For your business to move forward,
you've got to look to the future...

Your business success hinges on a
variety of factors -- 99% of which are
within your control. This means that
how successful your business is
depends mostly on the things that you
do.

Is that news to you? It shouldn't be.

Many people forget this as they get
caught up in the day-to-day grind of
making their business work and be
successful. They get tunnel-vision,
focusing on the daily events to the point
that they actually spend the bulk of
their time reacting to things happening
in (and to) their company.

Think about what happens you do this.
What's the result? The result for most
people is that, if they are constantly
reacting to things, they are not being
proactive and creating/developing other
opportunities for their businesses.

So what do you do? Well, here are a
few suggestions...

Realize that a problem today is a
problem tomorrow unless you fix it.
Getting Down To Business
Founders1
PRE-Act for Your Business Success
By Jim Allen
These companies don't react after
the fact, they PREact, changing
before the shifts, so that when the
shifts occur they are already there
with a product or service that the
consumer wants.

Your business will go in the direction
you take it, and that direction will be
whichever one you happen to be
looking at the time. So don't spend
time looking back, and don't spend
every moment on right now. Do,
however, take a good look at what
lies ahead.


Contributed by:
Jim Allen
©1999 Jim M. Allen
Email: Jim@CoachJim.com
Website: CoachJim.com
Don't just react to problems, over react
to them. You don't just want to fix the
problem "this time," you want to fix it
so that it can never occur again. This is
not always easy but if you don't strive
to eliminate the problem completely you
risk having to face it again.

Not every issue requires -- or
deserves -- your attention.

Delegate, delegate, delegate.

Hire people who can deal with these
issues, then let them deal with them.
Frequently, business owners have all
sorts of employees that they just "can't
trust" with one issue or another. That
indicates a problem with the employer
and their hiring practices, not the
employee.

Reinvent your business... daily,
monthly, yearly.

As our lives change due to technology,
cultural shifts, economic disturbances,
etc., so too must our businesses shift
and change to be able to continuously
provide products and services of value.
Businesses that remain successful over
the long haul are the businesses that
anticipate these shifts.