Double Double

Paint Your Picture

To double your sales and profits in three years, envision your firm’s success. Emulate athletes who use detailed visualization and intense focus to attain their goals. To see a strong future for your firm, use the “Painted Picture” positive thinking tactic. In a quiet place away from the office, imagine touring your incredibly successful firm in three years’ time. Write three to four pages about everything around you – the sights, sounds, processes, staffers, the aura of success.

“Reverse Engineering Your Goals and Projects”

Your Painted Picture forecasts what goals your firm will achieve, not how it will achieve them. When your Painted Picture is complete, share it with your business partners and other supporters. Ask your employees to read it and to hold it uppermost in their minds.

Diagnose where your firm is now with a SWOT analysis listing strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. Collect input from every employee. Then use a reverse engineering approach to make your Painted Picture a reality. Decide what objectives you want the business to accomplish in three years (longer periods “tend to overwhelm”). Work backward from...