If you are struggling to succeed and missing the mark, the answer may lay in your strategic planning. You may not be looking at the big picture enough to understand the small things that go into succeeding on a project. Maybe you don’t really understand proper planning and organizing yet.

What Does Success Look Like?

Have you really thought about what success looks like? Take the time right now to write down exactly what success looks like to you. Does it mean more money, more freedom, or something else entirely? There are no wrong answers, but if you don’t have an answer and you don’t know what constitutes success, it will be hard to feel as if you’re successful. If you think about it, this is true for any project you are working on. What should the deliverable look like? Answer that and you have your starting point.

What are the Steps Needed to Get to Success?

Can you pinpoint exactly the steps needed to reach success? Do you know how long it will take, how many hours each day you will need to focus on Continue reading →

Failing forward means that when you do experience failures, you use that failure as a learning experience and move forward with your venture knowing much more than you did. This sign of a savvy marketer can greatly improve your odds of future success.

Learning from each setback you experience is valuable to your business because you’ll know better how to handle situations that could keep holding you back. To assume that failure is the end means that you fall backward and into business oblivion – and you may not be able to recover.

Respond immediately to each sign of failure, whether it’s a complaint from a customer, a failure in a launch or anything that might need a solution. Heading off potential future problems is one way you learn from a failure. Your response to each problem should be rapid and decisive.

Failure can be like a wound that doesn’t quit bleeding until you face it, both on a conscious and unconscious level. You’ve got to stop the bleeding externally by being decisive, but you also need to address the demoralizing effect that failure has on your psyche. Continue reading →