Author Archives: Barbara Eldridge

Is the Roof Falling In?

| October 30, 2013

As an entrepreneur going it alone during some of the tough times can knock you flat.  What was the toughest situation you’ve encountered in your business?  Did you make it through?  Did you step back, learn from it and use the learning to move on? How often do you let yourself go down that dark road and beat yourself up when things don’t turn out according to “plan?”  As you entered this Quarter have you checked your plan?  Success comes from doing the simple things consistently.

As entrepreneurs we have a unique makeup that keeps us going.

John Gartner, a … Read More

What Do You Tell Yourself?

| August 27, 2013

For years, I’ve ended meetings with the comment, “Have a Million Dollar Day.” It’s a little different than “Have a nice day,” in that it infers the power to make it great is yours–that outside circumstances don’t determine how good a day it is or isn’t.

But what MAKES it a Million Dollar Day? Everything in life starts with thought! As you think about the day ahead, how will you measure it? Most of us plan what we will do, but how many of us think about what will make it a truly successful day.

So what would it take … Read More

Got Systems?

| April 30, 2013

When small business owners really begin to grow, it has been my experience that systems have not been put in place to handle the overload. All this makes it harder to really understand what needs to be done and who should be doing it.

At Michael Gerber’s E Myth, they say: “Most small businesses are dependent on the expertise of whoever is on payroll at a given time. As a consequence, how tasks are performed changes as people come and go. The danger is that customers will have unpredictable experiences with your business, and might not come back.”

The franchise … Read More

Who’s on First? What’s on Second? What Happened First Quarter? What Do You Want to Happen in Second Quarter?

| March 26, 2013

Second quarter is around the corner. A series of days and weeks and months that passed whether or not you woke up each day with an action plan. Time passes with or without you having goals. Often business owners get caught up during the first three months of the year, cleaning up the past year, taxes, cleaning out files, or just rolling into the new year doing the same things. Or you fall short planning for accomplishing the things you desire in your life.

Sometimes the focus is too much on what you don’t want from the previous year, forgetting … Read More

Referrals that Work or Work for Referrals

| February 22, 2013

Do you remember when you joined your first formal referral or leads group? There was always instruction on how to network, give referrals and structure your 30/60 second promotional to ask for the kind of referrals you wanted. In many cases these did not deliver the results you were expecting. Networking is a marketing tactic that requires planning and structure.

How to make networking work!

Power Partners position you to strategically refer and receive referrals from people calling on the same ideal customer. In one of my early networking groups there was a fee only financial planner who built her … Read More

Mind Masters Members Standout

| February 22, 2013

New York Life San Diego General Office 2012 Agent of the Year awarded to Mary L Stockton, LUTCF, CLU®, CLTC, Financial Services Professional Agent for the most FYC production in the agency. Mary was born in Honolulu, Hawaii and grew up in Boston, Massachusetts. She attended Kenyon College in Gambier Ohio and Boston University where she graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in History. Mary will celebrate 16 years with New York Life in April 2013 and 18 years in the industry. Since contracting with New York Life she has been a consistent Council Qualifier and has reached MDRT membership. … Read More

Commit to Your Goals

| January 29, 2013

Commitment is the Mind Masters theme for 2013. This can be the year of your dreams, the year of great accomplishment, the year you realize and utilize your untapped potential; the year you achieve long sought after goals in all areas of your life. This year will be exciting and rewarding only if you make it so. You ask how can I determine to make it such a year? The year will hold accomplishment, realization and achievement only if you commit to making it happen; only if you enter and live each day with the commitment to be self disciplined.… Read More

Time and Money

| November 30, 2012

This is the time of the year to do some analysis and review of your business and your effectiveness in running it. Are you keeping up with the pace of change? The pace of technology? The pace of your marketplace? The pace of your competition? (that’s a head full to take on). As you look to 2013, how much do you and your business have to change to keep pace?

In an article by Gary Ryan Blair he says, any endeavor “is sabotaged or supported by how much control you exercise over the investment, direction, and consumption of your time … Read More

Know the Game You Are In: Keep Score

| October 30, 2012

Did you spend hours pulling together your tax records in preparation for filing your October tax return? It was agonizing watching one of my clients, a CPA, trying to get his clients to get him last year’s work?  Or worse yet hearing his frustration in the 11th hour when a client owed the IRS more money because they had failed to confer with him ahead of time to plan the right strategies.

Where is your business now in relation to this year’s financial goals?  Is your business surviving or thriving? Do you have your finger on the financial aspects of … Read More

Do it Now!

| September 28, 2012

Twenty four hundred years ago, the Greek philosopher Plato said, “If a man would move the world, he must first move himself.”  That statement is as true today as it was then.  We not only can’t move the world, we can’t accomplish anything productive unless we translate our ideas, our plans and our decisions into immediate action.

We are at the 11th Hour (decision time) to end 2012 with a bang or a whimper.

What have you decided?  I hope you have chosen the “bang” – here’s why.  This last quarter is the time to gear up, to double and … Read More