Achieving goals takes perseverance. While some people may think all they have to do is click their heels and say “I believe” to get what they want in life, they’re in for a rude awakening. It takes more than just airy fairy thinking. There’s a lot of hard mental work involved in achieving your goals. You will face challenges along the way – not only challenges from situations and other people, but challenges from yourself.

Yes, sometimes we are our own worst enemy. We buy into the quick fix notions that if we just visualize what we want in a positive way, and then put it out into the universe, that our work is done. Not so. This isn’t a one way street. The universe isn’t a big vending machine in the sky; we have a responsibility to do our part. We must concentrate on what we want and focus on achieving our goals several times a day.

Achieving goals takes a lot of perseverance, which can be difficult to sustain. Keep your eyes on the prize, as they say, and that means not letting up. Keep believing, keep dreaming, keep positively affirming that your goals and desires are manifesting themselves. Persevere through the biggest challenge: negative thinking. You’ve probably lived a lifetime with the pattern of worry and negative thinking. You need to change that; when the least little negative thought crops into your mind, immediately stop and change it to positive thinking. Soon, with much perseverance, you’ll be able to change your negativity and doubt into positive thinking and the manifestation your goals. Work through the challenges your mind throws at you, in order to realize your dreams. Achieving goals takes perseverance. You can do it!

There is something riveting about a court-room drama. Lawyers are very good at putting on a show. The arguments that go back and forth, the multiple interpretations of a simple statement, gently guiding a witness to a carefully laid trap, all of it requires a great deal of skill.

My favorite part and the most important in my opinion, is the close. The final statements made by both, the prosecuting and defending attorney. The closing statement is always worth hearing. It’s witty, clever and passionate. It is with this statement that both lawyers hope to make their case.

This got me thinking about a business case. Granted, drafting a business case can never be as entertaining as watching an episode of Judging Amy. Still, I firmly believe that a business case should be witty, clever and passionate. Just like a lawyer’s closing statement. When I mentioned this to a couple of friends, I was surprised to find that a lot of them did not even know what a business case was!

A business case captures the reasoning for initiating a project or task. It can be a formal well structured document or it could be a verbal argument. For example you could justify a software-upgrade by saying that it would improve system performance, but the “business case” is that better performance would improve customer satisfaction.

Formal business cases are written to ensure;

•    That your investment has value and importance
•    That your project will be properly managed
•    That your firm will have the capability to deliver the benefits
•    That the firm’s dedicated resources are working on the highest value opportunities
•    That all projects with inter-dependencies are undertaken in the optimum sequence.

So take some time and evaluate. Make your case.

Business Strategy, Business Planning, Marketing Guidelines, KPI’s; the list of plans is endless. Every business and businessman spends a significant amount of time planning for the different aspects of his business. Most people fall short on the step that comes after planning i.e. implementation.

So you have your plans, how are you going to go about executing them? Ironically you need a plan, for how you are going to implement your plans. Some people would consider this to be trivial. They would be wrong. It is very important that every entrepreneur know, how he/she is going to put their carefully devised plans into action.
There is a belief that a well devised plan would implement itself. This is like saying that a well made pie would eat itself. You need to cut it into slivers, decide what china you are going to use, who will be served the first piece and when exactly it would be served.

All plans may be good, but in my opinion what makes a plan great, is if it can be successfully implemented. After all, plans will only be plans until someone uses them. One way of successfully implementing a plan is breaking it into pieces. You can implement one piece at a time until it is in place. This would put less stress on the organization and would involve a lot less hassle. Another advantage is that if any piece is underperforming, necessary changes can be made to the future pieces.

The most important thing I’d like to say is, GET STARTED. You may have the best plan or strategy in the world but it is of no use if you don’t use it. Fine tune the plan as much as you can within reason. Once that is done, execute it. To quote Rihana, “Baby you’ve got the keys. Now Shut Up and Drive.”

You just got promoted. It’s time for that well deserved vacation. You travel to a beautiful, exotic land. You enjoy the scenery and the quirks of a foreign urban sprawl. You sample the delicacies. You’re having a fantastic time.

You wake up a few days later with a queasy stomach. You’re feeling slightly homesick. You decide to have some regular food that day, but it’s a foreign land, you don’t know the people and you don’t understand the language. You spend a few hours wandering from eatery to eatery looking for non-exotic familiar food. Just when you’re about to give up, you look across the street and see a sign with an arrow. The sign has a picture of two golden arches forming a giant ‘M’. You follow the sign.

You go up the road, take a left and then a right. Ah, a sight for sore eyes. How you cherish the sight of McDonalds, the smell of a big Mac and fries. You don’t need to know ten different languages to spot a McDonalds in ten different countries. The golden arches are so famous that they transcend the barriers of language.

Logos are a way for people to recognize an organization in just one look. It is important for every business to have a logo that represents what their organization stands for. This may seem trivial to small businesses, but don’t forget that all businesses start small. Who knew that a simple swoosh would become synonymous with sports gear?

Take some time to analyze exactly what your business stands for. Once you have done this, you need to try and visualize what your thoughts would look like. Think about the image that would best represent your business. What image describes your business in just one look?

After Napoleon’s defeat at the battle of Waterloo we learnt that it’s never a good idea to be late for battle and that it’s always a good idea to have a strategy. When it come to business we know it’s not enough to take the journey we must have a destination in mind. But there are many forks in the road. How do you know which fork to take? Every decision will affect the time and the state of your arrival. So apart from setting your destination and packing your bags you need one more thing before you begin. You need a map, one that charts the best course for you to take, keeping in mind the resources that are available. In business this map is known as business strategy.

Strategy is the direction and scope of an organization over the long-term. It involves setting long term goals for your business and making decisions on how to attain these goals. Imagine for a moment that you’ve started a hobby class. When you open some of your friends show interest and are keen on becoming students. It is only natural for some friends to ask you for a discount or special rate. Now the question is do you give them a discount or not? If you do then yours is a class that gives special treatment to those who know you personally. If you don’t then you are a class that treats everyone the same irrespective of their relationship with you. Each course of action has its pros and cons. A sound Business Strategy will guide you in making these decisions. Here is some information on the different levels of business strategy.

Corporate Strategy – is concerned with overall purpose and scope of the business.

Business Unit Strategy – is concerned more with how a business competes successfully in a particular market.

Operational Strategy – is concerned with how each part of the business is organized to deliver the corporate and business-unit level strategic direction.