— Bertie Charles Forbes, U.S. Financial Journalist, Publisher, and Financier
]]>With that in mind, below is a great exercise as recommended by the Christopher Howard Training Team:
Go find a note pad and consider these questions...]]>Knowing what you want is the first step to getting it. Knowing what's holding you back is the second step to making sure you get to keep it.
Write down your answers so you can see your progress later.
1. What do I want to achieve this year? Write down as many goals as you want in any area of your life, health, wealth, relationships, etc. If you are really stuck on even coming up with a goal, start by asking yourself if I could be, do or have anything in life, what would it be? Then select one goal that's central to your overall plan. Determine the interim action steps it will take to get you there. (You can identify the last step and work back from there.) At the Breakthrough to Success weekend, you will be given the chance to put that very personal dream into your future in such a way that its fulfilment becomes almost effortless.
2. Ask yourself, is this something I have tried to achieve before and not been successful? For instance, has it been a New Year resolution in the past? Or on your To Do list for several years without completion or success?
3. If yes, ask yourself, what has stopped me in the past? This might include time, money, not having the right opportunities, lack of motivation, procrastination, lack of self belief, not knowing how to achieve it, or maybe you don't know what has stopped you.
4. With regards to achieving your goals and following through on your plans, what patterns have you noticed occurring? For example, do you often put lots of energy and enthusiasm in at the start, then within a couple of weeks find you've lost motivation? Do you put off getting started for so long you just give up? Do you start too many projects at once, and end up overwhelmed and under-motivated? Identifying your unique patterns is key to changing them.
5.What about limiting beliefs? What you tell yourself can also stop you from achieving your most prized goals and visions. For example, if you have decided that this is the year you find the right relationship, believing that you are not worthy of love will sabotage your plans. If you told yourself that this year is the year you finally find the right job or start the business you're passionate about, but you have an underlying belief that, "I'm not smart enough," or "It's impossible to find work in this market," how motivated will you be? How effective? Listen to what you tell yourself about what you believe limits you.
6. If there were 2 important changes that need to occur in order for you to be totally successful and reach your goals, what would they be? i.e.) Have more confidence in yourself? Be more creative? Break patterns of self-sabotage? Get over fear of speaking in public? Write down anything and everything that comes to mind. Most of them can be resolved at your Breakthrough to Success!
7. What help, support or resources do you need? This could be a mentor, additional skills, a 'how to' guide, a clear action plan, sounding board or someone to brainstorm with, etc. Identify what research you can do on your own and the resources you can obtain in the form of books, CDs, personal development. There are lots of free resources available such as our Breakthrough to Success event that will guide you to pinpoint what's stopping you from achieving your goals. Take advantage of anything that teaches you the strategies and techniques that change limiting behaviours. This will set you on a clear course for success.
8. List 3 things you can do each day starting now to move forward with achieving your goals. Enlist the help of a friend, partner or coach. To establish your own accountability, tell them what you intend to do. This puts the power squarely in your hands to determine your results.
9. Take action daily and review your goals weekly. Many small steps towards your goal will move you towards the accomplishments you wish to attain.
10. Keep the top 3 goals written on a 3 x 5 card in your desk drawer or in your wallet and look at them once a day. Ask yourself, why do I want to achieve these goals? What will that give me or do for me? The "why" is your grander purpose and will motivate you to persist in taking action until it's completed.
11. When you achieve a goal, celebrate! This is a great way to reward yourself for a job well done. It will anchor that wonderful sense of achievement within your psychology and physiology. This will only lead to building more and more success!
— George Santayana, Philosopher, Poet
]]>The fundamental items that can be registered as IP are:
The Operations Manual must be well put together so that it makes setting up a franchise as smooth and problem free as possible as well as being easy to read, understand and use. It should be a document which is comprehensive and cover every contingency that may crop up in the course of doing business.
The more thorough the Operations Manual the less time and energy the franchisor will need to invest in helping the franchisees.
All aspects of conducting business need to be spelled out including:
— John Robert Wooden, American Basketball Hall of Fame Player & Coach
]]>the historic male-domination of the industry remains: men make up 73% of franchisees, but this is gradually decreasing, showing an increasing number of females are entering the industry. Indeed, just over a third of new recruits entering franchising are women. There remain significant differences by sector: women make up nearly two thirds of franchisees in the Personal Services sector, whereas other sectors remain male dominated; especially Transport and Vehicle Services which only has 6% of females.
To further encourage more women to join the franchising industry, a new organisation named: Encouraging Women into Franchising was recently launched. The mandate for the group is "to inspire, educate, encourage and support women looking to become franchisees, women business owners looking to franchise their business or businesses, and existing franchisors that are under represented by women franchisees."
The group which has the support of the British Franchise Association is made up of: franchisors, franchisees, franchise service providers, banks, women's support groups and national support agencies.
To find out more about this new organisation, be sure to check out their Internet site: Encouraging Women into Franchising.
— John D. Rockefeller, American Industrialist/Philanthropist
]]>Other key findings include:
*women succeed at or above the rates of men when seeking bank finance, which is a major encouragement to women thinking of starting up in business in this challenging climate.
*women are less likely than men to have been rejected due to poor business planning, and are less likely to have been unable to make a repayment on loans, suggesting that women can be better at managing their business finances.
*women are less likely than men to have the knowledge and confidence to access venture capital and equity funding, which can be productive sources of growth finance. To address this issue, the WETF inspired the creation of the Aspire Fund, a co-investment fund that targets high-growth women-owned businesses. The fund has made its first investment and is considering further ventures.
*women constitute more than half of the population and 46% of the British labour market however they are less than half as likely as men to start a business, and make up only 28% of the self-employed. Even with this under-representation, it is estimated that women's enterprise contributes £130 billion turnover and £70 billion GVA each year to the British economy. If British women were to reach the enterprise levels of their US counterparts, there would be an estimated 900,000 more start-ups and £23 billion more GVA each year.
To read the report in full, visit the Women's Enterprise Task Force website.
]]>— Benjamin Disraeli, former British Prime Minister
]]>So once a proper strategy/marketing plan is developed, in order for it to be effective, the plan needs constant time and attention, for real success to be achieved.
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