The Process of Achieving Results

Burke Franklin, Founder & CEO of JIAN, Best-Selling Developer: BizPlanBuilder Software, Best-Selling Author: Business Black Belt

An achievement is much like a process, but you can miss a lot along the way.

Building a business or enjoying a relationship is a process that provides the learning in life, which can often be more important than its value as an accomplishment.

To build a successful company, you need to approach it with enthusiasm for the process of building it, rather than just what you’re ultimately going to buy with the money you’ll make. Answering telephones, making sales calls, talking with lawyers and accountants, perfecting your designs—enjoying those tasks day in and day out is what actually makes you successful. The person you become as a result is what gives you satisfaction, along with money to spend.

In an earlier chapter, I recommended keeping your eye on your goal and worrying less about how you will achieve it just in case the opportunity to achieve it leaps out at you in an entirely different form than you may have planned or expected. The idea is to maintain your goal in sight, but don’t lock onto a particular method for achieving it—remain open to the process that unfolds along the way to achieving your goal. Appreciate the process for what it teaches you as well the satisfaction that achieving your goal will bring. Goal-orientation versus process orientation

Why do we lose sight of the process being more important than the goal?
You figure out what you want, lock onto the method for how you’re going to get it, compute what it’s going to take, and then start to focus on all the necessary details. By this time, it can be easy to lose sight of what it is you want. All you know is that somehow the day-to-day activities will ultimately get you whatever it was you want. Doing them becomes a chore to be completed. You may not see their value as part of an important process.

Writing this book is a process for me. It brings out many stories and makes the difficulties of my business more interesting because I have a story to tell that might help someone else. So now the process of my business is more interesting. And processes can be improved. I’m not suggesting that you learn to enjoy breaking rocks all day. However, when you do appreciate the process you are going through, it’s almost miraculous how you can see ways for improving the process.

For example: In my TaeKwonDo training, it took me a long time to learn how to throw a “wheel-kick.” (Stand facing your opponent, left-foot forward. Spin your head and body around to the right and kick him in the head with the heel of your right foot. Billy Jack, Jean Claude Van Damme, and Jet Li give good demonstrations of this otherwise difficult kick.) I resisted the process of practicing. I was awkward, what I was doing wasn’t working, and I wanted to move on to something else. When I fully accepted that I would just do it (I mean feeling the “OK, I’ll do all of it”—in my mind, heart, body and soul—doing each component over and over as well as implementing the coaching), my practicing became interesting, even amusing, and I progressed so quickly that I got to the point where I started teaching others how to do a wheel kick.

In the dictionary, the word, “practice” means “applying your knowledge.” It doesn’t just mean doing something until you do it perfectly.

As we build JIAN, we take our business processes, painful as some of them are to deal with as well as automate, and build them into our products so other businesspeople like you can use them for their benefit. It’s the practice, and getting better and better at it, that is success.

If you can go with the concept that we’re here on Earth in life to learn and develop, then everything we do from moment to moment can be an important and interesting part of that process.

People are most happy when they are moving toward their goal,
not necessarily after they reach it.
- Steven Snyder, Creative Accelerated Learning Methods

That’s not to say you don’t want to reach your goal. You do. I want to finish this book. But I’m very happy working on it because I know it’s progressing. When the book is done, it may be fairly anti-climactic. So what I need to do is reload and have something else to do next. After writing the book, what I’ll look forward to is promoting it, having it out there, and hopefully, talking to audiences full of entrepreneurs about building your businesses.

I’d rather screw up than stand still.
We do need to get there from here… Did you know that a guided missile is off course most of the time? It hits its target because it is constantly correcting its course. When I say, “I’d rather screw up than stand still,” I think of taking small steps, seeing what works, putting in a course correction, and keeping going. I don’t learn much by not taking any steps in the direction I want to go. This is all part of the process.

Is more better?
We’re usually not taught process, we are often taught goals. We’re taught to achieve, to go get, get, get. How much is enough?  

Click here to finish reading...

http://www.jian.com/support/answers.html?category=Business+Black+Belt+Chapters#faq1157156684

"Confidence, like art, never comes from having all the answers;
it comes from being open to all the questions."
- Earl Gray Stevens

Monastery Life

A young monk arrives at the monastery.  He is assigned to helping the other monks in copying the old canons and laws of the church by hand.

He notices, however, that all of the monks are copying from copies, not from the original manuscript. So, the new monk goes to the head abbot to question this, pointing out that if someone made even a small error in the first copy, it would never be picked up!  In fact, that error would be continued in all of the subsequent copies.

The head monk, says, "We have been copying from the copies for centuries, but you make a good point, my son." He goes down into the dark caves underneath the monastery where the original manuscripts are held as archives in a locked vault that hasn't been opened for hundreds of years.  Hours go by and nobody sees the old abbot.

So, the young monk gets worried and goes down to look for him.  He sees him banging his head against the wall and wailing,

"We missed the "R" ! , we missed the "R" !"

His forehead is all bloody and bruised and he is crying uncontrollably.  The young monk asks the old abbot, "What's wrong, Father?"

With a choking voice, the old abbot replies, "The word was...

CELEBRATE!!!"

"Never interrupt someone while they are paying you a compliment."
- Burke Franklin

Attention BizPlanBuilder 10 users

A new update is available for BizPlanBuilder 10 customers. Just open the app, pull-down under Options. Click on Live Updates. Future updates are automatic.

Upgrade your copy of BizPlanBuilder to v10!

NEW! Multi-User Access to Files Enables Collaboration
Now you can share the planning project with your team! Designate an unlimited number of additional users to collaborate with you using password-protected access. (They each need to have their own licensed copy of BizPlanBuilder.) This is true multi-user file-sharing for collaboration — no more emailing files and pasting them on top of each other.
NEW! Collaborate Over the Internet
If you have storage online, you can share files securely over a network, server or the web. When you want it, you can sign up with our online storage partner for anytime/anywhere access to your documents. ($10 / month for 1GB)
NEW! Live updates from the JIAN website keep you up-to-date.
NEW! Instantly add your own documents
Powerful document assembly system lets you add your own documents and easily incorporate them into your business plan.
We’ve updated every document in the system.

The user interface is slick and improved. The biggest improvements that I can see are the new content and the sharing mode.
- David Handel, Beaux Arts du Soleil, Absecon, NJ

No matter which version of business planning software you already have, you can upgrade now to BizPlanBuilder 10 for just $49.77

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Click here to order and download...

If you think life is a battle, you’ll spend every minute looking for a fight.
If business is war, then who are you fighting? And why?
- Unknown

TIPS -- What Loan Officers Look For

Five insights from a Loan Officer and strategies to be sure you get your financing.

How do you hear "yes?" That's the question that gnaws at small business owners in search of a bank loan. If you ask entrepreneurs, it's as though, in their minds, the entire process is riddled with voodoo, uncertainty and a whole lot of luck. But that's not at all how loan officers see the process. Here are pointers from David Scarpinato, a commercial loan officer in Wells Fargo's San Leandro, CA, office.

1. Company profitability. Is profitability a must for applicants? Not necessarily. Sometimes loans get made to high-potential businesses if there is a high probability that the infusion of loan money will bump the business into the black. The more usual rule, however, is for loans to go to profitable companies.

2. A track record. "Startups sometimes win loans but odds are higher when a business comes in with a three-year history," Scarpinato says. Be able to point to steady growth. That builds confidence in any loan officer.

Service & Sales Company Loan Tips
• Go in to set up funding when your books look strong, not when they don't. Loan applications by sales and service firms will look better with little debt.
• Service, sales and construction companies ought to aim for debt to equity ratios of 4:1 ($4 in debt for every $1 in equity) or even 3:1.
• Service companies should show they have collateral that will cover the loan amount.
• The better your story, the more likely you will get approved. Service and sales companies need to polish their explanations about why they need a loan — "What will you do with it?" "How will it make your business better?"

3. Quality financial statements. This means a loan officer wants to be handed well-organized, readable financials. Do they have to be prepared by a financial professional? Not necessarily. Smaller companies can definitely use inexpensive, off-the-shelf software. The bigger issue is: Are the financials credible and understandable? If they aren't, the loan applicant probably isn't going to get very far.

4. A specific need. No loan officer likes it when an applicant shrugs when asked what the borrowed money will be used for. Have a plan. Be able to show how the loan will create more profits.

5. Good personal credit. "Certainly, 'good' is an adjective that covers a range of possibilities—but a bottom line for any small business loan application is that when the credit histories of the owners are strong, the application probably will look better to reviewers," Scarpinato says.

"If you're thinking about applying for a loan, ask your loan officer," Scarpinato says. "We'll talk it over with you and help get you ready to apply successfully." In other words, don't try this alone. Particularly when seeking a first business loan, ring up your banker and ask for insights and tips. Loan officers want to share the information that will help you succeed.

Scroll down to see our new LoanBuilder software!

"My idea of an agreeable person is a person who agrees with me."
- Benjamin Disraeli

Search Engine Strategy Update

For naming files and images in the future:

Don't close the gap
For example, "AngelStrategies.gif"
"AngelStrategies" means nothing to the search engines.
"Angel-Strategies" (with dash) means Angel Strategies -- two possibly useful keywords. To the search engines, a "dash" is a space.

Don't use an underscore.
An underscore is a letter, not a space.
So again "affiliates_signup" is ONE gibberish word that the search engines don't read as its components.

Don't leave a space between words in a file name or image name. This can cause trouble.

Do always use a dash between words.
This is a good idea even for files that don't seem important.
E.g. “box_services.jpg.”
If it's “box-services.jpg” (with a dash), then the word "services" is 'opened'.  As you'll see from your stats, people find the site in all kinds of ways that we'd never think of.  Every exposure of a potential keyword can help.

- Michael Linehan, Marketing Alchemy, www.marketing-alchemy.com

Do you have an article or some useful advice that you you'd like to share?
Please email the editor with your news to appear in Business Black Belt as well as on our website.

"When a person with experience meets a person with money,
the person with experience will get the money.
And the person with money will get the experience."
- Leonard Lauder, chairman, Estee Lauder

New tool for raising capital -- It's what loan officers look for!

Download Loan Builder now and have your "financing package"
in front of your SBA and/or commercial lender(s) tomorrow.

Automated text templates -- easily edit in Word:
- Cover Page
- Cover Letter to your bank
- Executive Summary
Supplemental Documents
- LLC Operating Agreement
- Executive Resume Template
- SBA “LowDoc” Application (.pdf)

Automated spreadsheet templates -- easily edit in Excel:
- Financial Model
- Personal Financial Statement

So far, everyone who has used the JIAN Loan Builder system and service has received financing for their Pizza Pan franchise. It's a wonderful service and has helped me sell franchises!
- Mike DeGirolomo, Franchise Sales Solutions, Chagrin Falls, OH

Files and spreadsheets are compatible with BizPlanBuilder, should you require additional financing in the future. $37

Click here to learn more...
Click here to order and download...
(If you already have BizPlanBuilder, you already have the tools in LoanBuilder -- Better to upgrade to BizPlanBuilder 10.)

"The highest use of capital is not to make more money,
but to make money do more for the betterment of life. "
- Henry Ford

Tax Tricks -- Keep your retirement plan SIMPLE

Offering a retirement plan can be a powerful tool when you’re competing to attract the best employees. It also helps to motivate and retain your existing staff. You might even qualify for a tax credit for establishing a retirement plan for your business. That’s why, if you don’t already have a plan, you should consider setting up a SIMPLE plan.

As the name implies, SIMPLE plans minimize the costs and administration associated with more complex retirement and pension plans. They’re intended for small businesses – generally you’ll qualify if you have 100 or fewer employees. They come in two varieties — SIMPLE IRAs and SIMPLE 401(k) plans. Here are the basics of each.

SIMPLE IRA

With a SIMPLE IRA, you set up an individual retirement account for each eligible employee. Eligibility requirements are low and, in practice, most of your non-union employees will qualify to participate. You’re not allowed to discriminate among employees.

Contributions into the accounts come from two sources. Employees can contribute part of their salary into the account, up to the annual limit ($10,000 for 2006). Their salary deferral contributions are pretax.

As employer, you can contribute in two ways. You can match employee contributions dollar for dollar, generally up to 3% of their salary. Or you can make a contribution of 2% of salary for eligible employees, whether or not they contribute themselves.

There are no annual filings required, and administrative costs are low. If employees leave, their SIMPLE IRA accounts go with them.

SIMPLE 401(k)

A SIMPLE 401(k) works much like a standard 401(k) plan, except that it avoids the costly nondiscrimination testing. Eligibility and employee and employer contribution limits and choices are the same as a SIMPLE IRA. Costs will be higher than for a SIMPLE IRA, although less than a standard 401(k) plan.

Both types of SIMPLE plans offer you a chance to provide an attractive employee benefit with reduced cost and administration. October 2, 2006, is the deadline for establishing a plan effective for 2006. If you think this type of plan will work in your business, we can provide more details of the tax and other requirements. Call us.

- Edward Mitchell, Manager, Management Resources Consulting Group Inc., www.mr-cg.com

"It is not the strongest of the species that survive,
nor the most intelligent,
but the one most responsive to change."
- Charles Darwin

For All You Lexiphiles (Lovers of Words)

• A bicycle can't stand alone because it is two-tired
• What's the definition of a will?  (It's a dead giveaway).
• Time flies like an arrow.  Fruit flies like a banana.
  
• A backward poet writes inverse.
  
• In democracy it's your vote that counts; In feudalism, it's your count that votes.
  
• A chicken crossing the road is poultry in motion.
  
• She had a boyfriend with a wooden leg, but she broke it off.
  
• If you don't pay your exorcist you get repossessed.
  
• With her marriage she got a new name and a dress.
  
• Show me a piano falling down a mineshaft and I'll show you A-flat minor.
  
• When a clock is hungry it goes back four seconds.
• The man who fell into an upholstery machine is fully recovered.
• A grenade thrown into a kitchen in France would result in Linoleum Blownapart.
• You feel stuck with your debt if you can't budge it.
• Local Area Network in Australia: the LAN down under.
• He often broke into song because he couldn't find the key.
• Every calendar's days are numbered.
• A lot of money is tainted. 'Taint yours and 'taint mine.
  
• A boiled egg in the morning is hard to beat.
• He had a photographic memory which was never developed.
  
• A plateau is a high form of flattery.
• The short fortune teller who escaped from prison was a small medium at large.
• Those who get too big for their britches will be exposed in the end.
• When you've seen one shopping center you've seen a mall.
  
• Those who jump off a Paris bridge are in Seine.
  
• When an actress saw her first strands of gray hair she thought she'd dye.
  
• Bakers trade bread recipes on a knead to know basis.
  
• Santa's helpers are subordinate clauses.
  
• Acupuncture is a jab well done.
  
• A man at Bausch & Lomb fell into a lens grinding machine and made a spectacle of himself.
  

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