Personal Development – Page 2 – Pauline Bright Business Coach

How to work smarter not harder this year

I walked into a hardware store one day.

There were 3 or 4 people standing behind the long counter and another 3 or 4 people in front of the counter waiting to be served. One bloke behind the counter looked like he was running rings around all the other guys– he was serving all the customers while the others stood idly by.

“He must be the guru.” I thought.

“Can I help you?” asked one employee.

“Yes, can I see the boss please?” I asked.

“Yes, that’s him” he said pointing to the guy doing all the work (without even asking what I needed and if he could help instead)

What’s wrong with this picture?

Can you see yourself in this scenario?

Business owners shoot themselves in the foot all the time by trying to do everything in their business. I’ve heard business owners variously describe themselves as “Chief Cook and Bottle-washer, “Trouble-shooter” and even “Dogsbody”. Some business owners even clean their own premises to save a few dollars – please tell me that’s not you!

If you feel like your business is dragging you down and you never seem to be getting to the good stuff it’s probably because you take on too much. For whatever reason, you’ve justified putting yourself in a position of power then undermined it by attempting to do everything yourself.

So, how are you going to get to the good stuff you want to do?

First of all, do you know what the “Good stuff” is? Have you actually defined what it is? You know there’s something … you just can’t quite put your finger on it, but other people seem to be having more fun and getting better results than you.

Or maybe you do know what you want but not the steps to get there – it seems too hard. Maybe there’s some fear and doubt and financial issues you have to tackle first, so it’s just easier to keep looking and being busy, (although it’s not very fulfilling) and every day is Groundhog Day. .

In order to work smarter you’ll need to know what it is you’re aiming for and what your particular role is in making it happen. This might take some courage and deep thinking – and delegation!

First of all – there is no such thing as a “good all-rounder”, so stop trying to be one.

You have natural talents and strengths you probably haven’t even tapped into yet.

Find the NICHE that suits your talents and makes you happy.

If you’re good at the technical work of your business like being the designer, accountant, mechanic or brain surgeon, then do that thing, but don’t keep it to yourself, hire and train other people to do it even better than you so you can expand the business.

OR – if you don’t want a large team and you are happy to be the technical person, focus on being the best brain surgeon you can be and get other people to do everything else; all the admin, marketing, sales, management and other parts of your business. Your hourly rate will be much higher than these people. Hire a great business manager or practice manager. Hire a great Personal Assistant – do whatever makes your job easier.

Remember to keep it simple and streamlined.

Find a MARKET that suits your talents and makes you happy.

When you work with clients or customers you like and you’re doing work that is your pure genius, then work doesn’t seem so hard, you’ll enjoy it more. Work becomes more harmonious – you have better capacity to deliver and the clients are less demanding, more flexible and understanding.

All clients are not created equal. It’s absolutely NOT true that “any client will do, as long as they pay.” Working smarter means choosing your clients; you’ll get paid on time, have fewer complaints, less re-work, fewer price shoppers and happier employees.

Be self focussed

The smart thing to do is look after yourself first, be a little selfish. If you fell over what would happen to your business?

There’s nothing wrong with drive and determination unless it becomes obsessive. Check your level of obsessiveness about your business. If it’s making you tired and sick it’s time to back it off a few notches.

Take a break, breathe. Not everything is urgent and important. Read Stephen Covey’s “The 7 Habits of Highly Successful People”. Apply what you learn, especially the part about sharpening the saw.

Seth Godin says “Do work worth doing”. Are you doing just enough to get by or are you really making a contribution? Do you need to change a few things? Stop being efficient – start being effective.

Work in your genius – Roger Hamilton’s Wealth Dynamics Wealth Profiling will help you discover your personal genius so you can work in flow.

Above all, give yourself time to do things. Set goals, break them down to small manageable bites, determine what your genius contribution towards achieving the goal will be, then work out who will help you.

Enjoy!

Discover your path to wealth by working in flow with your Natural Genius talents

Wealth Dynamics in a nutshell

Many people think that there are hundreds of routes to wealth. With Wealth Dynamics, you’ll see that there are actually only eight paths to wealth and that one of those paths is the correct one for you.

These paths are highlighted by the successful people who have achieved wealth through following their natural path. This is to say, they found the wealth dynamic match that suited their talents.

Could you imagine Richard Branson as a footballer, or Bill Gates as a fish monger?

No, they discovered the talents they were born with and capitalized on them. They followed a path that they loved, their path of least resistance and they excelled at it. Wouldn’t you like to find your path, benefit from your natural strengths and excel?

Let’s take a brief look at each of these eight wealth profiles…

The Creator

The Creators can’t help creating! They are good at creating profitable ideas and businesses, but not so good with the day to day running of a business. Successful creators will delegate everything, except the creative process. Example: Walt Disney

The Mechanic

Mechanics are perfectionists who like to finish things, rather than create them. They want to make everything better – fine tune them. Example: Henry Ford.

The Star

It is easy to spot a star. Obviously, you have film, music and sports stars, but high profile CEOs can also be thought of stars. They rely on the strength of their personality and are aware of the pressure of always having to deliver. Example: Oprah Winfrey

The Supporter

Supporters are great networkers with loads of energy and enthusiasm. Their greatest wealth can be achieved when they join forces with a Star, Creator, Deal Maker, or Mechanic. Example: Steve Ballmer

The Deal Maker

A deal maker relies on relationships, connections and being able to react intuitively when the best opportunities present themselves. Example: Donald Trump

The Trader

A trader is someone who naturally hunts out bargains, naturally loves haggling and gets immense satisfaction from a great deal. They are equally as good at finding high price buyers. Example: George Soros

The Accumulator

Incremental growth is the key to this wealth dynamics profile. They are patient, disciplined and will stick fast to a successful system. Example: Warren Buffet

The Lord

The Lord likes to control everything. You can find a lord where there are fixed assets generating cash. They don’t want attention like the stars and like to create wealth quietly. Example: Ingvar Kamprad

These carefully thought out profiles are the result of years of studying the approaches of hundreds of successful wealth creators combined with Chinese philosophy.

Knowing which of these wealth profiles is yours, is like having the keys to the vault of the Bank Of England.

More than 250,000 entrepreneurs have already found their true profile and are discovering, with amazing clarity the direction towards true wealth for them.

Would you like to join them? CLICK HERE to take the test.

Pauline Bright is an accredited Wealth Dynamics Profile consultant. To book a Debrief and Discovery session once you’ve done your profile, please email support@brightbusiness.net.au or call 0413 739 196. You’ll find out how to use your profile in your current business or situation and what is the right path for you to follow.

The secret to being a successful business owner

Congratulations! You’re a rare breed.

If you measure success by the dictionary definition of “the favourable outcome of something attempted”, then owning a business could be considered a success, because there are many more who think about being a business owner than follow through to buy or start a business.

But how do YOU measure success?

Is it measured in money, prestige, toys, lifestyle, contribution, customers or reputation?

Who’s doing the measuring?

Are these your measurements or are you succumbing to external forces telling you what success “should” look like?

From the outside your business could look spectacularly successful. However you could be sitting in your business right now not feeling particularly proud and successful – especially if things are not going the way you imagined they would.

Working closely with hundreds of business owners over more than a decade here’s what defines success for them.

Which ones apply to you?

I get out of bed each day with enthusiasm and energy – I enjoy my business
I’m happy with the direction in which my business is headed
I’ve made mistakes and learnt from them. I get up when knocked down
I constantly learn and implement new ideas and ways of doing business
I have good people around me to help run sections the business
I feel good about the products/services we deliver
I have brightness of future. I’m confident we’re on the right track
I have a good support network in my business community
My business is agile, flexible and not heavily weighed down by outside influences
My business pays me properly for my efforts
My business has a good reputation
I’m doing work worth doing, it has value
My time is flexible enough to allow me to enjoy life
My business is growing. I have an asset that has value now and in the future
I have the right balance of work and play. I have time to myself and with my family
I have defined my boundaries of what I will and won’t do
I choose my customers
The business is under control; it has systems that make it work well
My business makes a valuable contribution to my community
I have a business that gives me a good life

Please feel free to add your own success criteria.

Celebrate what you DO have. Every business is a work-in-progress. Don’t feel bad about the things you don’t have right now. Make a note of them and work on the most important ones that have meaning for you.

There is no ONE secret – it’s a collection of criteria that gives you a feeling of pride and sense of achievement.

The secret to being a successful business owner is whatever you say it is.

What is it for you?

The “money side” of business – is it an optional extra?

How do you make financial decisions for your business? Gut instinct? Look at the bank account? Or check your financial reports and cashflow statements?

If you just cringed at the thought of actually reading financial statements then you may need to start thinking differently about the money side of your business if you want it to actually flourish. It’s nowhere near as hard as you think it is – and it is very EMPOWERING!

I’m always puzzled when I hear business owners say they don’t like the money side of business. Running a company and hating numbers strikes me as a little like being a massage therapist and hating to touch people

If you could overcome some of your money habits, skills and current thinking, what would give you the most confidence in running your business?

What would, you need to know for peace of mind that things are working as they should?

Money in the bank?
Forward orders?
Work in progress?
Your regular bills/debts taken care of?
Invoices done properly and timely?
Debt reduction – you are making headway?
Paying yourself regularly – and paying what you are worth?
Never having to scratch around for money?
Play money for holidays, toys, treats?
Money to give to others?

If it’s time you got to grips with money and business, hop onto this free “Business Money Maximiser Webinar”
It’s a Warts-n-all Expose: The Reality of Running a Six Figure Business for people who think they don’t like numbers but know they are missing something really important in their business around the money side of things.

http://brightbusiness.net.au/the-business-money-maximiser

BUSINESS

Are we still the Lucky Country?

A couple of days ago, after the American Thanksgiving Holiday, I was flying back to Perth from Sydney.

It was late and I was tired; I had been at an intense 2 day seminar and would have been grateful for some sleep. I sat next to a small wiry man in dirty work clothes and well-worn work boots. He had paint on his hands, his arms and his clothes.

Shortly after take-off he struck up a conversation “You from Perth?” I didn’t recognise his accent so I asked where he was from.

“Yugoslavia – I come to Australia 17 years ago. Never go back”.

I don’t know what his name was – we didn’t get to that bit. But over the next couple of hours he told me his story.

He cannot believe his luck in ending up in Australia. He is so grateful for the opportunities he has here. He came as an immigrant with his wife and two children, choosing Australia because he has a brother living here. He “lost’ his wife. She chose to go back to Yugoslavia to be with her parents. He stayed here with his children.

He had been an electrician in Yugoslavia but in his own words… “No work.”

“Very hungry, always hungry.”

“When I was kid, my family no food, no work always hungry.”

“Always fighting, always war; Milosovic no good. People killing”.

He settled in a small town in rural WA. He is so incredibly grateful for everything he has; grateful to be able to work hard. “Always work – never run out of work – I go knock doors get work, always”. “No work there, I go knock more doors”. “I do anything, paint, build, fix… I go night school, I learn English after work”.

He bought some land and built a house – so incredibly grateful that he could do here what he could never do in his birth country.

Then he proceeded to tell me about how he was going to subdivide his block, sell half and buy more blocks to grow his personal wealth. “But not too much, just enough. Too much make people greedy. I see it”.

He has a business idea for a food van – he has it all mapped out who his customers will be and how he will sell to them.

He was so incredibly grateful for being able to live in peace “No war here” and for being able to work and earn and enjoy his life. He had built such a good reputation that his employer had flown him to Sydney to do some work for him. He was in his work clothes because he wanted to get home to his family and his next job as soon as he could. “No time to wash before fly”.

Sometimes we forget how lucky we are “Very lucky” he said “Very luck here”.

Have we forgotten how lucky we are? Have we forgotten that we used to call ourselves “The Lucky Country ”?

Have we forgotten to be grateful for every amazing advantage we have here?

Not me – I’m giving thanks every day.

As I left the airport, I had to chuckle at the young teenage girl of Indian descent with younger sister in tow, whinging loudly about something… “First word problem” she said to her “First world problem!”

My gratitude…

Thank you to everyone who taught me something this year. A considerable list of people and lessons! Some I didn’t anticipate and some I jumped into boots and all – knowing I was going to be working hard and loving every minute of it.

Thank you to my clients; past present and future. I’m so lucky to be doing work I love with you!

Thank you to my family and friends and colleagues, to my trusted advisors, to my network of incredibly talented business associates. It would be so much harder doing it without you.

And a little gratitude gift from me to you. Thanks for reading – click here to download

More coming in the New Year

Wishing you a wonderfully relaxing Christmas with all the love that it brings…

Cheers,
Pauline

Evolutionary Business Design

Category: Personal Development