MLJ Coaching International Strategy #6 Get Referrals from Impressed Clients

Strategy #6 Originally published with Electrical Contractors Association of Ontario

Could this article be more timely?

Over the past several months (more than a year, in fact), you’ve been seeing articles relating to the of MLJ Coaching International, which are covered in depth in our 1-year-long-and-deep Trade-Contractors’ Business Strategies Program .

Today’s article focuses on Strategy #6: GET REFERRALS from IMPRESSED CLIENTELE. Empower your customers to do your marketing for you.

As my grandmother always said, there’s a silver lining behind every cloud. Behind this cloud of economic change/turmoil/uncertainty, where some of you are bidding many more jobs just to keep everyone employed, while others are still just as busy as you always were, is quiet time.

Quiet time?! you exclaim. Sure, if you stop filling it with running around in circles and fretting with your colleagues about today’s challenges. There are challenges in business every day. That’s why we all got into business for ourselves in the first place … remember?

What I encourage you to do during this “quiet time” that you would have, if you weren’t filling it with low priority activities, is to focus on marketing your business. One of my clients knows everything I have to say about IMPRESSING your CUSTOMERS so that you’ll get more work from them as well as GET REFERRALS from them for new customers. He’s also heard, through our 1-year-long-and-deep Trade-Contractors’ Business Strategies Program all of the simple, low-investment marketing tips I have. The funny thing is that this year, when he went on his multi-day retreat to complete his 2nd-ever 3-year vision, he came upon the notes, yet again, for Strategy #6 in our 7 Key Strategies: GET REFERRALS from IMPRESSED CLIENTELE. Empower your customers to do your marketing for you.

Marketing is the process by which we get the word out about us, our services and products, what our specialty is, and why prospective customers would choose us over all the other options they have. Marketing, simply put, is creating awareness. Marketing is also the process by which we close the gap between our business and the businesses we choose to accept as customers. Customers are always chosen for their ability to help us grow our businesses. Through our marketing we eliminate those with whom we do not want to work.

How many associations do you belong to? How frequently do you attend the meetings? I know many contractors who belong to a multitude of associations … all for 1 reason or another. Yet these contractors very seldom attend association meetings. Why not? After all, membership is simply a tool. Left on the shelf that tool is useless. Association gatherings are ideal places to chat with people who know people who require services just like what you offer. Did you know that everyone knows 100 people? And I know you do know that birds of a feather flock together. Business relationships are built on personal relationships. I’m not saying close, intimate relationships, but personal relationships, nonetheless.

Networking is the most powerful form of marketing there is, and I know you know this. Think back to how your business grew in the first place. We call it “word-of-mouth” in English (and “de la bouche a l’oreille” en Francais). Over the years I’ve heard many a commercial contractor tell me that I just don’t understand. They tell me that the lowest bid wins every single time … and that’s that! Maybe so in their area. So, in a workshop of some 10-50 trade-contractors I always ask: Has anyone here been awarded a contract when you knew you hadn’t submitted the lowest bid? In response I hear many “Yes”s. Then, even the person who had made the initial claim that “low bid wins” will admit that “Yes,” he has had invitations to bid and even been hired without a bidding process. There’s usually one in every workshop who speaks up about it, telling me there are several of you thinking it. These trade-contractors actually believe what they hear – lowest bid wins – and haven’t even, on their own, done a reality check to identify to themselves the falsehood in the belief.

Limiting beliefs do as their name implies. These beliefs (and we’re full of them) limit us. They limit our growth as people, as well as limiting the growth of our businesses. In fact, there’s a whole study of the subconscious mind, the part of our mind that stops us from doing what we haven’t done before. The subconscious mind is there for our survival. We recognize it as our “feelings.” The subconscious mind will interrupt us, put obstacles in our way, encourage us to get off-track at every opportunity … because the subconscious mind, never having “been there nor done that” before is fearful that we won’t survive the change. And because it’s our own mind, we blindly go where our mind guides us. WEIRD, eh? But true!

I started 1-on-1 coaching a new client early last fall. It was really tough going for him … battling his subconscious mind all the way! He was getting great results, nonetheless, thanks to having proper support to move forward despite his lack of confidence. By early spring, this client spent a good deal of time “sharing a story” with me “that just goes to prove that what you [I] say is true.” At the end of his story I asked: “Can you remind me what it is I said that this story proves?”

My client had just been awarded a contract, on which he hadn’t even bid, directly by the owner of the project, who he had never met before. This customer had a general who knows, likes and trusts my client and the work my client’s company does and this general had told his customer that for that job his customer wanted my client. The customer met my client for the first time in my client’s office, simply gave my client the job, handed him the competition’s quote and said “I hear you’re the best one for this job. I just want you to make sure that you include everything in the job that these people would have.” And the words I say for which this story was proof? “Keep your prices where they need to be without gouging, and through impressing your customers including, painlessly for the customer, making things right whenever a mistake occurs you will get referrals. By the way, the company that had bid on the project had a much lower bid than the price my client gave to the customer. A good reputation is worth far more than dollars and cents.

The silver lining? When you analyze where you’re investing your time (Strategy #2) if you find yourself running around, ploughing through the day with your head down, or flying by the seat of your pants … . Invest that time, instead, in building and strengthening relationships so that you will have that many more customers who know, like and trust you, your company, your work and you will GET MORE REFERRALS from even more IMPRESSED CLIENTELE.

Jim took advantage of many manufacturing jobs being “on hold” to invest time in marketing. He told me “We have not had to do any down-sizing and have just landed our biggest job to date.” Jim tells us that the marketing strategy was the best of the 7 for his company. Read more at http://www.mljcoaching.com/testimonials/

The silver lining behind today’s cloud is the time you now have, if you’re finding yourself caught in an economic crunch. After all, why would one want to do a job they’re going to lose money on? (And there are people who do!) Instead,
1. Block time in your agenda right now to take your customers a coffee or lunch, spend a few minutes in idle chit-chat, show them your appreciation and strengthen your relationships with them. Ask them: How can I help you?
2. Send a simple, little newsletter out to your entire customer base, with a simple, little “Did you know …” message in it, educating them on something relative which they may not know.
3. Create a networking system. Have your secretary pay attention to the association notices that come in and book you in to the events and meetings (wouldn’t it be more fun to be golfing or enjoying camaraderie and laughing than to be fretting over whether or not to bid this job because it hardly even seems worth your time?).
4. FOLLOW THROUGH on the coffee visits and association activities and meetings, as well as educating your customers on one topic at-a-time, while helping them keep you front-of-mind.

Simple as that!

In the next issue we’ll focus on Strategy #7, which Wayne has taken seriously. He’s taking his first-ever 2-week summer vacation! You can, too, when you focus on how to GET A LIFE (outside of the business). Let Wayne tell you, himself, at http://www.mljcoaching.com/cases/electrical/

M. Lynne Jacob, Business Success Coach, of MLJ Coaching International, works almost exclusively with contractors in the construction industry after having been the general contractor in building their home in 2004. Lynne readily admits that she didn’t know what she didn’t know.

Lynne’s Menu of Services include a time-management e-course, an e-book, New-Hire / Existing Employee coaching, 1-on-1 Executive coaching, Communication Workshops for & with your teams, business training by tele-seminar, 7 Simple Strategies 4 Succe$$ in-a-binder, for entrepreneurs and managers. See details & register at http://www.mljcoaching.com/success/7ss4s/.

Or go directly to the top with The Trade-Contractors’ Business Strategies Program, a year-long-and-deep business training & coaching program for construction contractors and their teams, covering which are key to every successful business, helping you EARN MORE PROFITS while having MORE TIME OFF. www.TradeContractorsBusinessStrategies.com

M. Lynne Jacob, Certified Professional Coach (Diploma)
Lynne@mljcoaching.com
Direct Line: 613-353-9941 Direct Fax: 1-888-727-1732

MLJ Coaching International – Strategy 5 Lead a Championship Support Team

Strategy #5 Originally published with Electrical Contractors Association of Ontario

Empower your Support and Lead a Championship Support Team
by becoming a Championship Leader
Strategy #5 in The Trade-Contractors’ Business Strategies Program

“What else are you tolerating?” I asked a client the other day. Funny thing is that I pose this question to all of my clients at one time or another.

And the other funny thing is that every single one of my clients, when hearing the word “tolerate,” think of at least one employee (though usually numerous employees come to their minds).

One of the biggest problems a self-employed person has is handing over the reins to his employees. Why? Because your employees aren’t competent or trustworthy? Then why the heck are they still there? Especially with what’s happening in the market today!

A good while back, I was chatting with one man in a group of contractors who had heard one of my presentations. He told me, loudly enough for other contractors in the group to hear him, that one question I had asked in my presentation of a few months earlier, had really resonated with him. (I didn’t even know that this man had ever heard of me before, let alone heard my presentation.)

“Oh? Which one?” I asked. “’Why wasn’t I handing over the reins?’ I knew bloody well why I wasn’t so as soon as I got back I started gathering proof. My “key” employee had been cheating on his time for a long time, way too long, and I knew it … but I wouldn’t admit it to myself. Not until you asked that question, that is. He’s gone now and it didn’t take me long.”

Why had this man tolerated this cheating, stealing employee for so long? Because he was afraid of what would happen to his business without this key employee. But what had been happening to his business with that not-so-key employee who was untrustworthy? Worse yet, what had been happening to this contractor? It had been eating away at him all this time and he just kept trying to ignore it.

Not every situation is that bad. It certainly isn’t that bad for the client to whom I posed the question, “What else are you tolerating?”, just the other day What he’s tolerating, though, is a bad attitude in one “key” employee and poor time-management and dis-organization in another “key” employee.

Is it only the behaviour of “key” employees that we tolerate? Not only, but we certainly tolerate much more from those who we fear losing than the ones who are lower down in the pecking order.

But just like for the contractor whose key employee had been cheating on his time for so long, it has much less to do with the employee than it does YOU! You’re the leader! If you tolerate cheating, what does that say about you? What does it say about the culture in the company?

Do you know what culture is? The best description I’ve heard for it … and check it out for yourself in your company … is:

Culture is what we do when nobody’s looking.

We know what the one employee was doing when he thought nobody was looking; and his employer (your colleague) saw it but pretended he didn’t.

My client is looking at his business through a magnifying glass that I’m helping him hold. I ask these types of questions about what we see through the magnifying glass, which helps my client recognize precisely what needs to change. “But what can I do about it?” he asked me.

Training … I simply can’t say enough good things about training.

Of course, training is only as good as how it is applied after the person taking the training gets back to the job-at-hand. Let’s start there, though. You’ve already invested enough in your employees by the mere fact that they’ve been with you for some time, now. How frequently do you offer your employees more training? I’m not just talking about safety training and new product knowledge which is far more for the company’s benefit than theirs. Sure those forms of training are necessary, but how about training for time-management and organization? How about getting help for the man whose attitude needs a serious adjustment? These types of training are still for the benefit of the company, but they also benefit the employees outside of work, as well, which makes the employees feel valued.

For that matter, how often do you invest in training for yourself? Like business training? And leadership training? After all, your team will ever only be as good as their leader … never any better than that and likely not even as good as the leader. Yes, you’ll have some shining stars from time-to-time but they won’t shine brightly forever when the culture deteriorates around them. For myself, I invest in “continuing education” at least every 2nd year and I recommend that every entrepreneur, in every industry, do likewise if not more frequently, even, and I usually do more frequently. In fact, I used to invest in coaching (for my own professional development) every summer, given that that’s my “slow” season. During the last 2 years, however, it seems I am constantly raising the bar so I’m finding myself investing in blocks of 6-10 weeks at-a-time every 4-6 months.

One of my clients dared to raise the bar by creating his first staffing policy ever … after many years. It was a short policy, but to the staff it wasn’t too sweet. It was necessary, however, yet my client said as soon as we had finished discussing what he would put in the staffing policy: “As soon as I give them this here “staffing policy” they’ll just laugh. The worst one likely won’t even show up the next day.”

“Good point,” I responded. “So what are the consequences?” You see his staff were not only abusing cell phones and gas cards but they were also showing up for work whenever they felt like it … and only if they felt like it. This meant that my client waited around every morning until the last of them rolled in. It was often more than one full hour from start-time before he ever started assigning jobs! This was some years ago, now, and while I was absolutely dumb-founded at how he was running his business from everything he was tolerating, I’ve since met many contractors in the same situation.

Well, the staffing policy was drawn up, distributed and signed by everyone. And the worst of the lot did push it. He rolled in late very shortly after receiving the staffing policy so he was sent home … arguing the whole way to his vehicle. Later the same week he called in sick. The following day, arriving without a doctor’s note (as it called for in the new staffing policy), he was sent home again. For some weeks he minded his Ps and Qs … and then an incident occurred and he told my client he was fed up with all the rules & regulations and he was quitting. My client told me he couldn’t get the separation papers drawn up quickly enough! My client informed me a few weeks following that employee’s departure that the morale had never been so good … never. Just look at what this contractor’s tolerations had caused throughout the whole company!

How supportive is your staff? What would it take to turn them into a championship support team?

Do you know what the #1 problem in the workplace today is – in every industry? Communication. In fact, I contend that it’s the number one problem period …with your family, your customers, your employees … everyone. On a scale of 1 – 10, how effective is your communication with your employees? How clear are they about the rules of the game they’re playing? How many strikes are they allowed before they’re “out”? Do they know how many strikes they have against them already?

Speaking of Communication: Have you communicated to them your vision – your 3-year vision – for your company? It’s a far sight easier to get buy-in from people when they know the direction in which they’re heading and what their destination is.

If you don’t have a staffing policy in place, what would it take for you to create one? Every one of my contractor clients creates a staffing policy within the first 6 months of our working together and not because I encourage them to, but because they recognize the necessity for it. I do, however, encourage them to start with just their top 3 tolerations. Identify what you’re tolerating and then create a policy around it. Plain and simply: Bring tolerations to an end. Even your employees will thank you for it.

From there, creating a staffing policy with only 3 items in it, you simply add one item to the list each time an undesirable situation arises. You’ll be surprised how quickly things shape up around your establishment, especially if one of your employees (key or otherwise) ships out. After all, if they’re not willing to play the game by the rules, why would you want to have them on your team? One bad apple can and does spoil the whole bunch.

Shortly after creating your staffing policy comes Employee Performance Reviews. I don’t think I’ve worked with a client yet, in the construction industry or otherwise, who had already regularly conducted Employee Performance Reviews. Almost every client is almost blown away with what they learn from their employees when they actually sit down and talk with them about their “performance” … for the first time. I recommend that to get started with performance reviews and to really invest in increasing everyone’s performance that the reviews be done every 6 months for at least 3 times (a year-and-a-half) and then every 9 months for a couple of times, then easing into annual performance reviews. Trust me on this one: You have nothing to lose and you will gain a lot.

Shortly after creating your staffing policy comes Employee Performance Reviews. I don’t think I’ve worked with a client yet, in the construction industry or otherwise, who had already regularly conducted Employee Performance Reviews. Almost every client is almost blown away with what they learn from their employees when they actually sit down and talk with them about their “performance” … for the first time. I recommend that to get started with performance reviews and to really invest in increasing everyone’s performance that the reviews be done every 6 months for at least 3 times (a year-and-a-half) and then every 9 months for a couple of times, then easing into annual performance reviews. Trust me on this one: You have nothing to lose and you will gain a lot.

I am so passionate about the work I do with contractors because of the way they turn their ships around in just 1½ – 2 years and most especially when it comes to helping these contractors become championship leaders. I could write pages about examples, alone, of clients improving their leadership skills simply through our coaching partnerships.

I know that many of you have an inner battle going on between the “old school” and today’s employees and workplaces. Our world has changed dramatically since many of you first started working and is in a state of constant, rapid change.

Wouldn’t it make things easier to get some help in dealing with those changes?

Next issue I’ll cover Strategy #6, which Jim found to be the most exciting strategy of all: Get Referrals from Impressed Clientele. After all, you have a database of businesses that already know, like & trust you. Help them do your marketing for you … yes, even in ICI.

M. Lynne Jacob, Business Success Coach, of MLJ Coaching International, works almost exclusively with contractors in the construction industry after having been the general contractor in building their home in 2004. Lynne readily admits that she didn’t know what she didn’t know.

Lynne’s time-management e-course, covering 7 weeks, with 1-on-1 coaching, is equally valuable for your employees as well as their employer. http://www.mljcoaching.com/success/time/

New-hire coaching, covering the probationary period, helps you easily make that decision to offer the candidate a full-time position and to start your search again.

Existing employees, even key employees, lose their drive and enthusiasm at times. A private, strictly confidential 3-month coaching partnership with these employees works wonders to help your valued employee get “plugged back in again.”

7 Simple Strategies 4 Succe$$ in-a-binder, for entrepreneurs and managers, is a 7-month tele-seminar program with business training, Q&A & individual coaching in a group setting, followed-up by MP3 recordings of all 14 1-hour tele-seminars. See details & register at http://www.mljcoaching.com/success/7ss4s/.

Or go directly to the top with The Trade-Contractors’ Business Strategies Program, a year-long-and-deep business training & coaching program for contractors and their teams, covering which are key to every successful business, helping you
EARN MORE PROFITS while having MORE TIME OFF.
www.TradeContractorsBusinessStrategies.com

M. Lynne Jacob, Certified Professional Coach (Diploma)
info@mljcoaching.com
Direct Line: 613-353-9941
Direct Fax: 1-888-727-1732

MLJ Coaching International – Strategy #4 Take Back Your Power

Strategy #4 Originally published with Electrical Contractors Association of Ontario

It’s a known fact that company owners need to use a tool called “debt” in order to grow their businesses. It’s also a known fact that the weight of debt causes hardship in businesses and in families. It’s extremely important, therefore, to be sure that we use this tool to our advantage.

In Strategy #4 in The Trade-Contractors’ Business Strategies Program:

Take back your Power by Controlling your Finances

I don’t teach you how to read your monthly bookkeeping reports (see Strategy #2) nor your profit and loss statements, though I do stress the importance of doing so regularly.

We look at things like:

Pricing and how you can be sure you’re ending up with the top dollar for the work you do. Now reading this are you one of those people who wants to tell me that jobs are only awarded to the lowest bidder? Please do so, then. Feel free to give me a call. If you’d like to be one of the contractors, however, who gets contractors where you set the pricing, knowing you’re being well compensated for the good work you do, when you call me I’ll ask you to do some research. Call 10 of your fellow association members and ask them if they have ever bid high on a project and been awarded the contract. Then ask those who have how that happened. I’m sure you’ll learn that it’s thanks to the relationship they’ve built with the customer, the quality of service they provide, the quality of work their teams do and the quality of their teams. Now, if you still believe that there’s nothing that can be done for you to ensure you’re ending up with the top dollar for the work you do you have other options.

Debts: We look at good debts vs stupid debts. Clients in The T-C BS identify their own smart debts and their stupid debts … and focus on eliminating the stupid debts.

We also focus on Budgets & Reserves, without which neither you nor your business will survive. Did you know that it’s essential for you to have a financial reserve sufficient to cover 3 months’ of your operating costs? It’s so much easier to accomplish this than you can imagine, if you don’t currently have a 3-month reserve and never have had one.

When was the last time you reviewed your family budget … and your business budget? Working with one contractor and his wife they told me they didn’t know what their family spending was because, quite frankly, they were afraid to know. Another contractor and his wife invested the time to keep every single receipt for 1 month, and then, with knowledge, made an appointment with the financial planner (whose calls they hadn’t returned in years). They were excited after their second appointment with their financial planner because they saw when they’d be rid of their stupid debts and they started planning their vacations.

I recently asked a roomful of trade-contractors for a show of hands of those who had a family budget. Not a hand was seen and everyone looked around the room, in silence. One woman dared to speak up and said: “We don’t like to be limited in what we can spend.”

That’s the funny thing about a budget, I explained to her and everyone else. It seems like a bad word to many, a limitation. I, on the other hand, (like many of my clients, now) have a family budget so we can see how much we need to earn during the year to have sufficient funds to set aside for home improvement projects and vacations.

Yes, that’s right. Vacations: in the plural form. Most of my clients haven’t taken many vacations (many have taken none in the last 3-6 years and some have never taken any!) because they’re too busy. When we get right down to it, though, they see it as frivolous spending because they don’t have a “budget” for vacations.

That’s just one reason why we want to develop the habit of creating a family budget. The other is so, as I mentioned, we know how much money we need to earn so we can adjust our business budget accordingly … and then we pay ourselves first, not from what’s left over or what’s not yet maxed on our Lines of Credit.

With a budget for your business – projections for the year ahead – it’s easy to see where you’re at in relation to meeting your targets: for sales and for expenses. Course corrections are easy to make along the way to ensure you can pay yourself at the first of every month in accordance with the family budget.

As mentioned earlier it’s essential to eliminate stupid debts; and while doing so I encourage you to increase your savings, as well. To start with, this is an ideal time to start accumulating the 3-months’ reserve. After that, saving for retirement is good investment, whether it be through financial investments or real estate. Speaking with an expert in this field would be a very worthwhile investment of your time.

The most important reason for controlling your finances, however, is because it gives you the power, the courage, to say “NO” to jobs that you just don’t want to do. Ask yourself: “Have I ever taken on a job I just knew I didn’t want to do?” Being in control of your finances will give you the power to turn those jobs down with no fear of from where the next job is coming.

Another powerful reason for being in control of your finances is that it makes it much easier to make decisions. Let’s say you have the purchase of another vehicle in this year’s projected figures and now you learn you need to replace 2 of them. Reviewing your figures you make adjustments by putting some other hefty expenditure off for a bit, or a few smaller ones, or you increase sales … by offering a new product or service, or simply focusing more on helping your customers make better investment decisions in your company (you may be surprised how easy this is to do).

Whatever the “course correction,” it’s much, much easier to make the decisions when you have your course mapped out in front of you and you possess your “power”, thanks to being in control of your finances.

Another topic on which we focus in Strategy #4 is
Getting back to the plan (Strategy #2) by communicating with your financial support teams:
• you and your family (to review your budget and explain the “why”)
• your hired support (to help your staff gain personal power by controlling their finances and to help your accountant, your banker, your financial planner help you get better results), and
• your customers (to get your pricing right, help them become A or B quality customers and introduce your new products and services to them. After all, it’s your customers who pay for everything, right?).

Stay tuned for Strategy #5:
Empower your Support and Lead a Championship Support Team

As general contractor for their current home, Lynne identified that while trade-contractors are great on the tools, they lack the knowledge to earn sufficient profit for the number of hours they invest in their jobs, cutting into their time off.

Check out the newly-launched 7-month tele-seminar program, 7 Simple Strategies 4 Success in-a-binder www.mljcoaching.com/success/7ss4s/; or go straight to the top with The Trade-Contractors’ Business Strategies Program, a year-long coaching & training program for contractors and their teams, covering which are key to every successful business, helping you EARN MORE PROFITS while having MORE TIME OFF.
www.TradeContractorsBusinessStrategies.com

M. Lynne Jacob, Certified Professional Coach (Diploma)
Lynne@mljcoaching.com
Phone: 613-353-9941 Fax: 888-727-1732

MLJ Coaching International – Strategy #3 Follow Through

Strategy #3 originally published with Electrical Contractors Association of Ontario

In the first of this series of articles covering the on which I train, consult & coach, I explained the value of an NTBP (Non-Traditional Business Plan) – your 3-year Vision – as well as the value of time spent planning the development and growth of your business.

We can plan ‘til the cows come home; but only when we follow through on our planning will we reap those rewards we envisioned when creating our 3-year vision. Strategy #3 in The Trade-Contractors’ Business Strategies Program is FOLLOW THROUGH: Hold yourself visibly accountable.

We have the best of intentions while chunking our time and putting it into our agenda. Then urgent issues come up and off we go to deal with them; never to come back to what we had planned to work on.

Which came first – the chicken or the egg? Which changes are you going to make first to get out of the cycle you’re in?

You’re tired of putting out fires. You know that changes have to be made. You still react to what your customers deem to be an emergency … during the business development time you planned.

People resist change. Almost all of us do. More than likely, you’re one of those people … who is resistant to change.

This is why, as mentioned in the previous article, it’s so important that we truly know what we want for our company and for ourselves. Our goals have to truly be our goals – goals for ourselves that are compelling … compelling enough to draw us to them through the resisted changes we must make. If you feel little excitement when you think about your goals, they’re simply not powerful enough.

A really good goal is not only exciting but feels a bit scary. It exhilarates you to think of it. There’s risk involved. The more risk involved, the more fear you feel.

And FEAR is precisely what holds us back! Fear is simply False Evidence Appearing Real.

This is the time when we really need to get proper, external support to make changes. By proper I mean someone from outside of your life and outside of your company. I mean someone who has a fresh perspective; someone who will dare to tell it like it is … not someone who will commiserate with you; feeling your pain and assuring you that what you’re doing is, of course, the only way you can do it. Misery loves company, we say, so there’s lots of support for you to stay stuck.

And I repeat: People resist change. It isn’t easy for us to go through the changes ourselves, and we’re the one with the great ideas for which we see fantastic results. Those around us … family and staff … also resist change and because the change you’re implementing is not their idea, nor do they “feel” the great results you do, it’s unrealistic for you to expect them to provide you with the support you need.

It’s not a stroll in the park to incorporate changes to the way we do things around here. There’ll be some rocky roads, but staying focused on your vision keeps you motivated to continue … consistently & persistently taking one small step after another. Eventually, staying on track, you will, inevitably, reach your destination … your vision.

There are numerous reasons as to why we don’t FOLLOW THROUGH on the changes we’ve planned to reach our goals.

One reason is because we are working towards someone else’s goals. Let’s look closely at the goal, dissecting it and studying all of the “why”s you want to reach this goal. Are you still passionate about your goal – your 3-year vision? Or are you hearing yourself saying “I should …”

“Should” is a word used to give advice. Why would we give ourselves advice? We’re the decision-makers when it comes to what we do. Aren’t we? If you hear yourself using the word “should” listen again. Who’s voice do you hear? That person who gave you that advice, by telling you what you should do had good intentions. However, that may be something that that person would do … or not. After all, is that person in your shoes? If so, has that person done what (s)he said you should do?

When we’re working towards accomplishing goals that aren’t ours, it’s really easy not to follow through on the actions that we know we need to take to reach the destination.

Another reason to not follow through is because of our “societal conditioning.” We have been conditioned since birth to behave in certain ways in order to get certain results. It’s time to break away from those rules. It’s time for you to create your own rules. As long as what you desire for yourself hurts no one, it will enhance everyone. It may not delight everyone, but as long as it’s not taking anything away from anyone then it is, by natural law, giving to them. I could write pages on this, but suffice to say that if you can think of “it”, you can have it. The only reason for your not having it is because of how you’ve been conditioned to tell yourself you should not/cannot have it. So maybe a part of your vision includes something that is so far “out there” that your conditioning is holding you back from following through; for fear you will actually get your desired results.

Did you know that more people are afraid of becoming successful than those who do not fear success? Strange but true.

The only thing stopping us from GREATNESS is … ourselves!

Along the journey to making your vision materialize, you will have doubts. This is normal. We all do. After all, we’re now travelling in unknown territory … and we’re dealing with the conditioning, above.

Listen to your doubts; and continue on the path toward your vision.

Ask yourself: What if this (that my Doubt is telling me) were to happen?
And think it through and prepare yourself: If this happens I’ll ______(do this)________.
But what if this were to happen?
Again, thinking it through, prepare yourself for that scenario, as well: If this were to happen then I’d _____(do this)________.
Now that you have a couple of alternative plans of action you are more empowered. So move on.

It seems simple; and it is! In fact, the simplest steps are often the most profound. And the simplest changes give us the most profound results!

This is why it’s so important to get tough, external support. Create a mastermind group; a round-table. Join one. Seek out a mentor; someone in your field who’s been there and done that. People love to share their success stories! It’s most important to work with a strong accountability partner; someone who won’t let you mislead yourself anymore. Someone who will tell it like it is regardless of whether or not you’ll like hearing what they have to say.

Only by taking action … consistently and persistently … on our ideas will we get the results we desire.

M. Lynne Jacob, business success coach of MLJ Coaching & Consulting offers an e-course with 7 weeks of simple 1-page lessons and 15-minute 1-on-1 telephone coaching sessions to help you better manage your time so that you, too, can EASILY GET WHAT YOU WANT simply from the Way YOU USE YOUR TIME.
To register, visit http://www.mljcoaching.com/success/time/, e-mail Lynne@mljcoaching.com or call 613-353-9941. www.TradeContractorsBusinessStrategies.com

MLJ Coaching International – Strategy #2, Plan the Time to Plan

Strategy #2 originally published with Electrical Contractors Association of Ontario

“How will my 3-year Vision (my Business Plan) ever come to fruition, when I’m so busy putting out fires and dealing with crises every day?” you ask. By planning, that’s how.

Strategy #2: Plan the time to Plan … and Honour it!

After attending one of our workshops (www.mljcoaching.com/jump_start.htm) which provides an introduction to our , a client informed me that he had reflected more on his business in the 3 weeks following this workshop than he had in the 15 years he had been in business.

He enrolled for the year-long training & coaching program because he said he was tired of just putting his head down and ploughing through the day … day after day after day. The workshop showed him that there are other ways of doing it and the ideas that re-surfaced within him motivated him to get the help he needed to “change the way we do things around here.”

Other clients in the construction industry tell me they’re fed up with putting out fires just to make a living. They want a business that runs somewhat smoothly most of the time, allowing energy to deal with a few urgent issues that come up, as opposed to constantly dealing with urgent issues, leaving no time for creating a business that’s within their control.

Planning is what it takes.

Honouring the planning seems to be the hardest part, though. When you see what’s slotted into that chunk of time that you’re about to brush off, what are the consequences for brushing off that task? In other words, what are the benefits you had in mind for having put that task into your planning for that particular day at that particular time? If there’s no benefit to getting that item done, then there’s no big deal about not doing it. Brushing this off today makes it easier to brush other tasks off tomorrow.

You need to know the value of everything you do. You need to assess its importance and its urgency. If you determine it’s important, ask yourself what the benefit of doing it is. Then ask yourself what the outcome would be if it never gets done.

Prioritizing your activities makes it easier to plan your time. A, B, C & D every activity on your endless “to-do list.”

D is for Dump … immediately. Don’t even give it a second thought.

C” category activities can be done by others. One of the hardest things for a self-employed person to do is to hand the reins over to his/her staff. Why is this? Because the staff aren’t competent or trust-worthy? Then why are they still there?

Create systems for everything you do … and I mean everything … and it will be so much easier to train others to do those activities in your place. Not only that, but it will also ensure the survival of your business should (heaven forbid) something drastic ever happen to you.

If you have a “C” activity that isn’t worth training someone else to do, give yourself a short time-frame during which you will either do it yourself or the activity becomes a “D” priority. “D” stands for Dump, remember, so quickly dump it. 30 days works for me, and I have Dumped a few costly issues. I know, however, that the pressure looking at, yet not finalizing, the tasks slows me down sufficiently to cost me in productivity day after day after day. Just DUMP it!

“B” activities are those tasks that are important enough for your business to spend time on doing, but they’re not so urgent that they take priority over an “A” activity. If they can be delegated, slot some time into your agenda to train someone else on these tasks. They’re important enough that they’ve been rated “B”, so it requires thorough training to have them done well by others. If you currently don’t have a lot of time during which you can train others on these activities, even an hour’s training each week will get them moving, and we can always find 1 hour of poorly-used time in each week.

Alternatively, they can and will wait until you take the time to address these activities. Again, even if you only spend one hour per week on them, they’re getting done.

“A”-priority activities, obviously, take top priority on which you, ideally, spend the vast majority of your time. Making “training” an “A” priority will create a business that can be run much more smoothly because the business now has systems on which everyone is trained. Systems are written down. Written documents are, in effect, training manuals.

When there’s a turn-over in staff it’s easy to train the new hire on the existing systems because
- others know how the system runs;
- there are training manuals for easy reference;
- employees can train the new hires, and you only need to follow-up to be sure the jobs are being done the way you want them done. Finding weaknesses in your employees’ training of new hires provides you with valuable information for refresher training for existing staff, as well.

Planning the growth of your business starts with your 3-year vision (the non-traditional Business Plan as mentioned in the previous issue).

1-year plans are then done by the principal (business owner or manager) off-site, in a 1-day retreat.

90-day goals can involve the key employees. You can either set the 90-day goals yourself or, sharing the 1-year plan, ask others to work on the 90-day goals with you. I would block off a ½-day for this.

Monthly Management Meetings include all of the key personnel, making sure you’re on track to reaching your 90-day goals. Agendas ensure brief and concise meetings. No doubt you’re well aware of how easy it is to get off-topic and then not cover all the issues on the list before running out of time. Have you ever left a meeting wondering what, precisely, was decided in the meeting? Be sure to appoint someone as Secretary of the meeting, who distributes the “Minutes” to everyone soon after the meeting took place – not at next month’s meeting. These Minutes show who agreed, or was assigned, to complete which tasks and by when.

Weekly Reflection is such a powerful exercise for which so few people honour the time. Reflecting on your achievements from last week, and mapping out the current week will be the best 15 minutes you spend every single week of the rest of your life in your business.

Daily tasks make up your “to-do list.” Be sure there is a time value beside each of the items on the to-do list and that these items get
- delegated to the proper person; and
- followed up on by the end of the day; … or
- slotted into the appropriate chunk of time in your daily agenda.Daily tasks make up your “to-do list.” Be sure there is a time value beside each of the items on the to-do list and that these items get
- delegated to the proper person; and
- followed up on by the end of the day; … or
- slotted into the appropriate chunk of time in your daily agenda.

The key to planning your business’ development and growth is to assign yourself appropriate chunks of time into the same days of each week. The chunks of time remain the same; the specific tasks differ from week-to-week. This way, you know when a task relating to training comes up that it will happen, for example, on a Wednesday afternoon.

It not only takes systems to run your business, but it takes systems to grow your business, as well.

And I’ll leave you on this thought …

We can plan ‘til the cows come home, but only when we follow through on our planning will we reap the rewards we envisioned when we created our 3-year vision. That leads us to …

Strategy #3: FOLLOW THROUGH by holding yourself visibly accountable.

As general contractor for their current home, Lynne identified that while trade-contractors are great on the tools, they lack the knowledge to earn sufficient profit for the number of hours they invest in their jobs, cutting into their time off. As a solution to this problem, Lynne created The Trade-Contractors’ Business Strategies and Training. www.TradeContractorsBusinessStrategies.com

M. Lynne Jacob, Certified Professional Coach (Diploma)
Lynne@mljcoaching.com
Phone: 613-353-9941 Fax: 613-353-2179

MLJ Coaching International – Strategy #1, Construct a 3-year Vision

Strategy #1 originally published with Electrical Contractors Association of Ontario

Do you know where your business will be 3 years from today?

Kelly asked for some help in creating her 3-year vision. In 3 years, Kelly saw her rapidly growing business in different space. That was in February of that year. On May 1st of the same year – less than 3 months later – Kelly moved her business into a downtown office. Kelly says that professional coaching with MLJ Coaching & Consulting propels the growth of her business.

A mechanical service contractor was challenged to create a vision for his business. The one, and only, component he could see was his business growing into bigger space. Good start.
When?
Oh, 5 years from that time.
How was the business getting to that new size in order to warrant the bigger space?
Well, he really hadn’t thought it out, yet.
When would he be thinking it out?
Hmmmmm … never thought about it.

This mechanical service contracting client, with 5 guys in the field and 2-part time office staff, signed the lease and got the key for that space 13 months after entering into a Business Coaching partnership. It was a challenge organizing the leasehold improvements while running a growing business, but it happened, little-by-little, and they moved in a few months later. The funny thing is that in signing this lease he picked up another client: the whole row of commercial buildings, because his landlord liked his personality. He’s also getting a nice return on his monthly rent from the inventory he’s accumulating. There are now many fewer trips to the suppliers and his buying power has increased.

What holds business owners like yourself back from creating a 3-year vision for their business? From DESIGNING your CREATION: Constructing a compelling 3-year vision? Fear. That’s what. Fear of the unknown. Fear of the perceived extra costs and worrying whether you will always be able to meet those costs. Doing it right, you’re not incurring costs … you’re making an investment, and done right you get ROI … you ought to be getting a Return on every Investment you ever make!

What’s the magic ingredient that gets my clients to reach their 3- or 5-year vision MUCH sooner than their time-frame? Well, there isn’t just one magic ingredient. It’s a whole recipe. The first step is called:

Strategy #1 – Construct a 3-year vision

ACT first by constructing a vision … a compelling vision. This is simple. Just put yourself into a quiet, undisturbed place and allow yourself to imagine. Imagine what you could do with your business and your life if you were to have no obstacles stopping you from getting there. Then, reduce those dreams to writing. Believe it or not, this is a business plan!

First step to dreaming your vision and getting it onto paper is Booking Time into your agenda. I recommend going away for 3 days, all alone, like Wayne of Ferguson Electric did. It was difficult for him to go away alone when he and his family hadn’t taken nearly enough vacations in a long time, but his wife could see the value in it and was very encouraging … because she knew what was in it for the family. A year later, Wayne is elated with seeing how much of his 1-yr plan, towards his 3-yr vision, has become reality.

FOCUS is one of the most important ingredients. Throughout the entire 3 years you’re going to be busy running your business and living your life. Without focusing on your 3-year vision, you’ll lose sight of it. You re-focus on your vision throughout all of the following steps, which will follow in future articles.

Strategy #1 – Constructing your compelling 3-year Vision.

It’s not quite as simple as it sounds when we actually get down to do the work. Our head’s reeling with chatter about what we’re not doing, what we could be doing, what we should be doing … all the while wondering about what others are doing in your absence. We’re thinking of the people we’re waiting to hear back from. On and on goes the chatter.

This is one very solid reason for getting out of your own environment when doing this exercise (and leaving your electronic devices in the trunk of your car).

By taking yourself outside of your environment you’re removing yourself from the temptation to pick up that phone, check those e-mails, chat with others around you.

By removing yourself from your environment, your brain is now busy analyzing the new sights, new sounds and new smells. This keeps all that other chatter at bay for a while.

To quieten even this new, lighter chatter, analyzing your new surroundings, try a light meditation exercise. Just sit quietly with closed eyes and focus on nothing but your breathing. Follow it in, throughout your body and back out. Do this for a good 5 minutes, really focusing on your breathing, and you’ll be amazed at how quiet your brain becomes.

Now, with a quiet brain, allow yourself to imagine. Imagine where your company could be 3 years from today … if you had enough support to stay focused and keep moving.

Working with clients who are developing serious business plans, they first start by looking at their current business doing more, but better, finely-tuned … with mainstreaming their client base, getting a niche market. Then, a few weeks into the project what comes out but some outlandish idea that seems to have come from left field.

It didn’t though. Once they get into the swing of imagining, old ideas are allowed, even encouraged, to resurface. These ideas excite my clients, just like the ideas excited them in that fleeting moment of time some years back – a good 4 years, usually. These are exciting ideas on which they’d never acted because they were lacking a good support system and an accountability partner.

These are the ideas that we’re looking for when creating a COMPELLING 3-year vision. These ideas, whether it be a new project or different results in the existing projects, will be exciting enough to draw you to them. When you focus on these ideas, put them in writing, know they’re possible, they seem to pick up power of their own. One client not only resurrected an idea from some 4 years earlier in one of our business plan sessions, but that very weekend he saw a continuing education course on that idea … and it was the first time this course had ever been offered!

Once you create your goals, good goals that excite you, the goals work with you to be accomplished. How easy can that be?!

So, a few pointers here on constructing your compelling 3-year vision:

1. Book at least a full day, if not 2, to be by yourself … in a hotel room or a cottage on a quiet lake.
2. If you’re a visual person, create a picture in your mind. Don’t be afraid to take magazines on this retreat with you and cut pictures out of the magazine that depict your goals … or sketch them.
3. Incorporate the following categories into this vision: work, finances, family, physical, social, intellectual, spiritual
4. Ask yourself: If we were meeting here in 3 years’ time and looking back over the previous 36 months, what would have had to have happened to you, both personally and professionally, for you to be satisfied with your progress?
5. Compile a lengthy list of all these things. No holds barred. Listen not to that little gremlin in your head telling you it’s a hair-brained idea and that it would never happen. Honour what the gremlin says (this gremlin frequently gives you worst-case scenarios) and push on. Listen to … and honour … your intuition. Intuition is always positive; the gremlin seldom is. Intuition never lies; the gremlin is very limiting. Learn to listen better to your intuition.
6. Prepare yourself for the next step in this recipe …

Strategy #2: Plan the time to Plan … and Honour it! Stay tuned for the next newsletter. By that time you’ll have this compelling 3-year vision and you’ll be asking yourself how it’ll ever come to fruition. By planning, that’s how.

M. Lynne Jacob, Certified Professional Coach (Diploma)
Lynne@mljcoaching.com
Phone: 613-353-9941 Fax: 613-353-2179

MLJ Coaching International – HVAC ProNews Article by Lynne Jacob

Article originally published by HVAC ProNews

It was in 2004 that we bought a gorgeous piece of waterfront, 17 minutes from the city; and in May 2005 we moved into our personally-designed, simple yet elegant, home – nestled so sweetly into the wooded lot that we still meet people today who don’t even know there’s a house “in there.”

What an experience over those 9 months! As with the gestation of a baby, we only vaguely recall the labour pains we experienced during the creation of our home, for which we were the general contractors. Yes, we were! Those poor sub-contractors, eh?

While in the building process, I imagined I’d be writing a book called “So why not build?” but even before the end of the project I came to realize that

Trade-Contractors are, generally, GREAT at their trades.
Their challenges are in wearing the entrepreneur’s hat! After all,
trade-contractors went to trades school, not business school.

In 2005, already a business coach helping solo-preneurs, entrepreneurs & small business owners enjoy more time, more $ and more life, I added a training component to my Menu of Services and the Trade-Contractors’ Business Strategies training & coaching program was born. www.TradeContractorsBusinessStrategiesTraining.com

How about you? Are you tired of
- struggling to get the results you desire?
- striving for the lifestyle you dreamed of before going into business for yourself?
- sacrificing fun for earning a living?

In fact, our most recent client cried when she read Wayne’s story on my website. Darlene called me just last week after having read an article about Connie & Brian, who I met serendipitously in the Vegas airport. (Funny. I’m writing this article en route to the Vegas airport. I guess flying inspires me.)

Darlene told me I was describing them in the Connie & Brian article http://viewer.zmags.com/publication/f802a52f#/f802a52f/28. Her husband then read it (at her insistence, likely) and was hooked. He, too, saw the resemblance. Shortly thereafter he saw the parallel between himself and Wayne. http://mljcoaching.com/cases/electrical/bds/

I do love to write and I’m absolutely passionate about how I serve construction contractors … from the 1-man-band to the business owner with 50 employees, but I’ve been limited to 450 words in this article. (If this article interests you, watch for more.)

How about you? Ready to enjoy MORE PROFIT, TONS more FUN and RETIREMENT … on your terms? Check out mljcoaching.com. Call people you read about … or just cut to the chase and call me at 613-353-9941.

Mention you learned of the T-CBS training & coaching program
through HVAC ProNews Mountain West
and enjoy a Business Analysis Consultation FREE of charge!
That’s a savings of $197! So be sure to mention HVAC ProNews Mountain West.

You, too, can triple your income, triple your sales, more than triple your time off, surpass your 3-year vision in less than 2 years, turn your sinking ship completely around in just 6 months, making it skim along the water like never before.

M. Lynne Jacob, Business Success Coach

mljcoaching.com
Lynne@mljcoaching.com 613-353-9941