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Labor Day Bridges Can Help Your Business
"Until you can apply the information that you’ve learned, then and only then will you be rewarded."
— Andy Fuehl
Labor Day is history, and so is the end of summer for many. Did your summer turn out as you planned? Did you accomplish everything you had hoped to at the beginning of the summer? The key to a successful business is good planning and firm deadlines. Here in the San Francisco Bay area there was a great example of how planning can help your business.
This Labor Day weekend, in only three days, they completed a very major portion of the seismic retrofit for the San Francisco Bay Bridge, an eight mile long bridge that is a major connector between San Francisco and Oakland. Shutting the bridge to traffic is something that is avoided at all possible costs. The last time the bridge was closed was after the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, when an entire section of the bridge actually collapsed.
Well there was one section of bridge that had to be closed in order to complete the retrofit. Labor Day weekend was chosen because it provided three non-work days in a row. The contractors had to close the bridge after rush hour traffic on Friday, demolish a 5 lane wide 350 foot section of road and rebuild it all before rush hour traffic resumed on Tuesday morning. Now that is a formidable task.
Here are the steps they took. They started posting signs on the roadways and in the newspapers about the bridge closure at least 3 weeks in advance so that drivers would know about it and be prepared. They built the entire new section of roadway in advance, next to the existing roadway. When the time came, they had workers in 100-person shifts work around the clock to demolish the old roadbed, then they had to move the 6,500 ton ( that is 1,300,000 pounds) of new roadway into place - not a trivial task. Guess what! Amazingly, they completed the task ahead of schedule and within budget !!
The key was to set a non-moveable deadline and then plan, plan, plan!
How does this relate to your business? Everyone has heard the importance of creating a plan and executing to it. You have heard this before, but have you done it? The importance cannot be overstated. It does not have to be a complicated plan, but you need to set a series of goals and associated non-negotiable deadlines and them track to them. Without the plan and non-negotiable deadlines, you will continue to find excuses and work on trivial non-goal oriented distractions, instead of income producing tasks.
Here are a few ideas to try:
1) Plan a teleseminar - announce to your potential audience what the teleseminar is and when it will be.
2) Find a publisher and tell them you will write an article or report for them to use in their newsletter, on their website, or in their publication.
3) Plan a conference. Pick the place and time and put down a non-refundable deposit. Now you are committed to offering the conference and finding the people to fill it.
4) Announce the release date of a new product you are developing and start advertising the product.
Setting a fixed date will keep you focussed on a specific goal and give you the impetus that will provide you income!
Helping your business Thrive NOW!
Richard Lazovick
Editor, MortgagePro News

PS Next week will talk talk about inexpensive marketing techniques to ensure your incøme.
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