Tag Archives: How to have your best year ever

Are You Making This Mistake With Your Small Business?

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Okay, I am a little ashamed to admit this but I made one of the biggest mistakes that most small business owners make. The thing that bugs me even more about making this mistake is that in business school this is taught almost day one and I still did it. Well, lucky for me I decided to start working with a business coach to help me through some of the struggles I am facing with my business. More on that later, but have I got your curiosity to see if you are making that mistake in your small business? Alright, I won’t keep you waiting any longer. The biggest mistake most small business owners make is that when it comes to figuring out their Break Even Analysis they forget to include into the fixed costs section a line item that has the owner’s salary!

Yes, you heard me correct. Most small business owners when starting out figure that as long as they calcualte and cover all the fixed costs, which typically include things like rent, operations, marketing, employee payroll, etc. that the business can survive and they are making it. Well, after going back and seeing that for the past year all my calculations have been based entirely on just having enough members of my Working Mom Workouts site to cover all the fixed costs minus a salary for me has made me realize that my entire marketing and advertising strategy needs to change. Once I added in a monthly salary for me the number of clients I ned to have paying me a monthly subscription has gone up 2-3x of what I originally projected. So, let me ask you again, “Are you making this mistake in your small business?” If so, don’t beat yourself up over it, in a follow up post to this one I am going to show you how easy it is to calculate your Break Even Analysis with your salary in it, so that you have a true picture of what it takes to have a successful business!

To your success,
Coach Dave

10 great happenings from last year cont…

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Earlier in the week I posted the 10 Great Happenings from Last Year and today I want to write the second part to that post. Doing this exercise was very rewarding to me because I realized that no matter how bad the economy seemed at times this past year many great things happened in my life. I hope that is true with you as well. If you have never done this exercise I suggest you take 30 minutes out of your day and write down at least 10 great happenings from last year. Okay, here is my list:

1.) Published my first book “Anatomy of Sales”

2.) Launched my website and business www.davemcgarry.com

3.) Took a vacation trip to Sanibel Island with my wife

4.) Sold my first 50 books

5.) Had my first online book purchase on ClickBank

6.) First Family trip to Sea World

7.) Won a four day all paid conference trip to the fitness industries biggest trade show

8.) Promoted to Assistant GM of the Cooper Fitness Center at Craig Ranch

9.) Asked by the publisher of Club Industry to write articles for them in 2010

10.) Took 4 family trips in 2009

Every time I look at this list it makes me feel good because when I look back to what I wanted to accomplish this year I accomplished most of my goals. So, after you have your list of 10 great things the next step is to write down 5  lessons you learned from last year. This exercise will be important towards setting your 2010 goals. Okay, go write down your 5 lessons learned and we will talk about those lessons and how to use that information towards creating your best year ever in 2010.

Coach Dave

10 great happenings from last year

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The holidays are just about here and every year around this time I begin to reflect on the year that was. This year is unique because not only do we finish another year, but also wrap up the first decade of the new millennium. I can not believe that another decade of my life is complete. I’ll focus on that later, but today I want to talk about reflecting back on the past year. Last year I was introduced to Darren Hardy’s “How to have your best year ever” ebook and I have to admit I made some better strides in achieving the goals that I had set for myself. Maybe it was his system or maybe after all the years of me reading about people becoming successful I decided it was time for me to actually quit reading and thinking about being successful and actually start doing. Regardless of why I made better strides the real point I am going to make here is that one of the exercises Darren recommends to do is to write down 10 great happenings from last year.

The first time I did this exercise I had a difficult time coming up with 10 great things that had happened. I have to admit it really bothered me that I could not write down 10 great things that had happened throughout the year. However, what I walked away with after this exercise was really insightful. The light bulb finally went off and I realized that like most of us we tend to remember and dwell on the negative things that happen to us instead of the positive things that we experience. Once I had my list complete I realized what an amazing year it really was. Because of this exercise I came to the understanding that when something great happens you need to celebrate and also write it in your journal, so that when you reflect back you can realize that no matter how tough times might be there are plenty of things to be grateful for. So, as we wrap up this year take some time and write down 10 great happenings that you have occurred in your life. Once you have them written down reflect back monthly, quarterly, and at the end of the year to remind yourself of the great things that you have done in the year. Stay tuned for my next posting because I am going to share my 10 great things from this past year.

Coach Dave