If you read my blog last week you’ll remember I talked about the ways that you could be sabotaging your financial future.
And this week I promised to give you my biggest practical tip on how to overcome all of these saboteurs. And I’ll tell you what my top performing clients are doing differently that’s creating the most consistent results I’ve seen.
By the way, if you missed it last week I’d really recommend you reading that first (but make sure you come back!)
The top 6 most likely ways you’re sabotaging your own financial freedom
Just as a quick recap:
- Not having a proper plan of how your business will help you achieve security and freedom
- Not having the right mind set and choosing fear over faith and belief that you can achieve what you want
- Not taking action, getting distracted and a lack of focus
- Not being clear on your route to market, so you can continually generate the leads and sales you need
- Not having the financial visibility and control you need
- Abdication of financial management and control (and therefore your own future)
It’s not just about the numbers – we need a different approach
The main reason I decided to qualify as an NLP practitioner last year was because I worked with too many companies where even though they had the financial control in place and they had great management information, nothing was changing in their financial results.
They were repeating the same patterns that gave them the results they had, and just knowing their financial position wasn’t enough to shift those patterns and beliefs.
So I realised that sustained financial success is about so much more than the numbers, and that I would need a different skill set if I was going to help my clients break through and change their future.
Working out what works
I’m constantly reading and learning, looking for new ways to help my clients accelerate their financial freedom, whilst enjoying their life along the way. So over the last couple of years I’ve developed a system that seems to be really working, and my coaching and retreat clients are seeing a consistently improved financial position whilst they’ve got better balance and more fun in their lives.
This is what they’re doing that most business owners aren’t
1) They’ve got a plan
They’ve got a plan for the big picture. This isn’t necessarily in a lot of detail but they have a very clear idea of their direction of travel.
For most of my clients this involves the option to sell in the next 5 years, so we know we’re building towards something very specific.
And even if you don’t want to sell or exit, or don’t yet know what you want, building a business that you could sell will give you a much stronger business, and gives you more options in the future.
2) The next 12 months
They know what they need to do in the next 12 months. They know the big projects that are musts for them, and they know the outcomes they need to hit. They don’t necessarily know the “how” at this stage, but that doesn’t matter as much as knowing what.
And they break this down into what quarter each project or outcome needs to happen in. Oh and this includes holidays, treats, adventures, family events and health / fitness goals just as much as it does business.
3) The next quarter
At the start of each quarter they set their more detailed outcomes for the next 12 weeks, AND they plan in what week each one will happen.
4) Diary plan
Now this is where a lot of planning falls down. People set the big goals but don’t schedule the actual time they’re doing to do it. My clients don’t leave the retreat or our coaching sessions until they have transferred that quarter’s plans onto specific dates in their diary.
5) Weekly planner
At the start of each week they consult their quarterly plan, and make sure their week is planned to hit their outcomes and targets. We always prioritise health, fitness, family and friends as much as work, as we know that we can only be outstanding in our businesses if our health and happiness are given top priority.
They also update last week’s sheet with what they got done, noting their biggest wins and also examine what didn’t get done and why.
6) Accountability
Accountability is one of the most powerful ways to achieve what you want to. My retreat and coaching clients send their weekly planner to me, and I send my weekly sheet to my coach. This means we’re accountable for what we said we’d do, there’s someone to celebrate with us, or spot if we’re going off track and need some support or encouragement.
How this overcomes self-sabotage
- You can’t over-estimate the power of having a plan, something you’re excited about achieving and want to take action on. Straight away you’re far more likely to work on the most important things that will make the difference.
- Having a plan you believe in will help you to keep the faith when things get difficult. And through the process of week by week working on important projects, and getting stuff done, you build your belief in yourself that you CAN do this.
- By default you’re now taking action and because you have a plan for the year, the quarter and the week, you’re far less likely to fall into mindless distraction when you can see in your diary exactly what you said you’d get done today.
How do we know its working?
Easy. We measure the financials constantly. There’s an incredible correlation between consistently taking action on the most important things, and the financial results. My clients are always working on their profitability, the strength of their balance sheet, building buffer cash, and building the value of their business.
And when you can actually see the direct result of your actions, reflected back as a financially stronger business, and can see the impact that’s already having on your longer term future, it only increases that focus to keep working on the right things.