Realistic goals can and must be set, you just need a plan. For example, in Lease Purchasing, as in any other business, goal setting is of paramount importance. You need to follow a plan, a plan for success. Short term goals and long term goals are part of this plan. Like many franchise businesses that have an outline for their franchisees to follow for a successful business, same should be done in lease purchasing.

To set these realistic goals and to obtain a good foundation, you need a program that provides you with support in start up and running of your business. Using our own Lease Purchase Coaching Program as an example, we schedule consultations that cover all students need to know to get started. We role play with students and have specific assignments giving them certain things to do, and certain goals to meet. If they follow program, and do their deals, they will be able to run their own successful business. We work with our students to accomplish above and to help them set realistic goals.

An example of goals in Lease Purchasing is number of deals you want to do, and how many calls or contacts you need to make to do that number of deals. How many consultations do you want to do, again, how many contacts you make will determine how many you get. Lease Purchasing like many other businesses is a numbers game. Make so many contacts, and/or calls and get so many deals. However, in order to do this, you have to make some goal making decisions and set realistic goals, not farfetched ones. Making a million dollars by end of six months is not a realistic goal. Making so many calls per day, per week, per month is, and then from number of calls/contacts you make, realize you are going to get so many responses, and from those responses make so many deals. A realistic income working full time first year is $50,000 to $75,000.

Following a proven method is of utmost importance. You don't hear of many Burger King or Taco Bell franchises failing. Why, because they follow corporate plan. The company will tell them there are no short cuts. If they want to succeed, they need to follow company's proven formula.

The people who fail in business are usually those who don't listen; don't want to follow a proven program; want to take short cuts; and who don't set realistic goals.

So remember, no matter what your business is, if you want to succeed you need to set goals for yourself ... and make them realistic.

Copyright 2001, DeFiore Enterprises.

6. Set up a mail system. Use different colored folders to categorize mail you receive. For example, Red - you need to act on (write a letter, make a telephone call, etc.); Gray - for your information; Yellow - meetings, upcoming events; Green - minutes of other meetings, newsletters, reports, etc.; Black - flyers, advertising materials. Remember stamp date received on all mail, and follow up as quickly as possible, if necessary. This system can be modified for those companies that do not receive a large volume of mail. This system will help staff members set up work priorities.

7. Make up a reading folder. Read or browse this material during lunch, breaks, during slow or off hours. Make up files with specific categories for those articles you want to keep as a reference. Check on these periodically (every 3 months) to see if information is still up to date.

8. To cut down on filing and paper costs. Set up a chron filing system. A chron file contains any correspondence you have generated for a specific period of time. They are usually made up on a monthly basis. For example, label a file January Chron, and place any correspondence you generated for that month in file. For most offices, this system avoids having to make up client files with one piece of paper in them. However, some offices keep an additional copy in client file. Do this only if you have to.

Part 2 of this article will discuss what you will need to implement this system.

Copyright 2000, DeFiore Enterprises.