5 Mindset Shifts that will change YOUR business!

I became a CPA because I really wanted to help small business owners rock their goals. And I went through my training, got my degree, set my for my certificate, and as I began to practice accounting what I realized is that this isn't what accountants do. What accountants really do is they put together a lot of information mostly that's looking in the past and that's not really very helpful. It doesn't really help the business owner move forward and most of us got in business to move forward, right?

We got in business because we had a big dream, a big goal, a big idea that we really wanted to come to fruition and that means we're moving toward the future. So, what I've realized is that I had a lot of skills around - finance and accounting, but I really didn't know how was it going to take that and make it into something that would be magical to help business owners go forward.

So, began to look at how the accountants who have the financial information in the great deep history and understanding numbers and over here you've got coaches and strategic planners that really help people look forward and set big goals but don't have a financial acumen.

How do we pull these two things together? What has to happen so that the goal setting and the accounting and the financial forward motion can all come together so people reach their goals over and over again? Consistently, with the kind of results that they expect, you know, so many business owners don't get the kind of return that they really deserve from their businesses and I felt that was just criminal so I wanted to make a difference. You know, we go into business and the number one thing we're taught to look at is our bottom line. How much money am I making? That's super important, we have to be able to make a profit so that we reinvest in our business to grow it. But they say that enough, you know, what I know is if I have money I may not be prosperous but if I have, if I'm prosperous I have to have money. So, the money becomes the thing that lets us do what we want to do so as business owners your big vision may be to grow your business but it also may be to work less than 60 hours a week. Have more time off, have more personal freedom in your life, you know, educate your kids, and have some fun along the way - that's prosperity, not just about the money but it takes the money to make it all happen.

So, when we're working with clients what we're doing is looking at how do they pull those financial results together but we're doing it from the perspective of what's it going to let them do in their life because that's the real driver, right? That's what we all want to accomplish is our own personal goals and our own big dreams and those all take money. So, I worked with business owners. What I came to see over and over is they had a big vision, they had a big purpose, they had a big idea when they went into business but there's something funny that happens along the way it's called payroll.

Getting clients, making, buying things from vendors that you then have to pay.  All this cash flow that gets to has to be taken care of. The day-to-day business, of running the business, becomes overwhelming and so often the business owners lose sight of that fundamental big purpose - the big energizing purpose, you know, that purpose is energy - it's energy waiting to be tapped into.

So when a business owner experiencing that burnout often it's because they're not connected to that deeper purpose, that deeper purpose that drove them into business, to begin with, and what I find is if we can pull them back, energize their team and bring them together and with a financial operating system engaging everyone in the team then they can find their energy, they can find their passion and in addition, the team can get energized by that purpose as well so becomes the fuel, the fuel that drives everyone forward. And what I find is there's a place of magic making there's a place of magic making that isn't a discipline on its own or wasn't until I decided to make it one and that is when we can take great data, accurate timely data, and we can mirror it with really good coaching and then we bring in the strategic planning the goal setting element what you get is just magic, especially then, when you go one little step more.

Engage your team.

 So, bringing your team into the goal-setting process, having a coach that really understands your numbers, and having great data pull all that together and nothing's going to stop you from reaching your goals. Imagine if you are working the amount of hours every week that you wanted to work. Imagine if all the work that you were doing was aligned with your greatest gifts - your highest talent, there wasn't anything that was bogging you down that you had to do was all things that you wanted to do. Imagine if your team was so engaged that they know your numbers, they know where you're going and that they would course correct in your business so imagine you didn't have to be there every day, it ran without you that's all possible. That's all possible when you have a really killer financial operating system, a great coach and good planning.

I know I'm asking you to imagine a very different world for yourself as a business owner but I want to step back and tell you that I know that this what I'm asking you to imagine is possible because I've lived it. I've been that overworked, overstressed, didn't know which way to turn business owner. I've looked at my financials and been deeply disappointed. I've been totally frustrated with my team and thought they'd never step up and now live a very different life.

I reached my personal financial goals. I reached my business financial goals. My team are all rock star people who are actually making things happen in the business every day without my day-to-day involvement. I'm focused on what's my highest and best good to do the creative parts of my business, driving it forward having those high-level conversations. I'm not bogged down in the kind of tedious tasks that I used to get bogged down in at all.

So, and only thing that's different between the old me and the new me is this financial operating system as I created it for clients I used it for myself because I was the experiment too, like, is this going to work in my company like if it doesn't work for me how it can't work for anybody. As I began to try them out in our company I’ve realized that it continued to give me more freedom, I continued to have a better life and I set my first really big goal to take a six-week sabbatical. So, imagine now this wasn't just six weeks off, this was a six-week sabbatical that means no phone, no internet connection, no calling in to take your messages. It's just I'm going to go away for six weeks and you're going to run the company and you know what happened, everything good.

I came back to a company that was just dysfunctional and operating just as well as the day I left now not too busy too many business owners can say that and I know because I meet a lot of them but it's all possible, it's possible with the right kind of tools, the right kind of systems, and the right kind of coaching. I hope you'll join me in taking that journey, taking that journey to possibility for yourself, for your family, for your peace of mind, for your physical health. Everything that happens in your life is filtered in and out of your business. How goes your business is how goes your life. Why not make it the life you really want, why not make it full of possibilities, why not create it exactly the way you want it?

There are five mindset shifts that a business owner needs to go through to achieve their goals. The first one is to bring your heart to work to really engage your heart and your head and put them together. We tend to come into business and think about things but we have to bring our heart and align our heart and mind. The second mindset shift is to use data as a convener a unifying force a community builder. Imagine instead of data being the purview of the few it became the language of the many the common language that drove your business forward. The third piece is to change your focus. Instead of focusing on the top line, focusing on the bottom line as well. Instead of just sales, margin, what's your gross margin on those sales instead of sales cash flow? How's that money going to come in the door and if you begin to change your focus in these small ways you'll see amazing things begin to happen in your business? The fourth mindset shift is to stop being the fulcrum and build a wheel. The fulcrum in the business is the person that everything has to go through. You know business owners don't intend to but they become the roadblock so if you can stop being the fulcrum and you can build a wheel it's the strongest force in nature amazing things can happen and everybody carries a bigger load. And the fifth one is to build your own toolbox. Based on your goals what it is that you're trying to accomplish, to build a toolbox, to keep you informed all the time so you've got your finger on the pulse of the numbers and you don't have to worry, you know where you're going and you know how you're going to get there.

Those five mindset shifts will power you to new places and take you to new heights they're just little tweaks really when you think about them but they add up to some amazing differences in your business and in your life.