It’s been a really interesting time navigating and consulting to many businesses through this economic and health crisis. And the ones that I’m seeing that are excelling are the businesses that have laser type focus on where they’re going and the goals that they’re looking to achieve. 

They’re not throwing mud and hoping that some of it sticks. 

They’re very clear on their goals. 

They’re very clear on the strategy that they’re implementing to achieve those goals, and they’re very clear on the metrics of success or failure so that they can adjust their strategy and tactics fast to move them towards their goals. 

None of us were prepared for this. None of us were ready for a Pandemic. No one was ready for the entire world to go into a lockdown state. None of us were ready for Whole Industries to be shut down. But the key here is keeping things simple and having laser focus. 

II was in a conversation with a client yesterday whose business has been virtually shut down. Most of their staff have been laid off. Their sector is not operating. And they’re looking at how they pivot. And I said when you start up a business, you don’t say, “We might try this and we might try that, and we might go into that business.” No, you say, “I have a business idea. This is our business. This is our product. This is our service. This is what we’re going to build our business around.” 

You then go to task on getting the marketing right for that business. You then understand and you develop your sales process to convert those leads into sales. You then work on building systems and determining how operationally you’re going to deliver that product or service. And you have this single-minded focus on how you’re going to grow this company. And that’s why companies are formed and grow fast. 

It’s not because we’ve got this idea and that idea, and we could do this and we could do that, and we try a bit of this, we try a bit of that. You’ve got to stick with something long enough in order to see it be successful. 

But when you start a business, you don’t start it without doing a little bit of market research. You don’t start a business without understanding the problem that this product or service solves and whether the market is big enough in order to make a successful business out of it. You don’t start a business without understanding what the world needs and what you can deliver. And these are the questions you’ve got to be answering. Because here’s the thing, the worldwide economy has contracted. There is less going on. So there’s more of us trying to sell and market our products and services with fewer people buying. 

Let me tell you about a methodology that I learned from a mentor of mine, by the name of Taki Moore. Taki, he coaches coaches all around the world, and I have the privilege of him being my coach for many years. And he taught me that to grow a coaching business from zero to a million dollars a year, it was all about the five ones. 

He said:

1. You need to give one product or service that you’re gonna offer. You’re gonna either do one on one coaching or you’re gonna do group. Whatever it is, you’ve got one product. 
2. You’ve gotta get clear on one target audience. 
3. You’ve got to get clear on one lead generation strategy. So is it Facebook? Is it Instagram? Is it Google? 
4. You’ve got to have one conversion mechanism. So is it a sales call? Is it a webinar? Is it a live event?” 
5. You’ve got to focus on it for one year.” 

And he called it the five ones. And I thought to myself, this seems so simple. And what’s interesting is I resisted it for so long because as an entrepreneur, I wanted to try this, I wanted to try that. But when I committed to the five ones, when I really heard what Taki was saying, my business exploded. 

Why? 

Because I had this single-minded focus. 

Now, long term, we don’t just rely on one product or service or one lead generation strategy, etc, that would be dangerous for our business. Particularly say with social media and algorithms changing and the like, you can’t just rely on one. However, at the time when we made the decision and we set the target, you’ve got to commit. 

Commitment to your strategy is more important than the strategy itself. So many people will plan their business and get clear on their goals and then not commit to it. So the planning piece is worthless. You have to commit. 

That’s the beauty of the five ones. 

So ask yourself this:

• Am I scattering my thoughts? 
• Am I trying to do a bit of everything? 
• Are we doing a bit to this and a bit to that? 
• Have we got a single-minded focus? 

That’s your target. Define what you’re going to implement. Define when you’re going to implement it. 

And don’t be arrogant enough to say that’s all you’re going to do. Allow the data coming back to us to tell you if you’re on track or not, and then tweak and keep tweaking and moving and manoeuvring towards your business success. 

This is the formula to succeed in your business right now. 

Single-minded focus and commitment to a strategy.