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GAME PLAN

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Contents

PREFACE..........................................................1CHAPTER 1 HOLD ON TO YOUR DREAMS................................10CHAPTER 2 BUSINESS FUNDING JUST DO IT...........................32CHAPTER 3 ACTIVATE YOUR MARKETING...............................56CHAPTER 4 SALES.................................................81CHAPTER 5 LEVERAGING TECHNOLOGY.................................106CHAPTER 6 HUMAN CAPITAL THE POWER OF PEOPLE.....................126CHAPTER 7 BUILD A DYNASTY.......................................159

Chapter One

Depending on how old you are and what your musical preferences may be, you may recall the three-man Canadian rock band Triumph, which formed in 1975 and gained fairly widespread popularity in the United States in the late 1970s and early '80s. The band featured a unique brand of melodic hard rock, and, for whatever reason, it received some of its most extensive airplay in Texas during my teen-age years. Fortunately for you, I am writing this book and until we come out with an audio version, you will not be required to listen to me sing my renditions of some of my favorite Triumph tunes. Like the band's name suggests, Triumph was at its best when it was singing about what it took to be successful. You could apply the lyrics from Fight the Good Fight or Lay It On the Line to just about any endeavor you are undertaking. But the song that was particularly poignant to me was Hold On from the band's third album, Just a Game. I'm not sure what the exact inspiration was for the song, but I do know that these lyrics have provided some introspective moments through the years: "listen to your heart and hold on to your dreams."

Maybe Socrates, Aristotle or Ralph Waldo Emerson uttered wiser words about perseverance, but that trio couldn't have sung it better than Triumph. If you want to be successful in practically any business endeavor, you'd better be prepared to hold on to your dreams. If you don't, I can practically guarantee you that someone-or some set of adverse circumstances-will snatch them away from you.

I cannot possibly predict how long or winding your road to financial independence will be if you choose to start your own business or if you have decided to dramatically grow your business. But I promise you that it will not happen overnight, and it will probably be filled with numerous potholes, roadblocks, discouraging detours and hazardous conditions. It won't necessarily be a scenic journey, either. Along the way, your path will likely be littered with the roadkill and wreckage of those who abandoned their dreams and lost their drive. I've seen it a thousand times before. Plenty of well-meaning, hard-charging people have started off blazing a course to financial freedom in business, but after a couple of wrong turns or blown tires, they lose their sense of direction and purpose. Some pull over to rest; others are lost forever in a traffic jam that never seems to move forward; and others simply turn around and head in a different direction. Very few ever seem to push forward through the congestion. Fewer seem to have the ability to shift into another gear to distance themselves from the perpetual rat race.

So, what separates the run-of-the-mill businesses from the extraordinary ones? What propels a handful of entrepreneurs to annual income levels that much of the population won't make in a lifetime?

A number of different factors figure into the equation, and we will spend the rest of this book discussing them. I am firmly convinced, however, that the very first thing you need to do-before you make your first contact and before you even begin to contemplate a location, a service, a product or anything else-is to dream. In fact, I would go so far as to say that if you don't spend an ample amount of time dreaming now, then you will probably spend far too much time wishing and working during what should be your retirement years. Dreams are that important.

I suspect some of you analytical types are probably tempted to shut the book right now, skip forward to the nuts-and-bolts material in ensuing chapters or simply write me off as some pie-in-the-sky daydreamer who possibly spent too much time trippin' while listening to Triumph. But hear me out. If you only act on one principle in this entire book, this is the one to wrap your arms around. It's basic; it's rudimentary; and it's probably something that you have heard many times before. But it is literally one of the fundamental keys for taking your "game" from weekend hacker status to PGA-level. It can propel your budget allowances from crumbs to caviar, and it can transform your business from striving to thriving.

I've spent many years studying some of the most successful entrepreneurs and business models in the country. I've watched them from afar; I've quizzed entrepreneurs and employees over lunch; I've analyzed their techniques, their strategies, their offices, their day-to-day routines, their wardrobes and practically everything else. Beyond that, I've read enough self-help, motivational and entrepreneurial books to start my own library. And in attending success/ sales/motivational seminars and conferences, along with industry-specific functions, through the years, I've probably seen more hotel ballrooms than some wedding planners. But if I had to narrow the underlining theme of all of these books, private discussions and mass motivational meetings down to one principle, it would be this: Never underestimate the power of your own dreams.

From personal experience; however, I would take this message two steps further and say: Never underestimate the power of holding on to your own dreams and walking toward them. That may sound like a subtle difference, but it actually makes all the difference in the world. Holding on to your dreams and making them real takes some time and effort; it requires some planning and nurturing; and it is something that very few people in any profession understand. The facts back up that assertion in an alarming way.

For example, according to the United States Department of Labor's Bureau of Statistics, approximately 2.7 million youths graduated from American high schools between October 2004 and October 2005. If you surveyed those students, I'm sure you would find that the vast majority of them had big, glorious dreams about their financial/ professional future. In fact, a whopping 68.6 percent (1.8 million) of those high school graduates were attending colleges or universities in 2005, providing further evidence that the majority of these youths are serious about their financial future.

On the other hand, according to a 2005 study conducted by leading academic scholars from 10 universities and five business experts in personal finance, approximately 30 million workers in America today-one in four-are seriously financially distressed with their personal financial situation. The author of this particular report, E. Thomas Garman, professor emeritus at Virginia Tech, went on to say that many of these 30 million American workers "do not even have hope that they will one day catch up financially." Furthermore, according to Steve Rhode, the president of Myvesta, a nonprofit financial health center, "half of Americans are currently struggling to control excessive spending and...