Second Quarter Review-Darnyelle A. Jervey

As we close out quarter two and prepare for the second half of 2011, let’s complete that all important self-assessment. Let’s review you, your business and your circles of influence. Be honest with yourself and make the necessary adjustments to grow yourself and your results as the year continues.

1. What is your 2011 goal for your life and business?
2. At the half way point, how close are you to achieving your goal?
3. What can you do differently in the coming quarters to shift your results?
4. What are the three words that best describe your goal for your year?
5. What is your vision for the next 6 months?
6. What have you done that has sabotaged your success so far this year?
7. Who have you been spending a significant amount of time with in the first half of the year?
8. Have the influences been positive and life/business affirming?
9. If no, with whom do you need to reduce the amount of time you spend?
10. What coaches and mentors have been influential in your success this year?
11. What investments will you make this year to ensure achieving your year-end goals?

These 11 questions will bring balance and perspective into your life and business. I personally recommend that you take the time to answer each question and form your answers and create a plan to be bolder as the year continues.

©2011 by Darnyelle A. Jervey. All Rights Reserved. Darnyelle A. Jervey, The Incredible Factor Business Mentor and Coach, is the founder of IncredibleOneEnterprises.com and the Leverage Your Incredible Factor System® a proven step by step program for turning your passion into profit. For more information and a FREE audio CD "How to Use Your Incredible Factor to Attract MORE Ideal Clients" visit http://www.incredibleoneenterprises.com.

5 Simple Strategies to Avoid the “Gaper Delay” in Your Business--Darnyelle A. Jervey

In case you’re wondering, yes, this is a business article about traffic. Well, it’s actually NOT about traffic; it’s more about how you, a creative entrepreneur, can get caught in traffic that is not beneficial to your business if you are not careful.

I admit I got the idea for this week’s article while driving on the I-90 heading toward Chicago. It was a mess, cars everywhere, going nowhere fast. Primarily because there was an accident on the other side that had nothing to do with us going toward the city, yet everyone was so busy seeing what happened that they couldn’t drive their car to their destination. It’s easy to get side tracked when you’re driving if you’re not clear about your ultimate destination.

See my point? Your business is suffering because you’re too busy seeing what’s going on with others in the marketplace that have nothing to do with you. Instead of picking a lane and staying in it and preparing for the journey ahead of you as you endeavor to attract ideal clients, you’re changing lanes to get a better look at what they are doing.

Focusing on what others are introducing to the marketplace has the potential to kill your business. Now, don’t get me wrong, knowing what your competitors are offering is important; however, you can’t be so focused on what they’re doing that you aren’t doing anything but watching them. I’ve seen it happen many times in my business of helping entrepreneurs unleash the Incredible Factor in their businesses. I ask one question, like what does your business do? And they respond with something like this, “you ever heard of X? Well, I’m just like them, I do the same thing,” instead of offering their own power statement, one that has them starting a trend as opposed to living in the shadow of their competitor.

When I hear that, quite honestly, I just shake my head, because they’ve been caught in the “Gapers Delay” syndrome – too busy watching others and not spending enough time building their own brand.

Hopefully, I’m not talking about you. But if I am, no worries, if you really want to avoid the effects of the Gapers Delay syndrome, I recommend that you:

1. Turn on your GPS – Your GPS is your business and marketing plan. You know, that thing you wrote when you started your business (I hope you did anyway) Pull it back out, check your destination and let it tell you which turns to take. When you gain a clear vision of the transformation your products and services will provide for others, you will gain perspective and that perspective will lead to prospects. Deciding to start a business without a clear intention of who you are and what you will offer to others in service to solve their problems is one sure fire way to find yourself on the business roadway caught in a traffic jam.
2. Avoid hitchhikers – oh, those pesky little distractions that appear out of nowhere. Sometimes they’re holding a sign; sometimes they are bold enough to stick their hands out. When you remove those hindrances that challenge your ability to be fully authentic about how YOU will serve your ideal clients, you can breathe and with each breath, you allow abundance to flow toward you and your business. It’s important to know when you drive your car and when to pull over and let traffic die down. Taking much needed time to retreat, with your team or advisors can make all the difference as you grow your business. Avoiding the bright shiny object syndrome is essential to becoming known for offering quality service to your market
3. Check the rearview mirror only momentarily – more often than not, a mindset shift can easily prevent road rage or an accident. I recommend that you watch what you feed your mind by putting quality information in. Look in your rearview mirror just long enough to assess that the way is clear. Focus instead on the open road ahead of you by creating daily mindset shifts that keep your breakthroughs consistent to the speed at which you desire to drive your car. Remember, your thoughts are equal to your feelings and beliefs which affect your actions and alter your results. If you believe that you are the only solution to your ideal client’s problems and work toward ensuring that they know you exist through effective and compelling marketing, you will be rolling down the freeway toward your ultimate destination.
4. Crank up your car radio – while you are driving, to avoid the need to text or look away from the wheel outside of the occasional rearview mirror check, play your theme song loud and proud. In fact, if you don’t have a business theme song, get one immediately. It will stop you from focusing on what’s happening around you, you’ll be so into “rocking” it out for your clients, you’ll arrive at your choice destination easily and effortlessly
5. Create YOUR roadmap – this is your business; no one can do it like you. Your plan of action to grow your business is your roadmap – what to do and when to do it to achieve the results you crave. When you stop focusing on others and focus instead on your plan and do the work it will take to make it a reality, you will realize that who you are and what you were created to be is Incredible – in and of itself and truly no one else can hold a stop light to your brilliance. Focus on ways to achieve your plan through concerted effort daily, remembering that it is the little and not so little things that add up to the unassailable difference in your business.

Bonus: let the wind blow through your hair. When you are driving, really driving toward your destination, clear and focused, you will breeze your way through. You’ll be able to relax in full authenticity because who you are is exactly what your ideal clients need to grow to their next level.

©2011 by Darnyelle A. Jervey. All Rights Reserved. Darnyelle A. Jervey, The Incredible Factor Business Mentor and Coach, is the founder of IncredibleOneEnterprises.com and the Leverage Your Incredible Factor System® a proven step by step program for turning your passion into profit. For more information and a FREE audio CD "How to Use Your Incredible Factor to Attract MORE Ideal Clients" visit http://www.incredibleoneenterprises.com.

Stop Embezzling From Your Business: 5 Keys to Create a Thriving Business with Cash Flow--Darnyelle A. Jervey

One of the challenges I see frequently when meeting with solo-entrepreneurs who have been in business 0-5 years and are trying to build a solid business, is an inability to ensure that they get to keep a significant amount of the money that they earn. Most people who start a business fail to understand the significance of creating and managing a budget, largely because they don’t have a budget in their personal lives. I’ve heard it said recently that “how you do money is how you do everything.”

Typically new entrepreneurs earn and spend, sometimes without ever letting the money they earn get appropriated to their business account. Did you catch that? Yes, I am talking about embezzling from your business. Sadly, most entrepreneurs do not have a business background and often start their business out of necessity, lacking the skills, strategies and solutions to ensure that they are building a thriving enterprise. Most people live in a “feast or famine” environment or worst yet, they live from paycheck to paycheck or what I call “poor-check to poor-check” completely captive to their business and clients instead of being able to allow abundance to flow in all they do.

When this is the way you run your business, you are likely to never gain the freedom to enjoy what you love. In my opinion, that completely defeats the purpose of becoming an entrepreneur. If you’re going to be a slave to your work, you might as well keep working a job. If this makes your stomach curl, then you’ve got to get a handle on your money so that you can ensure you never have to sit behind someone else’s desk ever again.

If you want to stop embezzling from your business, you have to change your mindset. Keep in mind that with business comes boundaries. If your business is considered a business on your deepest levels, you will respond accordingly. It will also take discipline. That means, you will have to stop taking cash out of your business before it enters your bank account. While I am happy to suggest that you pay yourself, I do recommend that you pay yourself in an authentic fashion, via your business checking account, so that you have a record of the salary you are paying yourself.

I am happy to report that as soon as you shift your mindset and you also create a few key financial systems in your business, you can go from surviving to thriving in your business. When you’re no longer focusing on the lack present in your business, you can actually attract more paying clients because your energy will be flowing in abundance and circulation instead of in lack and stagnation.

I believe that since you started a business to make money, you should create effective systems so that what you make doesn’t get embezzled by poor financial management habits. While I am not a financial advisor, I am a business coach and I am able to show my clients how to create foundational financial management for their business, a consistent strategy as they endeavor to grow their business. I also recommend that you consult a financial advisor that specializes in working with entrepreneurs so that you can be sure to get a customized strategy that will increase cash flow and reduce stress as you endeavor to grow your business.

Here are 5 keys to create a thriving business with cash flow:

1. Know your numbers. You have to know what you are bringing in, what’s going out and what’s left over. You have to know the value of a new client to your bottom line and how many you plan to add in any given month.

2. Make a monthly financial plan for your business. Set a budget for the expenses that you know are mandatory to the operations of your business for the current month. In your plan, highlight the amount of revenue you have coming in before you do anything to attract new clients. Also track the amount of expenses you have going out so that you know what your cash flow is.

3. Create a strategy to attract enough new clients to handle all of the expenses you already have in your business. As an example, if you need $5,000 to run your business each month and you currently have $7,500 in your business checking account, which would mean you have $2,500 cash flow in your business. If you create a strategy to attract 3 new clients which are valued at $7,500, you will have $5,000 cash flow in your business when your month is done. With the extra cash flow, you can begin to save money by opening a business savings account and having money set aside for personal development such as hiring a business coach, other investments, expanding your team, etc.

4. Purchase financial management software such as QuickBooks to keep track of your expenses, income, invoicing and clients. The system is designed to make managing your businesses financial systems easier so that you can spend more time doing what you love, working with your clients.

5. Run your monthly reports by the 3rd business day of the new month so that you can see where you are and brainstorm how you can increase your results by a minimum of 10% in the new month.

Embezzlement is a serious offense. When you embezzle from your business, you minimize your ability to invest in yourself through your business when the need arises and you aren’t allowed to show up fully for your clients. By simply creating a budget and financial plan, you can reduce those inappropriate expenses and begin to allow your business to truly change lives.

©2011 by Darnyelle A. Jervey. All Rights Reserved. Darnyelle A. Jervey, The Incredible Factor Business Mentor and Coach, is the founder of IncredibleOneEnterprises.com and the Leverage Your Incredible Factor System® a proven step by step program for turning your passion into profit. For more information and a FREE audio CD "How to Use Your Incredible Factor to Attract MORE Ideal Clients" visit http://www.incredibleoneenterprises.com.

5 Keys for Backing Away From the Incredible SNATCHERS--Darnyelle A. Jervey

Okay, I know that as you read the title of this article, you were like, “what in the world is an Incredible SNATCHER?!”

An Incredible SNATCHER is anyone who has been Sent to Negate All Talent and Confidence that Has been Earmarked and Reserved for your success.

That’s right, this article is all about eliminating the haters, naysayers and dream stealers who make it their mission to derail your destiny, pummel your purpose and prevent you from living your passion.

Now, many of you are allowing what the Incredible SNATCHERS have to say to keep you from playing big…they don’t like that you’re succeeding, you quit your job and are making entrepreneurship look effortless, etc. Well, I am admonishing you this week to once and for all stop allowing yourself to be stifled because of what they think of you. Honestly, when you realize that their purpose is to stop you from serving the world in a big way, I think it will make it easier for you to back away.

For one minute, close your eyes and imagine that you are a star in the sky on a dark summer night. In fact, in this visualization, you are the only star. If, because of your Incredible SNATCHERS you dim or completely turn off your light, the world would be in darkness. You, not shining to full capacity would prevent others from being able to see their greatness. Now open your eyes, and ask yourself if you really want that to happen?

I’m going to take a wild guess and state that the answer is no. So, if you’re with me, here are 5 keys that are sure to help you successfully back away from your Incredible SNATCHERS:

1. Recall your vision and mission. A lot of times we get distracted from our purpose and in that distraction we forget what we are supposed to be doing. As an entrepreneur, you are supposed to be solving problems for your ideal clients. Take some time to get to a quiet place and remind yourself of why you are doing what you do. Get refreshed so you can get back to work.

2. Complete a circle of influence review. Are you spending too much time with your SNATCHERS? Because the majority of your SNATCHERS have the same maiden name as you, it’s probably safe to say that you see them on a regular basis. What I recommend is that you complete an assessment and grade each person you find yourself spending significant portions of time with. If they add value, give them a plus. If they cause drama, give them a minus. If they don’t move you one way or another, give them a slash sign. Plus signs get to stay; minus signs need to get less and less of your time and slash signs need to move one way or the other because you can’t straddle the fence of who you share your incredible with.

3. Set clear intentions. When you set clear intentions for your life and business, you will be better able to ensure that you are holding fast to them and you will also allow the universe to conspire on your behalf to make your intentions true for you.

4. Join a mastermind group to spend time with people who are your peers in business. Sharing space with positive entrepreneurs who like you are growing a business, will give you more drive and determination to reach your goals. Remember, your income is the average of the 5 people with whom you spend the majority of your time.

5. Learn to say no. Just because a SNATCHER asks you for something doesn’t mean you have to make yourself available to offer it to them. Begin to say no to them so that you can say yes to your purpose and destiny.

Being an entrepreneur is challenging enough without having SNATCHERS add fuel to the fire. By determining which simple, yet effective strategies will work for you, you will be able to not only back away, but also bring more positive into your business so you can send more positive out to the world you serve.

To get step by step assistance in how to attract your ideal clients, register for my Ideal Client Bootcamp. For details visit http://www.incredibleoneenterprises.com/ifbc

©2011 by Darnyelle A. Jervey. All Rights Reserved. Darnyelle A. Jervey, The Incredible Factor Business Mentor and Coach, is the founder of IncredibleOneEnterprises.com and the Leverage Your Incredible Factor System® a proven step by step program for turning your passion into profit. For more information and a FREE audio CD "How to Use Your Incredible Factor to Attract MORE Ideal Clients" visit http://www.incredibleoneenterprises.com.