Business development provides a challenge in the financial services industry. After a three month sprint leading up to tax filings, you often spend a month catching your breath, cleaning up, and maybe taking a little time off. Coupled with summer activities, vacations, and migrations this provides a perfect storm for a lack of summer productivity. What follows are summer business development activities which produce business and set up a fantastic fall finish, and hopefully your best year EVER, while allowing yourself personal time off for family and rejuvenation!

Three distinct opportunities lie before you:

• New Business
• Marketing
• Team Building

Advisors often state they cant do new business during the summer. Nothing could be further from the truth! Consider these three “low impact” business builders to use with your A & High B Clientele.

Beneficiary Audit - Reviewing clients beneficiary designations on insurance and retirement accounts, as well as reviewing account titling provides BIG opportunities for client service and new business!

Risk Reduction Analysis – This covers insurance needs as well as diversification and asset allocation opportunities.

SPD Audit – Make certain you have a current “Summary Plan Description” for client’s retirement plans. Look for rollover and early withdrawal opportunities.

Look for a following article for Marketing & Team Building Ideas. Make this the best summer of you career and your life!

Work Hard & Have Fun!™

The man rides.  Over four days, he plans to ride his bike across the State of Alabama. In the heat and humidity of spring in the Old South, he rides on. At almost fifty years of age, he’s no longer a boy or even a young man. Fifty years ago, the thought of a black man riding a bike across rural Alabama would have been considered curious to downright dangerous. However, the man doesn’t ride alone. Over the four days and 300 miles the man will be joined by tens of others who choose to ride with him at a cost ranging from $200 – $10,000 dollars. Thousands will line roads to see him and his team ride by. Hundreds more will meet him at stops along the way. In spite of the fact he has been both loved and reviled, maybe even hated by people in his home state, he has chosen to make this ride. You see, the man is on a mission.

This is no ordinary man. This is Bo Jackson.

In the 1980’s, Vincent “Bo” Jackson achieved status as a legendary sports icon. A multi-sport athlete, Bo was drafted by the New York Yankees to play baseball. Instead, he chose to attend Auburn University and play football, where he set many records on the way to winning the Heisman Trophy.  He played professional football and baseball, retiring from both sports with distinguished records. Jackson will forever be remembered as larger-than-life, as an unstoppable force.

Nike’s “Bo Knows” ad campaign featuring cross-training shoes played off the popularity of the two-sport athlete. The spots showed celebrity athletes paying homage to Bo’s many talents. Bo Jackson was Michael Jordan before Michael Jordan!
In addition to his athletic career, Bo is a renaissance man of sorts. He returned to college and earned a degree to keep a promise to his late mother. A family man, Bo is noted as a chef, has dabbled in acting and is a successful business owner.

Which leads us to a bicycle tour across Alabama. Jackson chose to ride across his home state to raise money for the victims of the April 2011 tornadoes, which killed over 330 people across six states, including 239 in Jackson’s home state of Alabama. He organized the ride with the goal of raising $1 million for unmet needs as a result of the disaster. On the website www.bobikesbama.com, Jackson states, “The reason for this ride is for state unity and to pay homage to the great Alabamians who lost their lives on April 27th, 2011. I am my brothers’ and sisters’ keeper.” Other athletes and celebrities joined Jackson, as well as ordinary people who chose to donate and participate in the ride. Athletes participating included Scottie Pippen, Lance Armstrong, Ken Grifffey Jr., and Picabo Street.

ESPN’s “Outside The Lines” the ride covered the ride. A segment featuring an 11 year old named Bryce Ferguson, (who lost his parents and only sibling in the tornadoes), showed some of the depth of the human suffering caused by the storms, as well as the effect on Bo. Although retired from professional sports for about two decades, Jackson still carries the physique of a world-class athlete. In interviews, however, you see a man crying for the suffering of others, wanting to make a difference; wishing he could have done more. In speaking about the emotion of the ride, Jackson said, “Everybody expects you to be strong. Everybody expects you to not have feelings…you can’t let ‘em see you cry.”

Bo Jackson did his job well. He was a tremendous professional… but he is retired. So why did Jackson, who has never craved the spotlight, step up to try and make a difference in situation so catastrophic that it can’t be “fixed” by one man? Because Jackson knows we are all called to simply do what we can do, and that is enough, because one person can make a difference, if that person takes action. As we work with our clients, it is important to realize how important it is to them that we do our work well. Like Bo Jackson, we can’t save the world, but all we can do is all we can do. So take care of your clients. Take care of your family. Be an asset to your community. DO what YOU can do.

Incidentally, as of today’s date, Jackson has raised about half of the $1 million goal he established for his ride. If you want to contribute, go to http://www.bobikesbama.com/ to make a donation.

And Phil Knight, if Nike wants to do a new ad campaign, please consider making a change. I know, I know…”Bo Knows.” At least consider something new, something different.

“Bo Gets It.”

My hope is that we get it as well.

Work Hard & Have Fun! ™

CLICK HERE TO SEE THE ESPN PIECE ON “BO RIDES BAMA.”

The economic numbers reported recently provide a dim picture of where we truly are in the economic cycle. Some of the news last week included:

• Jobless Claims Remain Elevated
• Fed Sees Economy Improving
• Companies See Slower Growth Ahead
• Middle Class Jobs Coming Back
• US Companies Betting Big In China
• Gas Prices To Keep Falling
• The Poor Stay Poor
• Don’t Blame The 1% For America’s Pay Gap

To make this worse, these headlines all came from the same source (CNNMoney 4/26/12)!  NO WONDER ADVISORS ARE CONFUSED, TO SAY NOTHING OF THEIR CLIENTS! So what do YOU do? Who do YOU believe? And WHAT DO YOU TELL YOUR CLIENTS?

1. You cannot predict the markets. NOBODY can!
2. You need to do what you can do. There are ALWAYS opportunities.
3. YOU are the person to help them.

Keep it simple; there are some time tested, basic principles that are ALWAYS true.

• Companies have to make money to stay in business and grow in value.
• In healthy economies, people save money. Clients are well advised to save 10% of what they make.
• It always makes sense to reduce taxes.
• You insure risks which seldom happen but have catastrophic costs.
• You use diversification, asset allocation, dollar cost averaging, and other techniques to reduce risk & maximize opportunity
• At the end of the day, the government can’t save you. It’s up to YOU.

Keep pushing; continue to strive! CLICK HERE to read an older article to remind you of the fact that some tremendously successful businesses were started & survived tough times.

Work Hard & Have Fun!

Sometimes Monday starts out with the best of intentions…

Yesterday was a tremendously productive day! Some of the accomplishments included:

• Helped annuity wholesalers craft exciting new sales ideas
• Discussed the basics of how to fire a sales assistant professionally and compassionately with a financial advisor, as well as providing a list of questions for the next interview
• Built a list of “What’s Next?” Closing Ideas for a client
• Delivered a script for an invitation video for a wholesaling company
• Guided a client to a better “Defining Statement”
• Refined the story for a REIT Wholesaler
• Composed and delivered a progress report for a group of business owners

Sounds like a great day! A lot accomplished, successful outcomes achieved, value delivered. My clients were happy, and each saw progress and gained clarity. So…what’s the problem?

I put myself behind, because I didn’t plan my day; I let it happen.

On Friday, when I should have been planning the coming week, (including time to writing this post for Monday publication,) I lost focus of the day. The day was designated to plan, prepare, and repair. I let it “take care of itself” and in the process, put myself in a bind by not planning for the coming week! As a result, I’m TWO days out of sync, and not nearly as effective as I could be due to the lack of planning.

There are four concrete morals to this story:

1. Eat your own cooking
2. Plan tomorrow today
3. Plan next week this week
4. Work your plan

MAKE SURE you leave today’s work with a plan for maximum accomplishment for tomorrow. And do the same for next week. Then execute.

Work Hard & Have Fun!™

Entrepreneurs dream of business success gone viral; serving a marketplace so well that customers and clients are compelled to buy! Success which results in wealth as a result of extreme, unique value creation. Success that continues and leaves a legacy due to innovation. To be successful one should consider studying the success of others. Many look to titans of business for inspiration.

This strategy works, but maybe, just maybe we can draw massive inspiration from a young entrepreneur; maybe one as young as nine years old!

But first, certainly much can be learned and inspiration can come from the ultra-successful; people such as:

Steve Jobs, was adopted as an infant by a couple who nurtured the often frustrated childhood prankster, who was also a gifted, innovative thinker. Jobs is widely seen as the charismatic pioneer of the personal computer. In addition to co-founding Apple, the self-made Jobs also started Pixar Animation, building a net worth over $7 billion.

Mary Kay Ash, whose business plan for her dream company became a reality after starting over at age 45 in the summer of 1963. She and her husband began Mary Kay Cosmetics with a $5,000 investment. Before the company could open her husband died. Ash, doing business with “The Golden Rule” as a foundational principle, pressed on and built a company designed to allow women to advance by helping others to succeed. At the time of Ash’s death, Mary Kay Cosmetics had over 800,000 representatives in 37 countries, with total annual retail sales over $2 billion. As of 2010, Mary Kay Cosmetics has more than 2 million consultants worldwide and wholesale volume in excess of 2.5 billion.

Phil Knight, who began an extraordinary business career selling athletic shoes at high schools track meets out of the trunk of a Plymouth Valiant.  Knight co-founded and built the world’s largest, most visible and successful athletic apparel company, and in doing so amassing a net worth over $14 billion.

Oprah Winfrey was born into poverty in rural Mississippi to a teenage single mother and later raised in an inner-city Milwaukee neighborhood. Winfrey endured considerable hardship during her childhood, including rape and pregnancy at the age of 14, later losing her son in infancy. She became the first female African-American billionaire, bringing many others with her and helping them create personal fortunes. Winfrey’s mission “…is to use television to transform people’s lives, to make viewers see themselves differently and to bring happiness and a sense of fulfillment into every home.”

So what about the 9 year old?!?

Caine Monroy is an extraordinary young man living in East Los Angeles, CA. This young boy has built a “business” that to-date has generated over $150,000 for his future education, as well as creating an educational foundation for other children. This real life tale of big vision, ideas, and results which has become a viral news story is so inspiring it may move you to tears. To watch a short movie about “Caine’s Arcade”,  CLICK HERE!

What are the lessons we learn from these entrepreneurial giants and the kid in East LA?

1. Your success begins with a big vision – a dream.
2. Make sure the dream includes others
3. The work towards making the dream a reality is reward in and of itself. (Caine had faith that doing it right was good enough, and sooner or later people would play in his Arcade.)
4. Don’t forget to work hard! Go all in!
5. Never quit. Never give up hope that you will succeed.
6. Ask for advice and enlist the help of others.
7. Be humble when you succeed and amazed at the outcome.

To be successful, study success, and add your own unique value. Are you planning to transform your small business into a really big, really successful company that serves others as it serves you? I hope so!

Work Hard & Have Fun!™

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN: Monday Morning Jumpstart 040912

What do you want more than anything? What are the professional and personal goals that are so important to you that you refuse to settle for anything less? We’re not talking about a pie-in-the-sky goal that if you fall a little short you will be OK with it. This is the stuff that makes it totally unacceptable to fail!

There’s a story about a young man meeting with his master on a beach. The master asked him “Just how badly do you want to achieve your goals?” The boy couldn’t really answer, so the teacher asked him to go out with him into the water. When they were chest deep the teacher violently grabbed the young man, plunged him under the green waves, and held him there. The young man struggled and fought, finally breaking loose and gasping just above the surface of the water. The teacher released him and said:

When you want to succeed as badly as you want to breathe, you can accomplish ANYTHING!

A nationally known drug treatment facility brings all new patients into a large room with other addicts, who are sitting in metal folding chairs around the edge of the room. The new patient is seated in a small chair in the center. One of the addicts gets up, walks to the new patient, and, without introduction, greeting, or welcome, asks, “What’s the one thing that’s most important to you?” In many cases, patients will say “My Children.” At this point, the other addicts along the walls yell “BS!” at the top of their lungs. (And I think you know what that means!) The addict asks the question again; “What’s the one thing that’s most important to you?” Often this happens several times until the new patient drops their head, and often in a whisper says… “Drugs.” At that point everyone stands up, starts clapping, comes to the center of and welcomes the patient to treatment!

What are the dreams, goals, and objectives YOU have that you just can’t live without? Maybe it’s a certain income, net worth, or material object. Maybe it’s more quality time off with your family. It could be supporting a charity or foundation, or volunteering in your home town. It’s up to YOU to say what you cannot live without! It’s up to you to determine YOUR goals!  Whether personal, professional, physical, family, community, or spiritual, don’t let anybody tell you what’s most important to you. Don’t ever settle for second best because of the words of another human being!

Please note I asked about your dreams, goals, and objectives, in that specific order. First we dream, so dream big! Second, our dreams become goals when we truly commit to attain them, and third, our goals become objectives when we ask ourselves, “How?” and attach a timeline.

So, let me ask you again…

What do YOU want more than anything? What do you want as badly as you want to breathe?

Work Hard & Have Fun!™

Easter has come and Passover is ongoing for those who celebrate those holidays. We attend Wooddale Church, a large congregation in Eden Prairie, MN, and we enjoyed a beautiful, inspiring, joyful Easter Service of celebration. For the Easter services, the traditional choir of about 60 people was joined by an orchestra of some 30+ people. As worshipers came in to take their seats these musicians were busy; very busy!

Musicians learn their art over many years. They have practiced and rehearsed. Prior to the beginning of the Prelude, the members of the orchestra engaged in their warmup, running through major scales, listening to their intonations, oblivious to the person in the chair next to them. Each member of the orchestra does their own thing to get ready for the performance. Listening to the noise they make is almost unbearable to the untrained ear. Everyone playing different scales, doing different things, warming up on their own. What one hears certainly cannot be called music, but rather it can be described as a racket! However, once the conductor raised the baton, the orchestra members gave him their full attention. Everyone was on the same page. Instruments were raised, and the first notes flowed out together. The music produced was inspiring, reverent… beautiful!

Often, running your business and making it successful is very similar to conduction a symphony orchestra. Like the musicians and the conductor, we learn our craft. We teach and train our teams. We continue to practice, prepare, and rehearse. And yes, we warm up for the week ahead. Monday mornings, like the symphony, often appear unorganized as people come together. People scurry here and there. Once everyone gets their coffee, greets their coworkers, and arranges their workspace. It’s time to start the performance. Whether you do it with a Monday morning meeting, or with a carefully designed business process and workflow, it is no different than the conductor who raises the baton. You are the conductor of the symphony called “Your Business.”

Make certain your team continues to train, rehearse, and prepare. Insist on constant, never ending improvement, which is “The Way of the Professional.” This applies to each member of the team; most of all to you. As does the conductor, lift your baton, lead from the front, and make professional music that benefits all who hear it!

“Work Hard & Have Fun!™”

Those who sell always look for an edge. Salespeople realize we are meant to get better at what we do. In addition, if we truly wish to serve others, it only makes sense to grow our business, as long as we don’t sacrifice our families, our health, or our principles.

Would it make sense for you to consider hiring a sales coach?  What questions should you ask in making this important decision?

• Do you need to work on your skills, sales & marketing strategies, sales structure, and sales systems?
• Have you hit a production plateau, or are growing incrementally?
• Do you find yourself getting in a rut, and loosing the passion for working with your clients?
• Is your team as engaged as you are in seeking professional excellence?
• Are you willing to change if it helps you grow your business?
• Would you like to provide a better client experience?
• Do you want more free time, as you tend to think about or work on business on weekends and vacations?
• Should I be working smarter?
• Could you and your team – and your clients – benefit from improved business processes?
• Would it make sense to get an experienced, objective, outside opinion on how you can improve?

Other Considerations

Hire a Sales, Marketing, or Practice Management Coach…

• If you want to set bigger goals
• If you want to expand your biusiness
• If you want to grow your team
• If you want to improve your client service
• If you want less complexity
• If you want free time without calls & emails to – and from – the office

When You Should NOT Hire A Coach

• When you don’t want one
• When it’s forced upon you
• When someone else would be willing to pay for coaching, but you are NOT willing to pay for it yourself.
• When you want someone else to do the work for you
• When you aren’t willing to consider change
• When you need someone to “save” you
• When you are looking for someone to listen to your problems

When you consider these questions, you will decide whether or not coaching is right for you. If you decide now is the time, look for a coach that:

• Understands your business
• Has done what you do
• Fits your personality
• Has coached others successfully
• Maintains confidentiality

Spending some time with these questions and considerations will help you make a productive, profitable decision about hiring a coach.

Today much is written about the dysfunction in American families. No doubt the structure, (and it can be argued the success) of the family has changed in this country. However, focusing on what a functional, successful family might be more productive than focusing on what does not work.

What are some of the characteristics of a healthy, productive, functional family?

• A healthy family has fundamental, non-negotiable values.
• A healthy family is open to resources outside the family in times of need.
• A healthy family sets limits.
• A healthy family has defined roles – parents are parents and kids are kids. The parent sets rules and enforces them. They enjoy their children, but have established boundaries for their children. In addition, the children are secure in their place in the family
• A healthy family understands that problems will occur and that they are usually temporary and solvable.
• A healthy family has rules and routines but is also flexible.

These guidelines certainly make sense for families, and you might consider using them in evaluating your business as well. Often you spend as much time in your business as you do with your family. A small business develops deep relationships within the firm as well as with clients and vendors. Unfortunately, business relationships can become every bit as dysfunctional, and in some cases toxic, as personal relationships. Ask yourself the following questions:

Does your business have fundamental, non-negotiable values?

• Are they clear?
• Are they consistent?
• Are they communicated?

Is your business open to leveraging outside resources?

• Do you fully utilize vendors, home offices, coaches and collaborative partners?
• Do you rely upon professionals for services needed outside the expertise of the business?
• Are you open to additional knowledge, training, and education from outside sources?

Does your business set limits?

• Do people – employees and clients – know these limits?
• Do they make sense?
• Are they effective?

Does your business have defined roles?

• Do leaders lead?
• Do managers manage?
• Are all members of the team responsible for the objectives required of their specific roles?

Do you set rules and abide by them?

• Are you flexible with rules when exceptions do not impede the mission of the business or service to clients?
• Do you enjoy personal relationships without crossing personal boundaries?
• Are your associates secure in their place in the business?

Business is not easy. Business challenges the best and the brightest. Designing business functionality provides the best structure for achievement of goals and objectives, as well as the delivery of a unique, beneficial, and positive client experience.

Work Hard & Have Fun!™

The first quarter of 2012 is in the books. NOW what?

Simple: Do what YOU do better than anyone else.

Often people pull back from that statement. They will say things like, “There’s nothing special about what I do.” Nothing could be further from the truth! There is one thing I promise that you do that nobody else can do…

Be your BEST self.

Choices make the difference.

• Choose to serve your clients first.
• Strive to help them get what they want.
• Give them your very best ideas, tailored to meet their needs.
• Fight to help them help themselves.
• Commit to doing your absolute best for this minute, this hour, this day.
• Be better than you were yesterday.
• Never quit.

If you chose to do these things and add yourself to what you do, then you will be absolutely and wonderfully unique. Having made that commitment, let’s get started!

First, look ahead to July 1st and ask yourself exactly what has to happen during the quarter for you to be ecstatically happy. Second, ask yourself the C.O.R.E Questions:

• What Challenges do you face at this time?
• What are your present Opportunities?
• What resources do you have and need to attain your objectives?
• Taking all this into account, how will you Execute A Plan to achieve them?

Now get to work. If you want to see a quick video of people doing things you can’t, CLICK HERE. Then remind yourself that at one time they couldn’t do the things they are doing. First they had to decide to attempt the impossible. Then they had to do it. Now it’s up to you to continue to create the masterpiece that is YOU!

Work Hard & Have Fun!™