What’s your money thermometer set at?

Colleen Francis http://bit.ly/MZUNd started her keynote at the December Canadian Association of Professional Speakers convention in Calgary http://bit.ly/45FX9Z with this line “I know we are supposed to be in a recession, but our sales were up 30% last year, what about you?”. She had my attention!

Colleen had some great tips and strategies that were working for her, but it all came down to this question: What is your money thermometer set at? Just like the thermometer in your house, once you set the temperature the furnace can only go to a certain level. It’s the same thing in business growth and success. We can easily set the temperature and then forget we set it.

I have spent 25 years in business getting to certain levels. I have brought in millions into my companies (sometimes in one transaction) and I have had businesses that only earned $100,000 in a year. And here’s the kicker: I know I was aiming too low. In all cases there were invisible limits that restricted my growth and success.

Of course we don’t see the thermometer and we have no idea that we have set a limit. It just happens and then we conveniently find someone or something to blame. I used to blame my workload (“I’m so crazy busy I can barely find time for me!”). Or I would blame my partners (“If only they would….”). Or I would blame the time of year (“This is the slow time of year”).

The reality is that it wasn’t about other people or the season; it was about the story I repeated to myself every day.

So, what’s is your temperature set at?

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 17th, 2009 at 7:51 am and is filed under Hugh’s Blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

3 Responses to “What’s your money thermometer set at?”

1. steve bell says:

   December 30, 2009 at 1:09 pm

   Excellent Post.

   Several things that people need to be aware of is the fact the economy has been an easy crutch for the last year! Now, our business is seeing steady growth and we predict in 2010 that it will explode! Why…companies like us are now tired of hearing “the economy…”, it’s not and should never be used that way. When it’s down, work a little harder, use your database better, more refined, targeted, create sub-niches in your business to better service, be much better at your business in general. Give more! If your business earns $100K in 2009, then make it $150K in 2010, drill down and get to the heart of what it will take to do this, add a person, hire part time, outsource, etc, just no more excuses.
2. admin says:

   January 10, 2010 at 7:29 pm

   Hi Steve, great comment. I totally agree. It’s what you put in that makes all the difference. Just one more reason why I don’t read the news!

   Take care,

   Hugh
3. window thermometer says:

   February 16, 2010 at 2:47 am

   Hey, was just searching through your website and decided to add the RSS feed, however it is not working in my browser (I am looking at it using Opera) any specific way to bypass this?