Planning: Put A Number On It

Don’t do what Beyonce advocates and ‘put a ring on it’, Put A Number On It!

I’ve been a long-term member of 6-in-6 Coaching, which is owned and operated by Jason Fladlien & Wilson Mattos of Rapid Crush.

Originally,  I paid for 12 fortnightly coaching sessions and we are now up to Session 67 – see below for the topics that have been covered so far:

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As you can see, that is a huge over-delivery on their original promise and, as a founding member, I have been very happy with the training that has been delivered.

And it’s not finished yet!

But that’s not the purpose of this post.

Back to Basics

Session 1 is called ‘The Basics’ and that is what I want to talk about because, after 67 sessions, I have recently decided to implement what was covered in Session 1!

I know that sounds crazy but I tried to implement it originally and got distracted by more bright shiny objects.

My intentions were good but somewhere along the way I went astray again.  And I think I can now see why.

Some 33 months (almost 3 years) after we first started, I’ve gone back to basics and this time it’s working for me.

Let me explain.

In Session 1, Wilson Mattos did a number of things but three stand out:

  • he made us go through all our outgoings and ditch all but the essential expenses.  For most of us that saving alone paid for the whole coaching.
  • he assigned each of us accountability partners
  • the other outstanding thing he did was to explain how they had built their 4.5 million turnover business with a simple planning system.

It’s so simple that I failed to put it into practice and I’ll tell you why in a moment.

Their planning system is simply this:

 Step #1 – Set Goals

You need to set clear, achievable and measurable income goals.

In other words you MUST PUT A NUMBER ON IT.

Set your income goal for the month NOW.

If they are making $4.5m a year, their figure will no doubt be a lot higher than yours because they have grown their business steadily to this level over the past 3 or 4 years.

Don’t forget that it must be ‘achievable’ in your mind and slightly challenging.

Don’t move forward from here until you have that figure firmly fixed in your mind – remember, it must be:

  • CLEAR
  • ACHIEVABLE
  • MEASURABLE

Step #2 – Plan

Having first set your goal, you must now create a plan that is time-based, realistic, practical and measurable.

This is the difficult bit. (Or at least it was for me.)

This is where the rubber hits the road because you must now work out HOW you are going to achieve your target!

If you have not been earning much online until now, this is challenging.

So what you need to do is:

  • break your goal down into daily (or weekly) amounts
  • now ask yourself what you can do to earn the amount you have set yourself each day/week – list those out on a piece of paper.  (Do not let yourself off the hook or let your mind wander off when doing this – this is the serious bit!)
  • create a planning sheet with headings and fill in your target amount and the activity you WILL do to achieve that target for each day of the month – here are the headings: Day | Target Amount | Activity
  • make sure that you also plan for breaks

Review and evaluate your plan i.e. go back and forth between Step 1 and Step 2 to adjust your goal and your plan until it is:

  • REALISTIC
  • IT ACHIEVES YOUR GOAL
  • IT IS TIME-BASED
  • IT IS MEASURABLE

Step #3 – Execute the Plan

Now you need to EXECUTE the plan.

I’ve found that it is important to keep your focus on the target rather than the activity.  In other words, I remind myself daily and sometimes several times a day what my goal is and ask myself what I should be doing NOW to get my target.

Often that means doing things that I have to do, rather than what I would like to do. i.e. I find the path of least resistance to getting my goal.  

Wilson counselled us not to be too proud to make money.  

If the easiest way to make some money is write a few articles for someone else then  do what you have to do.

It might be that you put something up for sale on eBay.  Just do what you have to do.

This is the way to create a mindset of taking action deliberately to earn money.

It teaches you to honour your own time and to put a value on it.

In practice, I’ve found that the money doesn’t always come from where you expect it to!

But it does come, almost magically, if you focus on your target and work to achieve it.  (Yes, it does take work!)

Step #4 – Measure

It is important to continuously evaluate your results based on the goals that you set for your business.

At a minimum it should be weekly but initially it would be advisable to check your progress daily.

If you are falling behind, you need to think of a way (or ways) to catch up.

If you do this properly, Wilson says that they have never not made their target.  And their targets are huge.

In the short time that I have been implementing this system, that’s been the case for me too.

It’s really about focus – focusing on your target and constantly asking yourself what you can do to get it.

Step #5 – Growing Your Business

In order to grow your business, rather than just make money online, you also need to develop and document systems.

You can grow your business by outsourcing the systemised parts of your business so you can repeat the entire process by systemising other parts of your business with new systems.

Wilson said that perfection does not exist – set a deadline and just get it done and put your work out there.

It is also very important to celebrate your successes because you need a break sometimes.

Final Words

I’ve discovered that, by implementing this system, I have started hitting my income targets at long last.

My focus has shifted to hitting my targets.

If you will only have the focus and discipline to put this simple system into practice, I think you will start seeing success too. 

You may have to  make yourself do it initially (it’s simple but not easy) and, once you start seeing that it works, that should motivate you to keep going.

Who knows, you might also build a million dollar business empire too!

And it all starts when you ‘Put A Number On It’!

Beyonce

Don’t ‘Put A Ring On It’, Put A Number On It!