Winning in Life

In last week’s post I challenged you to think about how and at what point do you know you are winning in your business. There are many different ways to identify your score. You really can know if you are winning or losing. The goal is to have a scoreboard that is up to date and easy to read. This is very important. The sooner you know the score the sooner you can make wise decisions. Let’s look at why this is important.

If you know the score you’ll see one of 3 things. You will be ahead of schedule, on schedule or behind schedule. It’s easy to keep score in business, but how do you keep score in LIFE? This is harder to do. Not impossible but harder, so let’s look at like this. If I had to guess, I would guess your business impacts your personal life in a big way. How much does your business affect your marriage, your family time, your life style, or your health? Do you just keeping working and working and working because you love it. Most of us love this industry, but is that winning in Life? I’m not judging if you think it is, but most people believe there is a lot more to life than work.

If you knew you were winning what would you do?

• Work harder and longer for more profits (not a bad thing if you have nothing saved for a rainy day)
• Go out to eat with your spouse
• Take off early to watch one of your kid’s events
• Take a vacation

 If you knew you were losing, what would you do?

• Try to work through it (for how long?) 
• Restructure 
• Evaluate if you have a Marketing, Sales, Production or Financial issue 
• Hire a consultant
• Take some time off to clear your mind (this is crucial for wise decision making) 

How we spend our time and money usually identifies what’s important to us.

When do you know you are winning?

We can learn a lot from NCAA’s March Madness. Whether you love basketball or old fashion competition, most people can appreciate March Madness. Let’s look at the similarities to business. NCAA tournament starts with 68 teams. A lot of teams/competition. Some teams are power houses with a chip on their shoulders. Some are underdogs and are hungry for any win they can get. Watch out for these guys.

What's your score?  Are you winning or losing?

Some teams have a history or reputation that gives them an advantage in ranking, but they still have to win the games. Isn’t this true with some companies? Each game starts 0-0 with 40 minutes to play. Everyone knows the rules. Everyone knows the score each second of the game. This includes the players as well the spectators.


Knowing the score brings a special intensity for everyone.
     Intensity brings Motivation.
     Motivation brings Achievement.
     Achievement brings Wins.
     Wins brings happy people.

Let me ask you a few questions:
     Do you know if you are winning or losing?
     How frequent is your scoreboard updated?
     Does your team know if you are winning or losing?
     Would your decisions change according to the score?
     Do you celebrate the Win?


We all start with a budget that has us winning in the end, but at what point do you know you are winning?

Contact me if you need help designing a scoreboard for your company.

Brad@rivervalleylandscapes.com

Distraction or Opportunity:

I’ll keep this short and sweet because everyone is short on time at this time of the year. My last couple posts on “When to say no to a Lead” addressed time management. Make sure you are working on things that will make a difference or better yet things that will achieve your goals. You do have goals set right? I see two camps. Are you being reactive or proactive? It is easy to get caught up putting out fires. There are people that find themselves with no plan. Simply reacting to whatever is thrown their way. The others have a plan and very focused. I believe it is better to error on this side of the fence, but be careful. Make sure you are focused, but not blinded throwing away opportunities.

Take a few minutes each day to prioritize and evaluate.

Part Three: “When do you say no to a lead?”

Let’s look at what bad leads can do to you.

• Drain your time


• De-value your product


• Doubt your product


• Cause you to doubt your product and abilities

I want to spend a little more time on the last one. If you hear you are too ______________ enough times you may start to believe it. This is tough because obviously you need to listen to what people are saying. You need to constantly examine your process and product. I just ask you to make sure you are polling your target clientele and not being blown by every passing wind. Stand firm in what you believe. Ask a few of your clients why they chose you. We often ask new leads, “Who else you are talking too? or How did you hear about us?” How about something like this? “Mr. and Mrs. Jones, I know you called us because you saw the work we did at the Johnson’s, but why did you chose to hire me? Fair question isn’t? Don’t you want to make sure you live up to their expectations? Try and let me know if this tip helps you manage your next project.

Just in… #1 thing what poor leads can do? I’m on my way to testify about how much damage widening a road will do to their trees. Think about charging for insurance estimates. We do now.

Enjoy.