Secrets to Business Success by Derek Kemp

20 Secrets to Business Success

20 Secrets to Business Success Index Page Introduction 4.

Secret 1. Know what Success means to you.

Secret 2. Focus on Your Objective.

Secret 3. Identify the tools, techniques and funds required to achieve Success.

Secret 4. How to find the people and skills you need.

11.

Secret 5. Make people aware what you are looking for.

13.

Secret 6. Find out what you are best at and outsource the rest.

14.

Secret 7. Do not over extend your ability.

17.

Secret 8. Plan your growth.

18.

Secret 9. Find what works.

20.

Secret 10. Always over deliver.

22.

Secret 11. Your number one asset.

24.

Secret 12. Value your time.

26.

Secret 13. Ignore distraction.

28.

Secret 14. Plan your Cash Flow.

30.

Secret 15. Multiple Income streams.

32.

Secret 16. Why Mentors are essential.

34.

Secret 17. Find a Buddy.

36.

Secret 18. A change is better than a rest.

37.

Secret 19. How to measure Success.

40.

Secret 20. Test, Test and Retest.

42.

Conclusion.

20 Secrets to Business Success

Introduction Thank you for opening this book, I really appreciate you spending the time learning as much as you can about Success in Business. I have dedicated my time and my businesses to this one subject and continually study new ways I can help other people achieve Success. I am sure you know, the more people I help become Successful the more successful I become, it is a simple equation, what you give you receive, believe me it works and I practice it day in and day out. Another thing I always do is give far more value than people pay for, why, because people give you far more respect if they know you will put a significant effort into helping them. The end result for me has been a number of joint ventures or business partnerships where I stand to make an excellent return on my time and effort. As you will see from the title page, my name is Derek Kemp the founder of http://yourbusinesssuccessclub.com a club designed to help as many people as possible achieve Success in Business. You can find out more about me at http://derekkemp.com. Enjoy the content.

20 Secrets to Business Success

Secret 1. Know what Success means to you. The definition of success varies from person to person, for some it is just about surviving from day to day. For others it is about being good at sport or a hobby. The question is what does Success mean to you? Let us take a look at some other levels of Success. For many it is passing exams at School or University, it could be getting another qualification which means you get paid more for the job you do. If you are good at Sport it could be winning the league or championship. If you have a Hobby and have set yourself a task to complete something like a painting or model, Success could be the satisfaction of completing the project and being able to show others what you have achieved. Can you start to see the variations of Success, how about if you have climbed the ladder of Success to the very high levels like playing a sport for your country or being a top ten Golfer, Archer or Racing driver. Of course Success could be setting up and running your own business and getting it to a point where it makes more money every year than you can spend. The SECRET. What ever level of Success you choose to aim for, you need to define what Success means to you at the beginning for two reasons. 1. You need to know what you need to do to achieve Success in what ever form you have chosen, for example what you neeed Copyright 2011 Your Business Success Club Ltd.

20 Secrets to Business Success

to learn or study to achieve Success in your chosen area. How much time you need to commit to meet the criteria and what time frame you need to achieve this work in. 2. The second reason is this, you need to have a clear definition of Success so you know when you have achieved it, yes it is easy if you are taking an exam and the results come back with a pass. Is a pass going to be enough, sometimes you need significantly more than a pass, perhaps you need to be in the top ten or even the best out of all the people taking the exam. Hopefully you are beginning to understand the importance of defining the level of success you need to achieve right from the beginning, it really is of no benefit realising just before the completion date that you have not done enough work or you needed to do more research or practice to achieve Success in your chosen area. So many businesses start off with the objective of being successful without clearly defining what needs to be done to achieve their objective. Define what Success means to you from day one.

Secret 2. Focus on Your Objective. The word Focus is crucial when achieving Success, let us first take a look at the word Focus. If you take photos you may know what its means to focus your camera so it takes a clear picture of your chosen target. Modern Cameras take away a lot of the skill in focusing and often get it wrong. More sophisticated cameras and older cameras leave the task of focusing to the user which often means a better result. So what does focus mean in terms of Success in business?

20 Secrets to Business Success

Let me start by saying in my experience many people try and take on too many different things when running a business, others take on too many different products which sometimes are not related. The end result is they spend all their time trying to resolve problems which are often unrelated, the end result is poor results in their business. Have you heard the term too many irons in the fire or they are spinning too many plates, these are good sayings. If you take on more than you can manage the end result is usually far less than you planned. The SECRET. Identify the products or services you want to market and focus your time on energy on them. Avoid being distracted from the main aim of your business, concentrate on what works and get someone else to deal with issues which are not relevant to what you are trying to do. Have you heard the term in the zone, this is often used in sports, but it is relevant in any activity. If you know what I mean you will have seen someone almost perfect at what they are doing, someone who just does not seem to make a mistake. When someone is in the zone they are 100% focused on what they are doing. Just imagine if you could be in the zone when running your business, every decision you make I the right one. Would that make a difference to your business of course it would, so how do you get into the zone. It is called focus, you need to train your brain so when you sit at your desk or walk into your shop you leave all those other distractions outside and concentrate on the issues related to your business.

20 Secrets to Business Success

If you have a team or staff try and work with them to ensure they follow the same process, get everyone into the zone and you will be amazed at how much better things go. So how do you get into the zone so you can focus on what needs doing. Step 1. Allocate non business tasks to other times of the day. Step 2. Know exactly what you want to achieve from your working day. Step 3. Prepare for the day so everything is at hand. Step 4. Make sure the people you are working with know what is required to achieve the task. Step 5. Disconnect yourself from everything else, e.g. phone calls, emails, text etc. Have someone else deal with these for you. Take some deep breathes, relax and then focus only on the task set.

Secret 3. Identify the tools, techniques and funds required to achieve Success. So many people start doing tasks like setting up in business without really knowing what they need to make it happen, this statement is particularly relevant to people trying to set up an Internet business. Lots of people opt for a so called businesses in a box expecting to have all the relevant materials they need to run their own online business, so often when you take a look in the box some of the most important tools and techniques are missing.

20 Secrets to Business Success

More importantly they do not know what tools and techniques they need to create an online business anyway. This same problem often occurs off line too, especially when it comes to funds to run the business. It is so important to know what your business costs will be before you start. This one area alone is usually the reason why most businesses fail before the end of 12 months trading. The SECRET. You may have already guessed what the secret is for this subject, yes the secret is very simple. You need to do the research to make sure you know exactly what tools you need to be able to run a successful business in your chosen market place. You also need to be sure your or your staff or supplier have all the right techniques to be able to deliver the product or service that you have decided to market. Last but definitely not least you need to know how much money you need to cover all the costs to run your business whether on or offline. Yes it is true in many cases running an online business needs far less money to get started, there are still costs and you need to ensure you know what these costs are before you start and then make sure you either have the funds to cover them or know where these funds are coming from. Let me spell this secret out to you, only start running a business once you have completed the research and know exactly what tools and techniques you need and then ensure you have them all available to you from day one. Please do not think you can learn them along the way, if you start before you are ready you will find it extremely hard to succeed.

20 Secrets to Business Success

The same goes for funding, make sure you know what funds you need and know where they are going to come from before you start, never ever assume you can use money from sales to cover the costs in the first year, it might take you a year to make enough money from sales to cover your overheads. Always include the cost of borrowing into your plans, if you have to borrow funds.

Secret 4. How to find the people and skills you need. So many people think they can be a jack of all trades which usually means they will be a master of none of them. All they end up doing is half finishing jobs which in turn means only half a business. We have already spoken about having the right tools, techniques and funds you need to run a successful business. The challenge for most people in finding solutions for each of these items. In this section we are going to take a close look at how to find everything you need to run your business without you personally having to do more than run the business. The Secret. The first secret I want to share with you is very simple, while at the same time for most people I meet very hard to do. Find out what parts of the business you are best at and like doing the most and then find other people to do those things you hate. Be careful though, make sure the people you choose to do the other things like doing those things and can do them well. Please do not just take on the first person who offers to help, make sure they really like doing the task and have the knowledge and skill to do it.

20 Secrets to Business Success

One of the people I met a couple of years ago shared a really good idea with me, when he is traing people to do work for him he videoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s the training for two reason. 1. So if the person is unsure, rather than hoim having to show them again, he says watch the video and follow it every step of the way until you get it right. 2. The second reason for the video is if that person leaves and someone else takes over all you need to do is say watch the video and then put what you learn in to practice. You can save yourself and your staff a lot of time using this simple secret. This is only part of the story, you need to find the tools, techniques and funding to run your business. I do this by attending events where experts are presenting information about the market place you are in. First you can learn so much information from these people, keep up with trends and if careful can purchase some great tools to simplify your business. What do I mean by being careful, make sure what you are considering buying will definitely do the work for you. The second reason for attending is the opportunity to meet other people in your industry who can often provide the service you are looking for. The ultimate secret in this section is to know exactly what you are looking for before you attend an event, have a clear image of your needs, the type of person you need and if possible exactly what you would like them to do for you. Take funding for example, rather than borrow from a Bank, why not find someone with funds who wants to invest in a business just like yours, someone who knows putting their money in the Bank will only earn a small interest, whereas investing it in a business could double or treble the return on their cash.

20 Secrets to Business Success

Right now in 2011 the financial climate is very poor, people with money are only earning a small amount each year. Let us say you need $30,000 to really get your business off the ground, you could easily find an investor who is prepared to invest in your business say for a 10% return on his investment each year for the next 10 years. You pay him $3,000 per year for the next 10 years and then once your business is big enough you pay him back his investment too. That is a much better deal than most banks and at the moment is probably no greater risk. Know exactly what you want and you will find it, I know I do this all the time.

Secret 5. Make people aware what you are looking for. This is so obvious I know, but unless you tell other people what you are looking for how will they be able to share it with you. Of course before you can use secret 5 you need to know what it is you want from other people and why. Whether you believe it or not right now, it is possible to solve every problem you come across in business by using this secret. The SECRET. Let me just start by saying I have used this secret so many times now and it has worked every time I have used it. I am still amazed when it works time after time. It starts like this, first you need to define exactly what you want in such detail you can almost touch it. Now you need to visualize what you want day after day until you get it, when I say visualize I want you to imagine you already have it and what it will do to your business if you had it today.

20 Secrets to Business Success

Whether you believe this or not I know it is true, there is a greater power around us than most people realise. The whole planet works together if we let it and in doing so brings together some amazing things. Now if you can really define something you want and need for your business and have been able to create a clear picture of it and what it can do for you in your mind, the next thing is to promote this idea in written and verbal form to the sort of people who are likely to have what you are looking for. I know what happens if you do not meet the right people, this is exactly what I was saying above, if you really make the effort to create what it is you want in your mind you will find yourself attracted to the people and places where the people go. Before you know it you will start to meet the right type of people for your needs. Here is the final part of the secret, you need to know when you have met the right person for your needs and when you do be prepared to agree to them providing what you need without question. When this first started really happening for me I made a couple of serious mistakes, the first was when I sitting in the Lounge of a Multi Millionaire. This mane really liked me and my team and what we were doing and wanted to invest $75,000 in our business. He was so keen he even had his cheque book open and pen in hand. Guess what, without realising it I managed to talk him out of signing the cheque there and then and yes you guessed it, he never ever signed the cheque. All because in my visualization I failed to see myself taking the cheque and saying thank you very much. Everything you need is out there and someone has it, you need to define who they are and what you want.

20 Secrets to Business Success

Secret 6. Find out what you are best at and outsource the rest. I am sure you are seeing a trend with the various secrets as we go forward, there is a reason for this, if you can take these secrets on board and use them effectively in your business you will see your Success grow week by week. We talked about finding out what you are best at earlier and then finding other people to do the things. Before I suggested you employ these people in some capacity and then train them and record the training to save you time in the future. In this secret I want you to look at another solution which if used and managed correctly can be so much more powerful. The SECRET. Todayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s secret is outsourcing, outsourcing certain tasks to people who do that work all the time can be very effective both from a cost and time perspective. With the aid of the Internet it is now possible to go to certain sites like http://elance.com enter in your requirements and get quotations back from all over the world in a relatively short period of time. The reason I suggested elance is the length of time they have been running their business and the general quality of their outsourcers. There system is very good and as long as you define the task well you will find a range of people capable of doing what you ask and often for a very realistic price. One reason for this is the location they are based in, assuming what you want can be done outside your business then you may take someone on in India or the far east, which means their hourly rate is much lower than in your country in most cases.

20 Secrets to Business Success

There are some things you need to be careful off before taking on an outsourcer. 1. Make sure they understand the job. 2. Make sure you check them out, get some examples of what they have already done. 3. Get some references from some of their other clients. 4. Set them an initial job to prove there ability. 5. Only pay when they have delivered what you want. As with everything else you do define your needs well and you atre more likely to achieve the result you are looking for. Of course you need to define the result too, failing to do this means there is no way of knowing if the person has delivered what you want. Outsourcing is a very powerful way of moving your business ahead faster, you can outsource almost everything from writing information products to getting more visitors to your business, designing and developing websites to name a few. Remember the rules, avoid giving someone the job only to find they do not enjoy doing it either, this often means what you get back is far less than you paid for.

Secret 7. Do not over extend your ability. There is such a variation between the people who make massive investments and/or commitments to start up a business and on the other hand people that make a relatively small initial investment and then fail to continue investing in their business from then on. In this section I am going to talk about getting the right balance between these two groups. Copyright 2011 Your Business Success Club Ltd.

20 Secrets to Business Success

I see so many businesses take on shops and offices, staff and equipment plus stock all as overheads to their business. Some even take it a huge step further and buy in to a Franchise for many thousands of pounds. What this means is a massive investment and overhead to the business from the very beginning. I ask myself why take on such a huge commitment from day one. I also think this must be a real challenge and a huge anchor to the business making it very difficult to make money from day one. On the other side I also see lots of people buying in to some form of business in a box for a few thousand dollars and then fail to invest enough money in the knowledge and skills required to make the business in the box work well. The SECRET. The first part of this secret is quite simple, make sure you have fully researched your market place before you make any, I mean any financial commitment to premises, stock, staff, franchises etc. Business is not about taking a risk, it is about having a clear understanding of your market place, what they need and how to find them before you jump in with even one foot never mind both. Now the good news is if you go to a Bank to raise the funds they will ask you for a business plan, what they will not do is make sure you have a viable business and most likely they will not lend you any money unless you have clear assets they can grab if your business fails. Yes that means if you take out a business mortgage to buy a shop they will almost certainly lend you money, if you are going to get a business loan to by equipment like machines, cars etc you stand a good chance of getting a loan, because again you will have assets they can sell if your business goes down.

20 Secrets to Business Success

Just imagine if you were going to set up a Bank of your own if that was possible, surely you would look to do exactly the same as the Banks, ensure that if your customer got it wrong and the business failed you stood some way to get at least some of your money back. Oh yes, donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t forget those charges, why do you think they are so high, it is to ensure they get the majority of the loan back as quickly as possible just in case you fail. Here is another secret, make sure if you are going for Bank funding make your Company a Limited Liability Company. The title says it all, your personal liability is limited if your business fails and the Banks come after your money. On the other hand if you run your business as a Sole Trader or a Partnership and it fails you will be liable for the whole amount and the Bank may try and take your home if you own one. So what is the next secret, where possible start your business with no premises, cars, equipment and see if you can make it work small first before jumping in to the deep end. Lots of people run very successful business without having borrowed any money. For those of you who have purchased a business in a box and think you have spent all you need to spend then think again, does the box cover everything you need including a mentoring program and the various tools you will need to make the business work. Make sure you have a spare pot of cash to cover unplanned expenses, very few businesses in a box start by creating a business plan designed to help you understand what is required. By the way I am not saying you should not borrow, just be aware of the implications of doing so. Often there are people out there who would invest in your business on much better terms.

20 Secrets to Business Success

Secret 8. Plan your growth. This is probably the most important area for any business, you might ask why? The answer is relatively simple, if you are not looking at your business regularly and seeing if it is expanding or contracting you can quickly run into problems. So many businesses are so busy doing what they do and then one day they find for example they have more customers than they can support. Now you might say too many customers is a really good thing to have, I would say lots of customers is a good thing to have. Too many means you are unable to provide each of your customers with the service or the products they want. Hopefully you can see where I am going here, lots of customers is great, but too many customers is a disaster. The same goes if you do not have enough customers, imagine you have set up your business based around a certain level of turnover and profit and this is based on the number of sales each week, month or quarter. You soon find your expected sales fall short of your needs which in turn puts pressure on your finances. The SECRET. You may have already guessed what the secret is based on the title, yes it is to plan your growth. Good business management works like this, you start off reasonably small, find out what works and what doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t and the plan your growth week by week, month by month and ensure you have enough of everything to ensure your business grows at a rate you can maintain.

20 Secrets to Business Success

It is really as easy as that, here is the challenge for most business owners, it is called time, time to see what is happening week to week. Time to watch the trend especially for a new business, because as the orders grow they get more and more busy leaving very little time to see what is happening. The real secret is to be aware of the time challenge and put systems in place from day one to ensure you know how quickly the business is growing and make sure you have plans in place to either increase stock levels or reduce them. Take on more staff or only have them on as temporary until you know more about what is happening. Above all recognise the need to manage growth so you can see ahead and then plan ahead. Too many businesses fail not through lack of orders, often it is because they have more orders than they can supply. This is especially true when people source products from overseas, often this means delays in delivery which affects the reputation of the business, the end result can often be failure.

Secret 9. Find what works. Let me just start this secret by giving you a little of my background which should help you understand why I have chosen this subject. I have been in business for many years, over the past 20 years I have been working with and Coaching a number of individuals all trying to build themselves a successful business. What I have found is how ever hard I try to get these people to build their business successfully, so many people find it difficult to focus on the important tasks and get distracted onto tasks which are less important.

20 Secrets to Business Success

There is a great book called seven habits of highly effective people written by Stephen Covey and he writes about this very important human trait. Most people find it extremely hard focusing on the most important tasks and end up wasting so much time on other things. We talked about focus earlier in this book and for those reading this as an article check out my article on focus. Human beings are curious, so when something pops up that they find interesting they drop what they were doing and start doing the other thing. I call this the Frog syndrome, jumping from one task to another and never really ever finishing any of them. So what has all of this to do with Finding what works, it is simple really as Stephen Covey writes, identify all the Important and Urgent things and do those first, next complete all the Important tasks next and if you have time do the less important tasks next, or better still outsource those tasks which need doing, but are neither Important or Urgent. The SECRET. You may be wondering how to categories Urgent and Important so let me explain. Usually you are running a business to make money? So when you find activities in your business which make money focus your time and energy on those activities and avoid the frog syndrome. Start by testing a number of different methods, note the performance of each method, make minor adjustments and see if results improve. Once you have found the methods which work the best keep doing them until you are making enough money for yours and your business needs.

20 Secrets to Business Success

Find what works and work it! The challenge for many is once it is working we often want to play around with it and see if it will work better. This is fine as long as we ensure we keep the original version which worked. We call this split testing, we run one method which we know works and every so often try the modified version to see if it works better. You can run them side by side, never ever change the original one which works until you have found one which works better. When changing a method which works only ever change one thing at a time, the reason is obvious to some. Let me explain, you need to know what change, changed the outcome of the test. If you change two or more things you will never know which item changed the result. For example when split testing price, leave one sales page at the price you know sells and change the price of the other sales page, do not change the price and any wording as changing the wording may change the performance of the page. I have no doubt you can use this same principle when doing a sales presentation, please remember if you are converting sales at a good level already please do not change your presentation just for the sake of change. Remember: Find out what works and work it.

Secret 10. Always over deliver. So first let me define deliver to you. Deliver means what you are selling, if it is a physical product make sure it does much more than is stated in your sale material. People like to receive something extra, so why not surprise them with some form of bonus they were not expecting. Copyright 2011 Your Business Success Club Ltd.

20 Secrets to Business Success

If it is a service you are offering then always go that extra mile and provide them with more than they asked for. Maybe you are repairing a piece of equipment, why not take some cleaner with you and give it a polish when you have completed the repair. Alternatively give them a money back guarantee so they know you can be trusted with the work you do. The second part of this secret is the amount you charge, first let me say I am not suggesting you under charge, at the same time if you over deliver on your service then always under value your quotation. The SECRET. This secret is so simple and you may already know it. Let me explain, by over delivering on what you promised and under charging for the job or product, your customer will remember you and come back and buy from you time and time again. What is even better is this, your customer will tell their friends about your business and recommend you to more and more people, when their friend buys and receives the same product or service they are likely to tell their friends too. Before you know it you can cut your advertising costs and have more and more business coming through the door at a much lower cost and consequently a much higher profit. The secret is to over deliver on the product or service and under deliver on price. One way to over deliver is to go that extra mile and give your customers great customer service, make them feel you care about them. If you are offering a regular service why not send them a reminder when the next order is due, people are always busy and really appreciate it when someone takes the time to remind them. Copyright 2011 Your Business Success Club Ltd.

20 Secrets to Business Success

Guess what if you remind them they will almost certainly buy from you. So to remind you of this secret again. Always over deliver on your product, people like gifts, if you can find a gift which makes them feel really special then they will remember you and your business for a long time to come. If you provide a product or service which the customer feels is worth say $150 and you only charge them $100 for it they will feel they have had really good value for money from you. So when selling the product build the value by ensuring you are going to over deliver and then always under charge. Yes of course make a profit, but make the customer feel they have had really good value for money.

Secret 11. Your number one asset. Over time a company will have a number of assets, it might be the office block or shop you had to buy to run the business. It might be the computer system or machines you need to deliver the service or product you are selling. It might be the delivery vehicles or company cars. Well what I am talking about here is none of the above. So what could I be suggesting is your number one asset? Why not take a few minutes and write down all the things you can think of that could make the difference between success and failure of your business.

20 Secrets to Business Success

Now rank each of those items in priority with number one being the highest priority. No cheating, I know some of you will have read on to see what I am going to share as the number one asset. The SECRET. Before I tell you what I believe is your number one asset I just want to say there are many assets in business. For example the amount of knowledge you have about business itself is a very powerful asset. The amount of knowledge you have about your product or service is a huge asset to your business. The amount of skill you and your team have is a major asset to your business. The list goes on and I hope you have found a number of assets to your business by creating your own list. So what is the number one asset, yes it is so obvious once I share it with you, the trouble is for many businesses they do not treat it as an asset because they think they can always go and get another one if one goes away. Of course it is your Customer. So many businesses spend day after day trying to attract new customers when often if they treated their existing customers better they could cut their costs and make more money. It appears the bigger a company gets the less they value their customers and the more they spend trying to get new ones. So treat you customers like assets, service them regularly and make them feel really special and they will come back to you time and time again. Copyright 2011 Your Business Success Club Ltd.

20 Secrets to Business Success

Now to do this needs a little time and effort, I can assure you the results will pay you back time and time again.

Secret 12. Value your time. Now this is an interesting subject, the word time seems so insignificant most of us ignore it. Time is one of the few things we cannot directly make more of, just imagine if you could have two Mondays in every week, you could get twice as much work done and still be in Monday. Duplicate this every day of the week and you have the perfect solution to one of the biggest challenges in life. Of course time is related to the rotation of the earth, man created to time so they could work out how many hours of day light they would have before it starting getting dark. They also created time to work out when the next meal would be ready and so much more. Just imagine if we did not have time, how would you know when to start work, when to have a coffee break, when to meet a customer or business colleague etc. Yes I know, if we had not created the clock we would have found another way to manage each day. The SECRET. Before I explain the secret I want you to recognise that however hard you try, it is impossible to stop time. It just keeps ticking away minute after minute, hour after hour. So what is the secret, first you need to value your time? Avoid wasting it on activities that will not take you to where you are going.

20 Secrets to Business Success

Make sure the tasks you are doing right now will enable you to maintain the schedule you have set. There is another secret, set yourself a schedule which is achievable and then work to it. So many people leave the important tasks to the end and then wonder why they fail to meet the deadline they or someone else has set. Avoid allowing other people steal your time, make it clear when holding conversations that you have an urgent task which must be completed in a specific time frame and although you want to resolve their issues they must not compromise the task set. I spoke in another secret about spinning plates, avoid spinning plates just because you can, make the most of your time on the tasks which are essential for Success. Some people are very good at managing time, others find it much harder. First establish whether you are good or poor at time management, if you are good at it you may take time for granted, you can improve your time management even further if you take some time to understand why you are good at it. Of course if you are bad at time management then you have a lot more work to do. First you need to understand why you are always late for work or appointments, why you lay in beyond your alarm clock and always find yourself trying to fit a weeks work into the last day. A better understanding of why will enable you to start putting systems in place which ensure you become a better time manager. Watching the late film every night may be the cause of getting up late, try buying a recorder or using an online system for viewing the film at the weekend. You can go to bed earlier and get up earlier making it possible to start work at the right time, maybe even earlier than you need to so you can catch up on time. Copyright 2011 Your Business Success Club Ltd.

20 Secrets to Business Success

Arriving early means you can leave on time and not be trying to catch up with work you should be doing in the usual working day. Time management is great, valuing your time is essential. You really only have a certain number of years on this planet so please use every single one of them in the best way you possibly can. Assume 45 years working. That is 2340 weeks. 11,700 days based on a five day week. 93,600 hours at 8 hours a day for five days a week. Note this does not take vacations in to account or time off sick etc. How many have you already used?

Secret 13. Ignore distraction. I spoke briefly about this in secret 12. What is a distraction, well it comes in many different forms, it could be work related, someone doing something different to you needs your opinion or advice. It could be something else happening in your life, perhaps not related to your business at all. It could be something at home or related to a sport or hobby. Maybe it is a relative or friend who needs your help or needs to ask you a question. It could just be something that pops in to your head, a thought that starts you thinking about something completely different than the task at hand.

20 Secrets to Business Success

Did you know the brain is one of the most powerful computers on the planet and for most of the time you and I only use a small proportion of its potential? So what is the rest of your brain doing while you are using just a small part of it, very good question? Well it is doing lots of other things, making sure you are staying a live by ensuring all your primary functions are working, not such a big job for your brain as it knows how to do this very well. What is often doing is viewing your memories and running a whole series of thoughts related to them, many of these thoughts can easily cause you to become conscious of the thought and drift away from what you are doing. It might be a conversation you had last night, an argument that did not get resolved or a book or film you enjoyed and many other things in your memory. The SECRET. Avoid distractions, they steal your time. Set clear rules for your staff, clients, family and friends, make sure they know when they can call you or the best way to communicate. Rather than phoning send a brief text so you can decide if what they need to discuss is urgent or can wait till later. Concentrate on the task at hand and let your staff know when you are clearly trying to complete a project so they do not interrupt at a crucial time. If you are making business calls then let people know you are in the process of generating new business which will enable you to pay the wage bill this month. Learn to FOCUS, learn how to get into the ZONE.

20 Secrets to Business Success

Remember the top sports person, they can play well beyond the standard of everyone around them because their mind is one hundred percent focused on the task at hand. They often say they did not hear the cheering of the crowd, this is because their mind was so focused on the task at hand it would not allow anything to distract them from what they were concentrating on. Getting into the zone is a great skill for many aspects of life, have you ever had a pain and found it has gone away when you are doing something you are really focused on. This is because you have sub consciously gone in to the zone and your mind has switched off all other thoughts and connected you to every aspect of your brain. Take a look at your surroundings and remove as many distractions as possible and you will become more effective in your role.

Secret 14. Plan your Cash Flow. Does everyone reading this know what cash flow is, well you will be surprised how many businesses fail because of these two words even when they have hundreds of orders on their books. Do you know what I just said, yes, a business with hundreds of orders can fail just because of those two words, how scary is that, very! So let us take a look at those two words separately first and then put them together to ensure you really understand what they mean. The first word is Cash, no I am not talking about the coins in your pocket, what I am talking about is real money in the bank you can use to pay the bills. The second word is Flow, yes like the flow of water out of the tap, in fact this is a great way to demonstrate this part of cash flow. Usually when you turn on the tap, water flows freely from it, the more you open it the more water flows. Copyright 2011 Your Business Success Club Ltd.

20 Secrets to Business Success

Have you ever had a situation where you turn on the tap and the water just dribbles out or no water comes out at all? Now if you checked the reservoir or the tank in your loft/attic you will find plenty of water, it is just not flowing down the pipe to your tap. Let us go back to the two words together â&#x20AC;&#x153;Cash Flowâ&#x20AC;? this means you have enough money in the bank that when you write a cheque or use your credit card or withdraw funds you can pay all the bills your nee to pay. Remember what I said earlier, some businesses find their self in a situation where although they have lots of orders they fail because they do not have the cash to flow out of their account. Just imagine if you took lots of orders by Credit Card and for some reason the Credit Card company failed to release your funds or said you could have the money in two weeks time. Alternatively with current financial legislation in place you took a huge number of orders through PayPal and they were concerned you were doing something illegal, so they froze your account. This is what can happen and it means your cash will not flow, which means you cannot pay the bills and eventually your staff stop working or because you did not pay the supplier, they will not ship the goods so the customers demand their money back and oh yes, you go out of business. The SECRET. The secret is to learn how to manage your cash flow so you never get into any of the above situations. Managing cash flow is a skill, you need to ensure you always have enough money in the bank to cover all your expenditure at any given time.

20 Secrets to Business Success

It could mean paying for something in installments rather than paying for it all upfront. It could be setting up multiple ways people can pay when you are planning for a major marketing campaign which could generate hundreds of orders. It could be you tell customers there is a two week delivery time to ensure you can transfer enough of their funds to the suppliers account so he will ship the goods. It might be having people pay directly into your bank account when the financial transaction is over a certain amount so you have cleared funds before you deliver the goods. The real secret is to manage your cash flow well so you never arrive at a situation where you are unable to pay the bill that is most urgent. Orders do not equal a successful business, cash in the bank and the ability to deliver the goods makes a business successful. So look ahead and make sure you can cover all eventualities before you start any new or expand any existing activities.

Secret 15. Multiple Income streams. This is the item I have been looking for, it is probably the most important item in achieving Success in your Business or any business, this technique alone can ensure the cash flow situation spoke about earlier will never happen to you. So in my usual style lets start by breaking down the title in to smaller chunks. Starting with multiple I am sure you instantly understand the word, not just one or two but lots of different ways.

20 Secrets to Business Success

Next let us look at income or put it another way revenue, revenue is more business like and means we could change the title to multiple revenue streams. Income or revenue means cash coming in to your business from sales, money the customer is paying you for a product or service you are supplying. The word stream is very important in this whole statement, it is similar to cash flow. The aim is to get a revenue stream where stream means something like a small river which continues to flow. Are you seeing how important this term is yet, when we talked cash flow we said how important this was to the Success of your business. So another way of saying the title is â&#x20AC;&#x153;lots of different ways of generating revenue which continually flow your way. The SECRET. So what is the secret to achieving multiple income streams. First you need to take a step back, check behind you first so you donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t trip over anything. Then take a close look at your business and ask yourself this simple question. Or are we earning money from all the different ways possible or like so many businesses are we just making money selling one range of products. Put this another way, what products, knowledge and skills do we have that we could market and turn in to revenue. If you have a team why not sit them down and ask them if they can think of other ways your business could make money. May be you have space you are not using which you could rent out, perhaps you have equipment you could hire to others for cash.

20 Secrets to Business Success

If you provide a service perhaps you could include a maintenance contract so if anything goes wrong the customer is covered. Not knowing your business makes it impossible for me to say what you can do, although if you would like me to help you just send me an email and I will give you a competitive price for evaluating your business and helping you find multiple income streams to enhance your cash flow. The more streams you have the stronger your business will be.

Secret 16. Why Mentors are essential. Just imagine if you had a business partner who had already been very successful in the business you are trying to run and he committed some of his or her time to show you exactly how to build your business for maximum profit. Imagine if the same person or perhaps a second person could help you overcome the challenges of running a business and taught you exactly how to stay focused so every day became more effective than the day before. Some people go even further and look for someone who knows exactly how to look after your body so you stay fit and healthy and always achieve the maximum for every hour you are working. Now I want you to look at this another way. Just imagine if you had no one to guide you to running your business successfully, no one who could help you overcome challenges and resolve really tricky problems. Just imagine if there was no one who could help you stay focused so you found yourself being distracted doing task that were of no use to your business and basically took you on a downward spiral.

20 Secrets to Business Success

What if you had to always workout how to keep going, often had no time for food, missed meals and your body fitness went through the floor. Which would you rather have, the business partner or no one? The SECRET. So many business owners choose option two and then wonder why they become very stressed and often very unhealthy both in moind and body. These same people often rely on their partner and family to help them overcome the stresses and challenges of work. Are you one of these business owners or have you seen the light and hired your own Mentor or as I prefer to call them Coach. I know these people cost money, money you would rather spend on the business. Well let me tell you right now having a Mentor or Coach who is able to work with you for just a few hours each week can be the best investment you can ever make. Running any business is tough, often the demands mean you have very little time to stop and take a look at where your business is going. Just imagine if you were driving a car like that, yes you would soon run in to someone and cause quite a bit of damage. If you had a Mentor, someone who has business experience you could share your business challenges with it would achieve two major benefits. 1. It would mean you would have to look up every so often and see where you are going, which could mean the difference between crashing the business and success. 2. It would also mean rather than taking your stress out on family and friends you could share your thoughts, ideas and Copyright 2011 Your Business Success Club Ltd.

20 Secrets to Business Success

challenges with someone who really understands business and can help you overcome the hurdles. The secret is to find someone who knows how to run a business who can help you by being a good listener, knowing when to give advice and when not to and able to help you get mind and body in the right frame of mind on those days when everything looks bad. Investing in a good Mentor could be money well spent, they may be able to help you improve profits, cut costs, find new income streams, improve cash flow and so much more. Working alone is tough, having someone to share with takes away some of the stress and makes decision making so much easier to do. Mentors are there to guide you, not to run the business for you. If you are looking for a Mentor or Coach why not email me.

Secret 17. Find a Buddy. Being in business can be very lonely, sometimes almost suicidal, well maybe that is a bit strong. Having run my own businesses for the last 20 plus years and been involved with other businesses too I know how lonely it can become sometimes. Having your own Mentor is definitely recommended, I als think you should consider having a support team around you those times when your Mentor is unavailable. I often find it is great if you can share your plans with someone who is not necessarily go to critique them. Someone who you can call when you just need a five minute chat, even someone you can ask to help you stay on track once you have created you plan for the week.

20 Secrets to Business Success

What is even better is sharing this activity with someone, you talk to them about what you are doing once a week and they do the same for you. The SECRET. You have once again guessed what the secret is, yes it is having a Buddy. A Buddy being someone you know and can trust who is there for and you are there for them. Some who is also running a business and finds it useful to share things with someone outside the business and outside the family environment. Ideally you and you Buddy agree a time once a week when you can chat about how you are progressing with your business and you can listen as they do the same. A great way to use your Buddy is for each of you to share a monthly to do list. This alone will mean you need to be more focused on your tasks because each week each of you can share progress discuss challenges along the way and know the other person is there for you. They are not there to judge you, all they will do is try and encourage you to keep on track, stay focus and meet your deadlines without either Coaching or Mentoring you. Yes the word Buddy is an American term and not a word used in the UK, where ever you come from the term means the same, someone who is a friend, there to support you and encourage you to stay on track. At the same time someone you can offer the same service to without either party feeling the other is stealing there time or needs paying for the service. You can often learn some great things from your Buddy, maybe even end up in business partnership together or use the power of two to resolve things one on their own cannot do.

20 Secrets to Business Success

Find a Buddy.

Secret 18. A change is better than a rest. Our brains are like a muscle, the more you use them the bigger they grow. Just like a muscle they need to be rested every so often to give them time to recover. When we are trying to complete a task within a specific period of time we often burn the midnight oil. Put another way we push our mind and sometimes our body to a point where they function much less that we need. What we must remember is our brain is far more powerful than any other part of our body, we spoke before about only using a small proportion of our brains power, so how do we make sure we maintain an effective outcome from it when we are working under extreme pressure to complete a task. The SECRET. Unlike when we have worked a muscle hard, the only way for it to recover is to give it a rest, when dealing with the brain the process is completely different. To build muscle we need to destroy the structure of the tissue so when the body rebuilds it the end result is stronger than before. With the brain the process is quite different, as long as we feed the brain with enough oxygen it will continue to function at the highest level possible as long as you are totally focused on the task. What the brain like sometimes is time to gather all the data you need to complete the task. The best way to allow the brain time is to do or think of something completely different for a short period enabling the brain to sort through all the data and come up with the answers you need. Copyright 2011 Your Business Success Club Ltd.

20 Secrets to Business Success

Rather than slaving away for hours on your computer for example, take short breaks to give your brain time to recover, resolve problems and come up with solutions you are looking for. Yes of course you need sleep as this is when the body can repair itself, sort out all the data stored in short term memory and decide what to keep and what to throw away. Regular breaks will help the brain recover data and resolve problems. Some people even have a timer on their computer for example which reminds them to take a break. Not only do these breaks give the brain a chance, they also enable your eyes to focus on something else avoiding eye strain which is often the reason for feeling tired. So the secret is simple do something different for a short while rather than take a rest and your brain will carry on functioning and resolve problems more effectively.

Secret 19. How to measure Success. This sounds like a simple task, so why do so many people struggle to achieve everything they want from life. Walk in to many businesses right now and ask them if they are achieving everything they set out to achieve right now, you will probably find many businesses are saying they are just getting by and are struggling to achieve what they set out to achieve this year. Before we can measure Success we need to define what it is, what does the word Success mean to you? You are right the meaning does vary from one person to another, success in sport could mean you won or for another person it could mean they did better than last time. Copyright 2011 Your Business Success Club Ltd.

20 Secrets to Business Success

So what about in business, for some it could be that they are still in business and for others they did better than last year. So before you can measure your Success you need to define what Success means to you and your business. It really is hard to measure something if you do not have a clear definition of what it is, it is a bit like saying, how long is a piece of string. If you know its length then the answer is very easy, on the other hand you do not know where it starts or where it ends the challenge is much harder. The SECRET. Before you can measure Success you need to define what Success means to you. Step one is to define your definition of success. Step two now you know what being successful is for you, it is possible to measure your performance against the task to see how successful you have been. Hopefully you can start to see that this needs to be worked at, you cannot just say I have been successful this year or more successful than last year unless you have clearly defined terms for Success. Letâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s say you were looking at income over a twelve month period. You could start by saying you want say $100,000 income by the end of 12 months. Now you have a clearly defined statement you can measure against. This means every month you can compare your income against the target and see what you need to do to achieve your goal. First you could say I need to generate $8333 every month to achieve the target which is your measure of success. If you fall short in month one then you can recalculate what you want in month two and so on.

20 Secrets to Business Success

This same technique works for most things, let say you play a sport and set your self a level of success at the end of a given period, you can monitor your performance month after month to ensure you meet your annual target. If you fail to measure your success you will often find you fail to achieve the goal you set yourself at the beginning. Why do I say this, well because it is often true for one, secondly if you fail to measure your performance against your goal you are unable to modify your approach or put in more effort to achieve it as you have no idea how well you are doing. Measuring your progress is essential to achieving your goals. If you have a good Mentor they will help you measure your progress and encourage you to take more action to achieve your goal. Here is another secret, always set your target much higher than you are prepared to achieve, the brain has a unique ability to tell you that you will get there even though it knows you are going to fall short. If your actual target is lower than the target you set, you are much more likely to achieve your target. Tell your mind to add another couple of zeros on and drive it towards the bigger figure.

20 Secrets to Business Success

Secret 20. Test, Test and Retest. This is the final secret in this series and before I talk about it let me just say, I hope you have found each of the secrets up to now useful in helping you achieve Success in what ever it is you are trying to do. As with all the other content in this book I am sure you will realise it really does not matter what business you are in or how big your business is today, some of these secrets will have made you think, caused you to take action in some part of your business or just get started in business with a much better understanding of what business is about. This final secret is as important as the rest, the title says test, test and retest. So what do I mean by test. So many people start a business, set it up in a particular way and hope they have set up everything right. They then just wait and see if they have it right. Of course based on the fact that some 80% on new businesses fail within a very short while the probability is most of them donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t get it right. Ask Richard Branson the guy who runs Virgin if this is true. Richard will tell you that 8 out of every 10 businesses he starts fail, yes that is right the same 80% of businesses a very successful wealthy entrepreneur starts fail. So now I have your attention I am ready to share the final secret with you. The SECRET. Where would you like your business to be, one of the 20% or one of the 80%, of course I know the answer, for some of you the 80% is

20 Secrets to Business Success

some where you have been before and you may now be I the 20% or this time round you are determined to be in the 20%. You are already likely to be in the 20% if you take on board what I have been sharing with you. Today as I say I want to share one more very important secret with you. Coming from the back ground of engineering makes this an obvious activity for me, for many it is just the opposite, most people work on the basis that setting things up and waiting for an end result is the way of life. As an engineer I have been taught never to really on the first thing you do. Always set up a test and see if you get the right result. If not then set up another test and see if this improves the situation or not. If things get better then try and improve the situation still further and see if you get a better result. Yes as the title says test, test and retest until you achieve the best result you can. There is another secret, it is obvious to me, but may not be to you. Keep a good record of what you are doing and note what works and what doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t. Never throw the first test away until you have a much better one. Secret three is this, do small test first and then when they work start to increase the size of the test and keep monitoring the results, when they start to decline you have probably reached your limit. Let me give you a couple of examples of testing: 1. Email marketing â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Never buy a list of emails and just mail to all of them, always buy a sample first and see if you get results Copyright 2011 Your Business Success Club Ltd.

20 Secrets to Business Success

with them. Ask the supplier for every tenth or hundredth email and see if they convert. Try more than one email just incase the first one does not convert. 2. Direct Mail â&#x20AC;&#x201C; so many people buy a list of names and then spend huge amounts of money creating a direct mail piece. They then spend a huge sum on sending them out only to find the response is not as good as they had hoped. Are you starting to get the message, do small tests first, ensure your mailing converts into sales at the rate you want, see if you can improve the situation with a slightly modified mailing and only when you see the return you can afford (profit) should you invest a larger sum. So the final secret is test, test and retest, only then having achieved the right result should you dive in at the deep end and invest serious money.

Conclusion. Success in business has to be worked at, there are many different lessons to learn. The more you study the better you will become in business. The biggest challenge for most people running a business is having enough time to keep a watchful eye over their business. Use as many of the secrets shared here and you stand a much better chance of achieving the level of Success you set for yourself and those who work with you and those who have invested in your business. If you are looking for a good business Coach then check out http://yoursuccessfactory.com/index.php/coaching.html. If you are looking for another income stream and just do not have the time to start one, consider becoming a Premium Member of http://yourbusinesssuccessclub.com and let us build you one or more steady growing income streams. Copyright 2011 Your Business Success Club Ltd.

20 Secrets to Business Success

I hope you have found the content in this book valuable, I have really enjoyed writing it because every time I write I learn and reinforce the knowledge I have gained over many years. Hereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s to Your Business Success

Best Regards

Derek Kemp Managing Director Your Business Success Club Ltd Author, Publisher, Entrepreneur and Business Coach 44 1622 815666 Skype: guides4you Derek@yoursuccessfactory.com Just imagine if you could turn your Hobby, Sport, Interest or Knowledge into a Steady Growing Income Stream, check out my new membership site at http://www.yourbusinesssuccessclub.com. Why not leave your name and email address and find out how.