Issue 12 - November 19, 2010
Hey Genc,
Just imagine how much you would get done each day if you were only moving forward, and not wasting time on the same problems again and again.
Well in this issue of One Step Ahead, I'm giving you a simple plan you can use to finally eliminate the nagging problems you deal with on a monthly, weekly or even daily basis.
Specifically, the problems you KNOW are holding you back from achieving the success you seek online. Serious problems you can't control, much less eliminate.
If you pay very close attention to my essay below, then put these 7 Simple Steps into action, you will soon be able to...
Rid yourself of time-wasters, continual distractions, and seemingly
never-ending waves of problems.
The best part is this... You can use the same 7 Simple Steps to banish ALL of your nagging problems, permanently. Instead of battling each problem repeatedly, as they resurface when you're trying to fix something else.
And in today's Reader Q&A Session, you'll see how to deal with a obstacle many new online business owners experience when entering crowded, competitive markets....
"What do I do if I'm not a guru?"
Be sure to submit YOUR most serious problem while you're there. My answer to your question could help thousands of people who are experiencing the same frustration you are right now.
To higher profits,
Rich  7 Simple Steps to Permanently Eliminating the Problems
That Are Holding Your Business Back
The chief cause of entrepreneurial failure is often what I call "death by a thousand cuts:" The relentless blitz of problem after problem caused by recurring inefficiencies and dysfunctional or missing systems.
All of this leads to constant fire-fighting and continual distractions. You end up dealing with the same headaches over and over again.
These time-wasters undermine your efforts to create and sell a good product that has a viable market. They also keep you chained to your business without any chance of ever achieving a true level of success - what I refer to as "Founder Status."
The key to getting rid of your recurring headaches is to find permanent solutions to your problems, rather than just address each problem temporarily.
Today, I'll tell you exactly how to eradicate these recurring headaches for good.
If you understand what I'm about to tell you... If you change the way you approach the problems in your business... I absolutely, positively guarantee you that your business life will change dramatically. You'll solve problems once and for all, your business will gain the momentum it needs to get increasingly better results, and soon you'll have more free time than you can ever remember.
One of the big secrets to true business success is this: Solve recurring problems once - and solve them for good.
I've talked before about how important it is to systemize your business. In fact, you can completely and permanently eliminate headaches by using systems.
So, when something happens in your business that you do not like - customers aren't happy, shipments are late, or bills aren't paid on time - here's what you do. Rather than just taking care of the obvious headache in front of you, do some detective work and figure out the real source of the headache.
In other words, don't just address the headache temporarily. Instead, find the source of the problem and get rid of it forever with a system.
Listen, a problem is not a disappointment just to be corrected and then written off. It's a wake-up call.
Yes, you correct the immediate negative effects. But then you must take a second step. This second step is key: You trace the problem to its root-cause... Then fix the root problem with a system to ensure the problem never happens again.
Addressing the problem and then taking this second step to permanently and systematically fix the cause of the problem... That's what distinguishes the entrepreneurs who become Founders from the entrepreneurs who are stuck in their business or the entrepreneurs who fail.
I want to share a personal business experience that clearly illustrates where you want to focus your efforts in order to achieve the best results.
Hiring an Idiot or a Breakdown in a System?
About six years ago, I decided it was time to grow my online business. Realizing there was no way I could do everything by myself, I hired two employees.
One of my new employees was David. He was a nice guy who knew computers much better than I did.
But things never worked out with David. He made mistakes constantly. He never delivered the expected improvements I was counting on. In the end, I had to let him go. To put it bluntly, I was convinced that David was an idiot.
For a normal, non-systems-perspective entrepreneur, David's idiocy would have been enough of an explanation. The thinking would go something like this: David is an idiot... I can't afford to have idiots working for me... So I need to fire David, and find someone smarter to work with me.
But a system-oriented entrepreneur (one destined for Founder-level success) would look at the whole problem differently. Instead of simply writing David off as an idiot, he would look at the overall business system and answer a few questions. Such as:
- What was it about our hiring system that allowed us to hire an idiot?
- What management systems could we create to alert us of David's idiocy earlier, so we wouldn't have suffered the consequences we did?
- What trainings process should we have in place to train this idiot so either he would develop the skill set we required or we'd have known he was going to be a problem much earlier in the process?
You see, by looking at David's presence in the business as a breakdown of a system or systems, the systems-thinking entrepreneur can identify the root cause of how an idiot came to work for him in the first place.
The normal, non-system-thinking entrepreneur would fire David and immediately try to find a better employee. Sure, this would solve the immediate problem: Ridding the company of a bad employee. But it doesn't get to the root cause; there's no improvement to the business or the overall process of hiring. This opens the business up to a similar problem in the future.
You need to shift your perspective so you can see the systems surrounding you... And realize that every unwanted effect in your business is the result of a missing or faulty system.
By taking this "breakdown in a system" approach, you can make the necessary adjustments to prevent a problem from ever happening again. So the business doesn't make the same mistake again, and you can avoid a future catastrophe.
From this point forward, whenever a problem arises, instead of looking for a person to blame, look for a system to blame.
In other words, don't think about it as, "So and so let me down"... Instead, ask yourself, "What caused the system to deliver this result? Where and why did the system breakdown?"
Believe it or not, just this shift in thinking can set off a positive chain of improvements in your business.
Eliminate Headaches Permanently With the Frustration Elimination Process
If you've been struggling with any reoccurring issue, challenge, or problem in your business... And it feels like no matter what you do... It keeps resurfacing, showing its ugly head... That's all going to change from this point forward.
Now that you know the right way to redefine your problems (as missing or faulty systems), I'm going to show you an entirely new approach to solving problems in your business. And you'll be a pro at eliminating any problems from any business so they never reoccur.
In short, you're about to become more effective at solving business problems permanently.
To solve problems effectively, you must be able to:
- Identify the real cause - the root cause - of the problem.
- Create a new system to solve it.
Without a systems approach, most people's gut reaction is to focus on people, behaviors, and events associated with the problem instead. But once again, these are almost never the real cause of the breakdown, they're simply symptoms. Which means anything you do to improve the symptom (instead of the system) will be a band-aid approach at best.
Pay very close attention: The very next time somebody doesn't deliver, or somebody disappoints you, you need to stop thinking that it's that person's fault.
Just to be clear... This doesn't mean that the person isn't responsible for the error or failure; what it means is that if you had the right system in place, the problem wouldn't have happened. In other words, the person who disappointed you wouldn't have had the chance to disappoint you.
If you get this, if you use it to change the way you work, your business life will improve by leaps and bounds.
The Frustration Elimination Process is extremely simple. To show it to you in action, let's revisit the story I told you earlier about David, the idiot I hired when I first got serious about growing my online business.
1. Identify a problem in your business.
The problem is I have this idiot David working for me who's screwing up my business and costing me lots of money.
2. Reframe it as a systems problem - from who to what.
Our staffing system is not working properly; it's hiring idiots instead of winners.
3. Probe, get specific, and quantify to get at the root of the problem.
Let's see....
- Did I clearly define the job and the responsibilities before searching for a candidate?
- Did I interview properly to assess David's skill-set and to make sure it was a good fit?
- Did we conduct a trial run of some sort to make sure he was really what we were looking for, and we were really what he was looking for?
- Was training provided? And if so, how did it go?
- When did the first performance issue surface, and was it handled appropriately?
- And so on...
4. Get clear about the problem.
The real problem is we don't have an optimized hiring system. Therefore we're making costly mistakes.
5. Get clear about the outcome you wanted.
I wanted to hire a great candidate for the job, someone who could easily meet the job's current responsibilities, and become a valuable team member to help get our business off the ground. Plus, the new employee would go through a series of trainings to help get him/her up to speed in the shortest period of time possible. (I would actually go much further here, but you should be able to grasp the concept.)
6. Finish the sentence: "The solution is to install a system that will [outcome desired]."
The solution is to install two systems:
System #1 will locate, recruit, hire, and bring on board the ideal candidate for the responsibilities of the job... Someone who stands to become a valuable team member in our company.
System #2 will begin training the new employee before his/her first day, and then continue on for the first few weeks of employment to get the employee up to speed and productivity as soon as possible. This system will also serve as a confirmation process that the new employee is intelligent enough to stay in the position.
7. Define the specific system solution and assign the task of creating it.
Here in step seven is where the real systemization work is done.
Once you know the outcomes you want the new system (or systems) to provide, you can go about creating the system yourself... Or assign it to someone else inside your business.
As you can see, the Frustration Elimination Process is simple. But it is also extremely effective.
And ALWAYS REMEMBER: The more problems you handle this way, the fewer headaches you'll have in your business.
More importantly, the more systems you put in place, the easier it will be for your business to continually improve, and the less it needs you. Which means more time away from the business, more freedom, and ultimately more life to live.
Resources To Grow Your Online Business...
How To WIN The Game Of Online Business
Discover The Common Way Of Thinking
That's KILLING Your Chances Of Success...
And Find Out How Just One Simple Shift
Can Bring You Wealth, Happiness and Freedom!
Special Online Event: Get Free Access Here
Today's Question and Answer with Rich
Question: The one thing that in my mind is an obstacle to my success is that I'm not a guru. And there are so many of them out there in my niche. There are some pretty big names and they publish books...
How can I overcome that lack of success or aiming at that niche
and the fact that I'm not a guru?
Rich's Answer: Well, you have to use what you have. You have to take what you have and make that work for you. So I'll give you an example, but this won't give you the thorough answer. This requires some thinking on your part.
There are two large gurus who service real estate agents. One of them is a broker - a very successful broker and that's his whole angle. He's like, I'm a broker and I'm still out in the fields day-in day-out. I know how it works and I'm bringing it straight to you and he's very large. Another one is not a broker, never been a broker and says, "I know what's working all over the country, all over the world, whatever. And I'm able to bring you not just one technique that works in one location but I'm able to bring you the top techniques that you can take buffet style and apply it to your specific region."
Now, what they both have in common is that they're using what they have. And so, what you need to do is use what you have.
First, to the best of your ability, take a step out of yourself for a second. Looking at yourself, who are you, what are you about, what does your past history say about you. And then why is that better than being with a big name guru?
Are you the guy the insiders go to and because of that, there's the chance to know things that other people aren't going to get a chance to know. There's always an angle and you've just got to figure out what that angle is. And while you never want to lie, you can certainly embellish. Make it seem bigger, different, etc. and so that's what you want to focus on.
But it stems from you. Because if it doesn't, then it's inauthentic and it won't really work. It's always got a lot more power if you look at yourself from a disassociated standpoint and try to think of why would this benefit me.
For example, if I was going to compete with myself and I was brand new to Internet marketing then I might be like, "Look. Sure. Rich Schefren coaches the gurus. But if you're just starting out, then you need somebody who just was starting out a couple of months ago and knows what's working."
I don't believe that to be the case. But nonetheless, that's a logical argument. There's always another side to the coin. What I strongly recommend to you is that it stems from who you are, what you're about. Because it'll always be much more powerful that way.
Because of who you are, what you're about, what your experiences have taught you, what you currently do, how you currently operate. There is some benefit to me, the prospect because of that.
So you've got to let that noodle for a little bit. The way you noodle on something in general is to think about who you are, what you're about. If you do mind maps, map it out, like what could be potentially be useful for the prospect.
If you don't get anywhere, here's what I do. When I'm working on an idea that's really important to me, I try and work on it each day. I might spend 10 minutes certain days and 2 hours another day. But I try and spend some time on it each day. And each day I'll try a different way of noodling on it. One day, I might do a mind map on it.
The next day, I might pretend to have a conversation. I might type it out - like it's between me and prospect and I'm trying to convince them to go with me as opposed to a big guru.
Like if I was in your case. The next day, I might choose the opposite. I might pretend I'm a big guru and consider what the person wants, and see what surfaces that way. Just all different types or ways of engaging my imagination - to see what kind of pops up.
My promise is that if you stick with it and keep trying different ways, you'll find the positioning that will be powerful because there always is a way. It's just the question of the right spin and the right angle. And that comes from knowing your market and knowing yourself. Those two parts are essential.
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