Before you start a business, it is important to consider the things that will be required to be successful in that business. This is especially true when the business requires that you interact with people, and it is pretty hard to find any business completely absent of that. JumpBunch, for instance, is a business where people drive things from every angle, almost like the wheels on a car. If one tire is low, it affects the performance of the vehicle as a whole. A blowout of a tire stops you in your tracks. By carefully considering what has to be done for success, considering if you are able to do it, and realistically asking if you will do it, the road to owning your own business can be one that leads you to where you want to go instead of where you simply end up.
As a football fan, and more specifically an Atlanta Falcons fan, I have recent and heart breaking experience with halftime adjustments. Problem was, the adjustments were made to beat my team that seemingly had things locked up. The New England Patriots went into halftime last January with dimming chances to be Super Bowl champions two quarters later. However, at the end of those two quarters they were indeed champions yet again. For that to have happened, the team had to make adjustments to a direction that was not headed towards what they all wanted. Those adjustments certainly would have included things they were doing that needed to stop and things they weren't doing that needed to start.
People are drawn to business opportunities for a number of reasons. In JumpBunch, for instance, we obviously get many who are interested simply because it is an opportunity to work with kids. That passion can be a great fuel to propel you towards the possibility of doing something that you love and making a difference. It can't be the only fuel though. Any successful business has to make money. It doesn't necessarily have to be six or seven figure money, but it does have to be enough on the profit side, however you individually may define that.
If you are a sports fan then you’ll likely agree that one of the best times of the year is Spring March madness in basketball. It is during this time that we often get to know the head coaches that live and die by the teams they put on the court. I picture the locker room celebration by Roy Williams after the University of North Carolina took home the men’s crown. There’s a reason you see the same names consistently bringing different teams to compete among the best in any given year. The best of the best when it comes to coaches may very well have great skills and game plan mastery, but the real difference is in their ability to recruit. Not once, but forever.
Dave Ramsey is an expert on business success. He created the term "entreleader" as a blend of the pure entrepreneur and the pure leader. The concept that was spawned from the best selling book Entreleadership is now a full blown enterprise aimed at improving the "process of leading to cause a venture to grow and prosper". One of his beliefs is that anyone can create great success for themselves and/or their business by applying three specific things properly. They are focus, intensity, and time.
Author Brian Tracy has a great, easy reading book called "Eat That Frog" modeled after the saying that if you eat a frog first thing everyday then nothing worse can happen the rest of the day. The idea is aimed at reducing procrastination by identifying the most difficult things on your to-do list and taking care of them first. What often happens instead though is that we confuse being busy with getting the right things done that actually make the most difference. This idea is also known as the 80/20 rule, or the Pareto Principle. In short, 80% of your results come from only 20% of what you actually do. Makes you wonder why we even do those other things that are 80% of our time doesn't it?
January is all about goal setting right? You must set your goals so you know what you are working towards this year. I am not going to discourage that, but this year I am taking a break from encouraging it. The reason is simple. Everyone assumes the starting point is the goal, but just leaping into goal setting is like taking Spanish 2 before Spanish 1. So let’s just save the goal setting for another day…or year. The truth is, if you understand the prerequisite then the goal setting is not a chore but an act of enjoyment and clarity.
Though you may or may not actually say the words "what if?", everyone occasionally wonders about some of the countless decisions you didn't make. I'm not talking about the less significant ones like "What if I had worn that blue shirt yesterday?' or "What if I had ordered a latte instead of a cappuccino?". No, in the grand scheme of things those likely didn't throw you too far in one direction or another. Now, some other ones such as "What if I had gotten to work on time?" or "What if I had asked someone else out instead of her?" might have had a much greater impact. Nevertheless, it is human nature to pause at certain times to think "What if?".
There are four things necessary to succeed in JumpBunch, or most all other businesses for that matter. By succeed I don't mean to have some success. In fact, you may only be able to consistently do 1-2 of these things to see some sporadic progress and growth. Inevitably you will be derailed temporarily or permanently without intrinsically having them all or quickly being able to understand and master them.
