Unleash Your Bigger Game:
Learn the Winning "5" Combination to Achieve Ultimate Business Mastery

  by Kelly K. O'Neil
Award-Winning Marketing & Small Business Strategist

Introduction

Have you ever wondered how some people make success look so darn easy? You are out busting your hump each day to get more clients , have fewer fires, and ultimately squeeze in 5 minutes of peace of mind. If building this venture seems hard to you , and your business isn't exactly where you want it to be , then you are missing a component of the Winning “5’ Combination.

According to the U.S. Small Business Administration , over 50% of small businesses fail in the first year and 95% fail within the first five years. The top reasons for small business failure include lack of planning , lack of differentiation from competition, and poor marketing strategy. However, the small business administration failed to address two critical points that also lead to failure for small businesses: lack of life balance , which contributes to burn out , and a lack of confidence and support, which causes individuals to feel isolated and hopeless about creating success.

These figures aren't meant to scare you , but to prepare you for the path ahead. Underestimating the difficulty of starting or growing a business is one of the biggest obstacles entrepreneurs face. However , success is absolutely possible with the right mindset , support, and resources. There are not shortcuts.

Success is not merely about wealth. By building a business that honors your values , you will tap into a passion that will naturally generate peak personal performance and fulfillment. This natural passion will attract the kind of business you desire and enjoy working on. It's a natural cycle.

Building a solid foundation will help you focus on what is really important to achieve fulfillment and happiness. The strategies in this report will also help you to avoid the pitfalls of failed businesses by planning ahead and constantly moving in the direction of your vision. Success doesn't have to be hard.

“If you have built castles in the air , your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them.’ – Henry David Thoreau

At UpLevel Strategies we run our business based on our core operating values. One of our values is to Seek Mastery. Mastery is a great skillfulness and knowledge of a subject or activity. Mastery is not a destination , but rather a journey. As with anyone who masters a certain task , you must be in continual practice to sustain that level. To do that you must have a strategy. A strategy is a plan , a "how , " a means of getting from here to there. The Winning “5’ Combination is a culmination of the key strategies the successful use in their business.

UpLevel Operating Value # 7

Seek Mastery:   At UpLevel , we strive for continual progress on our path to mastery , we do not settle for "good work".   We continually learn , evolve, and strive for improvement in our systems , philosophies, and processes.

Self Inquiry: What are your core operating values?

The Winning “5’ Combination

The Winning “5’ Combination is like a recipe for small business success. Have you ever tried to bake a cake without using flour or only throwing in a dash of sugar? Pretty awful sounding , huh? It is the same principal with achieving a mastery level of business. If you combine the right ingredients in the right order you can create a delicious masterpiece.

Winning Combination #1 – Develop a Success Mindset Winning Combination

Winning Combination #2 – Design Your Success

Winning Combination #3 – Create Systems for Success

Winning Combination #4 – Know , Love and Trust Your Customers

Winning Combination #5 – Create Consistent Marketing (Promotion) Engines

Self Inquiry: What part of the combination am I missing?

Winning Combination #1

Develop a Success Mindset Winning Combination

I have a secret to tell you. I really want you to read and absorb this secret. In fact , once you have read the sentence , close your eyes, and repeat it in your head at least 5 times.

The only thing standing between you and success is you!

Fire the “Committee’ & Clear Up Some Space

The committee (or those little voices in your head that create guilt and anxiety) are the instigators of the Wants Vs. Shoulds argument. Save yourself a whole bunch of time and energy and fire them!

Clarify between what you want and what you think you should want. My simple definition of balance is: achieving what you want in each area of your life. You've probably noticed that it's very difficult to achieve what you want until you know what you want. And it's completely de-motivating , dissatisfying , and unfulfilling to pursue shoulds.

Extinguish Limiting Beliefs

What are the lies we believe? These ideas we call beliefs. They are usually hidden and because they are hidden , they are unseen enemies that flourish unchecked. There are two kinds of limiting beliefs. The first is a global limiting belief which usually starts with a statement such as Life is , I am , People are…. Then there are rules that are set to let you know when to feel bad and when to feel good. Beliefs are a feeling of absolute certainty about something and they are created out of a persons attempt to meet their need at the time.

They come from early experiences we have had and have been formed as a way to protect us from hurt. And they lie just under the radar of our awareness. So they kind of operate on autopilot , and we experience their results in our lives , but we do not usually detect them.

Research suggests that these limiting beliefs cause over 95% of every problem we have in life! They motivate our thoughts , our feelings , and some of the harmful behaviors and habits that cause us pain and also hurt the ones we love.

People express limiting beliefs with statements like: 'I cannot... , ' 'I have to...' or 'It is impossible to...' These leave you no choice or alternative possibilities , and they are therefore disempowering. Here are some of the destructive limiting beliefs that can be a hidden part of our lives…

(1) I am never going to get clients
(2) I am unorganized
(3) I am a failure
(4) I am bad at marketing…sales...business
(5) I can't do it

Those statements are not true – they are beliefs. Limiting beliefs do not serve you and your success. In fact , they can keep you from what you truly want!

Here are some positive beliefs to replace those negative beliefs. If you believe you can - you can and if you believe you can't - you won't. So let's create some new “beliefs’ to govern your journey by.

1. There is no such thing as Can't. There is only I choose not to.
2. There is no trying in business. There is success and failure and they are interdependent of one another.
3. If you believe you will succeed you will , if you believe you won't you won't.

Self Inquiry: What limiting beliefs have I bought into?

Winning Combination #2

Design Your Success

I have used this line many times before and I am going to repeat it again. The best way to predict the future is to create it. If you do not intentionally set a path for yourself , then life will show up and set it for you.

Many of my clients come to me to help them plan for their success. They are tired of trying to guess what their income will be for the month or which marketing strategies they should use. Many have even wasted valuable time and money on Hope & Pray Marketing Methods that don't produce results. And here is what I tell them. “If you fail to plan , you plan to fail.’

Know Your Outcome

It never ceases to amaze me that people do not identify outcomes they wish to achieve. Many people engage in activities in their careers and businesses , but they haven't defined what they want to attain. They are completing tasks , but they aren't focused on accomplishing clear-cut results.

Why is it so critical to determine outcomes for a project , a meeting , a sales call , or any other situation…including your promotional plan? Because if you don't know what your outcome is , the odds are that you will spend a lot of unnecessary time and money trying to reach a fuzzy target. And there is a very strong chance that the target will not even be reached.

Outcomes let you know where you are going. They give you important information about how to use your resources – time , money , and employees. When you know your outcome , you can continually make important strategic decisions – is this going to help me reach my goal or will this take me further away from my objective? 

Strategic planning is a blueprint for maintaining or expanding a business. It is how you achieve your outcomes. In fact , a plan is like a map. When following a plan , you can always see how much you have progressed towards your goal and how far you are from your destination. If you are serious about making a success of your own business , you must have a business plan.

I hate to sound like a broken record , but are you beginning to see that planning is vital? AND , planning doesn't have to be overwhelming. It can be done quarterly. Your strategic quarterly plan explains your goals and objectives and helps you keep on track to achieve your goals.

Having a quarterly planning session with your mastermind team or your coach will help you:

• Identify goals and objectives
• Develop strategies to meet those objectives
• Highlight problems and suggest ways to improve them
• Define the business structure

Creating your own quarterly strategic business plan will help you think through all the aspects of your business as it is now , and also what you wish to achieve in the future. Additionally , it will help you make decisions based on anticipated outcomes , rather than on instinct , or on seemingly good opportunities. It will help you make decisions from a position of strength and this will translate into bottom line results.

Write My Quarterly Plan

Target Completion Date:____________ Project Completed:_____________

Schedule my 30 Minute Complimentary Coaching with an UpLevel Strategist to discuss my plan. (strategy@uplevelstrategies.com)

Target Completion Date:____________ Project Completed:_____________

Winning Combination # 3

Create Systems for Success

I saw a great quote on a website that read that “97% of all failure is due to the SYSTEM and not the person.’ Process is what keeps American Business humming. My mentor Michael Gerber is a pro at establishing process to increase sales.

Business processes put your business on autopilot and they create a great sense of comfort for your customers and employees. For example , Nordstrom has an exceptional system for customer service. They have policies and procedures that are designed to strategically enhance the customer experience.

Imagine what it would be like for your customers if there was a strategically designed experience to enhance their experience with your company. Or what if there was a system for accounts payable that ensured your employees checks would undoubtedly be in their mailbox on the 15 th of the month as sure as the sun shines.

I even have a work system to design my days for maximum productivity. I will share this with you as an example based on my personal optimum performance:

Monday Focus: Administrative and Marketing

Tuesday Focus: Customer Service and Coaching

Wednesday Focus: Sales and Coaching

Thursday Focus: Product Development and Coaching

Friday Focus: Writing

To further enhance that system , I only return calls between 4-6 PM PST Tuesday , Wednesday, and Thursday. I have a voicemail system that allows my customers to get to the right person and when they reach my desk , they know exactly how to reach me and when. It saves me , my staff, and my clients a whole bunch of time and stress.

Systems Checklist By Department

Following are a short list of examples of policy/procedures and systems you might want to check into. I have left enough space for you to also add your own.

Winning Combination #4

Know , Love, and Trust Your Customers

Why do so many new products and service companies fail? Usually for many reasons. Companies often are so enamored of their new product ideas that they fail to do their research on the most important entity in their entire company….Their Customers! Even if they do get a nibble of information , they often ignore what the research tells them. It is important in product/service development to develop products that your consumer's want , not simply what you desire to produce.

With effective market research , you can determine the need for your service , a product's likelihood to sell , target-market demographics , and desirable store locations. There are numerous ways to uncover this information -- from online research to focus groups. Here are a few simple and free ways for entreprenuers to do market research:

Step 1: Go to www.google.com

Step 2: Identify key words that describe your target market and service/product offering

Step 3: Run a search on each of those keywords

Step 4: Research the top 10 Sites that show up on Google and the sponsored links on the right for the following 7 Key Market Research Questions :

1. Who is the company and principal of the company?
2. What products and services are they trying to sell?
3. At what price point are they offering these products and services?
4. Who are they targeting? What are the demographics of their target audience?
5. How are they delivering their product and service?
6. How are they positioning their product and service?
7. How are they promoting their product and service?

Step 5: Create a one page document for each company that summarizes the key questions and then one final executive summary of all 10 sites comparatively. Use this information to create and position your own marketing strategy.

Other Ideas

• Ask your existing customers - Conduct a survey of your target market with Survey Monkey. Trust that they will tell you what they want.
• Invite a group out for lunch and have in informal focus group.
• Contact a local MBA program and offer an internship to a grad student.
• Join online forums that talk about your kind of business.
• Set up a chat room where you conduct your own online focus groups.

Renegade entrepreneurs may find this task tedious , but I promise you , it won't be as painful as regularly dusting the thousands of dollars of unshipped products you could have laying around your office or staring at an empty appointment book!

My business coach , Alan Weiss , says there are three key questions to answer prior to establishing any marketing approach:

• What is my unique value for buyers?
• Who specifically will write a check for that value?
• How do I reach them?

Take the time to do the get to know your customer intimately up front. Understand what pains them and what makes them excited and then show them how much you adore them by creating specific products and services to meet their needs.

Self Inquiry: How can I improve the lives of my customers today?

Winning Combination #5

Create Consistent Marketing (Promotion) Engine

As entrepreneurs we often interchange the words marketing and promotion to mean “activities’ that are aimed at trying to get customers. Marketing is the wide range of activities involved in making sure that you're continuing to meet the needs of your customers and getting value in return. These activities include market research to find out , for example , what groups of potential customers exist , what their needs are , which of those needs you can meet , how you should meet them , etc.

Marketing also includes analyzing the competition , positioning your new product or service (finding your market niche) , pricing your products and services , and promoting them through continued advertising , promotions , public relations, and sales.

Promotion keeps the product in the minds of the customer and helps stimulate demand for the product. The ongoing activities of advertising , sales, and public relations are often considered aspects of promotions.

Your promotions are the communications strategy of your plan. Here you'll plan not only the message you want to use , but also the tools you'll use to spread it to the world. But first , I need to share with you the 3 C's of Marketing Success:

• Consistency (communicate regularly with your customers and prospects)
• Clarity (deliver clear benefit driven messages to those customers)
• Collaboration (work with marketing experts, a mastermind team, and form joint venture partnerships to expedite growth)

If you can master these three items , you will be heads and shoulders above a majority of your competition. Jay Conrad Levinson said to me once , “It is unfortunate , but true that bad marketing done consistently is better than good marketing done inconsistently.’ Create consistency in your marketing program.

There are several ways to promote or market your company. In fact, I have an entire home study course called Promotion Mastery that details an entire plan from start to finish on exactly how and when to promote your business and products/services. Imagine what good marketing done consistently can achieve! Here are some general suggestions to consider when developing your marketing engine:

• Never let a day pass without engaging in at least one marketing activity.
• Set specific marketing goals every year; review and adjust quarterly.
• Maintain a file of ideas for later use. I have a board in my office that I call my “parking lot’ for ideas.
• Carry business cards with you (all day , every day). In your car , in your purse or briefcase. I even carry a brochure or two for that special occasion.
• No piece of information (invoices , thank you cards , email , mail etc) should ever go out without your company contact information on it. Every communication outside your company is an opportunity for you to promote yourself!

Keep Educating Yourself

• Meet with your Mastermind Group at least once a month.
• Attend a marketing seminar.
• Read a marketing book.
• Subscribe to a marketing newsletter or other publication.
• Join an association or organization related to your profession.
• Hire a marketing consultant or coach to brainstorm with.

Create a Marketing Plan that Automates the Marketing System

Target Completion Date:____________ Project Completed:_____________

Get Into Action

The most important thing about creating success in your business is to take massive action. Not a little action – massive action. At a minimum, make yourself and your potential success a commitment and do at least 1 action item a day for each of the 5 winning combinations toward creating business success. Schedule the time on your calendar and just get it done.

If you are feeling overwhelmed and don't know where to start , please call and take advantage of our complimentary 30 minute strategy session.

"It's not what happens , but what you do that matters"

It is our goal to be your partner in your success. If you would like to learn more about our products and services , please visit our website at www.uplevelstrategies.com .

To Your Success!

Kelly K. O'Neil

Award Winning Business & Marketing Strategist

Kelly@uplevelstrategies.com

© Kelly O'Neil 2005

About the Author

Kelly K. O'Neil, Chief Strategy Officer, UpLevel Strategies

Business & Marketing guru Kelly O'Neil is passionate about helping entrepreneurs succeed in business through her Business Mastery Success System™. She is the lead author of "Visionary Women Inspiring the World: 12 Paths to Personal Power" (Skyward, 2005) and is writing her second book Guerilla Business Strategy with mega-marketing genius Jay Conrad Levinson. Kelly's company received several awards for her exceptional work including the PR Compass award for outstanding Public Relations, The ADDY Award for Branding and recently received the Purple Cow Award acknowledging her company as one of the Most Innovative Companies in America by best-selling author Seth Godin.

For more information, or to subscribe to O'Neil's Arrive! E-newsletter filled with countless tips and resources for creating more profit in your business, visit www.uplevelstrategies.com. Please contact UpLevel Strategies at (408) 615-8150 for a Complimentary 30 Minute Strategy Session.

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