Business Turnaround: To Thine Own Self Be True
This is my Day 1 review of the Mark Joyner & Simpleology 7 Day Business Turnaround Kit and the Shakespeare's quote seems particularly relevant.
If your business is going in trouble but you are want to turn it around, it all has to start by being brutally realistic.
Mark Joyner's title for Day 1 is:
Grab Your Gut, Stare Down Reality, Map the Road Ahead
In this first day we have an animated 6 minute video which overviews the entire program and motivates you to take action. This is then followed by a quiz to make sure that you have retained and understood the important points.
The course is structured around a course check list and workbook, backed up the the 7 Day Business Turnaround Kit Virtuosity Book (the theory) and the memory joggers to keep you focused on the essentials.
The workbook for Day 1 focuses on your motivations and emotions. What the survival of your business means to you and your family.
If you remember, the turnaround is separated into a four stage process:
- Stop the bleeding - both time and money.
- Stop the stress - move from uncertainty to clarity.
- Inject the business with cash - Mark Joyner's tip is to aim for 2 months of operating expenses to give you time to breathe.
- Refocus the business.
Day 1 is the time for reflection and you will complete analyses which look in detail at the time and money aspects of your business.
The first step is knowledge.
You cannot operate in a position of uncertainty when you don't know the facts about your business and to this extent the 7 Day Business Turnaround Kit follow my own Eight Pillars of Business Prosperity model where the first pillar is knowing your key numbers.
Some businesses I come into contact with have very poor book-keeping systems and getting the house in order can take months so:
a) Don't let yourself fall into that trap if you are just starting out
b) Start improving your record keeping if you are not in a crisis. Find an outsourced book-keeping service to help you.
c) If you are in crisis and you are not up-to-date, you don't have the time to put in the systems so you will have to make the best estimates you can. This is not a good position to be in because without proper records it is very difficult to see exactly what is going on in a business.
When you have your cost details, you will go through and identify which you will keep and which you will stop. The decisions are hard but you can sleep on it overnight. Brian Tracy uses a great technique called zero based thinking for making difficult decisions which I highly recommend.
Day 1 ends with three videos of very contrasting styles from three gurus -
- Larry Winget who tells you to accept that you are responsible for the problems but to get over it and move on,
- Joe Vitale who takes a much softer approach and calls on the Law of Attraction to focus on the positives
- Ted Nicholas who gives you practical advice to help you work with the right mentality, deal with creditors, cut costs and find a cash injection.
There are also a series of coaching calls which Mark Joyner did with a number of people trialing the system (he calls them Space Monkeys) which allow for questions to be raised and answered. As these are not on the official 7 Day Turnaround Program, my intention is to review these calls at the end but they are there to help.
Assessment of Day 1
By the end of the day, you will be clear on just how important it is to fight for the survival of your business and the bald facts about your current business.
It will take a few hours to get this done but nothing is more important than to clarify your position and face up to your situation.
7 Day Business Turnaround Kit sales letter
To Your Success
Paul Simister
Your Profit Coach, business coaching for the customer focused entrepreneur
© Planning & Control Solutions Ltd 2007-2008 All Rights Reserved
Seven Day Business Turnaround Kit Simpleology - general introduction to the program
Cost cutting in your business turnaround - Day 2, getting your business in order
Business turnaround: Finding your cash injection - Day 3 learning how to generate extra cash quickly
Business turnaround: Generating cash urgently - Day 4 to 6 three fundamentally different approaches to raising cash.
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