How One Entrepreneur Found Success

Tuesday, February 19th, 2008 at 12:53 PM

Okay, so I promised to give you some insight in my amazing weekend. This will be the first of many installments, but I first want to tell you a little about where I was and what I was doing. I spent Friday, Saturday and Sunday in Los Angeles at Larry Benet’s Connecting Mastery Seminar. If you have never heard of Larry, or you would like more information on one of the most important skills every entrepreneur should have, check out Larry Benet’s site, www.LarryBenet.com and see what I am talking about.

I will not name-drop here, but to suffice it to say, Larry is connected. Big time. And he shared his secrets to success with us. And, yes, I will pass much of this information on in future posts, but what you need to know first is how powerful having quality connections can be. It is not enough to just drop names. As Larry says, “It is not who you know, it is who knows you”. So let me tell you about an amazing individual that I had the great fortune to get connect with as a result of attending Larry’s seminar.

Joyce Jackson is co-founder of Keeping Kids Safe, an organization dedicated to one of the most important causes I can think of: keeping kids safe from every threat you can imagine (and some you probably haven’t thought of). Check out their website at www.KeepingKidsSafeToday.com. This website is one of the most informative and useful sites I have ever seen, and it is indicative of Joyce and her partner, Preston Jones’ approach to business: be dedicated, be prepared, and be passionate. Now, those are my words, but read on to see what you can learn from this tremendously successful entrepreneur…

Joyce Jackson was a very accomplished architect, living with her family in the Bay Area of California. She worked hard to build a tremendously successful architecture firm, dedicated herself to her career, and worked her way up the top of her field. Long hours, tireless efforts, and more beautiful buildings than I could name still left Joyce unfulfilled. So Joyce did what every single person reading this blog needs to do: she took a long look inside herself and asked the tough questions. What is missing? What am I passionate about? How can I give back and make this a better world? What do I REALLY want to do with my life? For Joyce, the answer was simple: she wanted to help keep kids safe.

Keeping Kids Safe has a clear mission statement: to teach 20 million kids by 2010 to keep themselves safe. Their purpose is to benefit kids directly by developing the core values of confidence, respect, honesty, integrity and dignity in today’s kids to carry with them for a lifetime of safety. So how does one DO something as monumental as that? According to Joyce, it all starts with a plan…

If you want to build a business as successful as Keeping Kids Safe, you must start off with a solid business plan. “Write it out, pen to paper, and then transcribe it to a computer document.” Joyce suggests. “There is a powerful connection between the brain and your hands as you write it out.” It is true; this practice seems to make your plan much more visceral, much more concrete. “Start off simple; just write it out in bullets if that works best for you,” Joyce told me. If you need help drafting a business plan, contact me and I will share Joyce’s wisdom and my own experience to help you draft a solid business plan.

Once you have a completed business plan and mission statement, have someone you trust review it. The idea is to get honest feedback from a knowledgeable source that can point you in the right direction or help sharpen your focus as you need it. This is a crucial step in solidifying the course you want your business to take. This step is SO vitally important, so spend some quality time getting it done thoroughly. Joyce told me that she and her business partner literally sequestered themselves away from their business, their families and any outside distractions for a few days just so they could be 100% focused on drafting a solid business plan. It is THAT important.

After you have a plan and have had it reviewed by someone you trust to give you honest feedback, it is now time to execute it. “After you finish your business plan and mission statement, print it out and post it in your workspace, or wherever you will see it daily,” Joyce suggests. Seeing your mission daily reinforces what you are in business for in the first place. It keeps your focus sharp, and keeps you accountable not only to yourself, but to your grand purpose.

The rest just comes down to execution.

Following you business plan, staying true to your mission statement, and continuing to find new ways to make your business grow through contacts and networking are critical steps towards building a business as successful as Keeping Kids Safe.

I could write for days on what Joyce Jackson taught me about the importance of writing an effective business plan, developing a focused mission statement, and executing both to maximize your efforts. But what I hope you take away from this post is how vital it is for every business owner and entrepreneur to be equipped with a solid business plan. Once you have that plan solidified, post it, share it and live it. Then, TAKE ACTION.

Now that you have read this valuable information, do yourself a favor and go to www.KeepingKidsSafeToday.com and see what you can do to make a difference. Look at how a true professional builds a successful business and is changing the lives of parents and children everyday. Thank you for all you do, Joyce!

In the next post, find out how a tough guy got on Oprah…and how you can too..
See you in the next post…
~JT