“Somewhere between Baby Steps or A Giant Leap” – David LeGrand

Eat an Elephant?

   Ron says the way to eat an elephant is “one bite at a time”. My guess is that you would give up long before you finished that task. A chicken, maybe; even a pig, perhaps, but an elephant? doubtful. My Mom would call this “making your eyes bigger than you tummy”. And when I did that, I wound up sitting at the table till bedtime because I could not eat it all. (She hated to waste food.)

Where are you headed?

   If you are reading this article, you probably have enough real estate training and experience to achieve a good measure of success. Hopefully you have not bit off more than you can chew. Superman could leap a tall building in a single bound. But most of us have to climb up one step at a time; well, if you are energetic, maybe two or three at a time.

   I once heard of some men who were working for the railroad laying track. Each day they would ask the Foreman, “Say boss, where is this track headed?” He would reply, “just lay the track and drive the spikes, you don’t need to know that”.

Each day, same question, same answer. Finally, the men laid down their hammers and refused to drive another spike until they received an answer.

   It is easy to be frustrated if you are driving spikes every day and you never sat down and wrote out your goals so you know where you are headed.

Your GOALS must be:

•           Specific enough to be written down
•           Brief enough to be remembered
•           Clear enough to be achieved

 Let’s play Football:

 Do you know the difference between aims, objectives and goals.

    AIM = Get the ball and make a first down – Immediate

   Objective = Make a touchdown – Short range

   Goal = Get enough touchdowns to win the game – Final result

Let’s play Monopoly:

     Aim = Get the prospects – NOW

     Objective = Write the contracts – SOON

     Goal = Get the checks – FUTURE RESULT

   Looks simple but it is a known fact that many businesses fail in the first year or shortly after because they do not have a business plan with clearly stated goals and procedures to achieve them.

Attend to the DETAILS

   One teacher I had in college often said, “Learn to attend to details with consummate thoroughness”. Hopefully, you have a business plan which includes all the following:

Six steps to building a profitable business, in order of importance:

1. Needs and interests = WHY do it?

2. Objectives = WHERE are you headed?

3. Equipment and materials = WHAT is the sum total of everything it will take to reach your goal?

4. Organization = WHO will be involved?

5. Method = HOW will you get it done?

6. Facilities = WHERE will you work?

   Since you are not Superman (unless your name is Ron), it would be a good idea to climb all the “steps” while you are trying to scale the tall building.