Can you believe New Year’s Eve is almost here?  We are closing in on 2012 very quickly and It’s that time of year when everyone starts reviewing the goals they had for 2011 and thinking about 2012 goals. 

The approach and complexity of this process is all over the board. From the dreamers who repeat the same goals from year to year yet they never seem to get out of the starting blocks to the serious analytical types who have meticulously measured every step of progress from day one and are constantly reevaluating their direction.  Although there’s not 1 right way to do things, my hope is you tilt more towards the latter of the two approaches.

A goal is a dream with a deadline. – Napoleon Hill

Since you are reading this I am going to take the liberty of assuming:

#1) You have some goals.

#2) Your goals are in writing.

#3) Your goals are tracked at least in some degree.

But at the end of the day, what is the differentiator that propels some people to achieve their goals while others appear to be working just as diligently, but are not having the same level of success?

If you have ever been involved in any type of manufacturing, you are probably familiar with the word, Kaizen. It is a Japanese word meaning “improvement” and it defines a way of thinking.  In manufacturing it is about continuous improvement and is the foundation of the Six Sigma and Lean movements. 

With Kaizen, you are continuously looking for the bottle neck that is keeping you from doing something better, cheaper, faster, and more efficiently. Companies embracing this “continuous improvement” mentality assemble teams to dissect specific areas of manufacturing to determine what the biggest bottle neck is and how they can improve/reduce/remove it. These are called “Kaizen Events”. The results of these events are often transformational for the business.

Try this!

My challenge to you and your team as you think about 2012 and your goals is to perform a “Kaizen Event” on the goals you have struggled to achieve in this past year. What is the bottle neck that is challenged you in achieving it? How can you improve/reduce/remove it? Blaming it on the economy is unacceptable. Whatever your industry, I am sure we can find examples of like businesses who are succeeding. So skip the easy way out and find the real obstacles.

Then, as you establish your goals for 2012, incorporate your findings and use the same process going forward into the New Year when ever you get stuck.  I think you will find it very empowering…and you’ll make a lot more progress!

If you can to this with a group of your peers you will have more success, so I would encourage you not to complete this solo. Understand, self-diagnostics can work, but you risk becoming a race horse with blinders on – be aware of that. Whatever your approach, find the bottle necks in your goals and open them up.

Have you ever looked for the obstacles in your goals? How did you open up the bottle neck? Please feel free to share your thoughts in the comments below.

Chris Steinlage  Kansas City Business Coach

Photo by meddygarnet

photo by hufse

“My hands are locked up tight in fists
My mind is racing, filled with lists
of things to do and things I’ve done
Another sleepless night’s begun”.

Who Needs Sleep – The Bare Naked Ladies

It’s tough to be a business owner and you will have more than your fair share of stress and sleepless nights.  Whether you’re in your first year and ramping up or several years into your business and dealing with difficult clients, employees, competitors…there are a lot of things that can cause you to feel like you’ve been run over by a truck and keep you from getting the sleep that you need.

The good news is that you can address your issues and risks (and your sleeplessness…), here are some key things to watch out for:

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   photo by azrainman

Marketing is the lifeblood of any business – without marketing that works, you’re left wondering where everyone went, with the crickets chirping in the background. 

I’ve said it before – whatever business you’re in, you are also in the business of marketing, or you won’t be in business for long – especially these days.  Unfortunately a lot of business owners don’t really get marketing – maybe they’ll occasionally throw some money at it – buy some advertising and hope it all works out.  But they don’t make it a core process of their business. 

Maybe that worked 10 or 15 years ago, but with the explosion of competition, messages and media everywhere, it won’t work today.

Here are 8 reasons why your marketing isn’t working (and why you’re hearing crickets when you’d rather be hearing paying customers)!

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  photo by christian.senger

We had a great discussion the other day in one of my Peer Group Advisory Board meetings on marketing ideas for a typical small business.  There are lots of things that are important when it comes to marketing:

• Understanding who is your best target market,
• Understanding the benefits and outcomes you deliver to that target market,
• Effective ways to communicate those benefits and outcomes (message and medium)
• A brand and a style that fits your core values and strengths

However in terms of succeeding with those marketing efforts, nothing is more important than being consistent.  Just like you can count on the sun setting this afternoon (with or without the beer and the view) you should also count on consistent marketing efforts if you want to keep moving forward with your business.

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Photo by Daexus 

I haven’t been able to play golf in a while (kids and a relatively new business tends to squeeze out your free time).  But I’ve played enough to recognize the one secret that all of the pros have that allows them to be great.  Without this trait, all the talent, brilliance, training or money in the world won’t allow them to compete at the highest level.

Oddly enough, that same trait is a major key for success when it comes to marketing your business as well.

In golf you might be on the 1st tee and hit a 300 yard drive right down the middle, but if you chunk your approach shot (chunk is my technical term for total a total mis-hit that results in a 10 yard dribble up the fairway), it’s pretty unlikely that you are going to make par.

A consistent swing that gives you expected repeatable results is the only way to score really low.

In marketing, you might go to a networking event and make 5 great contacts that could really help your business, but if you wait 2 weeks before calling them back, it’s unlikely that you’ll be able to set up very many meetings or convert them to new clients.

A consistent approach in marketing that gives you expected repeatable results is the best way to have a winning business.

Obviously the key in both of these examples is consistency.  How can a consistent approach (or the lack of consistency) impact your business?  Read on.

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