A Simple Twist on Planning

Breakthrough Growth Expert, author, founder and CEO of The Complete Approach with another of my one take vlogs, all the mistakes stay in.Putting in place a plan to achieve your goals, targets and objectives is imperative (you only have to study successful people to realise how important planning is to achieve results). So, make sure you dedicate time to plan for 2021.

But here’s the twist… I want you to also create three lists…

LIST 1: Write down all the things that you dislike about your business.

LIST 2: Write down all the things that you don’t like doing in your business.

LIST 3: Write down the things you don’t like in your personal life.

No matter how trivial they may seem—write them down—all of them. You see, a big part of success is also being motivated. It’s much harder to motivate yourself if your business and/or your personal life is riddled with things that you dislike.

Even if there are only one or two things going on that you dislike, life and business would be so much better if you didn’t have to deal with these things—or if you completely eradicated them. Right?

You see, I’ve found over the years that far too many people just accept the ‘DISLIKES’ in their business and personal life, yet it’s these things that drag them down or prevent them from achieving the heights they could without them.

I started doing this myself a few years ago and it really made a big difference to my performance, my business and my personal life and those I’ve shared it with have also benefitted significantly. To be blunt… you don’t have to accept these things. But you do need to address them and then plan to eliminate them (or delegate them).

The first step that we’ve already covered is to write them down.

Just think how much better your business and personal life will be even if you just reduce your list by half! But of course, the goal is to eliminate or delegate all of them. Your second step is to add them to your 2021 plan. You must plan to eliminate or delegate, otherwise we’ll get to this time next year and you’ll be in the same position.

I can tell you this is a very liberating experience. I’ll share a couple of examples with you so you can see how it works…

The first, one of the biggest challenges faced by accountants has (and every other type of business for that matter) is they from time to time have BAD clients. These are clients that suck the energy and time out of the firm. They are rude to staff (not necessarily rude to the partners/owners), bad payers, disrespectful and so on. You’ll likely have clients/customers/ patients like this too. They are the type of customer that when the phone rings the staff run for cover. No one wants to deal with them.

BUT YOU DON’T HAVE TO HAVE BAD CLIENTS IN YOUR BUSINESS.

I can tell you from personal experience and working with many businesses, that bad clients are VERY detrimental to the growth, inner harmony and enjoyment of every person in the business.

And if you have bad customers they should be on your list to eradicate.

But even getting rid of bad customers needs a plan, especially if they are a profitable customer (if you factor in all the hassle, time with staff, time with you and other elements, they won’t be as profitable as you think). So here’s a simple plan you can use to jettison bad clients, customers or patients from your business (you may need to slightly modify)…

• First, ask your team who are their bad customers. You will have a good idea yourself, but as I mentioned earlier, sometimes people wouldn’t dare to be rude to you. Your staff know who are good and bad customers. You’ll see why involving them is important next.
• If you have more than one bad customer you should ask your team who they want you to ‘educate’ and/or ‘FIRE’. They will love you for this (well, your staff will!). You’re helping them make their time working for you more pleasant. They are unlikely to have experienced this type of approach anywhere else.
• Meet with the bad customer and explain the situation to them. This is when you tell them that they are a BAD customer and why. In some circumstances, they will be horrified that their behaviour is causing this much trouble and anxiety and they will change. For those that don’t agree, the next step should be followed.
• You simply tell them that you cannot tolerate this type of behaviour as it’s causing too much stress with staff and unless they change, then you will have no alternative to fire them (yes fire THEM!). I appreciate this may be uncomfortable for you, but it has to be done.
• You’ll know from asking the team how many current bad clients, customers or patients you have. You should plan in an ‘educating/ firing’ process every month so, by the end of the year, you’ll have eliminated all the problem customers in your business.

You won’t believe the difference it will make to you and your team’s productivity. Another example is with regards to people around you who are a negative influence. You MUST surround yourself with positive people.

Do not underestimate the importance of this. So anyone in your personal and business life that isn’t a positive influence on you needs to be gradually removed out of your life. You’ll notice a big difference in your business and your life and you’ll be pleasantly surprised how much happier you are and how much more successful you’ll be!