“All Planning is Good.”
– Dave Sullivan, Aileron

When I first heard Dave Sullivan say these words, I did not realize how true they were. Now, over 10 years after I first heard these words, I too can say that “all planning is good.”

So, this week, with the end of the year near, I want to encourage you to do some planning because “all planning is good.”

Now, why is all planning good? All planning is good because just the act of sitting down and thinking about where you want to go leads to improvement. Sit down and define where you are right now with your business and life. Think about that and put it in writing. Next, think about where you’d like to be next year in terms of your business and your life and write that down. Then, write down what you need to do to get there.

Don’t make it too difficult.

Your plan might look like this.

Current Reality

I run a company that does 750k a year in sales and I am making 80k a year. I have a nice family but we don’t spend enough time together. I don’t have enough saved for retirement and there also isn’t enough in the kids’ college fund.

2012 Desired Outcome

In 2012 I need to make 100k and spend more time with my family.

Steps I need to take to make 2012 Successful

1. Sell 900k worth of profitable work
2. Create and Implement a Marketing Plan
3. Cut 10% in expenses.
4. Take two family vacations, one in April and on in July; take a long weekend with my wife in September
5. Create an HR plan that improves our hiring, training, and retaining

I could go on for days about this. Let’s just say this: All Planning is Good! Take some time to think about what you did well this year and what you need to improve and you too will find that “all planning is good.”

If you need some help, call us; we’ll discuss how we help entrepreneurs move their businesses forward. And, by all means, attend GROW! 2012 where we will talk about this in detail!

The Thanksgiving celebration originally started as a day of giving thanks for the harvest. Not many of us are still directly involved in harvesting our food products in the 21st century. Now the holiday is more of a secular celebration.

Most of us in the United States celebrate Thanksgiving with family and friends, eating favorite dishes, maybe taking a walk or playing games and certainly for many watching football games. And then there are many people selflessly working Thanksgiving to keep us safe and healthy.

Some families take a few minutes to go around the table and each person says something they are thankful for. Sometimes they are silly but often they are heartfelt thoughts of appreciation.

So this week take those few extra minutes to stop and focus on what you are thankful for. Here are some of my biggest reasons to be thankful this Thanksgiving:

• Family & friends
• Healthy children
• Food and shelter
• Living in the USA
• My companies and team members
• My clients
• Our men and women of the armed services
• And our police officers and firefighters

Maybe you could even send a note to someone special in your life telling them that you appreciate them and why. Many of us just do not write notes anymore. You’ll be surprised at how welcome that note will be to the person who receives it.

Happy Thanksgiving!

The last 2011 webinar is almost here; it will be Tuesday, November 22nd at 4:00 pm titled The Year’s Almost Over: What to Do to Finish Strong & Get Things in Place to Kick Butt in 2012. You can still sign up today!

I know we have talked about this so many times you might be ready to unsubscribe from my weekly Great Idea but I feel a need to mention it again.

My pal, the legendary teacher and author Joe Calloway, believes that we know what we ought to be doing; we just don’t do it. I agree with this 100%. And so, I’ll get right to the point.

What are the things you know you should be doing that you aren’t doing?

Are you eating right?

Does your family know and understand what you are trying to do at work?

Do they know what your dream is? (How do you expect them to help you if they don’t know what your dream is?)

Have you done all your team’s performance reviews?

Along those lines, are there any people on your team right now that shouldn’t be? (More on that one in a future great idea.)

When was the last time you spoke to your top 30 clients?

I could go on and on.

The best thing you could do right now to help you succeed is to sit down with a blank piece of paper in silence at the library or where you can think and write down all the things you need to be doing to help you succeed. And then prioritize those and get to work on them one by one. Too many of us wander aimlessly towards this thing we call success and never find it. Focused entrepreneurs win.

My last webinar for this year is coming up next week on Tuesday, November 22nd, at 4:00 pm titled The Year’s Almost Over: What to Do to Finish Strong & Get Things in Place to Kick Butt in 2012. Don’t forget that we changed the date to November 22nd. So sign up today! Also, you should go ahead and sign up for GROW! 2012. The price will go up once I announce the surprise speaker who’s willing to come to warm and sunny Dayton, Ohio, in February!

My book The 9 Super Simple Steps to Entrepreneurial Success discusses the 9 simple steps one needs to take to be successful in business and life. I firmly believe that the steps one needs to take to be successful are easy to understand. The implementation of the steps is the hard part.

Baking is a lot like business. You have the recipe in front of you but many times things don’t turn out right. Why? You didn’t follow directions. The oven didn’t work right. An ingredient wasn’t as fresh as it could have been. Below is a recipe for the best-tasting Key Lime Pie I have ever had in my life. Walt Peter, my long-time teammate at Grunder, gave this to me after I ate his pie. His pie is incredible. The one I tried to make following the recipe did not taste nearly as good. Take a shot at it and see what you get. But remember, just because we know what do to and how to do it, that doesn’t guarantee success. You have to keep trying. In discussing this with Walt, he tells me he’s made over a hundred of these pies. I made one. I’d bet my next one is better and that’s how success finds us. We keep on trying and we find out that the more we try, the better we get and one day we might even be able to say, “It’s simple as pie.”

Walt Peter’s “Key Lime” Pie

1 Graham cracker crust (larger size)
2 14.5 oz. Sweetened condensed milk
2 large egg yolks
1 cup fresh lime juice (approx. 4-6 limes)
2 teaspoons lime zest (approx. 1 lime)

Preheat oven to 350°
Combine all ingredients and whisk together
Pour into pie crust
Bake 25-30 minutes (center of pie approx. 140°)
Cool, then chill at least 2 hours
Top with whipped cream when serving

If I’m ambitious, I’ll make whipped cream and add some lime zest
If I’m in a hurry, I use Reddi-wip

I like to use the larger crusts; the pies are thinner and not as intense

Best pie I ever made used local farm eggs. Definitely better than grocery store eggs.