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You need to have the right mindset to be successful, and it all starts with focus. Many small business owners get off to a great start and then quickly reach a plateau where they quit growing. The reason for this is they have a plan to get started, and that plan keeps them focused for a while, but once they achieved that initial goal, there is nothing to keep them moving forward. There are three things you need to avoid in your business to maximize success. By avoiding these things, you will find the solution.

1. Lack of cash flow

2. Lack of activity

3. Lack of a definite sound

business philosophy

Let’s start in reverse. The lack of a sound business philosophy leads to a lack of activity, which leads to a lack of cash flow. If you’re not focused with a definite plan and working your plan, you may find yourself wandering through the day wasting time and becoming busy with distractions with nothing to show for it. You might experience moments of success, but without a written plan you’ll never achieve what is possible. Once you find yourself off-track, you can lose a day, a couple of days or even a week, and you’ll never get that time back. That lack of focus will lead to a lack of activity, which, again, leads to a lack of cash flow. Another reason for a lack of activity is just not working hard enough. That usually comes from not having enough belief in what you are doing. Your belief will create the drive you need to move you forward. These two things, a lack of activity and a lack of focus, will certainly lead to a lack of income, so you want to avoid them. As you grow and mature in your business you want it to become more profitable, you want your life to become easier, and you want to keep things under control. Now you might not realize that when you first start out but ultimately this is what you will want. So you want to establish your sound business philosophy, develop it and focus on it as soon as possible.

Once the plan is established it is not set in concrete, and it will change over time, but you will be in control of that change, adjusting to what’s going on in your market as time goes by and as the wants, needs and desires change for you and your clients.

A major factor in planning is pre-planning your week, preplanning each day and time blocking throughout the day. When you do this successfully, it will be difficult for other distractions to creep in during a specific block of time. Once you get your act together, everything else becomes easier. You relieve stress, don’t wander aimlessly, you have direction and know where you are going. With your game plan in place, any goal or anything else you want to emphasize in your business, you simply plug into your system, and you’re on your way! It will make your life easier and simpler. It will fix a lack of activity by causing you to focus on what’s important. Add hard work to the mix and success is yours. Hard work is not always fun, but it is easy to do when you know why you’re doing it and the goals are important to you. If you get all these things down you won’t have any panic management; you won’t be frustrated all the time, and your business will run like a well-oiled machine. Most people don’t build a successful sound business because of a lack of a sound business philosophy and a definite plan. Don’t be one of them.

Jay Thompson is a Business Consultant with the CSU Bakersfield Small Business Development Center. The CSUB SBDC provides premium, one on one, no cost consulting to small business owners in Kern, Inyo and Mono Counties. For more information visit their website at http://www.csub.edu/sbdc.