Everything Happens in Time

Matrix Key:  Time

"Time brings all things to pass." - Aeschylus

Have you noticed the purple background on the WholeLife Matrix?  It's not just a colorful compliment to the matrix graphic.  The background represents time, and the concept that everything we do, everything in life, happens in time.  The entire matrix is surrounded by time, and time is the one thing we all share.

Few people think they have enough time, and time is often to blame for not achieving certain objectives and intentions.  Why haven't you written job descriptions for your employees, or studied the sales numbers, or met with your top 20 clients?  Is it because you didn't have the time?

Successful people have a very distinct relationship with time.  They seem to get more done with the same 24 hours.  They use their calendars wisely, and schedule projects, meetings and personal time, just like they would schedule a doctor's appointment.  And they show up for what's in their calendars.

Here are four key thoughts about your relationship with time:

1. Radar Screen - where do you watch your time, in your head or in your calendar?
2. Task Collector -  how do you capture all the things you need to get done?
3. Putting Things in Time - how do you arrange your schedule so that you can get everything done?
4. Determine What Not to Do - how do you weed out or delegate what you don't have time to do?

Throughout this blog series, we will touch on the subject of time.  When you use the WholeLife Matrix as a tool for building a happy, successful life, you will become more and more comfortable with your relationship with time.  You will be able to have time to accomplish everything in business and in life.  And you will discover how winners always have time on their side.

Are you ready to win?    

Two Months and Counting

“The bad news is, times flies. The good news is, you’re the pilot.” Michael Altshuler – Entrepreneur

There are only two months left in 2011, and if you are like many salespeople, you are looking closely at those sales goals you set back in January, and wondering how you are going to make it.

Depending on your industry circumstances, and your sales cycle, you may be able to make your numbers and you may not. But no matter where you find yourself on the path to meeting your targets, there are things you can do to make the most of the time you have left, and set yourself up for a winning 2012.

The first task is to make sure you have a specific target. Do you have a set revenue goal? Is it set by you or by your employer? If you are setting goals for yourself, make them specific and measurable. “Make more money” is not a definitive line in the sand. You need a specific target so you know where to aim your efforts.

Next you have to be certain of where you are now. How much distance is between you and your target? How often are you monitoring your progress? Equate that distance to the number of tasks you must complete to reach the goal. How many new clients? How many sales calls?

We coach our clients to aim higher than the actual target. If you need 10 new accounts, be talking to 15 prospective customers. If you need $100,000 in new sales, work on making $120,000. You’ll have a much higher probability of hitting your goal if you are in action to exceed it.

Create a list of actions that, when complete, will get you what you want. Don’t worry if there are too many things on the list. Just create a list of everything you would need to do to get to the goal. 25 sales calls a week. 5 written proposals. 2 product deliveries a week. Make sure that when you look at this list, the tasks would give you a 95% chance of hitting your target. If your list would only get you to 75% of your goal, add more things to the list.

Put those tasks in your calendar. Setting appointments with yourself to accomplish tasks greatly improves the likelihood of you accomplishing them. Your calendar is everything when it comes to meeting your goals. Put your tasks into the calendar and show up.

Create an existence system for your plan. What motivates you to stay on track? A visual reminder of your progress? Working with a team member? Our clients find that working with a coach is the best way to hold themselves accountable to their intentions. A weekly conversation with a coach goes a long way to staying on top of the tasks that will deliver results.

Over the next few weeks, we will explore these ideas in greater detail, and help you structure a plan for winning the game in 2011 and beyond.

Are you ready to win?

The Best of 2010: Strategies That Worked

"Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any one thing." - Abraham Lincoln

This is our final blog post for 2010. Before we uncork the champagne and toast the New Year, let’s look back at business strategies that worked in 2010. Our clients had some terrific successes this year. When we sat down and looked at their breakthrough results, there were some common themes that emerged:

Sales and Marketing Plans – The companies that soared in 2010 were the ones that took a serious approach to sales. They invested time and dollars into well thought out sales and marketing plans, working hard to align on target markets and the necessary actions to pursue them. They continually assessed their progress throughout the year and made adjustments for what was and wasn’t working. A persistent, strategic commitment to sales resulted in unprecedented revenues for several clients.

2. Commitment to Time Management - One of the most important things we work on in our coaching is time management. Business people have lots to accomplish, but what they often don’t realize is that it all has to occur in time. Every activity whether it be sales calls, returning phone calls or management meetings need to be scheduled on the calendar. We tend to let things like sales slide by the wayside when we don’t have it scheduled in our workday. In 2010 the winners were the ones who mastered their calendars.

3. Working as High Performance Teams – We had several clients this year experience tremendous breakthroughs in the ways they worked together. When talented individuals focus on common goals and learn how to shift away from past complaints, the door opens for incredible progress. Coaching gives many companies the forum for developing systems and structures that allow teams to flourish.

4. Taking the Coaching – Companies hire us because they want help fixing whatever is broken in their businesses. We are experts at helping companies develop strategies to improve sales, productivity, profits and efficiency. But as the old saying goes, “You can lead a horse to water…” The companies that succeeded this year were the ones who took the coaching, the ones who were open to change and willing to commit to delivering on their intentions for their businesses.

At Possibilities Unlimited, we are privileged to work with an amazing group of clients who believe in the power of people working together on a common goal. We love partnering with businesses to achieve unprecedented results. If you could use a partner who is just as committed to your business succeeding as you are, we would love to work with you. Give us a call for an introductory consultation and see what’s possible for your business in 2011.

Are You Ready to Win?

Time Management 911

“Difficulties in life are intended to make us better, not bitter.” Dan Reeves, American Professional Football Coach

Even the best time managers have to deal with the unexpected. As far as I know there is no system available on the market that prevents emergencies from happening. Call it Murphy’s Law or bad luck, you can be sure that something will come up to put a wrench in your calendar, just when you least expect it. The key is knowing how to handle the unpredictable, and accepting it as a regular occurrence.

We’ve talked a lot about putting things in time. At Possibilities Unlimited, we train our clients to put all their business and personal activities in time so they can get real with what they have to accomplish. It’s also an accountability system that keeps important activities like sales from falling off the radar screen.

This topic came to me yesterday while I spent upwards of six hours taking my dog to two different vets, one of which was a doggie ophthalmologist forty miles away from my house. Needless to say, this was a pretty big wrench in a day that I had already planned out.

I looked at my calendar and started ticking off the things I could postpone, or not do at all. We call those, respectively, “Not Happening Now's" and “Never Happening Now’s.” There were a couple of things that I needed to keep in the schedule, like an important client call. This blog could wait until the next day, as could the time I had set aside for updating my client database and working on some accounting issues.

I also delegated a few tasks to other people, and recruited some backup on the home front from my husband. At the end of the day today, I will reassess my calendar for next week to make sure I have integrated the things I needed to postpone.

Your calendar should have a couple of hours each week open for handling the emergencies that arise. Leave yourself some wiggle room to move things around to accommodate the fire drills that inevitably occur. If you find yourself with extra time on your hands (and I want to know who you are!) go back to your list of “Not Doing Now’s” and pick on to work on.

Accepting the fact that emergencies are a predictable part of doing business and life, and having a system for working them into your calendar will alleviate the stress and worry of trying to get it all done. You will sail over hurdles instead of letting them stand in your way, and you will be better prepared to win the game of business.

Are you ready to win?

Managing stress

"Worry often gives a small thing a big shadow." - Swedish Proverb

The ability to manage stress can make the difference between success or failure of your business. Stress has an impact on performance and interactions with others. The better you are at managing your own stress, the more you'll positively affect those around you and the less other people's stress will negatively affect you.

How do you know when stress is affecting you physically? Do you feel:
· Anxious, irritable, or depressed
· Uninterested in work
· Unable to get a good night sleep
· Unfocused and unable to concentrate
· Physically ill: tension headaches, stomach problems, high blood pressure, heart issues
· Withdrawn socially
· Loss of morale and drive
· Lack of control when drinking, eating or smoking

Some causes of stress:
· Fear of losing job or business
· Increased work demands due to downsizing
· Fear of not being able to perform at optimum levels at all times
· Guilt over having less time with family
· Lack of time for yourself

How to Reduce Stress:
· Begin a fitness program – walk, jog, bike, yoga – just make sure you make time to get in some cardiovascular activity to recharge your batteries and get the adrenaline flowing through your body
· Eat a balanced energizing diet, low in sugar and salt and high in dietary fiber and protein and low in saturated fats and trans fats
· Get enough sleep – eat a healthy night time snack with tryptophan and calcium
· Reduce alcohol consumption and nicotine
· Get organized – reduce bad habits and time wasters
· Get emotional, psychological, and/or physical help
· Take vacations and recharge

As a business owner, you can help reduce your employees' and your own stress by offering a support network, education, and reminders to keep stress at bay. Design a wellness program which provides stress management. Endorse and encourage physical fitness activities to help with stress. Talk to your employees and give them the ability to express their work-related issues so you can have a basis on which to make change occur. Putting programs in place can lead to reduced stress, improved productivity, and ultimately can help reduce your own stress about your business. When you are feeling good, you can be the leader your business needs you to be and you will be poised to win.

Are you ready to win?

Four Keys To Time Management

“Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do.” – John Wooden, Former Head Basketball Coach, UCLA

Time Management. We all struggle with it, both in our business and personal lives. We work too many hours and then feel guilty about not spending time with our families. Then we go home early one day and feel guilty about not finishing every project on our desk. Time management affects everyone, because our lives take place in time.

At Possibilities Unlimited, I work with clients who are constantly challenged to get everything done. I break down time management into four key concepts:

The Radar Screen: Your Radar Screen is the big picture of everything that wants or needs attention in your life – business projects, family, your dentist, books you want to read, even sleep. Everything that wants a piece of you appears on your radar screen. You have to filter all those events into a manageable system. You have to have a calendar, which becomes the scoreboard of your business. You have to have an agenda. You also need reliable data and project management systems where you can place the events on your radar screen so that they get handled.

The Task Collector: You have to have a way to collect the events or activities that you select off the radar screen. You can’t possibly do everything on your radar screen, so you have to select the things you will do. You can use a computer calendar system like Outlook, or you can use your PDA. Some people still resort to the written “to-do” list. And some people use their mind for their task collector. All the appointments and projects and needs stay in the mind. I do not recommend this approach to task collecting, as you will surely drop something out that was vital for you to remember.

Putting Things in Time: Now that you have your task collection mechanism up and running, it’s time to put your selected tasks into time. First you have to estimate how long each task will take. For instance, I estimate that it takes me one hour to write and publish this blog every week. Estimate how long each activity will take. Then you have to schedule those estimates in the calendar. If sales takes five hours and your production run takes six hours, you may not want to schedule both those tasks in one day. You may need to break sales apart into several days. You need to be realistic about estimating time and diligent about scheduling it. Next you have to manage the schedule. You have to do sales when you have it scheduled and write your blog when you have it scheduled. And when emergencies or changes come up, you have to reschedule tasks for another time in the week. Everything has to be put into time.

Determine What Not to Do: People never stop to consider what they are NOT going to do. What you’re not going to do is very powerful. It gives you the liberty to let go of some things that you are probably fooling yourself into thinking will happen. Like the 50 books you plan on reading. Pick five and tell yourself you will never read them. You are never doing that task. Let it go. Pick another five and say you’re not doing them right now. You reschedule them into the future and realize that you are not doing that now. Some things you are never doing, and some things you are not doing. You also need to delegate tasks to others on your team. They may not do them just like you would or as well as you would, but you need to determine what can be done by others to a standard. Finally, you need to schedule periodic “do-nothing” days, where you have nothing on the schedule and the day is yours. That’s right, you need to schedule time to do nothing if you ever really want to have a “do-nothing” day.

Practicing these four concepts will help you build a strong relationship with time and will ease the pressure on you. You can successfully manage your time and win the game of business/life.

Are you ready to win?

The Business Scoreboard-Calendar

"Our chance of succeeding is much greater when we organize and take control of our lives."
- Merlin Olson, NFL Tackle & Sports Broadcaster

To win the game of business you have to do many things well. You have to keep all the functions of business working and moving forward at the same time. Drop one out and you will not be as successful. You may, in fact, lose the game. Many businesses fail in the first year because management has not learned how to keep all the functions moving forward.

The value of having a business coach is having someone who makes sure you don’t drop something out. You don’t miss an opportunity. You are covering all the bases. Your coach can teach you how to manage your game plan for success.

People will say they don’t have enough time. They can’t find good people. The economy is bad and sales are down. The truth is they are not managing their weekly Scoreboard/Calendar to make sure that they are including everything they need to win the game.

Your calendar is the scoreboard of your success. I see that many people make lists of things to do and never get them done. I found myself at one time working with several different lists every day. For some unknown reason I never seemed to be able to get everything done by the end of the day.

Finally one day I stopped and took the time to estimate how much time each task on the list was going to take. I totaled the hours only to find that I was trying to put 30 hours of work into a 2 hour timeframe. Not going to happen! I realized that I needed to change the way I operated. I took my task list and put it into my Scoreboard/Calendar. I started scheduling specific times to work on all my tasks. I gave up using a task list. From that point forward I knew where I was going to score points in the game of Business/Life because it showed as scheduled occasions in my Scoreboard/Calendar.

After I experienced the results this lesson taught me, I began coaching my clients to do the same. Did they have time scheduled in their calendars for business development? Did they have time scheduled for sales? Did they have time scheduled to manage production? Did they have time to manage the accounting and collection process?

Using your calendar to keep score not only provides you with a picture of the results, but it gives you a plan for the future. If you do not complete a task one day, you reschedule it into the future. You are always looking at what the future holds as a possibility. You never forget what needs to be done because you collect everything daily and put it into your Scoreboard/Calendar. By following these practices you have a system that keeps you out of the pit of disorganization. This is the foundation for producing more results and having a higher quality of life. You cannot increase your results until you have organized and planned what you have to do and created a system to manage your actions. All of that can be accomplished with daily use of a Scoreboard/Calendar and collecting and scheduling of every daily task.

When you look at your calendar as the scoreboard of your business you can easily see if you are going to be winning at the end of the day/week/year. You can adjust your game plan to respond to the challenges of your circumstances. Your coach can provide perspective for how to work the game plan. And when the buzzer sounds, you will have won the game of business.

Are you ready to win?

The Marketing Plan

"The will to win is important, but the will to prepare is vital."

Joe Paterno, Head Football Coach, Penn State University

1. A Marketing Plan is a Map

Having a plan is the first step to getting someplace. If you were lost in a new city the first thing you would do is ask for directions and get a map. You must have a written sales plan that you use every day if you really want to have sales occur in your business.

Without opportunities for sales you will not have sales. It’s that simple. In today’s current market conditions, our strategy is to market ten times more than you ever have before. You must create a plan that includes sales activities that haven’t been happening. (We know it can be intimidating, but when you have a written plan, you can do it!) Networking, calling former clients, building your client database, putting out a newsletter, reworking your web site – all these actions will create opportunities for sales.

The plan must be on paper and it must be shared with everyone in the sales department

2. Action makes something happen

Actions are what make things happen. When we convert an idea into action we move the project forward. Thinking about it, feeling about it and creating a plan without action does not produce results. You need to create accountabilities and ways to keep the projects in existence. Coming up with a good idea and having everybody agree to it is nice, but unless you meet weekly, measure the results and agree on what is going to happen next, the plan will drop out of existence. And that means less sales.

3. Time is required when anything is accomplished

The one thing that is always present when anything happens is a period of time. If you do not block out a period of time to make something happen it will not get done. This is a key ingredient to the success of any plan. Carving out the time in your calendar to make something happen is the only way to insure that it will, in fact, occur.

4. Planning +Action+Time= Results

Planning +Action+Time= Results is the secret formula for making something happen. Implement this strategy, and you will always have success. You are on the right path to winning when all of these ingredients are included in your project. Make sure you play to win by using this strategy now in your marketing plan. Let us know how it works for you.

Are You Ready to Play the Game?

Performance and the Work/Life Balance

"Discipline is the whole key to being successful. We all get 24 hours a day. It's up to us what we do with those 24 hours."
Sam Huff, NFL Linebacker

According to Dictionary.com, performance is the manner in which or the efficiency with which something reacts or fulfills its intended purpose.

At Possibilities Unlimited, we are committed to coaching you and your business to peak performance. When athletes train, they know that their peak performance comes when they achieve the best results with the least effort. When they develop a rhythm. When they combine their skills and experience to maximize their opportunities. We work with clients to reduce the effort needed to achieve the desired results – to achieve peak performance.

Business people are busy people. Business people do not have time to waste on situations that are not working. They typically have more things to do than they have time to do them. Well guess what? You will always have more to do than time to do it. We coach people to change their relationship with time. We train people to live the business/life they create instead of one created by the circumstances.

We coach people to put vacations back into their lives. To put family time back into their lives. Golf time back into their lives. Even elite athletes recognize the importance of rest and rejuvenation. You can’t be at the top of your game if you never take a time out.

Managing time is a skill and a discipline just like running or lifting weights. Everything we do happens in time. Work and play both happen in time, and if we can’t manage our time, we can’t manage our business/life balance. We coach people on how to achieve peak performance in the time they have available, and produce more efficient, profitable businesses in the process.

Remember that winners are those who consistently achieve peak performance on the playing field. That peak performance is a result of both hard work and rest, of managing time to achieve a competitive balance. For specific tips on how to set up a weekly schedule for your business, visit our website or call us for a personal consultation.

Are you ready to win?