Here are 3 amazing opportunities, which you can invest in right now.

1. Look for opportunities to make promises, and then keep them. This is a wonderful way to earn trust and build a great reputation.
2. Look for opportunities to invest in others. Leave the people you connect with in a better position than when you found them. Even something as simple as a smile from you can make a difference to someone. It may be the only sunshine they see today!
3. Look for opportunities to learn. Commit to lifelong learning. It’s one of the best investments you will ever make.
4. Bonus: Look for opportunities to do more than people expect from you. There are no traffic jams on the extra mile, because although every business owner claims to go the extra mile, very few do. Be one of the rare few.

I hope you find these opportunities interesting. More importantly, I hope you do something with them.

Are your clients destroying your business? That may seem like an odd question. However, it’s an extremely important one. And for most people reading this, the answer is a definite YES!

You see, a huge part of the way your prospective clients will feel about working with you, is defined by who you already work for.

Allow me to explain.

How your client’s define you

Here are just a couple of examples of how the wrong kind of client can ruin a great business.

Firstly, when a prospective client checks your portfolio or testimonials, they get an immediate insight into the quality of clients you’ve worked with. If you’ve worked for clients, who failed to give you the freedom you need to do great work, this will be directly obvious to prospective clients. Most designers, copywriters, accountants, trainers and coaches fall into this trap. And it’s usually fatal.

Secondly, if you work for clients who don’t pay you on time (or pay you enough), you will always have cash flow problems. This leaves you constantly desperate for income. Prospective clients and customers can smell desperation a mile off. They will either be put off working with you or they will use it to drive your fees or prices down.

In each of those instances, your entire commercial future is being dictated, by the quality of clients you choose to work with.

The answer: Pick your clients and choose wisely

Working for anyone who will pay you is usually a very bad idea.

• It fails you in the short term (you’re miserable).
• It fails you in the medium term (you’re not rewarded financially or professionally).
• It fails you in the long term (the process keeps looping). This is how negative cycles are created and allowed to persist.

Yes, it’s tempting to grab whatever work you can get. However, it’s the root cause of the problem. It’s not the solution.

Thankfully, the opposite is also true. When you work with great clients, on inspiring projects and your time is valued, it places you in the VIP vendor box.

Prospective clients see that you work with great people. They see the projects you’re involved in. They draw the conclusion that people like you, don’t come cheap. You then attract more great clients, you get paid what you’re worth and this too creates a cycle.

A highly profitable, enormously rewarding cycle.

For more free information on the subject, read this: How to build a successful business. It contains lots of ideas and examples.

Steve Jobs was a remarkable person. Like many, I have studied his career for years and been amazed at what he achieved, in such a very short time.

One of the things that happens whenever someone has a massive impact in any area of life, is that their ideas get misquoted or distorted.

Today’s post looks at one element of Steve Jobs’ work, which is often quoted, yet has no foundation in fact. I think you may find it surprising too!

It’s not Steve Jobs’ fault

I was prompted to write this after receiving an email from a reader, who decided to do zero research before starting a new business. She failed to gain a single customer. Here’s an excerpt from what she said, used with her permission, anonymously.

She said:

‘It seemed like a good idea at the time, so I launched it without any planning or research. Steve Jobs never did any research. I thought if it worked for Steve it would work for me. It didn’t!’

Have you spotted the often quoted, incorrect assumption from that quote? It’s that totally incorrect fake-fact that Steve Jobs never did any research. This is absolutely incorrect.

Allow me to explain.

Going with your passion

It makes perfect sense to go with your passion in business. If you get an idea for a product or service and you think it stands a good chance of succeeding, do it! My own business was started that way and I know the same is true for many of the business owners reading this.

Steve Jobs was exceptionally passionate about his work and it shone through everything he did. In fact, people who worked with him often refer to his ability to create a reality distortion field, where he was able to convince them of almost anything he believed in.

Passion is essential. However, to ‘just do it’ as Nike say, and start a business or launch a new product without any planning or research, is extremely short-sighted. This is why someone as intelligent as Steve Jobs would never do that.

That’s right, Steve Jobs knew the value of research and planning. He didn’t become super successful by accident.

Steve Jobs, research and planning

Steve Jobs was the most interesting, fascinating and least understood businessperson I have ever studied. I firmly believe he was a genius and I don’t mean a genius in the, ‘everyone’s a genius’ kind of way. Jobs was truly exceptional.

Now, his approach to business was indeed pragmatic, however, he did invest in research. No, not as heavily as some of his competitors, but in his last year at Apple, Apple invested over $2Billion in research and development.

I bet that’s the first time you heard of the billions Apple Inc. invested annually, in R and D?

Why? Because it gets in the way of a better (fake) story… the idea that a company can become the most valuable in the world, on the hunches of one man. Steve Jobs knew his own brilliant mind and was an exceptionally good decision maker. One of the best, if not the best. However, to suggest, as many do, that he did no research and just launched into projects blind, is incorrect. Even a genius appreciates the value of planning, research and development.

If you have an idea for a product or service, go for it. As Steve Job’s said, ‘real artists ship’! Just make sure to do the research and planning, first.

If you want to generate high quality sales extremely quickly, I have a powerful, proven idea for you. It’s based on a strategy I use with my clients, which has produced amazing results.

It can work for you too. Here’s what you need to know.

It’s based on 3 Facts, plus 1 question

I want you to think about the following 3 facts, regarding your clients or customers:

1. These good people trust you.
2. They also have an existing trading relationship with you. In other words, they are used to working with you, receiving invoices from you and paying you. They also know you provide them with an excellent service.
3. Because of those previous 2 points, making additional purchases from you is seen as low risk or no risk.

Now answer this question:

What additional, useful product or service could you offer to your existing clients or customers?

Here’s why this strategy is so effective

Selling to your existing clients has 2 huge advantages over selling to strangers:

1. The process is very quick, because of the 3 facts I just mentioned. This makes it perfect, if you want or need to increase your sales, revenues and profits quickly.
2. By offering more high value services to your clients, you become more valued as a provider. This makes them less likely to switch to an alternative provider. So, as well as making your clients more profitable, you also increase your chances of retaining their custom.

The bottom line here is this: If you’re looking for the fastest and least expensive way to generate far higher revenues and profits, this could be it.

If not, it’s pretty darn close.

Wouldn’t it be useful, if you were able to make your business, product or service stand out?

If you know the work of any famous painter, it’s easy to identify their art. Great artists stand out because their style is almost like a signature. It’s something unique to them.

They may use the same type of paint, brushes and canvas as thousands of others, but what they do with those materials is uniquely them.

Interestingly, we find when studying the work of any successful business person, that his or her work is just as individual as a famous painter. They may use the same business tools as thousands of others, but what they do with those tools is uniquely ‘them’. It’s their signature.

What are you focusing on?

That’s an important question. For example, millions of business owners use email marketing, yet their message is predictable and lacks their unique signature. Millions of business owners use social networks, mostly in a very predictable way, with no unique signature.

Success comes from stepping away from the masses and doing things your way. For example.

• If you want more followers, do something worth following. Don’t copy what everyone else is saying.
• If you want more word of mouth referrals, do something worth talking about. Don’t copy what everyone else is doing.
• If you want to attract higher fees, do something worth paying more for. Don’t copy what everyone else is offering.

Dr. Seuss was right when he said, “Why fit in when you were born to stand out?” Your uniqueness is your greatest asset. Be yourself. That’s all you need to be.

Today, I’m giving you a super-effective strategy to help you build a truly remarkable business.

Its all about seeking inspiration from the very best companies in the world.

Business owners tend to measure their business, products or services against whatever their competitors are doing. That sets a low ceiling on their potential.

Here’s a better strategy

Think how much higher your business could fly, if you decided to:

• Compare your customer service to Disney’s customer service.
• Compare your build quality to Rolex.
• Compare your design quality to Apple.
• Compare your distribution to Amazon.

This strategy will inspire you to think on a far higher level. It will motivate you to expect more from your business. It will set you apart from all your competitors.

And that’s a powerful way to build a remarkable enterprise.

If you are tired of working for low value clients, I have an idea I would like to share with you. It has helped me attract the best clients, avoid the worst clients and build an extremely successful business.

It can do the same for you. Allow me to explain.

Making a very deliberate choice

Before deciding to accept a new client, I ask myself the following question: Is this prospective client worthy of my best work?

• If the answer is Yes, I accept them as a client and provide them with the best work I am capable of.
• If the answer is No, I don’t work with them.

That decision puts a series of success factors into play, which creates the perfect foundation for business success.

Here’s the payback!

I have never had a cash flow problem. I have never had to face a client I didn’t enjoy working with. And I’ve always had the freedom to do my very best work. This is extremely important. Here’s why!

By being able to do my best work, my clients get great results… so my client retention is exceptionally high. Equally, my clients and former clients are a constant source of wonderful new clients.

The typical small business takes the opposite approach. And it locks them in a cycle that damages their business. What they do, is accept almost any client, who has the means to pay them.

As a direct result, they often work for clients who pay them too little or clients with dull, uninspiring projects. That’s not the scenario where professionals produce their best work. So, they get fewer client referrals and become stuck in a cycle of working with low quality clients.

Every business owner, including you, already makes the decision. You either decide to work with the people worthy of your best work or to compromise and work for those who are not.

Beggars can’t be choosers, Jim!

When I share this idea with business owners, the typical answer from those who will work with anyone, is that beggars can’t be choosers.

The thing is:

1. They are business owners, not beggars.
2. They are already choosing, by choosing to work for low value clients.

High value clients lead to more high value clients, as they recommend you to their friends and you become known for servicing the quality end of the market.

Low value clients lead to more low value clients, as you become pigeon-holed as servicing the low value end of your marketplace.

So, build the right foundations for your business. Intentionally choose great clients. And if you think you can’t afford to be choosy, wait until you see the long term cost of not being choosy enough.

Once you’ve created a plan, spoken to the right people and done the research, it’s time to ship. It’s time to produce. It’s time to make it happen.

So stop stalling. Stop making excuses. Stop waiting for things to be perfect.

You don’t need more time. What you need is the courage to ship.