A well-defined business plan is the cornerstone of success for any business. It helps you direct your attention toward actions that truly work and generate revenue, ensuring a path to sustainable success in the competitive business arena. In this...

A well-defined business plan is the cornerstone of success for any business. It helps you direct your attention toward actions that truly work and generate revenue, ensuring a path to sustainable success in the competitive business arena.

In this enlightening episode, Dr. Terri Levine unravels the secret to unlocking your success through the power of a one-page business plan. She sheds light on the common challenge faced by business owners and emphasizes the transformative advantage of having a well-defined business plan.

She introduces the listeners to the 64/4 Rule, highlighting that 64% of effects only come from 4% of causes. In addition, she explores the difference between successful and struggling business owners, emphasizing that successful entrepreneurs spend money to save time while struggling business owners spend time to save money. Remember, you can always get more money, but you cannot get more time.

Don’t miss out on the opportunity to explore Dr. Terri Levine’s free one-page marketing plan, a valuable resource for those ready to take their business to new heights.

Key Highlights From The Episode: 

[00:44] Today’s Focus: Unlocking your success through the power of a one-page business plan

[01:05] The most common challenge faced by business owners

[02:48] The statistics of businesses that fail within the first 5 years

[06:10] The advantage of having a business plan

[07:14] The Pareto principle and The 64/4 Rule

[07:56] The difference between successful and struggling business owners

[08:51] Terri Levine’s definition of business success 

[09:14] To get the one-page marketing plan, email: terri@heartrepreneur.com

Golden Nuggets:

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Full Transcript:

Hey, it’s Dr. Terri Levine. Thanks for tuning in again to Digital Marketing for Coaches & Consultants. And today, no matter what kind of business you’re in, you really need to hear this because I’m going to talk about the best way to unlock your success. And it’s an indispensable power of a one-page business plan for you as a business owner. So, let’s talk about growing your business fast, and truly having the kinds of rewards that success can bring. So, in my experience, the number one problem that business owners have is the lack of money.

Now, almost every business problem that I’ve seen in these forty-something years as a business consultant for over three decades can be solved with more money. Now, I want you to be completely honest with me, you went into business, and one of the reasons was to make money. Now, if you say, “Oh, I’m in business, I could care less about making money,” you’re not in business. And that’s okay. It’s a side hobby, and that’s totally fine. A hobby is not a business. I know, you want to transform lives, you want to change the world, I know all of that. However, if you don’t have money, and if you’re going broke, or about to go broke, and you’re going out of business, how many people are you really going to help? You’re not going to help anyone.

So, a part of my role as a business consultant is that I assess businesses every single day. And most of the businesses only seem to function at what I consider a mediocre level. And I’m really blatantly honest with business owners. A lot of coaches, consultants, and mentors aren’t, I am. I often tell people, go get a job in your industry. You’ll probably end up working a lot less, having less stress, more benefits, more time to go on vacation, than trying to make a business work and ending up being a prisoner in the business because not everyone’s meant to be a business owner. So, when I look at business owners that have a lot of free time, like I do, tons of free cash, like I do, and are really happy doing what they do, like I do, you may wonder, well, why did they have that, and why don’t I have what they have? So, let’s talk a little bit about statistics.

There’s a lot of variation on the exact percentage of businesses that fail within the first five years. Most statistics estimate that about 90% of businesses fail within the first five years. I’m going to take a very conservative approach to this with you. So let’s think about it, let’s just say only 50%, instead of 90%, 50% fail in five years. So, that means, in five years from now, you will only have a 50% chance of being around. Now, getting worse than that, in my experience, is the real statistic that even if a business doesn’t go under in five years, the owner stays at a plateau for years, and years, and years.

And many of the owners become disenchanted. And, in fact, some are actually miserable. There’s not enough money coming in and not enough profits. They’re making what I consider a modest living, a. And the business owner just sits there. They have this self-created JOB, job that they’re stuck with. It’s this business that they’ve saddled themselves with, and they’re simply not happy doing what it is that they’re doing. And you might be one of these people. And you might feel disillusioned with your fate, or you might have accepted it, or you may feel disillusioned with the industry. And maybe you’re just, quite frankly, tired of living this way. So, in my experience, most people go into business to do the technical thing they’re good at.

My first business 40-something years ago was a speech-language pathologist. I wanted to treat patients as a speech pathologist. When I got into coaching and consulting, I wanted to coach and consult. Software developers, they want to develop software. A virtual assistant wants to focus on administrative tasks. Yet, if you own a business, most of the time, business owners who are failing what I see is they blame their industry. “The industry is failing, the industry is no good.” Meanwhile, I look at that same industry and a lot of people in the same industry are super successful. So sorry, you can’t point the finger of blame at the industry.

If you’re not great, and I do mean great at operations, business, sales, and marketing, it doesn’t really matter how good your skills are technically at the craft, at being a physical therapist, being a coach or consultant, speaker, trainer, author, doesn’t matter, you could be the best one of these things on the planet. You could be the best doctor, the best lawyer, the best accountant, but if you don’t have clients or you don’t have patience, your business will still fail. So, I find it really interesting that most business owners have no business plan. So, if you went to some type of a healthcare professional, they set up a treatment plan for you.

When I was a speech-language pathologist, after I diagnosed you, I set up a treatment plan for you. Hopefully, when you’re in an airplane, the pilot is following a flight plan. Okay. So, instead of your focus getting on more licensing and more… I’ve only had this certification or this license to make me better at the technical thing, no, stop doing now. Where you really need to invest your money and where you need help is on the business side. As the professional in your industry, you have to have a plan, you have to stop winging it. In my experience, business owners who have a plan dramatically, and I do mean dramatically, have increased the probability of their success.

So I want to be really clear, I am not talking about investing 1000s of dollars. I’ve seen people come to me with a $10,000 business plan, 25, 50 pages, I even saw one that was over 100. It’s a complete waste of money, no one’s looking at that every day or following it. Instead, what I do is I helped you set up a one-page business plan. And in that plan, I can show you that about 80 to it could be as high as 90% of the things that you show up and do every single day have no bearing, big zero, on the positive results that you’re getting in your business. You could probably, instead of doing those things, I don’t know, you could sit on the couch, you can binge Netflix all day because most of the activities that you’re engaged in, like most business owners, are time wasters.

I’m telling you the harsh honest truth because I care and you matter. You’ve heard of The Pareto principle. The 80/20 rule. Okay. So, in my studies, I learned that in addition to the 80/20 rule, there’s another rule. And this rule says that 64% of effects, 64% only come from 4% of causes. So, what does that mean? The majority of your success as a business owner comes from the top four actions that you’re taking, top four. Everything else you’re doing, 96% of what you do every day is a time waster. So, the Pareto principle that says 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes, here’s what I see. Most business owners, the ones that are struggling, they spend time in order to save money, biggest mistake you can possibly make.

Successful business owners, on the flip side, they spend money to save time. Get this distinction, it’s very, very important. You can always get more money, however, time is a precious commodity. You cannot get more time. So, make sure that things that you are spending your time on are making a huge impact. Two of my favorite words in business are optimized and leverage. If you want more business success, you need to start paying attention to the things that actually are working and the things that actually are making you money. And you need to expand, you need to optimize the things that are working, that are going to give you the most leverage.

My personal definition of business success is that you bring in more money while you’re actually doing less work. And, at the same time, you’re making an even bigger impact on the clients that you serve. So, I have a formula that works for a one-page marketing plan. It’s super simple. If you want this formula, no charge, I’m gifting it to you, simply send an email to terri@heartrepreneur.com, and I will share my one-page plan with you. I care, you matter. I want you to be successful, and that’s why I’m here with you at Digital Marketing for Coaches & Consultants.

Be sure you’ve subscribed and we totally appreciate your five-star reviews and when you share the podcast. I’ll see you next time here at Digital Marketing for coaches and consultants. Bye now.

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