I’m a big proponent of focusing on your genius work in business. For many of us, that means there are a lot of tasks and roles that we need help with.

I also think that working alone is like entrepreneurial kryptonite. Many of us creative people thrive in the collaborative process, uncovering ideas, resources and leads we could never access alone.

So enter the idea of business partners.

Two or more people who compliment each others strengths and see what’s possible by joining forces.

HOWEVER, before you go jumping at the first person who would love to partner with you to achieve the dream, there is a secret to entering into business partnerships that will actually thrive and not enter into “business divorce court.”

Here are some facts:

• I’ve seen statistics that over 80% of new business partnerships fail.

• After 12 years of coaching entrepreneurs I’ve found that only 1 out of 5 business partnerships are actually thriving.

• Most entrepreneurs enter into the partnership with unrealistic and unspoken expectations that can later sabotage the relationship.

• Over 70% of failed business partnerships end in badly or in court.

Now I’m not saying this to scare you but rather to help you recognize how important it is to learn the secret to creating a thriving, profitable partnership from day one. I’ve coached quite a few entrepreneurs who are miserable in their business partnership on how to exit. 99.9% of these partnerships ended up in a big mess because they did not follow these five secrets to long-lasting success.

Here are five secrets to creating a long-lasting business partnership:

1. Each partner has their own “role” to own in the relationship. Give each partner a role that they own. For instance, if one of you is better at marketing and sales and the other has a strength with the actual product and customer support, then you would divide and conquer. A lot of big challenges happen when both partners try to equally own multiple roles. First of all, its a waste of time and secondly, if you don’t trust each other enough to let go of the reins, you don’t really have a strong partnership.

2. Get clear on your agendas. Each of you has an agenda in mind for entering into this busienss together. Have a heart-to-heart and make sure you both really know what the other wants out of it. Talk about your individual personal and business values, any needs or priorities (like income or recognition) that are driving you. Learn what energizes and deflates each others motivation.  If you avoid this conversation it could become problematic down the road when someone isn’t feeling valued or their agenda isn’t being met.

3. Avoid pigeon-holing each other into the roles you don’t like. Take time to understand the preferences, strengths and skills of each partner. Ive found that one of the biggest gripes in the partners I coach is that one partner pushes their undesireable tasks onto the other. If both of you are not skilled in a certain area then hire someone to handle it. Don’t just force the other person to do it for monetary reasons. It will lead to resentment.

4. Talk about the worst-case scenario BEFORE you seal the deal. Its easy to jump in head first and focus on the warm, fuzzy feeling you have for each other (its a lot like dating.) Have a clearly defined exit plan in place so that if and when you decide to move on you both know how to exit the partnership gracefully. Talk about how your assets will be distributed, what financial considerations will occur, and what will happen to the legal entity once you separate.

5. Make it official. The absolute worst thing you could do is to “wing it” and just operate on a hand-shake. I know it sounds fine in the beginning but be willing to set up a legal partnership agreement and entity. Not only will it make your business run more smoothly but if you do decide to part ways (and trust me, you will at some point) it will make your distribution of assets run smoother.

Before you go…what are your questions or challenges around business partnerships? Be sure to post them in the comments below!

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A couple of weeks ago I heard my friend John Assaraf share a story that really made me think. You know that “click” that happens when someone really smart says something that rewires the way your brain works. And I think it’s what really makes the difference between success and disappointment.

John was sharing the story of how his first mentor Alan Brown challenged his thinking about setting goals. As the story goes, his mentor asked him if he was interested in or committed. When you are committed to an outcome there are no excuses. You will take the action necessary to achieve the goal you desire. But if you are interested you will only do what is convenient. You will always have reasons why you can’t do what it takes.

Committed people achieve greatness.

Interested people struggle and live a life of mediocrity and can’t figure out why they feel stuck.

What if the gap between feeling stuck and leaping lied in one decision – the decision to be committed.

I really resonate with this idea. I know the areas I’m totally committed to and the areas I’m just interested in. And even more fascinating is when I try to tell myself I’m committed when I’m really only interested.

Here are some ways to know if you are committed or just interested:

1.  If you are interested, you often forget what to do or do only what’s convenient. If you are committed, you do the right thing no matter what.

2.  If you are interested, ideas are like tissues – you discard them quickly. Lots of bright shiny objects get your attention but few ever make any real money. If you are committed, you have a solid business model that is designed to produce predictable results.

3.  If you are interested, your fears and resistances rule your life. Your story about what’s possible has you locked into your current level of success. If you are committed, you actively get coaching, training and invest in ways to shift out of those limitations and clear your energy for greater success.

4. If you are interested, you focus on staying comfortable and safe. You might see a goal or dream but you aren’t willing to risk anything to get there. If you are committed, you take big (but calculated) risks and regularly live outside your comfort zone.

5. If you are interested, what people think of you will mean more than achieving your dream. If you are committed, you go for the gold and see criticism for what it is – other people’s fear or insecurity.

6. If you are interested, perfectionism and fear of failing keep you from making progress. You spend more time paralyzed and figuring out “how” than you do generating results. If you are committed, you strive for 80% clarity then get into motion. You know that results require “in motion decisions.”

7. If you are interested, you give up if things don’t go your way or when failures occur. You lose your faith and pursue the next shiny object. If you are committed, you will rise up over any obstacle or challenge to find your path to greater success.

8. If you are interested, you will lack resourcefulness and always struggle with money and support. On some level you think you have to do it alone. When you are committed, your vision and power is so strong that you magnetize all the resources you need to achieve great success.

Where are you on your scale of interested versus committed? And what would it take to uplevel your commitment? I’ll tell you what I did. When I realized there was an area of my life that I wanted a different result but I had not been committed enough to doing what it takes, I stretched myself to invest a huge amount of money in a new mentor. I’m committed. What about you?

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A radical shift in consciousness is when you realize you have to invest in your future, not your current reality. It’s easy to rationalize “just getting by” because we tell ourselves we can’t afford the next step.  That mentality perpetuates overwhelm and struggle because we spend just enough to keep ourselves in motion instead of doing what it takes to experience a quantum leap forward.

By changing the paradigm in which we use our financial resources, we transform how we leverage money to grow. If we always spend just enough to keep in motion then business stays stagnate. The key is to consciously and strategically invest in the right resources to catapult growth and optimize every strategy.

Optimum performance requires the entrepreneur to master the art of being in the zone. If you spend a lot of time in activities that burn you out or you hate doing, you are not in the zone. Each of us is wired very differently. We have a unique set of skills, strengths and a set of core genius factors that allow us to feel that sense of effortlessness flow in our life.

The only way to grow AND thrive by spending more time in your zone of genius is to delegate the tasks the other activities to someone else. Delegation is one of the fastest ways to accomplish massive success quickly – you can expand your bandwidth and minimize your weak areas by empowering others to do what they do best. No one can achieve greatness alone. Hire stellar people to help you achieve the dream.

It seems so simple and yet, just deciding how you want to feel and who you want to be is the most profound mindset shift an entrepreneur can make. Every day I watch countless people scurry around like chickens without their heads, overwhelmed with things that don’t have any impact, wasting time and energy stressing about their to-do list and end up feeling too busy to do the very things that would actually lead to more profits and impact.

Just decide what you really want. How do you want to feel – inspired, energized and thriving? Busy, tired and stressed out? When you decide what you really want you will then start making better decisions and your actions will lead you to optimum performance.

It might not happen immediately but I can tell you from my own experience that when I decided that my life and business would feel effortless I started to see all the places that I needed to “be” different to have that experience. Slowly but surely I unraveled my old ways of being to have a life and business that feels effortless 90% of the time.

Just decide what you want. Then do what will deliver that experience. Don’t give up on yourself. Don’t rationalize anything less.

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Just because you have your own business doesn’t mean you are going to be successful. For most entrepreneurs, owning your own business just means you have a job working for yourself instead of someone else. Often my clients come into my coaching programs over-worked, under-earning, and deeply unsatisfied with their life.

Creative, visionary entrepreneurs frequently miss that the key to having a truly thriving business lies in your ability to achieve optimum performance. What you do every day is directly linked to what results you are able to produce. And what you do is entirely influenced by your mindset – the thoughts, beliefs and attitude you hold affects your ability to be a top performing entrepreneur.

I’ve noticed a distinct set of mindset shifts that every optimum performing entrepreneur experiences; enabling them to THRIVE while running their business. Now keep in mind there is a significant difference between being an achieving more results and optimum performance. Optimum performance means you have learned to balance the least amount of effort to generate the highest results.

Here are six mindset shifts you’ll want to adopt to shift into optimum performance:

Now before you challenge this one, I want to explain. Optimum Performing entrepreneurs recognize the HUGE difference between just trying to make money with their passion and building a successful business doing what you love. The commitment to create a successful business requires a different approach – its more than just doing what you are passionate about. Often when your focus is on just trying to make money with your passion your vision is too small and you get caught up in the incremental steps that waste time and energy.

When you are building a business that you love you see yourself profitable, making an impact, and using the skills and elements that you love most. You don’t sacrifice your sanity to make more money. You know what your sweet spot is and you consciously capitalize on it. This mindset shift is key to making better decisions, using your resources more wisely and being able to sustain the success you work so hard to create.

Mindset Shift #2: Make Time Your Greatest Asset

What you do with your time every day dictates your results. One of the biggest differences in an optimum performing entrepreneur is how they invest their time to produce high quality results. By focusing on their greatest opportunities and leveraging the strengths of others to achieve more in record time, optimum performing entrepreneurs are able to catapult their growth.

Boundaries are essential – optimum performance requires ruthless time management and the ability to control distractions. You will notice that the business owners who get the most done and are the happiest protect their most valuable asset by having an assistant handle their emails and by saying no quickly to opportunities that don’t fit.

Most importantly, this level of peak performance requires a commitment to focus and a discipline to stay on track. Don’t let yourself get pulled into other people’s emergencies or lose track of your time following up with emails and Facebook posts. Create a daily plan and stick to it.

Another subtle yet significant difference in an optimum performing entrepreneur is the “machine.” Most visionary, fast-paced entrepreneurs chase one bright shiny object after another under the guise of “creativity.” What that means is this: creativity requires a constant source of energy, focus and money to make new stuff. It’s difficult, no actually it’s impossible, to generate sustainable profits when constantly chasing new ideas.

When you leverage the power of a “profit machine” you literally turn on and automate a system that produces consistent, predictable income. When you allow yourself to keep chasing the creative bug you will spend all your time producing new machines that don’t ever get to produce any real profit – you literally recreate the wheel over and over again.

I’m not saying don’t be creative. I’m suggesting that if you look at the entrepreneurs who are not only financially successful but also enjoy their life and have time to enjoy other things besides work, you will notice that they all have a “profit machine.” You build the machine then invest a little bit of time to feed it over and over again so that it will produce a consistent result. What I’ve noticed is that over 70% of the entrepreneurs on this planet sacrifice having any kind of life outside of their business because they don’t recognize the power of building a profit machine.

Stay tuned for part two.

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Thought leaders are often misunderstood in their journey to break new ground. Thought leaders don’t fit inside of a box and sometimes question their authenticity. One way to shore up your confidence and turn on your rocket boosters is to learn from people who are recognized thought leaders. I’ve collected some powerful insights from five [...]

When you wake up in the morning are you fired up and ready to take action? Or do you pull the covers over your head and ruminate about all the things on your to-do list? If you lean towards the second you might be heading towards burn out.

There are a lot of ways that burn out manifests but if you catch it early, you can turn yourself around before your energy becomes toxic to your business. Here are some of the warning signs:

You are exhausted before lunch time (and maybe the minute you step out of bed.)

Your motivation is waning — thing that used to be exciting you now procrastinate or avoid.

You might find yourself in an abnormal amount of confusion or overwhelm.

You can’t imagine anything bigger than your current business. Just the idea of fitting more in makes you feel more overwhelmed.

You get easily frustrated with your clients, colleagues or team members.

Problems that used to roll off your back now become mountains that you worry about.

You don’t remember why you started your business and it now feels more like a job than an extension of your passion and purpose.

Fast-paced, creative entrepreneurs are highly susceptible to entrepreneur burn out.  For a visionary entrepreneur, ideas are like babies –you give birth to something new and guide your idea every step of the way from a seed of possibility to fruition — which is creates a major attachment to your idea.

When you fall in love with your vision of what’s possible it can be frustrating when it doesn’t happen fast enough. And quite frequently, the creative business owner’s identity and self-esteem gets wrapped up in the success of their business.

If you are heading towards burn out, here are a few ways to get your inspiration back:

1)      Take some time off. I know this might sound completely insane, especially if your cash flow is tight or you are behind schedule. But it works. Jim Palmer, author of Stick Like Glue, was hitting the wall and I prescribed a “recharge day.” He took a mini-vacation and spent a work day at the ball park and came back to his desk feeling completely recharged. Schedule a day, week or even two weeks off to reconnect to your passion. Or try my free 18 day coaching program, “18 Tips to Re-energize Your Business.”

2)      Go back to your why. When you reconnect to WHY you wanted your own business in the first place you can re-spark all of the passion you originally felt? Who did you want to serve? What did you want to accomplish? What was important to you about being an entrepreneur? Perhaps you got off track from your original mission and all you have to do is revitalize your original vision.

3)      Get help. The biggest cause of entrepreneur burn out is trying to do everything it takes to grow your business alone. Even those business owners who do hire help often under-delegate the energy draining tasks. Create a liberation plan so you can outsource profitably – and free yourself up to do the things you love most.

What do YOU do to avoid burn out? We all want to know what works for you…feel free to share your ideas in the comments below.

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I’ll admit I’m a bit of a technology geek. With smart phones, tablets and all kinds of snappy social media tools, it’s easy to get caught up in the latest and greatest technology for time management. But where I really get obsessed is tools that make me more efficient!

Having a background with Motorola, I grew up with technology so it only comes natural that this fast-paced, creative entrepreneur had to balance herself with technology to stay organized while growing her business (yes, I’m talking about myself.)

I’ve got hundreds of resources in my Optimum Performance Rolodex but here are the ones on my must-have list.

Customer Relationship Manager (CRM)

I spent the first six years manually tracking all of my client’s purchases and spending a fortune having to populate multiple databases. Between my email database, my shopping cart, my prospect tracking and client purchases, I had three to six different tools I used! Once I realized that there was a solution to integrate all these tools into one system AND be able to segment my list based on buying behavior and needs, I moved to a CRM system. Investing in InfusionSoft was a smart decision.

Not everyone is ready for this kind of resource so here are a few things to consider:

You have a team that will need access to your client and prospect information. A CRM system such as InfusionSoft will allow you to set up routine action sequences.

A big part of your optimization plan is segmenting your list so that only the people who need/want certain offers get that marketing information.

You are outsourcing to different sales people new leads or follow up activity and want to track their progress.

Keeping multiple tools is costing you more than the investment in a new technology.

If you have clients, prospects or colleagues that need to schedule time to meet with you, setting up an online scheduling tool will eliminate a lot of wasted time (and headaches.) I use Genbook but there are others such as Time Trade that entrepreneurs across the globe use.

My tool syncs to my Google Calendar then automatically updates my computer desktop calendar and my iPhone. Genbook also sends an email reminder for the appointment as well as will allow you to gather payment for certain appointments.

Task Management

Most small business owners have at least 10 – 20 projects going at one time. Once you start delegating tasks to others it’s easy to become a project manager and lose time for your creative genius. My solution is to use a task management tool like Team Work Live (BaseCamp is also a popular tool but much more expensive.) This tool can be a life-saver – by setting up all the tasks associated with a product launch or routine projects, you can assign them to the right person on the team with a due date.

With the click of a button, you can instantly see anything incomplete or behind – as well as keep track of all of YOUR tasks that you seem to forget about.

With the invention of cloud technology, sharing files has become much easier. I’m not a fan of Google Docs but I love Dropbox! We keep our Procedure Guide, Client Files, Product Files and records on all of our events and promotions in our Dropbox. Everyone on my team has instant access to the materials they need when they need them. The other benefit of cloud storage such as Dropbox is you automatically have a back up of your files.

What tools do you use to help you stay organized and be more efficient? Feel free to post them below.

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