February 4, 2011 by

Life Balance and Your Success in Business and Life

February is the Valentine month.  It is a great time to remember you can think and plan strategically, however, if you do not incorporate life balance into the equation you will not find the success in business and life you desire.

The picture here is a sample rendering of key areas for you to consider in your life balance equation. It is called the Compass of Life™.  You may insert other major areas which may be more meaningful to you.

Every month, every week, every day you should have some aspect of each area you feel is important to you as part of your daily schedule. If you are only working and only thinking business, your life balance is out of synch and this will eventually create havoc for you.

Everyone has a different reaction to being out of life balance.  For some this shows up as a health issue.  For others their relationship suffers, go to Dr. Patty Ann at www.relationshiptoolbox.com for more information on your relationship and this issue.

My gift to you today is to ask you spend some time right now and think about your life balance.  Look at your Compass of Life™ and see where you may find ways to balance and right your ship.

For ways to work with expert Business Strategy Consultant, Mitch Tublin, begin with an initial Business Breakthrough Strategy Session and explore with Mitch your life balance and your business needs.

Filed Under: Life Balance Tagged With: , , , , , ,
January 27, 2011 by

State Of The Union Should Remind Us To Check The State Of Our Business

President ObamaThis week in the world of government, politics and the media – the State of The Union delivered by President Obama is a big deal. The current environment dictates the strategy for the State of the Union to be filled with words of hope, promises and lots of selling. Selling the dreams, wants and needs of the audience-the big huge audience. Typically the State of the Union lacks substance, lacks details, and lacks the ‘how’ we do all these things type of facts.

It is a great reminder how critical it is for any business owner or entrepreneur to check the state of their business. This would be an in depth look at how you are doing? Are you heading toward your big goals and strategies? Are you getting off track on your projects or are you staying right on your timeline?

How are the funds? Are you being paid by your clients/customers in a timely manner? Do you have the amount of financing in place to carry out the plans you have for the year? All of these questions require you to take a reality check. There is no hiding. It is all substance. It is all about the details.

This process must take place at least one time a month. Do not skip around an area. Look deep and look hard.  Then adjust your course as necessary. This is why you conduct this activity. There are often slight adjustments which need to be taken. Remember the route to the goal is often not an exact straight line. Part of the way toward business success is creating these course corrections as you go along.

Do you find you require the assistance of an expert business strategy consultant to bring you through this process and create accountability to keep you on track?  Contact Mitch Tublin at www.thementorguy.com and book your initial session today.

Filed Under: Business Strategy Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,
January 16, 2011 by

Strategic Business Planning: An Entrepreneur Has The Edge In Creating Their Strategic Plan

Strategic Business Planning: An Entrepreneur Has The Edge In Creating Their Strategic Plan

If you have never worked in a corporate role you may not recognize how true the statement was the other day by my good friend Lorrie Morgan Ferrero on her free teleseminar for her new course on copyrighting. On her call Lorrie was referencing a recent engagement where she was speaking to corporate folks and she was amazed at the “hoops they needed to jump through to get anything done”.

Reaching Goals with Strategic Business Plan

Evgeni Dinev / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

The majority of entrepreneurs are running either a solo business operation or they have a small group of employees working with them. This permits the entrepreneur to create their strategic business plan in an easier environment and to implement their plan with less challenges. If there are issues there are specifically three:

  1. Taking the first step and creating a strategic business plan
    (over 75% of small businesses do not have a strategic plan)
  2. Working with an adviser or mentor who is pulling you to aim higher
    (over 80% of executive teams spend less than one hour per month discussing strategy)
  3. Having the accountability to stay on course and constantly measure where you are and where you are heading
    (over 85% of organizations do not execute their strategies in a successful manner)

In order to be of service to you and provide you with the type of information you must have to be successful in your business, here are some descriptions of the types of planning which are often utilized in running a business and why they are necessary. This is not a complete list. It is a sampling in order to show the difference in a Strategic Business Plan versus some of the other types of plans which are critical to success as well.

You are welcome and in fact encouraged to add the types of planning you feel are not represented and describe why they are necessary by commenting in the area provided.

A Business Plan – defines the purpose of a business, often includes financial information specifically if being written to obtain funding, describes the legal structure of the business entity, provides a foundation in writing for ideas.

A Financial Plan – describes the money story, includes budgets for past year(s), current year and forecast, especially important if seeking funding.

A Marketing Plan – creates the methods for the business message to get to the outside world specifically to your market, details the chosen areas such as social media (which may have its own plan), direct mail (which may have its own plan), advertising (which may have its own plan) and more.

A Staffing Plan – details the needs of the business to permit growth by hiring or outsourcing personnel for specific purposes and by when, includes the requirements for the roles and more.

An Exit Plan – over 90% of small businesses are privately held and do not have any formal succession plan or exit strategy (http://ventureexitpartners.com)

A Strategic Plan – statements of mission, vision and business focus, a plan of action may be derived from this plan, drives the competitive advantage of your business, the basis of every other plan for your business and more.

These brief descriptions should assist you in your understanding of the value and ease of creating a strategic plan for your business. If you are ready to create your strategic plan for your business or rework your current strategic plan and have an adviser guide you, contact Mitch Tublin at www.thementorguy.com – an expert Business Strategy Consultant.

Filed Under: Business Strategy Tagged With: , , , ,
January 6, 2011 by

Success in 2011 Will Be Determined By Your Planning and Goal Setting For Your 2011 Success

Business Strategy Consultant, Mitch Tublin, wishes you and yours a

Happy New Year!

Business Planning and Goal Setting 2011You have all of your planning and goal setting completed and ready to go by now for the New Year, right?  Ask any person who is successful or read about them.  Every single one of them had a plan to follow.  They had goals to meet, strive for and achieve.  What about you?

Mitch, this is so boring, it is not exciting!  Sorry about that!  It is absolutely critical to do,  so how do we make this process more interesting?

Here is one example for you to have some fun with your planning and goal setting. 

Go to www.staples.com and buy a big white pad of blank sheets like the type you use for a presentation, buy some markers or crayons and buy some sticky notes of different colors like those made by www.shop3m.com now take all of this great fun stuff and lock yourself in a room for one hour.

This is okay to do if you are a work at home business owner or a CEO of your own software company.  We are all people!  What, you tell me, you were never 6 years old once!  Chill out and work with me here.  Bring in a glass of wine if you want to.

Now this is an example, so feel free to use a method that works for you.

Use a black marker and label the top page of one sheet BUSINESS STRATEGY BIG PICTURE.  Now Label another sheet short term goals.  Now label a sheet family, community, friends and giving.

Select a new color and begin on the last page.  List everything you want to do with your family, in your community and for charity this year.

You see this is why you do what you do isn’t it?

Now select another color and list in order the main items near term you need to achieve in your business.  For example: build a list or make money.

List five items in their order of priority.

It is time for a new color.  Business Strategy Big Picture is our next item.  Take a deep breath and dive in.  What drives you to do what you do?  What are your ideas? Just let it go!  Write down your big dreams.

Fill up the page.

So you tell me. Was this so painful?  You now have the initial foundation for creating your plans and goal setting activities for 2011.

If you are ready to create your rock solid plans and goals for 2011 with a business strategy consultant working right beside you, click on the box to the right and begin with an initial strategic business breakthrough session with Mitch Tublin.

©2011 Mitch Tublin All Rights Reserved

Filed Under: Achieve Goals, Business Strategy Tagged With: , , , , , ,