Posted by Brian Tracy on Oct 1, 2009
The starting point of strategic planning is for you to develop absolute clarity about your current situation. Look at your overall business and ask, “What’s working?” and “What’s not working?” in every area.
What is your current level of sales? Break them down by product, product line, service, market, and distribution channel. What exactly are you selling, to which customers, at what prices, and with what level of profitability? Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: Business Success, building business, clarity, increasing sales, planning, strategic planning
Posted by Brian Tracy on Jul 14, 2009
To perform at your best and to feel terrific about yourself, you should be in a perpetual state of self-esteem building and maintenance. Just as you take responsibility for your level of physical fitness, you need to take complete responsibility for the content and quality of your mind. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: Business Success, perform at your best, self-esteem, the 6 elements of self-esteem building, thinking positive
Posted by Brian Tracy on Jun 4, 2009
It has been said that, “A Butterfly flapping its wings in Peru can start a change in the weather that leads to a typhoon in China.”
The application of this idea is that a casual meeting with a new acquaintance at can have major long-term effects on your sales and your life.
At every turn in the road of your life, there will be a person standing there helping you or hurting you, guiding you or blocking you, giving you good or bad direction.
Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: Business Success, building business, butterfly effect, contacts, how to network, networking
Posted by Brian Tracy on Jan 21, 2009
Steps Two Through Seven For Goal Setting
Step number two is for you to write it down.
Only three percent of living Americans, or adults anywhere for that matter, have written goals. Everyone else that thinks about a written goal and plans to write them down, someday. But they never get around to it. Most people spend more time making a list of groceries before they go shopping or planning a vacation than they do in planning their lives. But again, this is not for you. Success begins with a pad of paper, a pen and a few minutes of your time. One of the most important keys to success is to “think on paper.”
All successful people “think on paper.” And here are two important points. If you cannot write it down clearly and specifically on a piece of paper, then it means that you are not really clear about it yourself. Perhaps you don’t even want it. What is worse, it may be that you are afraid that you may not attain it. Nonetheless, a goal that is written down is merely a fantasy or a wish. A goal that is clearly written and described on a piece of paper takes on a power of its own, it is now something concrete that you can touch and feel and work with.
The second principle of writing goals down is that something miraculous happens between the head and the hand. When you actually write a goal down, it is as if you are programming it into your subconscious mind and activating a whole series of mental powers that will enable you to accomplish more than you ever dreamed of. By writing it down you intensify your desire for the goal and you increase your belief that the goal is possible.
You begin to expect to achieve the goal and you start to attract people and circumstances into your life that are consistent with the attainment of the goal. Writing your goal down is one of the most amazing of all goal-setting skills and it is a key to your success.
The third step is for you to set a deadline. If it is a large goal, set a series of sub-deadlines. A deadline acts as a “forcing system” on your subconscious mind and begins to move you toward your goal rapidly while it moves your goal toward you.
Sometimes people ask me, “What if I set a goal and I don’t achieve it by the deadline?” The answer is simple. Set another deadline.
Remember, a deadline is a guess-timate of when you will achieve it. Sometimes you will achieve your goal well in advance of your deadline. Sometimes goals will take much longer than you expect. But you must have a target time before you set off.
It is like making a reservation at a restaurant. You may be five minutes early or five minutes late, but you always have a specific time for which your dinner is reserved.
The fourth step is for you to make a list of everything you could possibly think of that you will have to do to achieve your goal. The more comprehensive your list, the more motivated you will become, the more intense will be your desire and the more you will believe it possible.
One of the things that hold people back is even if they get to the point of a written goal; they do not take the time to lay out a list of all the little things they will have to do to get there. And with additional experience, you will add new items to your list until it finally becomes complete.
Achieve all your dreams with The Life Planning Process
The fifth step of goal setting is for you to take your list and organize it into a plan. A plan is really quite simple. It is a list organized by priority and importance. You decide what you will do first and what you will do later. You decide what is more important and what is less important. And most of all, you decide upon the one thing that is more important than anything else that you can do immediately to begin moving more rapidly towards your goal.
Step number six is for you to “take action!” This is the big killer for most people. They are procrastinators. They have great ideas combined with great hopes and dreams. They may even get to the point of writing down their goals. But when it comes to taking action, they always have a reason or excuse to procrastinate to put it off until a later time. However, as the Bible says, “Faith without deeds is dead.”
It is when you launch toward your goal that you begin to feel the desire and power that goes along with goal setting. And once you have launched toward your goal, it is much easier for you to continue moving in that direction.
Step number seven is for you to do something every day to move you toward your major goal. Never let a day go by without you engaging in some action that helps you move another step in the direction of what you really, really want in life.
Remember, you can’t hit a target that you can’t see. And if you don’t know where you are going, any road will get you there. The simple seven step act of deciding exactly what you want, writing it down, setting a deadline, making a list, organizing the list into a plan, taking action on the most important item on your list and then doing something every day towards your goal will change your life and your future in ways that you cannot even dream of today.
The Life Planning Process
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Tags: Business Success
Posted by Brian Tracy on Jan 15, 2009
There has never been a better time in all of human history to be alive than today.
There are more opportunities for you to accomplish more things, in more different fields, engaging in more different activities, than have ever existed before.
Resolve today to make the coming year the very best year of your life. Resolve today to draw a line under your past and to focus very clearly on your future. Resolve today that you are going to set goals, make plans, take actions and achieve more in the coming year than perhaps you have ever accomplished in any one single year before.
One of the great rules for success is this: “It doesn’t matter where you’re coming from; all that really matters is where you’re going!”
No matter what you have done or accomplished in the past, “that was then and this is now.”
The very best days, weeks, months and years of your life lie ahead. The most exciting accomplishments and the greatest achievements are still to come. As Shakespeare said, “The past is merely a prelude.”
As it happens, everyone has goals. But some people seem to accomplish their goals far more systematically and with greater assurance than others. Why is this? The answer is simple. People who accomplish goals at a higher rate than the average are people who use a systematic, proven method of goal setting and goal attainment.
Attain all your goals with the Maximum Achievement Goal Planner
Perhaps the two most important qualities of success are focus and concentration. Focus means knowing exactly what it is you want and concentration means having the discipline to concentrate single-mindedly on one thing, the most important thing, until it is complete.
If you have these qualities, and both of these qualities are learned through practice, you can accomplish virtually anything. There are no limits on your future if you can focus and concentrate every hour of every single day.
The starting point of setting goals for the coming year is for you to project forward and think back. Practice what we call “Back from the Future” thinking. Project forward to the end of the next twelve months and ask yourself, “If everything happens perfectly, what will it look like?”
The one quality of men and women who become leaders in their own lives and societies, throughout all of history is the quality of vision. They have the ability to visualize. They can see the future well in advance of it becoming a reality. They can then see the steps that they will need to take to get from where they are to where they want to go.
So if your next twelve months were ideal, in every respect, what would happen or, what would have happened, at the end of that twelve month period?
You need to set goals that are multi-dimensional. You need to set goals for every part of your life so that you function like a well-oiled machine, like a balanced wheel that goes around smoothly in every respect. You need goals for your health, for your career, for your finances, for your relationships, for your personal and professional development, for your community and for your spiritual growth.
Nothing happens by accident. Everything happens for a reason. And you are the “primary creative force” in your own life. You are the reason. Things are happening in your life because you make them happen, not because you sit around and wait for them to happen.
Here is the basic seven-step model of goal setting. You can use this like breathing in and breathing out on a regular basis to accelerate your attainment of any goal you can imagine for yourself.
Step number one is for you to decide exactly what you want. This immediately moves you into a separate category of people because most people have no idea of what they really want.
Clarity is the most important single quality of goal-setting and perhaps the most important single quality of success. Decide exactly what you want in each area of your life. Instead of fuzzy goals like more money, better health and happiness, be specific about exactly how much more money you want to earn in a specific period of time and combine that with exactly what level of health and fitness you desire.
Most people are unconsciously preoccupied with the fear of failure. It is the greatest single obstacle to success in adult life. And the fear of failure can work on you unconsciously by blocking you from setting clear specific goals.
Why? Well, if you don’t set clear, specific goals, then you can’t fail to achieve them. So your subconscious mind is actually protecting you by helping you to avoid failure.
You must resist and overcome this tendency by having the courage to be bold and specific about exactly what you want.
This is step number one. Read steps two through seven next time.
Maximum Achievement Goal Planner
Tags: Business Success
Posted by Brian Tracy on Dec 31, 2008
There are many different sources of new product ideas for your business. Here are six of them.
Read Everything You Can
The first way to find a new product or service is to read newspaper stories, read articles, read advertisements, read the classified ads. Very often when people have new products or services available in a market or they’re looking for someone to sell it or distribute it, they advertise in the classifieds under business opportunities. Read all US publications that are written for businesspeople. Look for potential in new products or services everywhere.
Study Trade Magazines
The second way to find new products or services is to read trade magazines, especially in your field of knowledge or expertise. Libraries usually have them all. Go down to the library, take a look at all the magazines and then subscribe to the very best ones.
Visit Trade Shows
The third way to find a new product or service is to go to trade shows. You need only a business card to get into a trade show and they hold trade shows everywhere all the time. You can have business cards made up for you in 24 hours.
Talk to the Key People
Present yourself as a retail buyer. Sign up at the beginning, pay the entrance fee, and present yourself as a buyer looking to buy the products offered in the trade show. Then go in and talk to the key people there. Find out what they’re doing. What they’re selling. Where the market is going. What the industry trends are. What is successful and what is unsuccessful and so on.
Tap Into Your Network
The fourth way to find a new product or service is your friends. Tell them that you’re looking for new product ideas. Tell them you’re looking for something to sell, something to distribute. Have them keep an eye out for you. Sometimes your friends will see things that you won’t see, or they’ll see things when they’re traveling and so on.
Keep Your Eyes Open
The fifth way to find new products or services is to read Entrepreneur Magazine. Read Success Magazine. Read Inc. Magazine. Read magazines where people advertise new products or services or business opportunities. Read The Wall Street Journal. Read Money Magazine. Read Fortune. Read Business Week. Read everything that you possibly can.
Look Overseas For New Products
The sixth source of new products is foreign publications. There are three foreign publications that you can get if you look around for them. One is called Made In Europe, which has hundreds and hundreds of products that are made by European corporations who are seeking US distributors. Sometimes the distribution rights for those products are available for the asking. There’s also a book called Made In Hong Kong, which has hundreds and hundreds of products made by Hong Kong corporations. And then there’s another catalog from the Taiwanese Trade Consulate that’s available that lists hundreds of manufacturers of thousands of products who are looking for US distributors.
Remember, 95 percent of all products are never sold outside of the country that they’re manufactured in. Sometimes all you have to do is find a product that is selling well somewhere else and bring it into your market area and that can be the start of your successful business.
Action Exercises
First, take action immediately on at least one of these ideas. Buy and read magazines, visit trade shows or subscribe to foreign publications. The more information you have, the better decisions you will be able to make.
Second, ask for what you want. If you see a product or service for sale somewhere, write to the company and ask for the right to distribute it in your market area. You may be surprised.
The Power of Branding
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Tags: Business Success
Posted by Brian Tracy on Dec 18, 2008
Creativity is your key to the future.
All progress comes about as the result of finding better, faster, cheaper, easier or different ways to do things and this requires the continual honing of your creative thinking skills.
Your Key Job At Work
One of the key functions of the executive is problem solving, which takes up as much as 50 percent of executive time. It can be said with some confidence that your ability to deal with problems creatively and effectively is the key determinant of your success as a manager. It would be hard to imagine an effective executive who could not solve problems and make decisions with a high level of competence.
Step On Your Own Acceleration
I’ve studied and lectured on creative thinking for years and I’ve come to the conclusion that there is virtually no problem you cannot solve, no goal you cannot achieve, no obstacle you cannot overcome if you know how to apply the creative powers of your mind, like a laser beam, to cut through every difficulty in your life and your work.
Earn More, Faster
The benefits of functioning with more creativity can be enormous. Each of us wants to earn more money, be promoted faster, and enjoy greater status, prestige and recognition. In most cases however, we can only earn more by producing more or of better quality or cheaper or faster – and this requires doing things differently, using creativity.
Step On Your Own Acceleration
The good news is that creativity is a skill and a talent that can be learned and developed through practice. With this skill, you can dramatically accelerate your personal and professional growth. By sharpening your thinking skills and exercising your natural creative powers, you can multiply the value of your efforts and rapidly increase the quantity and quality of your rewards.
Action Exercises
Here are two things you can do immediately to be more creative.
First, see yourself as a professional problem-solver and look upon every difficulty or challenge as an opportunity to develop your creative powers.
Second, look for problems you can solve and obstacles you can overcome. The more you seek for answers and ideas, the smarter and more creative you become.
How You Can Start, Build, Manage or Turn Around Any Business Home Study Course
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Tags: Business Success
Posted by Brian Tracy on Dec 11, 2008
Whenever I give a speech, make a presentation or participate in a workshop, entrepreneurs and startup business owners ask me the same key questions:
"How can I generate more leads?"
"How do I close more sales?"
"What do I need to do to make bigger profits and more money?"
And they ask me what my formula for success is.
I’m delighted when they ask me the last question, because it provides the answer to the previous three.
A. Think Big
Over and over I talk to entrepreneurs who are struggling to get the next sale so they can cover current expenses. Or they want to make two more sales per day or per month.
Their biggest problem is that they’re thinking too small. If you’re only aiming for a couple of additional sales a month, you’ll never plan big and you’ll never be truly successful. You might be a little better off than you are now, but I bet you want more than that.
What do I mean by thinking big, and how do you do it? Find out how the top marketers and sales experts think. Tap into their minds, and use the same approach.
B. Find Out How The Most Successful Marketers and Business Owners Did It
As a young child, I was embarrassed when my Dad would stop and ask for directions when we were on car trips. Dad was supposed to know everything — and he wasn’t supposed to let on if he didn’t. There are far too many small business owners who still think this way.
Just because you created and launched your business, don’t assume you’re supposed to have all the answers. Seek out the expert advice you need to succeed.
Over the years, I’ve built Brian Tracy International through hard work, smart marketing, and a dedication to helping my clients succeed. I also got some help along the way; help from people who have "been there, done that" and were willing to share with me some of the things they had done to become incredibly successful.
With a little bit of knowledge and a small nudge from the right people, your sales and your profits will boom.
C. Don’t Throw Money Away
Any smart entrepreneur knows that it’s not only sales that count; it’s profits that matter. Now, let me ask you a question. Ever take a hundred dollar bill and flush it down the toilet — or throw a whole handful of bills into the fireplace and watch them burn?
Of course not! You’d never do that. Or would you? I see many small business owners throwing money at marketing, and in most cases it not only isn’t working, it’s hurting their sales. And then they do it again. They’re killing their profits.
Let me tell you a secret about marketing.
Some of the most effective ways to generate leads, get more sales and double or triple profits are practically free. The key is knowing what works and what doesn’t and when to use each strategy.
21 Great Ways to Start and Build Your Own Successful Business
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Tags: Business Success
Posted by Brian Tracy on Nov 26, 2008
A major stimulant to creative thinking is focused questions.
There is something about a well-worded question that often penetrates to the heart of the matter and triggers new ideas and insights.
Questions Stimulate Creative Thinking
Some of the best questions I’ve found for business problem solving are the following:
Clarify Your Desired Result
Question #1 "What are we trying to do?" Whenever you become frustrated with slow progress for any reason, step back and ask this again and again, "What are we trying to do?"
Analyze Your Current Methods
Question #2 "How are we trying to do it?" If you are experiencing resistance, perhaps your method is wrong. Be willing to objectively analyze your approach by asking, "How are we trying to do it?" Is this the right way? Could there be a better way? What if our method was completely wrong? How else could we approach it?
Could You Be Wrong?
It requires courage to face the possibility that you may be wrong but it also leads to your seeing new possibilities. The rule is: Always decide what’s right before worrying about who’s right.
Question Your Assumptions
Another good question is, "What are our assumptions?" About the person, the product, the market, the business? What are our assumptions? Could we be assuming something that is incorrect? Someone once said that "Errant assumptions lie at the root of every failure".
What if your unspoken or implied assumptions were wrong? What would you have to do differently?
Put Past Decisions on Trial
Another form of focused questioning is what I call "Zero based thinking." This method requires that you put every past decision on trial for its life regularly by asking, "If I had not made this decision, knowing what I now know, would I make it?" If I had not hired this person or gotten involved in this project, knowing what I now know, would I do it over again?
If the answer is "NO" to one of these questions, then your aim should be to get out of the decision as fast as possible. Be willing to "cut your losses," and try something else.
Action Exercises
Here are two things you can do to trigger more and better ideas.
First, be very clear about exactly what it is that you are trying to do. Write it down and describe it as if it were already achieved.
Second, question your assumptions continually. What if there were a better way? Be willing to try something completely different.
The Power of Branding
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Tags: Business Success
Posted by Brian Tracy on Nov 20, 2008
Is your business struggling?
Are you looking for a way to ramp up sales and keep your business growing, even in this economy?
If you’re like most entrepreneurs and business owners, you know that a website should be part of your marketing strategy. And you also are smart enough to know that most websites don’t work.
Most websites are like boats: holes people pour money into. I should know; I pour money into my boat on a regular basis…but I don’t mind because I don’t expect to make a profit from my boat.
My website is different. The purpose of my website is to maximize revenue, not swallow up cash.
Are you pouring time and money into the hole that is your website?
Do you want to know how to use your website to maximize your revenue?
The Secret To Making Money In This Economy
Want to know the secret to making money with your website?
Simply having a website isn’t going to help you make more money. And if you think all you need is more traffic, you’re wrong (although that can help)…lots of visitors doesn’t equal lots of money.
So what’s the secret to making money with your website? The secret is having a system that converts prospects into profits.
Ready to discover how easy it is to convert more prospects in profits?
The #1 way to make money online is to use a simple set of steps to convert website visitors — your prospects — into profits. That’s the simple strategy we’ve used with incredible success here at Brian Tracy International.
Making money online isn’t rocket science, but it’s not obvious, either. If it were, everyone would be doing it. So how, then, do you create a system that turns prospects into profits?
The System We Use
Our website at Brian Tracy International has always had a good conversion ratio, but that doesn’t mean we aren’t always looking to improve it.
In early 2007 my staff discovered the "Insider Secrets to Creating Web Sites That Sell", created by Internet marketing expert Charlie Cook. What we discovered was an easy-to-implement, step-by-step system that helped us turn our web visitors into massive web profits.
Want to benefit from the same online success strategy?
Within just a few weeks of using Charlie’s system, our conversion ratio had increased — along with our profitability — and our business was growing.
Even today — with the economy struggling — we are turning huge profits by converting online prospects into paying customers.
The "Insider Secrets to Creating Web Sites That Sell" spells out the steps you need to take in order to create a system that will convert prospects into profits. It is easy to use and it works.
Find out for yourself how much more you could be making with your website.
How You Can Turn Prospects Into Profits — Fast
With a tough economy, I know you can use higher profits without increasing your costs. That’s why I convinced Charlie Cook to make a special offer to Brian Tracy subscribers.
Charlie’s "Insider Secrets to Creating Web Sites That Sell" is the fastest way to increase your profits in this market and he has agreed to offer Brian Tracy subscribers an exclusive risk-free 30-day test drive for only $2.95.
If you want to make more money with your website and maximize your profits, I highly recommend you pick up Charlie’s system today.
Use this web marketing system to transform prospects to profits.We did. Take action today. I’ve persuaded Charlie Cook to give Brian Tracy subscribers an exclusive, risk-free 30-day test-drive for only $2.95.
Claim your trial copy here.
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Tags: Business Success
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