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Competitive business owners know that in order to stay at the top of their game, they must plan for the future, and a business plan consultant is the perfect solution to staying ahead. But many do not have the time to map out the needs of their company because they are too busy working within the company itself. Business plan consultants can assist proprietors of small to mid-size businesses to achieve their ambitions. With realistic solutions and a proven track record, a good business plan consultant can help companies increase profits and create transferable value.

Often the planning process becomes tiresome. Employees are forced to watch branding and training videos, read packets as thick as books about the company’s mission, and take tests over the materials. However, a superior business plan consultant will center on clear strategies and cut to the chase. They can design a concise document that will take only 15 minutes to read. Once this is established, team members can meet and focus on only those things that are pertinent to your business.

Consultants can objectively evaluate a business and determine tactics for growth. With strategic preparation, owners can save time and money and increase their clientele and profits. An expert can assist you in learning how to use the internet and social networking to enhance your company. They can also conclude if your company can be sustained and icrease its value for the future; they can even help with acquisitions of other businesses.

Tax and accounting are the bedrocks of a solid company. It is imperative to find someone you trust to take care of this side of your business. Business plan consultants who offer these services are able to provide a unique combination of financial skill and experience. They can facilitate growth and aid in increasing the transferable value of your business should you wish to sell in the future. By creating an exit plan, you will be able to maximize the earnings you would gain in the event of a sale or transfer.

Think for a moment of famous sports stars, actors, and CEO’s such as Michael Jordan, Peyton Manning, Jack Welch, Steve Jobs, Madonna, etc. What do these top performers have in common? The answer is: they had/have coaches and mentors that helped them get where they are today.

Today I’m acknowledging that building your great consulting business is both a personal and professional journey. If you are to succeed in both your business and your personal life you must design your business to support and enhance your personal development.

What I believe. I believe creating a Coveted Consultancy involves both personal and professional development.

Why I believe it. Just like children pick up good and bad behaviors from their parents, businesses pick up good and bad behaviors from their leaders. You, as the leader of the business, must commit to developing better behaviors and habits every day. If you show your business poor behaviors and poor discipline, then your business will reflect poor performance. If you show your business good behaviors and good discipline, then your business will reflect good performance. Which behaviors would you like your business to reflect?

You may already feel like your business has taken over your life. If so, you understand that your professional pursuits have personal consequences. You carry your phone every day. You carry your laptop everywhere you go. You may also carry a tablet, notepad, and calendar on a consistent basis. You carry these items all the time, whether you’re working or not. If this sounds like you, you already recognize that your professional pursuits have crept into your daily personal life.

You started a business because you wanted your life to be different, not just your work to be different. To that end, business goals by themselves will not be satisfactory. If we only talk about your business goals, then we are neglecting the rest of your life… the more significant parts of your life. Your business is supposed to be designed in a way that gives you the most efficient life possible, not the other way around. It is about designing a business that will fuel your life, not about designing your life so that it can fuel your business.

Relevance to you. As a company, we understand that this journey is both personal and professional. In many cases, it’s your own personal beliefs that help you create your best consulting business. We are not afraid of that conversation. We welcome the fact that you have personal beliefs and we welcome the fact that your personal beliefs inform how you choose to run your business.

We support you with business building strategies to help you create the business you desire, but we are not your full time psychologist or counselor. Our focus is not to over analyze you and dig up your deepest, darkest secrets. Our intention is to understand where you might experience a block, whether personal or professional, and to help you relieve that block so that you can continue designing your very best business.

Depending on where you are right now, you might believe that both your personal and professional lives are a mess. We don’t care. If you are willing to fix your situation, then we are willing to help you. Oftentimes the situation feels worse to you than it really is. As we have an honest conversation about your personal and professional situation, we can craft solutions to move you beyond where you are today.

Building your successful business will require your commitment and development as a leader. Considering the total amount of time, commitment, skills and resources required to run your business, it is imperative that you create a healthy division between personal and professional. You need to be able to carry on with your business, while still maintaining a healthy personal life.

Today we are going to talk about excellence versus perfection. I have to warn you in advance. If you view yourself to be a perfectionist you may find today a little uncomfortable. However, if you bear with me you will find some insight you can use.

What I believe. I believe that excellence and perfection are typically used as synonyms, but are completely different. Many believe that the only way you can be perfect is by being excellent and the only way that you can be excellent is by being perfect. I totally disagree.

Why I believe it. Perfection is defined as freedom from fault or defect. Excellence is defined as the quality of excelling or being exceptionally good. In other words, excellence is about being really, really good, whereas perfection is about not having any flaws. Those two things are different. Let’s use some examples.

When your child brings home straight A’s, their report card reads 90, 92, 91, 98, and 99. Those results are excellent, but they’re not perfect. Aren’t you still proud of your child anyway?

If you’ve ever seen a waterfall in person, and seen the falling water crashing on the lake below… that is an excellent experience. There’s something about it that is misunderstood unless you’ve seen it yourself. Still as beautiful as a waterfall is, it is not perfect. The rocks are not all smooth, the lake’s shape is not perfectly round, and the water doesn’t fall in a flawless sheet. Yet the experience of being in the presence of a waterfall is excellent.

What about your grandmother’s apple pie? If she doesn’t make apple pie think about whatever favorite dessert your grandmother makes. We know homemade cooking is not perfect. The crust of the pie is not completely circle. Sometimes the pie is a little burned around the edges. Does that keep her pie from being excellent? No, it’s absolutely excellent. Not perfect, but excellent.

This idea we have as intelligent consultants is that we have to put out a perfect product, give perfect advice, create a perfect business and nothing is worth putting out until we believe it’s perfect. This is a very limiting attitude that stalls your excellence.

Relevance to you. At Coveted Consultant, we want to help you create an excellent business, not a perfect one. We expect flaws to exist when we first meet you and other flaws will show as your business grows. We expect the flaws and don’t panic about them. We also fight against your desire to “fake” perfect, so that your audience will receive you as excellent. We won’t allow you to paint a pretty picture for us that looks really good, only to have the truth filled with flaws. We want to work with you in the truth.

Whatever is true about your business is what we want to understand. We want to improve your level of excellence, not your level of perfection. We also commit to showing you our own imperfections, as we work our way to being more, and more excellent for you.

Today we are going to talk about three examples of coveted positioning outside the world of consulting. We are going to step outside of the advice and service based business and to look at some business models from very established companies in order to appreciate what coveted looks like.

Disney World. Disney World knows what their “WOW” looks like. If you are going to be coveted and be special in the eyes of your clients then you have to deliver on “WOW”. You cannot do that if you don’t know what “WOW” looks like. Not only does Disney understand their best experience, but they are also fully committed to it across the park. Wherever you go, every employee has bought into delivering a “WOW” experience for you. The park is called the Happiest Place on Earth and they earn that title to the very best of their ability. What is very important to mention is that Disney World lives up to that “WOW” long after their founder Walt Disney has passed away. We know that coveted positioning and coveted thinking is engraved into this business because it lives way beyond the founder.

Starbucks. I can make this very plain by saying the following: Demi, Short, Tall, Grande, Venti and Trenta. If you know what those things are, you are a Starbucks customer. If you don’t know what those things are, then you are not a Starbucks customer. They are all sizes of coffee. You can’t walk into Starbucks and say you want a small, medium or large. They don’t have it. They have very specific sizes and precise names for each size. What does that mean in regards to being coveted? Their customer speaks the same language they do. They’ve created a very specific language just for the size of cups they have and their customers share that language. In your own business you should establish a language with your clients unique to your relationship. That’s part of what makes you special and coveted. You literally speak a special language and that creates a special bond between you and your clients.

McDonald’s. How does McDonald’s help us think about coveted positioning? Everywhere you go, McDonald’s serves the same thing, looks the same way and follows the same operation manual. They are the ultimate model of consistency and that consistency is the same worldwide. Anywhere you go in the world, McDonald’s looks like McDonald’s. The have completely invested in delivering a consistent offering in each and every location.

In regards to being coveted, they are the gold standard for a “fast food” restaurant. When we think about fast food, we think about McDonald’s. They are the premier example of what it means to be a quick serve, fast food restaurant. All of their competition looks at them to be the leader and tell them where the industry and marketplace is going. They view McDonald’s as the leader and if we’re talking about coveted positioning, being seen as a leader in the industry is certainly part of being coveted.

The point here is that we can use examples way outside of our primary business to appreciate what it means to be coveted because the fundamentals are the same everywhere. Your job as the leader of your consulting firm is to commit to the same fundamentals that lead to coveted positioning.

Today we are going to talk about how to start a consulting business and I’m going to use the analogy of shopping for formal wear. You shop for a new clients the same way you shop for a new dress or a new suit. The first time you go shopping, you’re probably not going to find the exact clients you want. You need to go through a process of learning how to find the exact client that fits your business the best way. This article will explain that process.

Best case scenario: You find a boutique. You find a small, specialized store that is just for you; a store that specializes in your style, your size and your body type. If you could make a store that was tailor made for you, walking into the store would reveal every suit, tie, pair of shoes, or dress you needed. It is the same principle with your clients. The best scenario is to find one particular place to find every client you would ever need. It would be a tailor made solution for your business. It is the best case scenario and your ultimate end goal. However most companies have a different reality, especially in the beginning, and it looks more like a worst case scenario.

Worst case scenario: You visit a shopping mall. When you visit a shopping mall there are all kinds of options, probably too many options. In a shopping mall exploration is mandatory. You’re going to have to walk the entire mall to see all of what’s inside and then mix and match items from different stores. For the men: you may have to get your suit from the first store, shirt from the second store and tie from the third store. For the ladies: you may have to get your heels from the first store, dress from a second store and purse from a third store. This is the process of shopping and you have to figure things out. In that process of going to the mall, you begin to learn more about your style and which stores carry the best looks for you. The next time you shop your experience will be more directed and efficient. In your business you have to be willing to shop around and find the types of clients that are the best fit you. Along the way, you will learn more about your style and where your best clients are. Each time you go shopping for clients your experience will be more directed and efficient.

How to find clients that “fit” you. In the process of finding formal wear that fits you, it may be necessary to window shop. You may not have to walk into every store, but you may have to walk in front of many different stores, see what they have on display, and consider if you want to explore the store further. You may have to take notes as you walk from store to store to remember what makes one store different from another. You may also have to take pictures, because sometimes your written word will not provide a good enough description. Lastly, you are going to have to review your research. You are going to have to go back to your desk, look at your notes and then prioritize what makes the most sense for you and your business. Shopping for clients is the same. There are many places you could spend your time, energy, and money. You have to assess all reasonable options and make the best decision you can.

The important thing in any consulting business is having clients, but you have to appreciate the fact that finding the best client is a process. It doesn’t happen automatically; you have to have some patience. It’s much like shopping for the perfect suit or the perfect dress.