100 Steps: 43-45

Wednesday, January 24, 2007
By Walt F.J. Goodridge
Special to the Saipan Tribune


The only way to take control of your life, raise your standard of living and move beyond merely surviving is to create your own unique product or service that you offer to increasing numbers of people in exchange for the things of value that you desire. This simple formula applies to countries as well as people. A self-sufficient economy has its own products or services of value to export to the world. Similarly, a self-sufficient individual has something of value to exchange in the global marketplace. That thing of value is based on your natural talent, skill, or interest—in other words, your passion!

The following is a continuing excerpt from a previously unreleased book entitled The 100 Steps Necessary for Business Success by Walt F.J. Goodridge. It is provided exclusively to Saipan Tribune readers!

STEP 43: DEVELOP a system.

Now that you have your plan, your plan “b”, your organization chart, and the goal of building it to sell it, you are now ready to develop a system. The purpose of this sys-tem is to develop of way of doing things that increases your sales with the greatest amount of efficiency and the least amount of effort. Having a system in place for each division and each department and task within each division will allow you to train others in how to perform their duties. How do we open up our business in the morning? How do we create our products? How do we answer the phone? How do respond to customer inquiries? How do we package our products? How do we handle returns? How do we maintain our records? How do we pay the bills? How do we hire and train new employees? How do we disburse checks? The answers to these and many such questions form the basis of the details of the system that you need to have in place.

STEP 44: Finally, WORK yourself out of each position.

More than likely, you’ll be wearing several hats while you take the steps necessary for business survival. This is a good thing. As you perform the various tasks within each division and department of your business, you’ll come to know the intricacies of what it takes to really make your business work. However, your mission is not to continue this way indefinitely. As you perform and master each facet of your business, you must give yourself a promotion and change your job description. Once you know the ins and outs of a particular position, it’s time to train someone else to take it over. Work yourself out of each position you hold until you’ve created the freedom that you desire.

STEP 45: THINK up the pole. Then set the toll.

Once upon a time, a wealthy philanthropist decided to hold a great race in his town. His aim was to boost the morale of the townspeople and to share his wealth with one lucky winner. As news of the great race spread to neighboring towns, people from far and wide came to prepare for the race. On the other side of town, an old retired businessman called his crippled son into his room.

“Son,” he said. “We’re going to be rich as a result of this race.”

“But how can that be, father?” his son asked. “There are so many other younger, faster men and women who are going to be competing! And I am crippled. How will we ever win?”

His father looked at him intently.

“My son,” he said. “Yes, you are right. If we participate in the race, we will have a slim chance of winning the prize, and everyone will be our competition. But, there is a way we can participate in which we’ll surely win, and that makes everyone our friend.” He paused, and with a gleam in his eye, said slyly, “We’ll sell them their running shoes.”

Ok, so it’s a corny, totally made-up story. But, the point is simply that in business, you should position yourself higher up the totem pole so that you reduce the competition and maximize your customers. In other words, to use another analogy, position yourself so that you own the bridge that all the travelers need to cross in order to get to where they’re going. In that way you can set the toll they’ll have to pay.

Are you running or selling shoes?

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Until next week, remember, success is a journey, not a destination!—Walt

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