Think Ahead of Your Business

Entrepreneurial Burn Out
I met with a client yesterday that told me he values our meetings because it gives him a chance to think ahead of his business. This client I talked to was feeling some burnout (sound familiar?) because he had been working more than his customary entrepreneurial 1/2 days (only 12 hours). He really didn't see an end in sight. So essentially we walked through a planning process that got him thinking ahead of business.

Thinking Behind Your Business
Because you are wearing so many hats, spinning so many plates, or putting out so many fires (pick your metaphor) it is easy to end up thinking behind your business. You can tell you are there when you get into a reactionary mode. Sometimes it seems like you are spending more time putting out yesterday's fires than advancing on tomorrow's opportunities.

NxLevel Helps You Think Ahead
I wanted to bring up this topic because "thinking ahead" is what the NxLevel Entrepreneur Course does for you. It gets you thinking ahead of your business. We cover 12 topics of entrepreneurship:


Introduction, overview & entrepreneurship
Gain and understanding of the NxLeveL™ Business Plan and begin to develop the business mission statement, goals and objectives.Planning and researching entrepreneurial essentials
Begin market/industry research through identification and usage of research resources.Organization matters: Management and legal structure
Explore legal and organizational topics including legal structures, government taxes and regulations, risk management and employee issues.Marketing "behind the scenes": Analysis & understanding
Learn key concepts of analyzing your market including customer profiling and competitive analysis.Marketing "on stage": Strategic tactics and implementation
Develop marketing strategies around the product pricing, promotion, and distribution elements of your business.Financial overview: Books, records & controls
Examine how your books and records become the language of business.Managing your money: Financial planning, budgets & assumptions
Understand how to develop and derive feedback from budgets.Managing Money: Developing and using cash flow projections
Learn to prepare and use the ultimate management tool - cash flow projections.Understanding and using your financial statements
Take the mystery out of the Income Statement, Balance Sheet and other financial statements by learning how to use the numbers.Financing your business: Alternative sources of money
Evaluate financing options and determine which are best for you.The deal making process: Negotiating in the real world
Develop an understanding of the negotiation process and techniquesYour business future: Managing growth and plan completion
What's next? Growth? Expansion? What's your business's future?Structure of the Classes
Each class is three hours long. We cover the lesson material and have a guest speaker on each topic. With a class full of entrepreneurs the insights and ideas really get flying. This is brain food for entrepreneurs.

Know How to Win Ahead of Time
Here's the beauty of thinking ahead of your business. I have a definition for strategy: "Strategy is knowing how to win before you play the game." As business leaders we are constantly challenged with situations and problems we have never faced before. As leaders we have a constant mental environment of facing the unknown. Most entrepreneurs are usually humble people because our best laid plans . . . you know the rest. Taking the time to think ahead of your business and getting to the point of knowing how to win before you play the game puts you somewhat in control or at least more in control.