2. Clarify business goals. Having spent some time expressing personal goals for future, take a look at your business goals and rethink them. Are your personal and business goals working together, or are they working against each other? If they do seem to be mutually exclusive, what choices will you make next? Putting business goals ahead of your personal ones will inevitably lead to stress and feelings of overwhelm. Determine instead whether business goals can be re-oriented or modified to support what you would like to achieve personally.

3. Identify owner's ideal role 3 years from now. Think about who you want to be - what role you want to have in business – in 3 years time. Will you still be doing majority of work? Will you have others doing work and your capacity is more advisory? Or perhaps you would like to remove yourself completely from operational parts of business and focus on product or business development?

Thinking about what you want as an owner in future can give you great insights into what strategies you may need to put in place now.

4. Conduct a detailed personal time analysis for a one-week period. This is where rubber hits road. If you really are true to yourself when you do this exercise you will learn a lot about where potential lies for making changes. How are you really spending your time? Break your day down into at least half hour slots and write down exactly what you do in each 30 minutes.

5. Create a plan of action for next 30 days. Based on data from steps 1-4, create an action plan to cover next 30 days. Your plan should include: •steps to align personal and business goals •strategy for moving to role owner wants to play in business in future •analysis of results of one-week detailed monitoring exercise •deciding which activities add most value and planning to spend time on those •identify how much time is spent on low value activity and planning to delegate or stop doing those things

There is never a better time than right now for planning to do things differently. Take charge of yourself and your business by choosing a direction that allows you to meet both your personal and business goals, and still retain your sanity!

6. Buck Conventional Wisdom.

In 1971, Rollin King and Herb Kelleher decided to start an airline that you might say…was different and a little bit quirky. They began with one simple notion: If you get your passengers to their destinations on time, at lowest fare possible, and make sure they have a fantastic time doing it, people will choose you over a competing airline. This is story of Southwest Airlines, who chose to move beyond status quo by offering services and a sense of style that bucked conventional wisdom. With their focus on fun, games, and "Love Southwest Style,” this top ranked airline has made its mark with its strong focus on stellar customer service and conveniences such as allowing customers to proceed to their departure gate without stopping at ticket counter, skycap, and a self-service kiosk. Most importantly, Southwest has honed in on searching for important personal qualities in those they hire-- perfect blend of energy, humor, team spirit, and self-confidence to match its famously offbeat culture. Southwest was once dismissed as a maverick, as their strategies seemed strange to traditional “airline powerhouses.” These same powerhouses are now looking in awe at what this “maverick” has built. The strategy of originality worked…It had sticking power required for huge success.

7. Become a Talent Farm.

When recruiting new employees, what are you looking for? Raw talent? Raw communication skills? Intellect? Athletic ability? Commitment? Skills? Flexbility? What about all of this and more? If you are a company who wants to operate at leading edge, where change is greatest and success is goal, you will want to recruit most talented group of people you can find…those people who are self- starters and who are living boldly in world. By developing a “talent farm” culture, you can instill a mindset of excellence from top to bottom of your organization. This culture encompasses a deeply held belief that having high caliber people is crucial to your success. With this “talent farm” approach to recruiting, your company will also be required to continually recruit top talent. Successful businesses and organizations have a strong sense of what they are looking for, and they are always on look for new talent and ways to retain them for a lifetime.

8. Embrace Your Core Values.

What is it in life that you most value? Do you value beauty, leadership, creativity, stability, or family? You can choose to orient your life around your wants and needs or list of things you feel you “should” be doing, but if you embrace your core values and build your life around them, you will find experience inspiration and joy at a level you never thought was possible. Whole Foods Market is one of fastest growing supermarkets of today, because its commitment to fresh, nutritious products is a value that keeps customers coming back for more and keeps employees happy, hard working, and committed. When you focus your business on doing what feels right and what fulfills you, you will have no regrets, because you have been true to very core of your being.

9. Become a "White Hot Center" of Influence.

A “white hot center” of influence is an organization or group that you most want your company to be aligned with and in a relationship which is reciprocal. One connection into a visible and strong center of influence can position your company to attract a stream of qualified opportunities. (Example: You are an interior designer, and you want to be in middle of Southern Accent or Better Homes and Gardens Magazine.) In order to attract a “white hot center” of influence, you have to become what you want to attract. Be well educated, highly skilled, experienced, trained and innovative in your product development. Fill your network with other business owners who are up to big things in world and who are experts in their respective fields. Attract talented people into your company, and tap each and every talent and skill available. As you begin to raise your bar in all areas of your business and enhance your network, you will eventually become a “white hot center” that will attract others by thousands.

10. Just Begin.

Start where you are, and begin today to create success in your life. Drop excuses, reasons or people to blame, dis-empowering attitudes and behaviors and get on with business of living life you know you were born to live. Do what you know you want to do, and do it with passion. Begin today to create tomorrow you want. As Peter Drucker said, “The best way to predict future is to create it”