There is nothing wrong with making mistakes, so long as you learn from them and don’t repeat them, but with the wrong mindset, it’s easy to do the wrong thing over and over.

It has been said that your current reality is your past’s future becoming real. Or, put another way, your position today is the result of all the decisions you made in the past.

The challenge here is that most people think, all I have to do is change my decisions and I'll create a new reality. Unfortunately, that is too simplistic a way to affect real change.

You can only be what you are and what you are is determined by what you think about every single minute of every single day.

For most people, this reality can be summed up with a simple thought: What you think about are the seeds you plant and what you do is what you grow and if you continue to plant tomato seeds, you can't expect a great oak tree to grow.
You see, people plant seeds, or thoughts, in their mind every single day. Too often these seeds are counter-productive to what needs to be accomplished.

Instead of focusing on what can be accomplished, people think of what they lack, their limitations, what they want or fear, and then they wonder why these thoughts become their reality.

One of the simplest examples of this is when you say to yourself, “Don't forget, don't forget …” and what do you do?

You invariably forget because the seed you planted was the central theme of your sentence, “forget”. Instead of remembering the negative, your central theme should have been to “remember”.

So how do you overcome this? Here’s a simple exercise that should help.

Grab a pen and paper and write a list of the top 20 things you think about every day.

You can start by dividing up your life into business and personal. You could even go further than that with a section for wealth, health, relationships, spirituality or any area that consumes a considerable part of your time.

After you've finished the exercise, start to think of every thought as a seed and ask yourself whether the seeds you're planting are truly going to create the reality you're after.

If your answer is a definite “no way” that's a good thing, because imagine what a difference you'll make when you do start planting the seeds you want to grow.

Brad Sugars

Do you know how many customers you need (or how many sales you need to make) today to make a profit?

How about to break even?

Do you know how long you’ll have to work this year just to pay your taxes?

What about how many prospects you need in your sales pipeline to generate enough customers to make your profit margin?

What is your profit margin?

If you’re struggling to answer these basic questions, you’re not alone.

But you can jump your profits immediately simply by actually knowing the numbers that lead to them.

In fact, the majority of the most profitable and highest growth companies are those that know their numbers at every possible level. They know very clearly you cannot manage what you do not measure.

The key to knowing your numbers is simply that:  knowing and understanding exactly what your business needs to produce to give you the profit you need to survive and grow far into the future.

Most business owners I’ve coached over the years have no clue what their real numbers are. They have a vague guess or a “gut feel” – but they don’t really know – mainly because I think they don’t want to be faced with the reality the numbers will ultimately show them.

To prosper, you’re going to have to put the fear of numbers behind you and embrace the reality they will reveal to you. Not only will mastery of your numbers give you an edge over your competition – it will give you the power to make better decisions in real time, regardless of the economy.

What can numbers tell you?

First, numbers will tell you where you are right now. Beyond revenues and expenses, your numbers will show your profit margins, as well as vital figures relating to sales. If you know how many people come through your doors a day and how many actually buy something, you suddenly have a handle on the number known as your “sales conversion rate.”

By that measure, if you know you always convert 15% of your prospects into a sale, and you know you need 12 sales to profit – you can easily determine you’ll need 80 people through your doors on average to be profitable (12/15% = 80).

Now the question becomes, “How can I get 80 people through my doors?”

That’s another column, but at least you know what you have to do in volume to make your profit.

Second, numbers will guide you where you want to go. Are you looking for an extra $10,000 in gross profit on a 25% profit margin? You’ll need to generate a turnover of at least $40,000 ($10,000/25% = $40,000).

Are you a professional who charges $100 an hour who now wants to double your income? You might need to determine whether it is better for you to charge $200 over 2000 working hours a year (highly unlikely given you can’t charge every working hour) – or charge $400 multiplied by 1000 working hours a year (meaning you can take some time off once in a while).

In either case, the numbers will give you an indication (based on your market and profession) what can work for you. They will also show you where you might need to revamp your business so you can get to your targeted revenue (as in finding additional and alternative revenue streams for your professional service to get you to that $400 an hour goal).

Finally, numbers will help you form a plan to get there. Sometimes, the numbers will reveal your current skills and market conditions – or your current mix of products and services – just won’t support your revenue and profit targets.

That’s not bad news – it’s just news. But it will help you determine what you will need to do to improve and enhance your professional skill set – or revamp your product and services mix.

The numbers might show you that you can afford to hire a great sales person to sell and two additional administrative people to handle the books while you network or leverage your highest skills to build the business in new and innovative ways.

Can you present a workshop and have an entire “back end” of your own private label products? Could you do that if you were in your shop 12-hours a day? Probably not. But those opportunities wouldn’t ever present themselves without a good handle of the numbers of your particular business.

So what do the numbers look like in your company?

If you are in sales, how many calls will you need to make next week to get the number of appointments you’ll need to make a sale?

If you are in retail, how many customers will you need in your shop to break even and make a profit? And how big will that profit need to be?

Take some time – right now – and introduce yourself to the past, present and future numbers of your particular business.

Because if you don’t master your numbers, your numbers will surely master you.

This article is reprinted courtesy of My Business magazine, one of the leading business publications in Australia.

How to See the World Like Successful Business People Do

We’ve all been following the news lately and yes … the world in economic turmoil. But unlike the journalists and the naysayers, great business people are looking for opportunity in the midst of the crisis, and many are finding it.

My prediction? More money will be made coming out of this meltdown than was made in the boom.

How can I say this with any confidence?

Because the business cycle is exactly that – a cycle. And like the seasons, as sure as spring follows winter, growth will emerge from the current chaos.

There is no doubt some part of the world are in economic fall and winter. Yet other parts are in economic spring and summer. That’s the reality of today’s globalization. It’s also the opportunity globalization offers. If you are in a region that is hurting, look at the markets that are prospering and ask yourself how you can be part of them. If you are in a market that is booming, you may be able to look at a slow market to pick-up a variety of quality assets at a discount – anything ranging from capital equipment to real estate.

For those in the economic fall and winter, now is the time to regroup, reorganize, plan and prepare your fields for spring.

For those in spring and summer, the past few months have demonstrated what can happen when the boom times end – so look to streamline your expenses, prune the extras and learn to run “lean and mean.” That way, it won’t be such a shock to your company’s systems when the slowdown comes along.

It also helps to take a look at what “smart” money is doing. Warren Buffet, the greatest investor of all time, is looking to buy, and in fact, picked up the US-based Goldman Sachs during the height of the credit crunch on exceptionally great terms – namely his.

Buffet has made a career out of “being fearful when others are greedy, and greedy when others are fearful.” Think about that for a moment, and it can guide you the next time any market – be it real estate, commodities or stocks – gets overly frothy or too cool.

That said, some common sense should also apply – especially when it relates to new technologies replacing old ways of doing things, as I doubt those still holding shares of horse and buggy firms have done as well as those who bought into automobiles.

The reality is that good business people move with markets and shift their perspectives when events in those markets change. The other reality is that a large number of the economies that are in economic summer are still based in agriculture and manufacturing – a shift that economies now in economic winter transitioned out of decades ago.

The bottom-line is that those still emerging economies offer incredible opportunity for experienced business people, because it is in those basic industries that the world’s greatest fortunes have always been made.

But let’s say the idea of going global is simply too big to fathom right now. What are the opportunities in your own “backyard?” Or right “under your nose?”

First, examine your existing product or service in terms of the current marketplace. Is it time to scrap it for something new your customers want or something to which you can add value? In this economy, you are going to have to sell your way into prosperity, and you should do it with the best products and services possible to compete against everyone else who will be cutting their prices.

Next, look at your marketing. In spring and summer, you can sell on themes like “greed” and “desire.” In fall and winter, you need to focus on “fear” and “needs.”

Third, track your cash flow very carefully. Eliminate extras. And focus on top-line growth. Again, strong sales will the key to prosperity.

Finally, focus on keeping your existing customers. It is always more expensive to buy new customers than to sell to an existing customer base, and far less profitable short term. So go out and talk to your customers, find out what they want to buy and sell it to them. Not at a discount, but as an added value to what you already do.

The financial world may be in turmoil, but it is certainly not coming to an end. So ignore those who say the “sky is falling” and learn from those who have actually made money in good times and in bad so you can see through the media clutter and still make a profit.

Your financial winter will be less bitter – and your financial spring will be a lot more green – if you do.

This article is reprinted courtesy of My Business magazine, one of the leading business publications in Australia.

Often I notice people waiting.  Waiting until next week, next year, when the kids are older, when the kids finish school, just waiting and finding any (not even a good) excuse to keep waiting …

The time for action is now, today …

Start your diet today, become a non-smoker now, become RICH today …

Remember, it all starts with a thought, a dream, a goal, a vision …

“Nothing if not at first a dream” is what they taught me when I was just 16 years of age.

So, dream it, decide it and do it.

It’s very simple, often so simple people keep waiting.  It can’t be that simple, just work at something for 10 straight years and whatever it is it will be a reality.

It is that simple.  Can life really be simple.  Yes, it is simple, doesn’t make it easy though, you still have to work.

So again, pick it, plan it, participate in it.

Remove all your excuses, both from your head and heart and then remove them from your physical world.  Remove things, people and activities that no longer get you towards your dreams and goals.

In other words, set sail, pull up the anchors and follow the stars.

Too many people are sitting at home watching ‘Lost’ and ‘Desperate Housewives’ to get anywhere.  When did they start to name the shows after the audience … ?

If you are in business or not, it doesn’t matter.  Grab a pen and paper, make a list of the 21 things you know you should be doing but are not, and get started.

Taking action is the cure to fear, the cure to a lack of knowledge ad the cure to most of the challenges people have in life.  Opportunities don’t come your way with a big sign saying, ‘pick me, I am your opportunity’.  They come disguised as problems, challenges and in many cases chances to learn …

So, let’s take a step back to those statements I made above …

Pick it, plan it, participate in it … Dream it, Decide it and Do it …

Notice they all start with deciding what it is you want as a goal.  NOT what you don’t want.  It’s not enough in life to decide what it is you don’t want to have, that’s like going on ‘Deal or No Deal’ and saying ‘I don’t want box number 13 thanks …’

Well which one do you want … ?

So, right now decide, what are 3 things you want to have in your life.  Go on, right now decide.

Now, decide on 3 things you want to do in your life …

Simply put you are setting your sails, or even simpler, punching in an address to the GPS navigation in your car.

If you don’t have all 6 things written down, do it now, write them down.  You can’t develop a plan if you don’t know where you are going.

The plan is next, and in MOST cases you will have no idea how you are going to make these 6 things a reality, and that’s what is supposed to happen.

Do you think they knew how to get to the moon when President Kennedy stated, “we choose to go to the moon”.

Make the choice, decide on it, then go and learn how to make it happen, build your plan and go to work …

Life and success are really no more difficult than this, so make the most of your life, set some new goals and build a plan that you can act on.

This article is reprinted courtesy of My Business magazine, one of the leading business publications in Australia.

Back when I was seven, my parents took me to a friend’s house for a BBQ and I knew him – he was our Milkman …

I didn’t know it, but I was about to get the best business lesson of my life from the Milko.

You see, when we arrived we pulled up to a massive house, with really expensive cars and I was really confused.  I asked my Dad, “Dad, is the Milko rich?”

He told me to go see his friend and ask him about it.  Being seven years old, I was extremely tactful of course.

“You’re our Milko right? … How does a Milko get to be rich …?”

The reply is what has set me up for where I am today.  Now, remember I was seven so this is paraphrasing …

“Son, you don’t make money selling milk, you make money selling milk runs.  I buy a milk run, build it up and sell it on, then I go and buy another run, build it up and sell it on.  Each time I sell a milk run, I have another big amount of cash to invest.  Most people think that running the same company all their life is the way to go, but it’s not, it’s about making capital every few years and investing it.”

The essence of what he taught me, and now you.

You don’t make money running businesses, you make money building them up and selling them.  You have to realize a capital gain to be able to use it.   Yes, of course the profit and wages you pay yourself along the way are great, but shouldn’t you at least examine what you might get if you put your business up for sale?

Many business owners we work with are amazed at what capital value their company has.  It’s often enough for people to retire on, but they don’t know it yet.

Think of it this way … If every couple of years you bought a run down house and renovated it and then on sold it, you’d make good money.  What if you bought a small beach shack and over many years built it into a beachside mansion, what would it be worth today?

I just think you should be looking at business the same way.  You have invested a lot of time and effort building an asset and it may be time to sell it and turn your skills to another business or opportunity to build.

The best part here is that unlike property, business values are solely determined by the revenues and profits.  Buying a run down or, as my Milko did, a business in a newly developing area and building it up over a year or two adds great capital value.

But for many business owners, what if you built it over 10 or 20 years, where would its value be?

Now, here’s the challenge, some of you have built yourself so tightly into the day-to-day of the business, it’s a trap.  In other words, the business won’t work unless you’re there.  So, when you go to find out how much it’s worth, the number will be a lot lower than you expected.

Not only that, if the value is lower than you expected, I’ll bet your not pulling anywhere near the profit you should be out of it month to month.

If you’d built it with a view to selling it, I’m certain you would have done a few things differently and made it not so reliant upon your skills, your ability and your work ethic.  Every business owner has a choice and, the ability to learn how to make their business work without them.

If your plan is to sell it, how can you over the next year or two extract yourself?  Who knows, if it runs without you, then maybe you’ll want to keep it.

Bottom Line … If you value your time in building an asset, then sell the asset and use your time to build another and another.

This article is reprinted courtesy of My Business magazine, one of the leading business publications in Australia.

Mention marketing to the average business owner and they think mainly of advertising, however there are far more cost effective, far more profitable and much easier ways to get yourself new customers …

But first, we need to understand a simple idea about what business really should be focused on, and that’s profitable customers …

Let me explain.

When you “buy” a new customer with any form of advertising or marketing it costs money.  Simple example, if you ran an advertisement for say $2,000 and got 100 calls and 20 sales then you spent $100 per new customer.

That number is your “acquisition cost” or “cost per sale.”  Essentially it’s how much it costs you to buy a new customer.  Take that one step further and you got 100 people who called or 100 leads so your “cost per lead” was ($2,000/100) $20.

So, if you don’t already know these numbers you need to go and work them out.  If you get a lot of business by word of mouth or passing traffic you still have to count them as well.

If we follow this example and pretend it was a restaurant, we can presume each person coming in spent only $100 on dinner.  How much money did you make from each customer?  That’s right, you lost money, It cost you $100 to get them there, $30 for food and drinks to serve them, $30 for staff and $10 for overheads, so all up $170 out for $100 in …

In other words, all 20 of these new customers were on average a loss.

So, there are four ways we can turn them into a profitable customer right up front.

1. We can work on writing better advertisements. Create a better headline, a better offer and make sure we only advertise in media that makes sure we are getting to our target audience. From there we should be able to get a much better response, many of my clients we’ve doubled and tripled advertising responses with just a few simple changes. So, let’s look at the numbers if we doubled the responses, and you can fairly easily do this. Now we get 200 callers and your cost per lead goes down to just $10 each …  That’s a great start and assuming the other numbers stays the same, we are down to just $50 cost per sale and thus $120 out for $100 in.  Still more work to do, but we are on track …
2. Next we work on getting more of the callers to come in and buy.  Boosting your conversion rate is often as simple as measuring it and as complex as creating scripts for your salespeople or receptionists to follow.  So, what if instead of 1 in every 5 (20 out of 100) coming in we could get 2 from 5 and really make sure the marketing and advertising dollar goes further. So, we are now getting 200 callers and instead of just 1 in 5 we get 2 people to come in and buy. That means we are up to 80 people booking in and buying from you. Your acquisition cost or, cost per sale is now down massively. Your $2,000 advert now gets you 80 buyers at just $25 each.  So when we do the math, our marketing is starting to make a profit on ever new customer, just $95 out for $100 in. Great work …
3. Next we need to get them spending more every time they buy from us. Instead of $100 each time, how can we work on raising sales, suggesting other items, a better wine list etc.  all these ideas you can sit down now and work on. What else can people buy,  Think of it like one of my clients, a pharmacist who offered ever single person who bought from him a bag of those wonderful chemist only jelly Beans. He ended up selling hundreds of packs a week, just by asking.
4. Finally, we need to get people back.  Collect their details, send them a monthly newsletter, special offers, even a simple thank-you card and invite them back as often as you can …

No matter what you do, remember you are buying customers and it’s getting more expensive every day. Once you’ve got them, keep them for as long as you can. Good service goes only so far, from there it’s up to you and your marketing to invite them back and give them reasons to buy from you again and again.

This article is reprinted courtesy of My Business magazine, one of the leading business publications in Australia.

Let me give you mine.  The usual restaurant my wife and kids go for lunch on a Sunday had an item on their menu changed by their "corporate head office" and it's my favorite sushi ... it arrived and I was unhappy.

So, when the manager came over, he made a really quick decision and took action.  He said, sir, let me make you the old one on the house right away ... happy customer, will return and buy again.

Simply put he took action to turn an unhappy customer into a happy one.   I'd love your story to help with a new training program on turning unhappy customers into happy ones ...

Thanks ... Brad ...

PS.   If you want help turning your unhappy customers into raving fans, speak with one of my ActionCOACH Business Coaches, as franchisees they know what it takes to run a business of your own ... www.actioncoach.com ...

To act on your dreams, your goals, your plans.  It's time to STOP doing the things you already know are not helping you, to STOP doing the negative habits and start doing the RICHuals you need to to become more of the person you need to become.

It's time to be real, being able to commit fraud on yourself is simple, but long term it hurts - it's only you that you rip off. 

So, don't try to change everything all at once, just aim for 3 things ... 

One physical thing, like changing an eating pattern, or exercise pattern. 

One relationship thing, like more time with kids or an event with your spouse or friends.

One financial thing, like better marketing, or an actual savings plan that put's money away before you see it ...

Little steps turn into BIG momentum if you keep going ...

All the Best ... Brad

www.bradsugars.com

G is for GOAL - Take your dreams and turn them into a SMART Goal, give it a number, a timeframe and be specific ... By the way, generally if you know how to achieve it, it's NOT a goal it's a simple To DO ... create GOALS that make you learn and grow ...

P is for PLAN - Now you have a goal, WRITE the plan. If it's in your head, it's not a plan ... Who is doing what, by when ... ?

A is for ACTION - Time to go to work ... DO the hard parts first and then the easy will follow ...

All the Best ...

Brad