The First 100 Days

In the past week we have witnessed the historic inauguration of Barack Obama as the nations 44th President. As he takes office we hear in the news much about what will happen in his first 100 days of office. He takes the helm in a tumultuous time with a suffering economy, two wars and the historical partisan politics. So how could that relate to your business?

I talk a lot about creating a laser focused game plan for your business to survive and thrive in these difficult times and as you look at the parallels of President Obama's first 100 days in office I find it an interesting comparison. He must move quickly and establish himself as the new commander-in-chief and in addition position himself and his administration as a new way of doing business. Like President Obama your business faces unique challenges right now, with the economy going south like snowbirds from Minnesota you need to decide what fast action you are going to take to keep your business moving forward. Have you developed an action plan for your next 100 days?  How will you make changes in your business and change the way you do business to set the tone for the next 100 days?  These are questions you must answer and answer quickly in order to survive and thrive in these times. 

I would suggest you sit down and work on 5 things you can do and control in the next 100 days that sends a clear message to your mind and to your team that you are not going to sit on the sidelines doing business as usual and wait for this to blow over. Think about what you can do from a marketing perspective, from a sales perspective and from a service perspective that rocks the boat over how you usually do things.  And once you have done that write down the specifics of how you will do it and assign timelines and communicate it to your team. Then execute and measure the execution so that it happens. 

Just as President Obama wants to get his administration off to a fast start in it's first 100 days you should think about getting you business off to a fast start in 2009 and take control of your business and focus on success, not worrying about those things you can't control!