Did you know that 95% of Small and Mid sized Companies fail to reach their goals?

This is an amazing statistic but fortunately you don’t need to be stuck without hope in your Organization!

C- LEVEL Services uses a proprietary process to help its clients overcome the obstacles to achieving their goals.

This process requires leaders to change how they think and requires implementation of Three Pieces usually missing - Optimization, Strategy and Innovation.

Optimization sets in place a continuous improvement process that documents and fine tunes processes and discovers leverage points in the organization that produces maximum results. It also produces inspired performance based on basic principles of motivation and management.

Strategy takes control of your future and defines the goals and objectives of the organization, the barriers to reaching these goals and objectives and creates strategies and action plans to achieve them. To be effective these objectives and action plans need to be defined at the department and individual levels and compensation plans developed based on these goals and objectives. All of a sudden the strategic plan becomes an operating document and the whole organization begins working together in UNITY! This creates amazing results!

Finally, Innovation helps change the future. Peter Drucker said, “If you are not putting yourself out of business with new products and services, your competition will.” Most disruptive new ideas come when a specific process is used for innovation.

So if you want to reach your goals, reactive behavior needs to be replaced with proactive behavior and these Three Missing Pieces implemented.

Company Turnarounds START from the Mind UP!

Lets get real for a minute.  Something needs to change. Results need to improve. You can not change results doing the same old things.

To get started on company transformation into a cash generating machine, it doesn’t matter why results are now what they are. Because, all transformations start at the same place.

YOU MUST CHANGE YOUR MIND!

Transformation requires change, change requires action, action requires a choice, choices are based on mind set, mind set is the lens through which you decide to view the world.

Positive transformation can not take place with a faulty world view.

A flat world view kept thousands of explorers from venturing over the seas in search of gold at the end of the rainbow. Until Columbus decided to have a round world view, then a new world was discovered and … well you know the rest of this story.

Many CEOs, business owners and business leaders have a flat world view. Their paradigm only goes as far as they can easily see. It is limited to things they know well and/ or are comfortable with. Frankly most business success comes from providence, being at the right place at the right time. This kind of success is not sustainable, changes in the marketplace occur and the company finds themselves continually reacting to these outside circumstances. Then they find there are internal constraints that this reactive state keeps bumping into.

The solution is to have a round world view. Think the real world is not limited to what you can easily see or what you know or what is currently chomping at your feet.

Transformation starts from the mind up. Change to a round world view. Most disruptive ideas come from outside an industry. Someone puts a new spin on satisfying a market need based on a round world view. Truth is not limited to what I see, know or have experience with.

Another mind set a successful CEO needs is to change how you see yourself. Many if not most CEO/ founders have a vision, have some early success then find their results slipping and themselves putting in more and more and more time trying to stick their fingers in the holes springing up in the dike.

As a  CEO you need to change your mind about who you are. At your very core you need to have a “Founders” mind set; not an employee or boss or Hero mind set. Here is the difference:

Many companies are started based on a good idea to satisfy a market need or a skill or knowledge base the owner has. The new owner handles every detail and reacts to issues and problems that arise because they are Heros, knowledgeable about the issue and empowered to make a quick decision to solve it. That works at first to solve the issue…. but…. The solution can be worse than the issue if processes are bypassed and the solution is not repeatable or scalable. Heros, bosses and employees react to problems and create quick fixes, but often the fix is like how I fix home reapir issues, using wire and duct tape. They are not long term fixes.

The CEO with a Founders mind set see that they are building an organization that can go on without them. This requires effective, efficient, repeatable and scalable processes, organization, and procedures in the hands of great people who are actually smarter and more informed than the Founder and are empowered to be creative and solution finders within a continuous improvement process.

The winning Founders mind set - they see a future with themselves as expendable, not indispensable. They lead an inspired group of leaders who are empowered to make changes quickly in advance of market changes not reacting to market changes.

 If your books don’t balance you can’t blame it on anyone else!

I was sitting at a local restaurant trying to read a book in preparation for a meeting and a guy at the next table kept talking to me. He was an old guy talking about this watch he found and trying to return it to get a few dollars, which he obviously needed, then went on to his Dad etc etc. He really didn’t care if I was paying full attention but I couldn’t help hearing him out of the corner of my attention.

Then out of the clear blue he said, “If your books don’t balance, you can’t blame it on anyone else!”

All of a sudden all my attention went to that statement. I’m not sure why, but it seemed so out of place and as I considered the statement, I realized how profound it was.

“If your books don’t balance you can’t blame it on anyone else!”

Of course this is true at face value, but as I meditated on the wisdom of this simple principle, I realized it can apply to a lot of areas of our lives.

How often do I blame circumstances, how others have treated me, or just plain bad luck when things are not going my way; instead of taking personal responsibility for choices and decisions that I have made that put me in the situation? A lot!

I am going to purpose to live more by this principle of personal responsibility so that I can take control over my circumstances, make better choices and actually have a positive effect on the future.

So just remember, when life is throwing you a curve….

If your books don’t balance you can’t blame it on anyone else!

Key Life Principle!

Everyone wants something, put whatever something is in this space, but no one wants to change.

There is a very basic law of life that is true for business, personal issues, spiritual life, everything.  What is it?

We have a God given power over unlimited opportunities to change and determine our future, from now as far forward as we can imagine… Its the Power of a Choice!

But… The consequences of choices are set - unchangeable - like laws of nature.

However , our problem often is we keep doing the same things, making the same choices and try to change the consequences. This is very important, so let me repeat…

We try to change our circumstances by trying to change the consequences of our choices instead of changing our choices! This does not work.

Einstein defined insanity as doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. I think a lot of us operate in our daily lives on the edge of insanity.

So here is our takeaway..

We need to change our choices if we want to change our realities of life.

1) Be careful who you listen to. Don’t listen to fools/failures or you buy into their lifestyles.

2) If you have a goal or vision you want to achieve, pick someone who is successful at that thing and make the same choices they make, do what they do.

I can give you the number one proven successful, guaranteed to work, secret to financial freedom!

Interested? Who wouldn’t be!

If you want long term personal financial freedom, you don’t have to read any more of my blog posts. You can skip the latest blockbuster book or seminar or web course. 

Tape this on your refrigerator and live by it every day.

Guaranteed to work. And best of all…. its FREE!

Do this and you are on your way to being the Millionaire Next Door, the Rich Dad, the Money Master,the …. OK, you get my point - here it is:

Spend less than you make and do it a long time!

That’s it! This never fails!

I can’t take credit for this tidbit of wisdom, it comes from my friend Ron Blue who has written best sellers and counseled thousands in ways to Master Their Money.

The trouble is we have all this stuff that gets in the way and we are not starting from a blank sheet of paper. Our personal novel already has several chapters written and the financial damsel is usually in distress, tied to a rail with the train barreling down the tracks.

So you are probably stuck with going through the Financial Turnarounds - 7 Secrets with me.

While a little stressful to do something in front of people that you normally don’t do, my Father’s Day Message at our church proved to be a blessing.

I’ll boil the whole thing down into my central point:

We have an awesome power at our fingertips:

Our choices determine the outcomes in our lives, now and into eternity, either positive or negative.

(Sure some things happen to us we have no choice or control over,  but overwhelmingly the outcomes in our lives are based on our choices!)

We learned that God lets us be involved and choose what happens in our lives; blessings or curses.

Who in their right minds would choose curses?

We all do it every day by not using the Power of a Positive Choice in our lives.

God wants a personal relationship with us as our Heaavenly Father and the same is true for us Dads.

Making a Positive Choice requires right priorities.

God wants us to Choose His Presence (person) over His Presents (things).

The video attached is an example of my daughter’s family making this kind of positive choice. When I see something like this as DAD, it feels the same to me as the first time any of my children came running to me yelling Daddy, Daddy, Daddy. It warms my heart and delights my soul (the same way God feels when we go to Him!)

Then…

I shared one small example from my own life. My dad was much older when I was born. He was a product of his generation; the great depression and both World Wars. He never had any kind of emotional relationship with me and actually called me, “Big Dummy.” In 4 years of college I never got a letter, visit or even a phone call from either of my parents. This left scars I carried around for many years (maybe still do).

But when I was in my forties (my Dad died when I was about 30) my older sister said, “Do you realize how proud Dad was of you? He talked about you all the time!”

No, I didn’t realize that! And in fact felt just the opposite.

But my feelings were wrong! And I chose a curse instead of a blessing by not making a Positive Choice to believe in how God makes a Fathers heart toward their children instead of just listening to words and filtering circumstances through my own imperfect and self centered view.

Last week I had two different people share their life stories with me. One was abandoned at birth by their Dad and another a young lady told by her Dad at 15 he wanted nothing to do with her. In both cases The Power of a Positive Choice by these two people, resulted in blessings in their lives!

As a Dad myself, I now know better the heart of a Dad toward their children and how we may fail and even some of us may fail really bad. But I choose now to believe my own Dad loved me and really wanted what was best for me. What a blessing!

So we concluded with a time for all of us to make a Positive Choice and not ascribe wrong motives to our own Dads and if necessary to forgive our Dads for the things they did to harm and scar us.

And then Choose their Presence (person) over their Presents (things).

That is where the Power of a Positive Choice intersects with Blessings!

(I’ll make the message available online when I get a copy of it.)

 The Great American Spending Spree is Dead!

You need to look at this…

                                         1986              1996              2006

US Savings Rate                  8.2%              4.0%              0.4%

We have been spending at an unsustainable rate. The average American household has $10,000 of credit card debt on 9 different credit cards. The typical American family spends 110% of what they make! The current economic crisis has ruined the retirement prospects of millions of Baby Boomers, eliminating billions of dollars of wealth almost overnight.

If you are like me your school did not train you on how to manage your money. It was never discussed at home, except how much you got for an allowance or overhearing your parents argue about money troubles. Now money troubles are following you. Perhaps they have gone from lurking eerily around the dark corners to actively sucking your lifeblood dry.

More marriage troubles are caused by money problems than any other issue. Money is at the root of all sorts of stress, fear and depression.

But you can discover the powerful secrets to financial success and financial freedom!

1. Discover the power of ZBB

2. No Target = Failure

3. You must Master your cash or be Enslaved to your debt- The Best Budgeting System ever devised

4. Forsake consumer debt- credit cards to cars

5. Save for major purchase in advance and live in a completely paid for home

6. Build your own Personal Brand

7. Recruit the Magic of Compounding- Investment returns for yourself and others

More will be coming on each of these secrets and how to implement them successfully into your financial future.

Are credit cards and other debts eating up your hard earned money and creating unbearable stress in your life?

Need a TURNAROUND!

Although my career has been in business finance and management, I found the principles I used to turn troubled companies around to be just as successful in turning personal finances around.

I have read many books on personal finance and have taught seminars and even done one on one financial counseling though our church with couples. In all the materials I have seen, none give this next foundational secret to solving every financial problem. It has never failed with scores of families (and several companies)!

So what is this secret principle?

Change what you are paying attention to!

Huh?

Yep! Change what you are paying attention to!

Here is what I mean.

Financial problems are always made up of many smaller problems. These probelms accumulate over time and then all of a sudden seem to spring up from nowhere. But the “springing up” is just when the many small issues build up to a point that something breaks. A mortgage payment is missed, a surpise medical bill comes through, or a job is lost. Suddenly more and more bills can’t be paid and the phone starts to ring and collectors become more and more persistent.

The standard way to respond is to pay attention to the most intense collection process at the time. This may solve one problem but other new ones begin to form and fester. The cause of the problems in the first place has to been solved! Other old problems go from small problems to bigger and bigger ones. More new problems start.

Over time the total financial problem grows and grows and grows. This is the wrong way to solve any financial problem!

Paying attention to individual problems and responding to the ones with the most pressure at the time simply causes a Financial SNOWBALL to grow and begin rolling downhill. This Financial Snowball picks up speed and more small problems and its momentum gets faster and more powerful rolling down that hill.

So if this is the wrong way - what is the proven successful right way?

The right way to solve a personal (or business) financial problem is to draw a line in the sand and say “NO NEW PROBLEMS!”

Your time, attention and energy needs to be given totally to not creating any new problems.

In the financial arena the line is drawn in the sand and you create no new problems when you set up a “ZERO BASED BUDGET (ZBB).”

You develop a ZBB when you reach a break even point on your bottom line so you are creating NO NEW DEBT.

Then you move the slope of your personal finances from downhill to a level slope. The ZBB is your line in the sand.

In the few weeks, I will go into more details about creating a ZBB and how this gets you out of debt at a surprisingly fast way.

Perhaps you or a friend could use some help in getting out of debt. Why not share this post with them and stay tuned for more help!