Six Steps - Mastery

The Brad Sugars DVD 6 Steps is a "must watch" if you want to get anything out of your investment with Action Coach. Our coach Kent had a simple approach - no DVD and no coach - simple. I have to agree with him.

You don't build a house that you want to last without foundations and the same is true of building a profitable business.

Why are we in business?

Are we simply doing a JOB?

Has the work taken over our lives?

What happens when we are not there?

Spending too much time with sleeves rolled up working in the business?

We have all been there.

Most of us started out in business as a result of circumstances and we identified an opportunity - we may have done something similar for someone else previously.

Back in the 90's I was a senior manager working for a large Insurance Company. When ever a "big issue" cropped up the Directors would bring in external consultants - who would borrow our watch, tell us the time and give us a bill. The Directors were pleased as they could blame the Consultant if anything went wrong. The old adage - nobody got fired for buying an IBM applied. Following the umpteenth management restructure I was made redundant in the summer of 1999. That is my story - what is yours?

The first of the 6 steps is Mastery.

Start with the end in mind - where do we want to end up and what does "job done?" look like? Having a clear vision of what / where etc enables us to know which is the right direction.

Knowing what we want to achieve then work out timescales - 3,5, 7 years or sooner?

Having a map, compass and watch is very helpful, but without a means for doing the job they are pointless. What is our business model? What proceedures do we use and what can be replicated / enhanced? Should I be doing the work or should I be delegating more?

Do we have a clear idea of profit and costs? Can we identify our fixed costs and do we know the profit margins on our goods and services? What is our cash flow like and where would we like it to be?

Working with Kent we were able to identify and evaluate our starting position - and work out a plan of ACTION. A plan is just a plan - doing something about it is what really matters and then testing the results to see if we are on track.

Before each meeting, we would update our goal sheet on Google Docs. This formed the basis of our review meetings with Kent - ask him about his wiffle!?!