Are you prepared to live the life of your dreams NOW?

Posted by Dr Sarah Farrant

There really are many ways to live your life but there are few that will contest that there are many ways to run your business. In fact there are true and tested ways that, if soundly followed, will enable you to establish a profitable business and contribute handsomely to the life of your dreams. But you have to be prepared to look inside – yourself and your business. And, there are many ways to do this. Just look at the number of books on the business shelves at Borders, Barnes and Noble and other such stores. But, there are business principles that I will share with you here that don’t cost the earth, in fact cost nothing, and by merely implementing them and following through with them will enable you to build a profitable business.
Here are seven points to have in place and remember all of these COST YOU NOTHING!
1) Begin preparing and planning for your business growth. Business planning isn’t a single event in the life of your business. It doesn’t matter what stage your business has reached in its growth cycle – whether it is growing as planned, is having problems, or even moving away from its core business – you must regularly revisit, review and refine all the processes involved in creating and carrying out your business plan. A business plan is the formal structure upon which to build your business. It enables you to:
• Document each stage of your businesses growth.
• Make periodic assessments of each area of your business.
• Make a smooth transition at each stage of growth.
2) Create a structure where each team member knows what area of the business they are responsible for. Agreements are made as to the process to be adopted and the timetable to complete the plan.
3) Know your business. What business are you really in? Lots of people say they are chiropractors and I get that I am one too. But let’s take this one step further. A mentor of mine said to me everyone is in the business of marketing! He would say chiropractors are marketers they are just marketing using the chiropractic message or the health message. So know your business and know what line of business you are in. It makes all the difference to become and remain the master of your ship.
4) Collect information and gather data. Your practice members or clients are of huge value to you. When you start to realize the cost of gaining a new client you will soon begin to realize the true value of the people you already have. Find out as much about them as you can – where do they predominately live, income level, disposable income level, number of children, employed or business owner, religion. All this data makes for great opportunities in the market place when you know who your ideal client is. This one is highlighted…KNOW YOUR IDEAL CLIENT!
5) Analyze your facts. Look at your businesses patterns. Just like we look for patterns and changes in people as they progress through care and create the opportunities to change their life so too do we do this in our business. Look for the patterns in the monthly reports you run so you can maximize your opportunities!
6) Plan your future.
• Create a Vision – where you want your business to be then
• Look at the Mission the steps to how the vision will be achieved.
• Next set the monthly Objectives for instance number of new practice members
• Create broad statements or Strategies as to how the objectives will be met.
7) Give ownership. Ensure your team members have a feeling of ownership. Consistently update and/or change the area of “ownership” as the positions on the team change and new people come into the business or existing members change positions.
To balance this all out I want you to also see what some of the pitfalls are and how these can lead to setting yourself up to fail:
• Your plans are always short term.
• You want to create a profitable business but you’re not prepared to DO WHATEVER it takes to get there.
• There is no inbuilt accountability for yourself or your team.
• Team members are not in the loop.
• There is no vision.
• You’re unable to read a report.
• You are blind to the weaknesses in your business.
• You don’t monitor, update or implement existing or new information.
• Your agreements are not implemented.
So I will pose this question to you again… “Are You Prepared To Look Inside Yourself, To Create A Business That Is Profitable So You Can Live The Life of Your Dreams? And are you willing to do what it takes to get there?

Ref:http://www.drsarahfarrant.com