In this article, I'll introduce three killer questions that you should ask yourself repeatedly if you want to explode your profits and fill your bank account with cash. Ignore these questions at your own risk.I love questions like these, because if you constantly ask yourself such questions over time, you'll be able to generate some incredible answers. But you have to ask yourself the right questions. You should ask yourself these three over and over again.Here's the first question: Are you focused on the few things that will bring your company the most sales and profits? The reason why this is such an important question is that in most cases, business owners are focused on the minutia of their businesses: planning, preparation, inventory, and all the little things that keep the business going, instead of the few big things make the most money. In most cases, that's the marketing-actually getting out there and selling, whether it's through magazine ads or online sales letters. You may have heard the 80-20 rule, the one that states that 80% of your profits come through 20% of your actions. It's absolutely true. So ask yourself this question every single day, day after day, and if you can, delegate the small tasks to other people.The second question just drives that first question home: Are you sure? Are you sure you're focused on the few things that will bring your company the most sales and profits? The first question is so crucial that even after you ask yourself that question, you need to come back and revisit it. If your actions aren't giving you the biggest bang for your buck, then you need to re-tool what you're doing -- and have to push yourself back to where the most money is made.Well-known marketer Ron LeGrand likes to say, "The less I do, the more I make." Now, he's not saying he's lazy. What he means is that he's pulled out of everything he used to do that wasted time, and he's now focused on the few things that make him the most money. He only does those things, like marketing, that reward him with the biggest bang for his buck. He outsources everything else. Maybe he's down to just five moneymaking activities-but because they produce so much profit, he increases the amount of money he makes. So ask yourself, "Okay, is what I'm doing really giving me the biggest bang for my buck? Is it really bringing my company the largest amount of sales and profits?" Then double-check that by saying the next question: "Are you sure?"The third question is: What did I do today to achieve this goal? This is a checkup. You can ask yourself the first two questions at the beginning of the day, and then at the end of the day you need to say, "Okay, what did I do today to achieve this goal? What actions did I take?" That way you can review and say, "I did these three things. But I really should have done these other things, too. What can I do tomorrow to make sure this happens?" This keeps you on track. If you can stay focused, you're going to achieve success -- whatever that means to you -- a lot faster.
In most cases, people live their lives just reacting to things. They wander from here and there, their lives on autopilot. If you'll focus your attention on your goals, on achieving the success that you want, and do that every single day, you'll get there a lot faster than someone who's wandering without any direction.The ability to focus is supremely important. You'll find plenty of time management books out there, some of them offering elaborate marketing and management systems, but all you really need is something simple. Here's what I suggest: write down the six most important things you have to accomplish every day, and then start with the one that's the most important or the most difficult, and get it done. Then go on to the other five. Try it; break some of your big tasks down into smaller tasks. Just make sure you devote a significant amount of time to the most important things.It's all about focus, and it's all about intention, and it's all about sales and profits. The money that you want to make is out there -- I don't care whether it's a million dollars a year or a million dollars a month. It's in the marketplace right now, and what you have to do is not only develop the right products and services to reach your target marketplace, but also develop a specific strategy to get there. Then you have to break that strategy down into smaller steps. When you get down to it, it's a game you're playing, and in every game you use strategy -- a series of methods and activities that you can perform to achieve your goal.Other people are doing this. You can do it too. All those entrepreneurs who are making millions of dollars are fundamentally no different from you are. It's your belief that they are that creates most of the barriers in your business. But the truth is, they're just people like you. They're doing some of these things I'm talking about here. They let other people do what other people do best while they do what they do best, and they stay focused on the sales and the profits. They're constantly asking themselves better questions, which lead to better answers.Focus on the things that bring in the most money, and let other people do all the other things. Don't get caught up trying to do everything, because that's shortsighted. You may think you can't afford to hire other people to help you do the little things, but you really can't afford not to. When you're getting started, outsource anything other people can do that you don't need to have control over.Don't worry about the details that don't really matter. Spend as much of your time as possible thinking about who your customers are and what you're going to sell them.
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