Unit of 1 - How To Ensure Long-Term Business Success - Five steps you can't afford to skip

by Brett Krkosska
Have you ever ate an ice cream cone by starting at the cone and eating your way up? No, me neither. Odds are you'll end up with a huge mess and decide it just isn't worth the effort.

Yet many potentially successful businesses are started in just such a manner. To have any chance of success your venture must progress from inception to viability with order and purpose.

No matter what business you undertake, here are some long-term strategies you can implement to multiply your business survival odds many times over.

A Winner Knows The Outcome

Winners are emotionally charged up. Everything you do, and everything that happens to you, has its beginning within you. No event or circumstance is outside of you. Everything is under your control and moving you in the right direction. This is because you have...

1. A burning desire to get what you want.

2. The conviction that you deserve what you want.

3. The confidence that what you want is yours for
the taking.

With this winner's attitude you can turn possibility into certainty and adversity into opportunity. But, rest assured your successes are never happenstance. You create forward movement on purpose - rarely by accident. You plan to win. Here is how you do it...

Turn Your Ideas Into Goals

An idea is like clay. It floats around in your head - shifting, changing, waxing and waning. In order for an idea to take shape in the real world, it must be linked to an end result. A goal is simply the marriage of an idea with the intended results - it hardens the clay.

When you get an idea follow it through to its conclusion. Explore the various avenues your idea can follow. Feel the energy that explodes inside you when an idea leads you down the right path. This energy is a call to action.

Write Down Your Goals

When you have hit upon an idea that energizes you, turn it into a series of goals. The more specific you are about your goals, the fewer wrong turns you'll take along the way. Be absolutely clear about who, what, when, where, and how your destination is to be reached.

Putting your goals on paper makes them solid. Writing things out empowers you with purpose and makes your aim true. Not doing so is like trying to shoot an arrow at a target with your eyes closed.

For a goal to be successful it must be a statement of achievement, and not a casual wish. A wish begins with the words "I hope" or "I want," while a statement of achievement shouts "I am" and "I have." When I decided to publish my newsletter, my primary goal statement was: "I am the publisher of a trend-setting newsletter."

Create a Business Plan

Your plan is a chart for success. It identifies the issues relevant to your business and helps you to move logically through the start-up phase. A good business plan can spare you months of wasted effort, not to mention fistfuls of cash.

Try the Small Business Administration Classroom for an explanation of the components found in a business plan:
http://www.sba.gov/starting_business/planning/basic.html

Business Plan Pro has sample plans and a free tool that guides you through the creation of your own business plan:
http://www.bplans.com

Visualize Your Goal Daily

Create a picture in your mind's eye of you reaping the rewards of your successful business. See yourself enjoying the fruits of your labor. Feel the exhilaration of having achieved that which you want. See the color in your surroundings. Feel the floor beneath your feet. Taste the air around you. Be there.

Tell The World and Take Action

Tell people about your plans. Share your goals with people that can offer support and encouragement. Doing so opens up paths of assistance you may need along the way. People who believe in you have the capacity to bring you new ideas, resources, and contacts that you could not get on your own.

When all is said in done, taking action is the most important thing you do. Many new entrepreneurs fail at this point. Without action dreams stay dreams and goals go unfulfilled.

Do at least one thing every day that moves you toward your goals. As you take action, review your goals to avoid unnecessary moves, but don't be afraid to modify and enhance your goals as needed.

In the end, if you follow these goal-setting strategies you can stay the path and reach your goals. And that's the whole idea...

...always, always stay the path.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Brett Krkosska provides how-to advice on small and home-based work issues. Get start-up guidance, business ideas and inspiration at http://www.HomeBizTools.com. Become a subscriber for a fresh and original perspective on today's business issues.