Jumpstart Any Business With Purposeful Action

Well-meaning business counselors will tell would-be entrepreneurs the importance of timing and most of them advises that before you start any type of business you should save a minimum of six months' income, secure financing, develop an extensive business plan, etc. Although I agree in principle with their opinion, in my experience, this would have knocked out the majority of the people I know who now own and run successful businesses.

Yes, I personally rub shoulders with a few millionaires, but the majority of the people I know belong to the blue-collar, and/or middle-class sector. Before they started their internet-base business, home business or Web site, many lived from paycheck to paycheck. Saving six months' salary proved almost impossible.

And you can forget about securing financing -- unless you count the ones who amassed a large pile of credit cards and used their credit lines to finance their startups -- albeit at a high interest rate. At age 20, I started my first enterprise with $20 and great foresight.

If I waited for the right time, when everything lined up neatly, it would probably still reside in my mind as a figment of my imagination. It did not qualify for Fortune 500 status, but it routinely averaged several hundred thousands of dollars in annual sales.

Fortunately I learned a powerful secret early in life -- action begets action. Whenever you purpose to do something, and take steps toward your goal, the right information, the right people and the right resources show up.

I call the thing that paralyzes us the most as the dreaded "one day" syndrome." Procrastination keeps us frozen in time, in that inevitable state -- waiting for "one day."

Roy H. Williams, the advertising and marketing guru and founder of the Wizard Academy, says many people have become "prisoner of shadows." He asks, "Do you have plans and dreams 'but now is not a good time' to get started on them? Are your hands and feet bound by memories of yesterday and fears of tomorrow? Have you been living as a prisoner of shadows? NEWS FLASH: There never will be a good time. Procrastination is the passive assassin of opportunity."

Edward Young puts it like this: "Procrastination is the thief of time." A goal in your head or even written down will not move you past procrastination.

Although writing goals down helps with your actualization, many times they only become a sticky note reminder of the fact that "one day" syndrome strikes anyone at will. The only known cure calls for taking purposeful action towards a goal.

Here are five things you can do immediately that will help you to move past procrastination and to finally start your business or take it to the next level.

1. Plan your tomorrow -- the night before.

2. Always keep your desk, or work space clean.

3. Break up large projects into two or more smaller ones.

4. Don't let disruptions discourage you.

5. Assign deadlines to all tasks regardless of their size.

Every entrepreneur or business owner should remember that whatever their belief system tells them about something being achievable or not achievable - proves them right. The key lies in committing yourself to completing your task.

Whenever you see the "one day" syndrome, you will find a serious lack of commitment. I implore you to make the following three commitments to yourself:

1. Make a decision. It can change your entire life. If you don't take new action, you a decision still needs to be made.

2. Make a committed decision. Carrying out a commitment is often easier than making one. Real decisions come about only if you find yourself doing something about a goal you set.

3. Make a committed decision with built in flexibility. Once you have decided to take action on a particular goal, don't get stuck on the means to achieve it. Circumstances change and you must change with them.

Mike Kemski, founder of BANABU Development Systems, recently said, "How do you know if you have made a true decision? Every true decision is followed by immediate action, no matter how big or small that action may seem. If you take some sort of action then you know you have made a true decision to change your life."