If you want to achieve more in 2015, you can actually grow by cutting

You may be surprised to learn that I am telling ambitious business owners to CUT IT OUT if they desire higher levels of success and happiness in in 2015.

Too many businesses will stay stuck in last year’s initiatives. They will keep doing the same things over and over while still expecting better results. Sorry, but ‘that dog don’t hunt’. Do this and the competition will run you over. I don’t believe in practicing this plan of business stagnation.

Every entrepreneur has the power to administer urgent care if they truly desire greater achievement. By this I suggest the notion of growing by cutting. Sometimes we get caught up in comfortable habits, not realizing they thwart rather than help us grow.

Today I hope to raise eyebrows and stimulate habit-changing actions. Every day we have the amazing opportunity to make new choices. I dare you to be bold and try some!

 

Here are 17 of 27 things I say CUT! (Shoot me an email and I am happy to send you the complete list via handy, FREE PDF).

1) Eliminate half the words, numbers and images that are on your business card. Double the size of what’s left. All they need to know is how to reach you. (Rely on your other media to handle branding).

2) Cut your advertising/marketing expenditure in half. I have two suggestions for accomplishing this. 1) Determine which half of your advertising is NOT generating the quantity and quality of leads, or 2) Obtain strategic partners (like vendors and other synergistic businesses) who will eagerly pay half (which will effectively reduce their own budget by half).

3) Remove half the brands that appear on your website. Good branding is not about quantity but about being crystal clear about the brands and destinations you love selling.

4) Slash in half the time you sit on your butt. Get up and out to meet the other ambitious people who did the same and are hoping to meet you.

5) Chop the length of your email messages in half. Recipients will read your correspondence more frequently and thoroughly when you get to the point and are artfully concise.

6) Reduce the quantity of emails you send by half. That also reduces the quantity of emails you receive by half. Use the telephone.

7) Reduce the quantity of emails you send by half – AGAIN. Direct mail WORKS (better than ever because most everybody STOPPED doing it!). With the money you save by cutting back on everything else, divert some of this to direct mail. Use email for informational communications only. Use direct mail to sell something or show gratitude.

8) Decrease by fifty-percent the number of times a day you check Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and your Inbox. Curb the obsession and relish in the freedom from useless information bondage. If someone needs you urgently they will call.

9) Cut down on your ‘prospect desertion factor’. To reduce the quantity of times you never hear back from clients, follow-up swiftly, engage along the way, and set expectations.

10) Eliminate telephone-tag. Instead, always work by appointment with clients and vendors. Everybody will be grateful.

11) Cut the risk of being the ‘office of business prevention’. Re-define your business by being consistently ‘easy to do business with’.

12) Cut client loss by fifty-percent. Double down on client loyalty efforts. Give them every reason to stay.

13) Chop your to-do list in half. Concentrate on what is more essential to achieve today and get to the rest later.

14) Completely eliminate attending presentations that are boring, sluggish, repetitive, lackluster or visually bland. Sign up for presentations given by people who are highly skilled communicators.

15) Slash thirty-minutes off all one-hour meetings. You will be amazed to vastly improve meeting productivity when you and the participants get to their points quicker.

16) Reduce by fifty-percent the number of wild-goose-chases you embark on. Do a much better job of qualifying, presenting and asking for the business in the shortest amount of time. Develop a more streamlined process.

17) Fire half your clients. Take the rest out on a date. Spend more time with the clients you love.

Shoot me an email and I am happy to send you the complete list via handy, FREE PDF.

To battle business stagnation in 2015, CUT IT OUT! For those business people who are prepared to execute clever reductions and replacements in 2015, I forecast a brilliant year of growth and prosperity. May your new year be filled with abundant success and happiness!

This full post appears in agent @ home Magazine December Issue

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