11 TPE Part II - Chapter 5-converted

The transcription is about the importance of a prosperity plan in starting and growing a business. It emphasizes that a business plan is a waste of time and instead suggests three powerful documents: a prosperity plan, a quarterly plan, and daily metrics. It uses the example of Brian Scudamore, the founder of 1-800-GOT-JUNK, who achieved tremendous success by creating a detailed prosperity plan. The prosperity plan is described as the first step in starting a company and should be personal and emotionally impactful. It also discusses the importance of defining your life mission and destiny in order to align your business goals with your personal aspirations. Chapter 5. It's all about regularity. Winning is not a sometime thing. You don't win once in a while. You don't do things right once in a while. You do them right all the time. Winning is a habit. Unfortunately, so is losing. Vincent Lombardi How many times have you heard about the importance of a detailed business plan? Make sure you have 10 years of financials. Make sure you can make $100 million, capturing only 0.1% of the potential market. Make sure you have a strong management team with a strong track record. Make sure you can show clearly where your customers will be coming from and why. Everyone tries to tell you that you need a winning business plan if you ever hope to go anywhere with your business. Well, I'm here to tell you that a business plan is a total waste of time. Almost every business plan I've ever seen includes excruciating, eye-bleeding detail, discusses irrelevant experience, and is supported by a fantasy management dream team willing to work without pay for six months. But that's understandable because within six months, the hypothetical projections show that everyone will be making a million-dollar salary. Yeah, right. Once a company is up and running, the business plan rarely, if ever, receives a second glance, let alone an update. Instead, it ends up collecting dust on the shelf. What a waste. All that time, effort, and money spent developing a work of fiction that winds up in the recycle bin. Even if you choose to squander your money on business planning software in an effort to streamline the process, you'll still end up with a totally useless document. Three documents will launch your business faster and better than any business plan. With these powerful documents, your growth will be limited only by your beliefs and focus. Trash your business plan right now because I'm about to teach you the power of three sheets, your prosperity plan, quarterly plan, and daily metrics. Don't believe you can plan a successful business using just three documents? Read the Declaration of Independence, a one-page document that launched a powerful, free nation and inspired the entire world. A junk man's $1 billion prosperity plan. Junk isn't the most glamorous business in the world. Would you believe that in the summer of 1998, some guy was daydreaming about how he could change the world by being a junk man? Well, it's true, and his name is Brian Scudamore of 1-800-GOT-JUNK, based out of Vancouver, British Columbia. The idea came to him while fishing one summer day. As thoughts of his life drifted through his mind, Brian reviewed his past 10 years of entrepreneurialism. He had built a small rubbish removal business in the past decade. It was generating a respectable but small $1 million in annual revenues. Respectable but not satisfying. That's when it hit him. Brian dropped his poll and began writing down his expectations of himself and his company. Not mere wishes or hopeful thoughts, but a real vision of his future. He started writing a painted picture, as he came to name it, describing what the future of his company would be like. The document contained grand statements, unrealistic goals, and unheard of expectations. But the document was extremely real to Brian. Every time he read the document, his heart beat faster and his emotions soared. He kept on improving it and improving it. Within a day, he prepared a document that was so compelling to him, so true to his hardwired purpose in life, he just knew this had to become a reality. Like the Declaration of Independence, Brian's document contained ideal statements that rang true to him. He made commitments that were outrageous to others, just like the small group of men that declared the ragtag United States Army would defeat the military juggernaut of England. When Brian returned from his weekend trip to the cabin, he had his painted picture, his prosperity plan, in hand. He set to action immediately and slowly but surely hired only those few people who believed in the same vision. The non-believers went their own way. Fast forward five years. Brian Scudamore's company, 1-800-GOT-JUNK, went from $1 million in annual revenue to $100 million in annual revenue. This is not a typo. $100 million in revenue. His newest tweak to his prosperity plan has him doing $1 billion in annual revenue by 2014. I have a good feeling it's going to happen. He absolutely believes it. Brian Scudamore is a toilet paper entrepreneur. Create a prosperity plan. A prosperity plan is the overarching, never-changing, but often tweaked, document that describes what your company is all about. It is your written commitment to your company goals and the standards you will abide by to achieve them. The prosperity plan replaces the most powerful part of a business plan, the section that often gets ignored. It establishes the foundation of beliefs for your company and generates excitement. But business plans get shelved and then forgotten. Because your prosperity plan is accessible to you at all times, it re-energizes you. It affirms your beliefs. It realigns with your vision. Writing a prosperity plan is the very first step to starting your company. Creating this document comes before you legally form or register your business, even before you name your company. Your prosperity plan details your vision for your company. It defines everything you and your business are about, everything you and your business stand for. How can you have a good company name, a strong marketing message, or accomplish anything with consistency without knowing where you are headed? You can't. That's why the prosperity plan is the first order of business. The formation of your company is all about you. This is so important to understand. It is so different from what we've been taught that I need to say it again. Your company is first, foremost, and exclusively about you. Your customers are critical, but they are second to your wants. Because if you're not happy, they won't be either. Your company depends on effective colleagues, but they won't perform well if you're a miserable SOB. The prosperity plan must be all about you and what you envision to be the best, happiest, most perfect scenario for you. The prosperity plan must be visceral. It must touch you at an emotional level, but it doesn't need to touch outsiders at an emotional level. The prosperity plan for my company is powerful. It speaks to my emotions, and I believe it emphatically. When you read it, you may feel that it's lame. You might not be moved by it. It might not even make sense to you. That's cool, because you are you. What matters is how I feel about my plan and that I believe in it to my core. Now, of course, if you read the document and also believe in it, I want to speak with you. You might be a great colleague. The prosperity plan is also your statement to the world about your beliefs and how you plan to stay true to them. Some people will reject it. Most people will disregard it, but some will be drawn to it. The people who are drawn to your plan are your clients, colleagues, investors, and vendors with which you will be able to build great things. Here are the key elements of a visceral, motivating prosperity plan. Life mission. What is your life's purpose? Not your company mission, but your life mission. One informs the other. So as we discussed in part one, figure out what your heart screams for you to do first. Then figure out how that mission can be played out in a profitable business. If you relentlessly commit to doing what you love, your business will be a force to be reckoned with. As you discover your life's mission, you will probably find your tagline, the short phrase that defines your purpose. Your company name may come to you then, too. The key to discovering these components is that they must always resonate strongly with you. Don't worry about anyone or anything else at this phase. Defining your life mission is not an easy exercise. Actually, most of us go through life never discovering it, let alone thinking about it. Here is how you do it. First, you must believe you have a life mission, albeit you may have a different name for it, and that you will discover it. Second, you need to seek it out. Some effective actions you can take. One, think about and document your life from the day you were born until today. What were your happiest moments? Why? Would you like to have those feelings and experiences again? Two, write a list of adjectives that you would like people to use when describing you. Three, ask your friends to tell you one thing you are absolutely the best at. Four, write your own eulogy, the stamp that you would like to leave on the world. Five, put a picture of yourself on the cover of your favorite magazine. What magazine is it? Why? What is the title placed above you on the cover? Why? Six, if you could be the guest or host of any TV show in the world, which one would it be? Why? What would you talk about? Seven, who are the 10 people you most admire? Why? Eight, write a list of 100 things that you enjoy doing or would like to incorporate in your life. Nine, what upsets you the most about the world? Do you have ideas about how to make it better? How would you feel if you were doing that? Ten, what have you always wanted to do or experience? Destiny. Once you know your life's mission, you need to identify your destiny. This is the painted picture that Brian Scudamore wrote on the day he was fishing or the vision document that many business minds talk about. The name you give it is irrelevant. The fact that you have a crystal clear image of what your company will be is the critical part. Pick a date in the future when you see your company achieving its most notable success. In my case, I picked 10 years out from the day I wrote it. Think of your destiny as your ultimate goals and those of your company. Very often they are linked. Write them in as much detail as possible, including how your life will be different when you reach your destiny. How will you know you've arrived at your goals? How will you measure your success? Will it be in the terms of revenue or brand recognition or market domination or something else entirely? Your destiny must be absolutely 100% believable to you. If you write lofty ideas, unrealistic claims, and unachievable targets in your destiny, you will still achieve them if you truly believe them in your inner core. But if you write lofty ideas, unrealistic claims, and unachievable targets and believe them to be lofty, unrealistic, and unachievable, you don't have a chance. Go back to the drawing board and redo your destiny until you believe it to your inner core. Don't worry about how you're going to get there. I will show you that method in a moment. Simply ensure that the thought behind the thought believes it's possible, or better yet, probable. It must be hitting at your emotional core. You've got to feel it. It must be visceral. Area of innovation. As we discussed in the previous chapter, your company can lead in only one area of innovation, quality, price, or convenience. Pick the category that intrinsically feels right, then dig deep into that category and define exactly how you are going to be remarkably different than the competition. What is the area where you just can't be touched? What specifically do customers rave about when they talk about you? This is your area of innovation, and you must commit to leading in this area for the life of your business. If you're just launching your business, choose an area of innovation that plays to your strengths. For example, if you've got a fantastic product idea that will surpass the competition by leaps and bounds, you might choose quality as your area of innovation. Or if you know you have the negotiating skills to keep costs down, you might choose price as your area of innovation. Immutable laws. You have certain hardwired beliefs that can't, won't, and shouldn't be changed. These beliefs are something we are all born with, and they continue to intensify over time. Not all of us share the same beliefs, and some of us have polar opposite beliefs. When recording the immutable laws for your company, they must be your personal values, not a watered-down version of what you think others will want to hear. For example, I believe that in order to get the best out of people, I must first give them my best. I always say that commitment begets commitment. Loyalty begets loyalty, and I believe it. Occasionally, I have been burnt, but the vast majority of the time, I have not. That's why my values include give to give and no dicks allowed. I have friends who believe someone must show them loyalty first in order for them to reciprocate. Only when they have seen ferocious loyalty do they give the same in return. They have been burned in the past with this philosophy, but the vast majority of times, they have not. Their values include you've got to earn it and prove it. So who's right? Both. And it doesn't matter. All that matters is that you truly believe in your own immutable laws and that they are truly consistent with your nature. Look back on your life, ask friends, and do the exercises outlined in Finding Your Life mission. Find your values. I guarantee you have been exercising them all your life already. Document your immutable laws as the rules your company will always abide by, no matter what, every time, and at every moment. Remember, this is not about should. This is about what is meaningful to you. Even if people are telling you that your immutable laws are impossible to adhere to or are silly or useless, hang tight. When things get hairy or business booms or both, you'll realize how important those immutable laws are. Immutable laws will keep you on track. You can draw strength from them in times of crisis and use them to help make decisions fast. Finally, at this stage, we start talking about someone else besides you. Well, not really. The community is the people you are serving. You'll be delivering something to them that is 100% consistent with your life mission. It's 100% moving you toward your destiny. It's extraordinary because of your area of innovation. And it's consistent with your values. Well, shit! Who is better to consume this thing than you? And people just like you? And people who want to be like you? Exactly. Hands down, you're most capable of connecting with people who share the same values as you and or aspire to be like you and or aspire to be somewhat like you. Now that you know all about you and your wants, what people make up the community that has the wants and needs you can satisfy? These are the people you need to speak to, sell to, and service. Remember, your prosperity plan does not have to be realistic by today's standards. In fact, it actually should not be realistic according to what we know to be true today. Nobody believes man could walk on the moon. It simply was impossible. The stuff is science fiction or fairy tales. And yet a man did walk on the moon. So think and dream big and don't let concerns about how you pull it off influence your prosperity plan. Now go write your own prosperity plan. Share it with as many people as possible so that you are forced into accountability. Keep it close by and review it every week. While you may constantly tweak it, the intent of the prosperity plan will never change. Check out the Toilet Paper Entrepreneur website, www.toiletpaperentrepreneur.com, to download a copy of my prosperity plan, which you can use as a template to create your own. Here's one final tip about your prosperity plan. You know you've got it when reading it makes you cry. Yes, you, your life's mission, your destiny, all that should make you blubber like a baby. I don't care how badass you are, discovering your authentic passion is an emotional experience. You have not completed this exercise until you break down and cry. I'm not kidding. I got a little choked up there. Always be tacky. The first time I went sailing, I was taught a lesson that was so important and applied so much to business that I jumped off the boat, swam ashore, and started writing it down. The boat floated away into the rocks. I had to pay a lot to repair that boat, so you better freaking learn from this too. When sailing a boat, a sailor needs to know where he is in relation to his destination. He has to know which way the wind is blowing and know that it will occasionally change. Finally, he has to periodically look for obstacles that lay in his path, like other boats, land masses, the Loch Ness Monster, and such. With these few bits of crucial information, he uses a technique called tacking to navigate as quickly as possible to his destination. He knows that he will not follow a straight line. The changing winds alone will not allow for that. Instead, he will travel a zigzag-like pattern. By tacking, the sailor travels a short distance, maximizing the winds and avoiding hazards. He then analyzes where he is in relationship to his destination, adjusts the sails, redirects the boat, and continues the zag part of his travels. After another short distance, he again evaluates his relationship to the destination and adjusts. Through a regular reevaluation of his current location and the constant destination, he routinely adjusts his actions to redirect the boat toward the destination. The sailor knows that he won't travel a direct line. But by tacking, he will promptly arrive at his destination regardless of the way the winds blow and regardless of the obstacles in front of him. You will make the greatest progress in your business by tacking. The best tacking method for business is using a quarterly plan, which I will explain shortly. For now, just know that tacking is essential. Pay attention and navigate only in short segments, readjusting to the final destination only periodically. Don't make me waste all that boat repair money for nothing. Quarterly tacking. With your prosperity plan in the can, you now have a big red X showing where you are on the map that is your company's journey. And you know exactly where you need to go and the guidelines you will adhere to in your travels. It's time to put your budding enterprise on the big blue ocean and sail toward your destination. As your company travels the rough seas of commerce, the winds will change, obstacles will appear, and you will run into enemy ships. The strategy is to navigate the water safely while making swift progress to your destination. The strategy to use is tacking. By tacking your business, your intention is to travel only a short distance, as best as you can, in the direction of the goal. The quarterly plan is a one-page, detailed description of what your business must accomplish in the next 90 days to cover the most ground toward its destiny. It documents the three most important, overarching goals that must be accomplished in the next quarter. You do know what a quarter is, right? If not, look it up. The art of proper tacking is to harmonize both speed and distance. Traveling at warp speed in the opposite direction of your destination is of no value. Neither is pointing your ship dead on target but standing still. You need to consider every goal carefully and employ a balance of distance, speed, and direction. Here's the breakdown of the quarterly plan process. 1. Even if you are well into the current quarter, write a quarterly plan to see you to the end of the quarter. 2. Two to three weeks before the quarter ends, commit your full efforts to tie up any loose ends and ensure the completion of the current quarterly plan. 3. With this quarter's goals complete, review your prosperity plan in detail to see where you are in regards to your destiny. 4. Only after you have confirmed where you are at this moment and reviewed your destination do you write the plan for the next quarter. 5. Complete this process a few weeks before the start of the next quarter. Repeat the process every quarter. Congratulations, you are now tacking your business. The elements of a quarterly plan are simple yet powerful. The ideal is to commit to two or three biggest goals that you can realistically complete this quarter that will significantly advance you toward your prosperity plan's destiny. Here are the components of the quarterly plan. 1. Overarching Goals Write down overarching goals for the quarter. These are the overall goals you intend to complete before the end of the quarter, those that get you closer to your destiny. The goals are not tasks. Throughout the quarter there will be many tasks related to your accomplishment of the overarching goals. Generally, you will have three overarching goals every quarter, such as revenue increases, reorganization, or improved employee morale. 2. Overarching Goal Description Clarify your goals by describing each one using a few sentences. Again, this is not a list of tasks. It is simply a full description of what needs to be accomplished in the next 90 days. Any colleague at your office must be able to read the description and know exactly what needs to be accomplished. 3. Tasks Jot down a sequential list of the macro tasks that need to be accomplished in order to achieve each specific overarching goal. Each task must be specific enough so that there is a clear and measurable expectation, yet leave room for the person executing the task to exploit his or her own strengths in accomplishing it. I strongly recommend using SMART tasks, tasks that are specific, measurable, attainable, responsible, and time-specific. In SMART, S stands for specific. The goal must have enough detail so that it can be achieved with confidence. A specific goal defines the who, what, where, why, and when. M equals measurable. The goal must have specific criteria for measuring progress toward achieving the goal. A equals attainable. The goal must be realistic. If you don't believe it's possible, you won't achieve it. Remember, hard work is realistic. R equals responsible. Define ways to stay on track with completing the goal. T equals time. The goal must have a completion date and time. Without a time frame, there is no sense of urgency, no motivation to accomplish it, because the goal will always be within your time parameters. 4. Target Set realistic target completion dates for each task and then ensure that they are completed in a timely fashion. Highlight the tasks that have been completed in green and review your weekly progress. 5. Lead Designate a lead person accountable for completing the tasks. Note two things. First, there can only be one person accountable. If you make several people accountable, it will simply result in finger pointing and he said, she said. Second, this is the person accountable, not necessarily responsible. There is a major difference. Accountable means the person at the end where the buck stops. The lead may elect to delegate responsibilities in part or in whole to others, but when the shit hits the fan, it is his or her responsibility exclusively. That's it. Develop a quarterly plan for your top three goals for this quarter, review it, monitor it, and follow it constantly. When the quarter ends, these goals will be accomplished, and it is on to the next, tacking your way to your destiny. Download a template of the quarterly plan from the resources section on the Toilet Paper Entrepreneurs website. Your quarterly plan is something that you need to share with your entire company, but unlike the prosperity plan, this stays confidential to your company and is not distributed. There is no need to give your competitors the details of what you are up to. Hang a copy of the quarterly plan over everyone's desk. As tasks on the plan get completed on time, highlight them green. If they don't get completed, highlight them red. If they get completed late, highlight them yellow. I mean this literally. Have everyone in your office highlight the task on his or her copy of the quarterly plan. How important is this? Critical. Everyone in your entire company will know exactly what is going on with the quarterly plan, and since they are the ones marking it up, they are involved even if they are not directly involved. No one wants to see red, so your team will be pushing to keep it green. As an added bonus, the highlighting becomes a very simple and quick way to measure your progress. If you have all greens, you are cruising along and you may want to set more aggressive goals in the future. Mostly green with a few yellows is great. You've got everything done and hopefully pushed to make huge strides. Reds are a no-no. Either you are setting unrealistic goals or you are not committed to your plan. When you see red, you sure as heck better get the roadblocks and problems corrected for next quarter. And remember to celebrate when you achieve your goals for the quarter. Rewards do not have to be expensive or even have any monetary value. Praise and acknowledgement are always welcome and always free. A nice lunch on you ain't a bad thing either. Every day, review your metrics. Now that you know where your destination is and you have your vessel tacking to it, you need to monitor the ongoing conditions. What if you have a tear in the sail or a big wave damages your boat and you start filling with water? You need to regularly inspect and or have the crew report the conditions of the ship. No one promised it would be smooth sailing. Daily metrics are the final component that replaces the lame traditional business plan. Daily metrics are the handful of numbers that instantly identify the health of the company day in and day out. Is cash flow tight? The daily metrics can identify it. Are sales trends strong? The daily metrics can identify that. Is internal productivity dropping significantly? The daily metrics can identify that too. Building on your prosperity plan and your quarterly plan, identify the three to five most critical numbers you can review every day to ensure you are progressing properly. Each daily metric must be a single number and or gauge and must clearly identify progress towards your prosperity plan and quarterly plan. The metric, if appropriate, can have a plus or minus associated with it to identify if it is an improvement or deterioration from the previous day. For example, all of our clients have a daily metric we call cash capacity. We get the number by taking our total current cash on hand dividing it by the accounts payable and payroll for the next 60 days. We know that if a number ever drops below one, we are in a weak cash position. When our cash capacity number is between one and three, we are in a healthy position. If our cash capacity number goes above three, then we are in a bloated position and we put the money into interest-bearing accounts or make capital investments. Every day this number and other daily metrics are communicated to our entire company. Every day. The goal of daily metrics is to know your current status as well as to anticipate how future prospects look. For example, a fuel gauge is a daily metric for a car. It indicates the current status, health, of your car as well as how long you can go before you run out of gas. Your business needs to be monitored the same way. There are hundreds of options for your daily metrics. In a simple Yahoo search, yes I just dissed Google, on the terms financial ratios or business ratios will give you a hundred more. The key is to find a simple number that accurately indicates your current business health and predicts the future of your cash, sales, and inventory. Other important aspects that are worthwhile but a bit more difficult to track are client satisfaction, employee morale, and other non-tangible aspects of your business. You don't need to do the obvious here. You're going for metrics that indicate current and future health and you want to make it as easy as possible to collect the data. For example, with my first company, we tracked the number of times a new call came into our company the previous day. It didn't matter if it was a call from a vendor, client, a cold call, or even if it was a missed dial. We simply tracked how many times calls came in that day. Our receptionist had a clicker and would click it every time someone called. So why was that important? We determined that our call volume tied into our sales since over time a certain percentage of calls were new prospects. A certain percentage of those prospects became customers and those customers sent us money. So every day we would report the call number. Over time we learned that a call volume of 3,000 calls in a 30-day rolling period would result in about $150,000 in monthly sales. But that would happen three months later. This became a very powerful indicator since we could predict our sales three months in advance simply by the phone ringing. You can imagine the power of knowing what your sales are going to be three months from now. You can prepare smartly and manage your cash better. That is the power of metrics. One note, the daily metric will change over time. It may change radically, but typically will not change more than once a quarter. As I said before, the daily metrics need to blend your prosperity plan and the current quarterly plan. When first starting out, you may have all your focus on sales, so your daily metrics relate predominantly to sales. As you grow and bring on new colleagues, your daily metrics may shift to reflect morale or performance factors. Daily metrics are meant to reflect the health of the company, and over time you will want to monitor other parts of the corporate body. The daily metrics are the most effective way of keeping your finger on the pulse of your company. Studies have shown that when there is an acute focus on a specific number, that number improves. That's the power of keeping your finger on the pulse. Yes, you can download a sample of this too from our website. Gold bullions everywhere. In the introduction to this book, I mentioned how emotion is a key factor in absorbing and retaining information. While powerful, remembering to use the daily metrics as a tool may be challenging for you and your staff. At Lawline, an internet-based source for continuing legal education, the daily metrics are in the forefront of the minds of every employee. Why? Because they have a visual example that hits them emotionally every time they see it. Lawline's president, David Shnerman, came up with the idea to motivate his staff using a display case full of gold bullions. Every bullion bar represents $10,000 in annual revenue. As sales accumulate, new bars are added to the stack. A great concept, but here's the genius of David's idea. Every time the company's sales reach one million, every staff member is handed a real, solid gold bar. That's visual. That's emotional. Employees pass the gold bullion display in Lawline's reception area several times a day. This keeps them in a near constant state of awareness of the company's daily metric for revenue. How does the system translate to cold, hard cash? Since implementing this powerful visual and emotional reminder of the company's daily metrics, Lawline has seen a 600% growth in revenue. David attributes a significant portion of his company's growth to his method of presenting his daily metrics. David Shnerman is a toilet paper entrepreneur. It's just like driving to Albuquerque. Let's say you live in local hills, New Mexico, and want to travel to the big city of Albuquerque. To get started, you would probably figure out exactly where you are going in Albuquerque, whether you are taking a car or a bus, how long it will take, where you will stay, and the roads you plan to travel to get there. The planning required to take a trip is identical to the intention of the prosperity plan. It details the vehicle you will drive, life mission, your destination and the time you anticipate it will take to get there, destiny, the roads you will travel, area of innovation, and the rules of the road, commutable laws, and with whom you will be traveling, community. As you set out from local hills up good old US-82, you will only be able to see as far as the next turn in front of you. As you travel, 99% of your time will be spent looking out the windshield and making decisions to safely, quickly, and legally get to the next turn. This is identical to the intention of the quarterly plan. Just as when driving your car, you need to focus your attention on the road as far as the next turn, avoiding obstacles, adjusting to problems, and most of the time just keeping the steering wheel steady and the gas pedal properly depressed. During your travels from US-82 all the way to your destination on Interstate 40, you regularly take quick peeks at the fuel gauge, speedometer, and other indicators to make sure all things are as expected. If you start running low on gas, you find the next exit to fill up. This is identical to your daily metrics, where you constantly check the fuel, speed, and health of your overall business. Use the prosperity plan, quarterly plan, and the daily metrics to constantly grow your company the right way. This method is a million times more effective than any business plan, and it is way more dynamic. It is amazing what you can do with three sheets of paper and some numbers. Take action now. If you listened to this entire chapter, you can probably guess what your three action steps are. Again, your three sheets are living documents. You can always come back and tweak them later on. One, if you haven't finished it yet or even started it, create your prosperity plan. Remember, it better make you ball out loud, or it's not going to sustain you through those lean, mean, early days of launching a business. Two, next, bang out your quarterly plan. Keep it simple and realistic. Even if there is only two days left in the quarter, don't wait for the next one. You'll be amazed at how much you can get done just because you said you would. Three, establish daily metrics for your business. Think outside the box to come up with a visual example that will keep you motivated and on track.