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

"If you think there's something fishy about this offer, you're right …"

Compared to:

"Buy one fillet of fish, get another fillet FREE!"

Now the first headline uses a clever play on words. A “fishy” offer in relation to a fish sale is quite humorous. But people have to stop and think about what it means.

Chances are that rather than reading the rest of the ad, they'll simply turn the page and keep going.

The second headline, while not as clever, gets the message across fast. Anyone who might be thinking about what they were going to have for dinner that night would be tempted to read on.

The second ad might not be as glamorous, interesting or clever, but it works.

Advertising is about getting people to read your ad, and then spurring them to take action. If people have to decipher the meaning in what you've written they'll simply pass over your ad and forget about you altogether.

Writing ads is not about making people laugh, or having them think you're a genius. It's about communicating with them in the fastest, clearest way possible.

With the majority of people, if the message is not spelled out to them, they won't be able to understand. You need to understand that writing ads is not about you the writer, it's about the customer.

If you want to be a copywriter you need to forget about beautiful writing styles and creative expression and focus instead on getting your message across in a fast and efficient manner. It might not win you any awards but it will win you a lot of satisfied clients and repeat business.

KFC Corporation V Iowa Department of Revenue is one of the most interesting and important cases on franchise taxation in the last 20 years in America.

The ramifications of this ruling are important to anyone working within a franchise system in the United States, so over the next couple of blogs we will discuss the case and what it means in some detail.

KFC V Iowa Department of Revenue was based on the belief by the state that KFC was responsible for paying corporate income tax in the state based solely on its receipt of royalties from franchisees in Iowa.

In June 2009, an Iowa District Court upheld the state's imposition of tax. KFC quickly appealed the decision to the Iowa Supreme Court, which heard oral arguments in the case in May 2010 and issued its decision on December 30.

In the case, KFC argued to the Iowa Supreme Court that the Department's assessment of tax violated the Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution.

Previous Supreme Court case law had found that the Commerce Clause required a taxpayer have a physical presence in a state before the state could require the taxpayer to collect and remit the state's sales and use taxes.

The Department of Revenue disagreed with KFC's position, arguing that the state could impose its corporate income tax on KFC regardless of KFC's physical presence in the state.

So what was the ruling and what are the ramifications for franchises based on it? Stop back for my next post and hear the rest of the story.

Businesses that sell to different markets have an advantage because each of those markets has a different economy. While some might be struggling, others will be booming.

Look at it this way: In any business, who has the most insecure position?

The employees are in the most insecure position because employees have only one stream of income, only one customer, their boss.

As an owner, your position is much more secure, because you should have plenty of customers, so if you lose one it isn’t a disaster.

It’s the same for your business. If you only deal with one market, if you lose that market, your business will suffer.

Now ask yourself, how much did you know about sales, marketing, team building or the legal aspects of a business when you were working for someone else?

If you’ve worked as an engineer for 20 years, you know a lot about being an engineer, but what do you know about running a business?

Did you know everything you needed to know about running a business before you opened your first one?

Of course you didn’t.

My definition of a successful business is a profitable, commercial enterprise that works… without me.

If you have to be there every day, your business becomes nothing more than a job.

This is why it’s so important to train your team about what you sell and your business itself if you hope to develop multiple streams of income.

Remember, you get the team you deserve. Great companies with great leaders get great employees. How does your team look?

Once your team is properly trained, thinking globally and developing multiple streams of income becomes much easier.

If you grew up on a farm, you know that during the summer, you need to make hay while the sun is out.

Instead, too often businesses make more money and then just end up spending more money. You need to make bales of hay to get through the economic winter. Too few companies understood that during the last cycle, leading to the recession we’ve experienced.

Most businesses that got themselves in trouble simply don’t understand how the financial seasons work and use the seasons to their advantage.

Rather than storing their bales of hay, troubled businesses fed the hay to their cows, or worse yet, simply let it sit in their fields and turn to compost.

And when businesses spend way too much for way too long, they fall into the cycle of borrowing, which just ends up leading to spending more money that you just don’t have.

As the seasons of the economy change, businesses need to change as well.

Strategies that worked during the economic summer may not work in winter, and vice versa.

So what should you do during the economic seasons?

During summer, raise your prices or find other ways to increase your profitability. You need put money away in summer, just as the farmer makes hay while the sun is out.

When the economic fall comes, it is time to clean up and prepare for winter. Get rid of any sick cows that might populate your farm and be sure you have all the resources you need to make it through.

In winter, it is time to take advantage of opportunities because you were prepared. The best time to find quality employees, make new purchases, change your marketing plan or even move to a new location are during the winter.

Why?

Because prices are low and other businesses are discounting to keep their heads above water. The economic winter separates the strong from the weak and if you know what to expect and how to prepare, your business can weather the storm and even grow.

There is so much in the media that tells us how bad things are that business owners forget to look at the big picture.

They hear that there is a crisis and begin to believe it, whether they see it with their own eyes or not.

There are plenty of businesses that are making more money than last year, the Dow keeps going up and big businesses are reporting record profits.

My attitude is, what recession?

And if we are in recession, is there any rule that says we all must suffer equally?

Of course there isn’t.

If you think about it, when are the biggest fortunes made, in a good economy or during a recession when there is massive opportunity?

The answer is pretty obvious isn’t it? The biggest fortunes are made during a down economy.

Why?

Because for a properly run business, a down economy is a huge opportunity.

Wouldn’t now be a great time to buy out your competition or recruit better people to work for you at a lower wage?

How about finding better locations for your business that are cheaper to operate?

There are these opportunities and more, if you know how to find them.

The people who are worried and have a poor attitude about the economy are those who don’t understand how the economy works.

They don’t understand that just as summer follows spring, the economic seasons change as well.

By that I mean, are you totally accountable for the state of your business?

The lure of freedom can be a double-edged sword in that many business owners feel they no longer have to be accountable because they’re the boss.

But it’s important to remember, if an employee makes a mistake it can be covered up, but if you make a mistake, as the owner, it can affect your livelihood and your company itself.

As a business owner, do you have a boss?

Of course you do.

Your boss is the marketplace and for that reason, your accountability is more critical than anyone in your organization.

So do you play above the line?

Do you accept responsibility for the actions of the entire team?

Do you blame others for your company’s problems?

Only you can change what is going on in your business. Blaming your team members, the government, your mother-in-law or even the economy doesn’t do you any good.

Remember, when you point a finger at someone else, there are three pointing back at you.

Accountability is what keeps people on track and moving toward their goals and is the key to growing your business.

If you want to create amazing results in your business you’ve got to take responsibility and be held accountable.

The freedom of business ownership only happens on the backend. To get there, you must put in the hard work on the front end, and that means being accountable and always playing above the line.

1) Cater to your best customers and weed out the rest- Sometimes it is better for your business to lose customers. That sounds counterintuitive, but I’ll explain.

You don’t want customers that create unnecessary headaches and detracts from your ability to serve your other customers.

You need to concentrate on customers who represent the bulk of your business and contribute the most to your profits. Make them feel special by devoting time you might have given to problem customers in the past.

Remember, birds of a feather flock together so meet the needs of your most valuable clients can lead to cultivating even more customers who fit that mold.

You can identify your best customers by using the “80-20 Rule” which states that 80% of your company’s profits come from just 20% of your customers.

2) Improve conversion rates on leads- Improving the rate at which you convert leads is the most obvious way to double your customer base. It’s just simple math.

If you are converting 20% of your leads into sales but could boost that rate to 40%, you would double your customers.

But how do you go about improving your conversion rate?

You could provide added value offers to customers, use customer questionnaires to learn what they want or educate your customers on value not price.

Most importantly, you want to make it easy for customers to buy from you. You want your business to stand right in the middle of a river of rampaging customers who need to buy your products and services.

Improving your conversion rate requires understanding your market’s wants and needs and fulfilling those needs in a mutually beneficial way for both you and your customer.

There are many strategies and techniques to increase your conversion rate, but you must remember to test and measure all strategies you try to see which work for you.

3) Direct online traffic to your location- If your business doesn’t already have a web presence you are probably way behind your competition.

A website can act as a customer magnet that never stops and can build your brand all over the world at virtually no monetary cost to you. Do you see a downside to that because I don’t?

Once you’ve created a website, you’ll want to give visitors something of value for visiting and providing you with their information. This is how to build huge customer databases and promote offers to prospects and existing customers.

You want to make the incentives you promote on your website irresistible and emphasize a call to action so you can generate useful leads.

You can also use your website to actually sell your product so customers don’t have to travel to your location. Obviously this can build your customer base, not only through sales, but through the information necessary to make an online purchase.

If you can attract 10000 visitors to your website per month and convert just one percent of them, you will generate 100 new customers per month which will translate into over 1000 new customers per year. If you convert 10% and you would have 1000 new customers in a month.

Then you need to hire a business coach.

Today, having a business coach is no longer a luxury, it’s a necessity.

Sure, you’re business may survive without one, but it can never thrive.

Don’t believe a business coach is as important as your accountant or lawyer to your business?

Answer these questions and think again.

Do you have proven methods and strategies to build your customer base and grow your bottom line, who are you accountable to, are you objective about your business, do you want to start working less than ever before while gaining balance, freedom and profits?

A business coach can see the forest for the trees and will make you focus and be accountable.

You may not believe it, but it’s impossible to get an objective answer from yourself about yourself. A business coach works alongside you, creating success together, telling you the objective truth at each step.

Most importantly, a good business coach helps you implement strategies into your business that grow your bottom line.

There are five areas any business can be coached in, Sales, Marketing, Team Building, Systems and Business Development and Customer Service.

Remember, the strategies your coach gives you are proven to work, but it is up to you to make them work.

The most important thing a business coach does is teach you that only you can be truly accountable for your own success.

Your coach will push you, cajole you, help you and just generally be there for you, but it’s still up to you to do the work

Long-term success isn’t about just scraping the surface, and the right business coach can tap into your potential.

If you have a passion for success and are willing to work hard for great rewards, then contact a business coach today.

Of course you do, and I have the answer.

Here are four proven techniques that can double your customer base in four short weeks simply by generating leads and converting them into valued customers.

1) Cultivate Your Raving Fans- Raving fans are a tremendous source of new customers.

If you make an effort to personalize every sale and give every customer the VIP treatment, you can build a customer base that become cheerleaders for your business.

Raving fans can’t help but tell others about your service and products.

These are your most prized customers and your investment in service should be based on the value they bring to your business, which can be exponential.

2) Create A Referral Program- Referrals are a natural way of growing your customer base, but do you go about generating referrals the right way?

Aside from terrific value and customer service, do you offer customers who bring referrals to your business anything special for those referrals?

It is important to always reward customer referrals. Most people wonder, “What’s in it for me?” when it comes to promoting someone else’s business.

That’s why you have to make referring your business worth it to them.

Gifts, closed door sales, special events or even discounts are all ways to keep the referrals coming.

3) Form Strategic Business Alliances- Partnering with other businesses that aren’t in direct competition with you is one of the easiest ways to grow your customer base.

If you own a home decorating firm would partnering with someone who sells real estate make sense?

Consider your business and other businesses that share your views and philosophies, but sell a different product. How could access to their customers grow your business?

Customers trust businesses that have shown their loyalty and will be inclined to follow their recommendations.

Why do you think corporate sponsorship is so big these days?

When you build strong alliances with other businesses that share your philosophy, you create a win-win situation for everyone involved, including the customer.

4) Build a Trained and Skilled Workforce- A team that is empowered and has a sense of ownership can boost your customer base dramatically.

Remember, your team comes into contact with people both in and out of work every day.

Every one of those interactions can be a marketing opportunity for your business.

Your responsibility is to teach your team the skills they need to promote your business to everybody they come in contact with.

To do this, your team needs your attention, guidance, and training.

And don’t forget about your team’s bottom line either. They will need to be incentivized to do the job properly.

If you make these investments, you’ll find your team will do a better job at converting prospects into sales, building your customer base.

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