earning the income you envision, because you don’t have TIME! You’re too busy jumping at more and more ideas! This is where focus comes in. As you update your marketing plan (we need to address this, huh?), I challenge you to pick just 2-4 areas you would like to really focus on for the upcoming year. Then ask yourself this question when a new idea comes your way: How does that help me achieve these goals right now? If it doesn’t, put it in your opportunity booklet and let it go.

2 – Prioritize: You can’t do it all,  all at once! Something has to be FIRST. I love what Chip and Dan Heath say in the book, “Made To Stick“; “Prioritization rescues people from the quicksand of decision angst…”  What do you want to DO first? What is most pressing; has your greatest passion right now? If you could only pick ONE of those 2-4 areas above, which would it be? But also be able to say WHY. Why is that the most important thing? Sit back and envision each of those areas to decide what you want to accomplish first.

3 – Organization. Ah, my hero is David Allen, the king of organization.  I continually strive to stay organized, myself, because I see the value of it helping me actually getting things done! If I want to seriously expand my speaking career in 2010, I have to organize HOW I will make that happen! I can’t just will it. Sure, I TOTALLY believe in the Law of Attraction, but I realize it’s more than just willing it to create an empire and make a difference in people’s lives. What must you do to get a handle on your organization?

As you read through these three “Kings” of business success, I encourage you to take a step back, take a few minutes out of your busy, hectic life, and address these three “kings” to see exactly where you are and what you must do to increase focus, prioritization, and organization in YOUR life.

Certainly, if you need help, give me a call!

Margie

When clients often first start working with me, they start with tons of ideas, and those ideas just keep coming! In fact, it becomes VERY overwhelming for them, because they start to stress that they will forget them all!

As a consequence, I have them create what one client coined as an “opportunity booklet”.

Developing a vehicle to capture your ideas helps free your mind, in order to think of MORE ideas!

Try it for yourself.

Your booklet can be in any form. I prefer to write things down in an actual notepad – it can be any size. But I would also suggest you carry post-it notes with you, so you can jot down a thought at any location, when it comes to you. You can then add it to your booklet.

The booklet will continue to grow. That’s fine – it’s not a system that stops, just as your ideas don’t stop!

However, in my coaching process, we naturally have to move to the next step. So, I will have clients keep this booklet for about a week before I then instruct them to look at what they have written down so far and ask this question: “Does this help me achieve my goals right now?” If  the answer is yes, they use a highlighter over that idea.

The next step is to look at all the ideas that are highlighted, and then ask yourself which is most important. This is where you prioritize. We always want to do ALL the great things we come up with NOW, but logically we know that’s not possible. But we have to take SOME action, right? Prioritizing will help us take action.

As you look at all the things you’ve highlighted, which is most important to you to implement, now? Pick the most important item and to the left of that item, put the number “1″. Which is the second most important? List that as “2″. Do the same with the third most important item. Since you will continue to add to this booklet, don’t worry about the other ideas. However, I do suggest you review your booklet from time to time. However, FIRST focus just on completing these top three before seriously considering other ideas.

Through this process of capturing your ideas, you now can start developing products and services that feel right to you. AND it feels great taking action!

Let the planning begin!

If you struggle with this process, come visit my website and see if any of my services can help move you forward – www.meg-enterprises.com

Margie