Part II

So this critical idea got everyone’s attention, and a bit later in the presentation another participant wanted to know something very important. “Since,” he said, “we’re all hard working and pretty lazy at the same time, what does it take to make this kind of change and to make it last?”

My answer is simple. You’ve got to have a big goals and an inspiring vision if you want any kind of meaningful change. Otherwise, why bother?

I have a lot of experience with this . My company, Axcelus, charges annual retainers from $36 ,000 to $120,000 to advise clients and insure action that rapidly grows revenues and profits. If reaching your business goals would give a 10x or 100x return on that kind of investment, well of course it makes sense.

But on the other hand, if your goals too small, if your vision is too mild, it may not make any sense at all.

In my book, Be Unreasonable (McGraw Hill, 2007), I tell my readers they must be uncomfortable if they’re going to get anywhere.

Why?

It works like this: That feeling of “uncomfort,” by definition, comes from doing things you have not done before. If you’ve done something before, especially if you’ve done it a lot, then whatever it is will feel comfortable. If it’s new and different, it won’t.

And your current level of results – revenues, profits, difference-making, whatever – are the outcome and sum total of all your current actions – that means the comfortable ones. If you keep doing those comfortable things, you will get the same results, no matter what.

If you want different results, greater results, rockin-the-house-down results, you’re going to have to make changes in how your company does things — often quite a bit – and that change is going to make you uncomfortable. QED.

So what?

Nobody in their right mind is going to make themselves uncomfortable without a good reason, and that reason is best provided by a powerful vision backed up by strong goals. Have something you’d be willing to walk over broken glass and hot coals to get there.

And you’ll do the things necessary.

Without that, odds are you won’t.

Part I

Yesterday I was speaking at one of our 37 Fatal Business Mistakes workshops.  I was talking about the kinds of changes a business owner needs to make if he or she wants to quickly speed up their business’ growth.   One of the most powerful recommendations I make is that you to figure out where you are continually spending your time, and lump those activities into things that make a big difference, and things that don’t.

If you shift your time and focus from one group to the other, the results will be huge.  For instance,  one CEO (we’ll call her Dana) told me that she spent about 8 hours a week out of 55 on accounting and payables issues.  Of course there is no excuse for this, but since recognition is the first step on the road to recovery,  knowing where the time goes can be very good thing.  I asked what she would do with the 8 hours if she freed herself from “payables.” 

She said, “Oh, that’s easy.  I’d close more sales, and there are plenty of deals to close.”  Wow, what a revelation.   So I asked one more thing: what would those sales be worth?  “Conservatively,  “$70,000 – $80,000, a month,”  she said without batting an eye.

Not bad, around $900,000 additional annual revenue for an no-cost behavioral change.  Who wouldn’t want to do that…