Over the years of building my business, I discovered that there are seven common steps that successful entrepreneurs follow in order to win in business.

1. Be willing to learn and grow. Be coach-able.
2. Have a written plan of where you are going and why you are going there.
3. Put first things first. Keep your priorities in order as you determine what needs to get done today and what can be delegated or postponed.
4. Always follow a proven system of duplication, rather than recreating the wheel.
5. Focus on the IPAs (income producing activities). Organizing your desk may sound like a productive task, but it will not directly affect your income.
6. Lead by example. You are your own boss. At the end of the day, ask yourself if you would be willing to hire yourself back to work for your company.
7. Stay consistent, and never give up on working towards your goals.

All of the best to you as you work towards your goals!
Your coach,
Michael Sassi

Today’s challenge: As a new day is on the horizon, challenge yourself to reach new horizons. Broaden your vision, know your plan really well, put the plan into action, and sharpen the tools in your toolbox. I have met many people who always have great ideas and big plans, but I have also met people who put that plan into action, by focusing on the daily actionable steps rather than just thinking about them. Guess who the successful ones are? The ones who make the decision and followed through with that decision succeed.

If you are struggling to take action on the things that you know you must do to advance your business or advance your life, it is usually because you are waiting for the ideal moment to take action. There is no ideal moment in time. The time to take action is now! Here is a strategy that helped me take action on things that I often chose to postpone. Count backwards from 5-4-3-2-1, then just GO! Find something that works for you, rather it is a countdown, or a permanent phrase that you state to remind yourself of why you are working on a particular goal, and why now is the time to take action. Procrastination is something that just about everyone struggles with at some point, including students and adults. Make it a goal to procrastinate less, and watch what happens to your productivity!

Another strategy that really helped me become more productive is creating a prioritized task list, not a to-do list. I first begin with a written to-do list, which serves as my first draft. I then assign a letter and number to all of the tasks that are on my list, so that I can re-order them on a prioritized list. Everything on the top of the list are items that must be done now. As you go further down the list, those are items that can be moved to another day or delegated to another person, without you being negatively affected by the postponement.

Have a great month, and remember: the year is half over. There are approximately 30 days in a month. Each day is worth about 3%! Do not wait to take action on your goals for 2018!

Many people spend so much time investing in their employers in numerous ways, such as working overtime, offering solutions for company problems, or giving their best effort on the job, which is great. I believe that people should be loyal to their employers, but the mistake that most people make is they forget to also invest in themselves. Once you understand the value of investing in yourself, you begin to work equally as hard on your own education, improving your own life, and making a difference, rather than having it be a one-sided deal of working for someone else’s dream.
The idea of trading time for money always concerned me, because when you run out of time, you run out of money. Think about the way that your employer gets paid. The business owner does not trade time for money.

When I worked in McDonald’s as a teenager, the amount of revenue or profit that the owner generated was not impacted by how many visits he made to the store, or how many days he worked. I believe that people should also work towards achieving their own goals, and also help those who they care about reach their goals. I was very intrigued by this concept, because his family typically took vacations and travelled around the world on a monthly basis, yet his income remained unchanged. I don’t mention this to suggest that this is a bad thing; it’s actually a great thing, and it motivated me to develop an entrepreneurial spirit, where I can continue to get paid for my efforts, even if I am not trading time for money.

Only five percent of the population understand that an investment in yourself will lead to a significant increase in wealth. It seems that people just get so busy that they forget to invest in themself. Don’t be misled by the word investment; this does not necessarily need to be a financial investment. Investing in yourself can include time spent on: education, learning a new skill, improving your health, or even as simple as removing negative thoughts and replacing them with positive ones. It can also mean that you decided to spend your time to build your own business, rather than building someone else’s. While there is nothing wrong with being an employee, that is exactly what happens. You spend your time to grow the company, and most people typically get paid the same hourly rate or salary, regardless of the contribution. Those who truly understand the value of investing in themselves, redirect some of that time to working on their own business, so that they can enjoy the benefits of being a business owner. I’m not suggesting that you stop investing in other people or your career, but it is too common for people to go through the daily routines of life while forgetting to spend time on improving themselves. When you invest in yourself, amazing things happen to the quality of your life. Choose one area to focus on, and keep me updated on the difference that it made in your life.