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Making Sense of Money

The 3 B’s of Success

The 3 B’s of Success

by

The 3 B’s of Success is the second in a series of articles to help you reach your goal.  What are your goals? I know you thought about it!  You know, it is your dream, wish or resolution you made!  Before you can get to where you want to be, you need to know where you are going.  You wouldn’t get on a bus, train or plane without knowing where it was going. 

Background

Did I always know what to do?  I don’t know, but anything I wanted became a goal.  I learned I had to work for it.  I remember that I had to save for anything I wanted.  My parents generally provided me with what I needed.  My parents were old school.  They worked very hard building businesses and had very little time for me.  I remember spending a lot of time watching them in business.  You can learn a lot from your parents, but I did not appreciate it at the time.

Business

Success in business requires a lot of skills.  Starting or running a business is working on multiple goals and moving forward at the same time.  I think I learned these skills by watching my parents and playing a lot of card and board games.  I learned about plans for expansion, seasons, marketing and strategy.  I learned strategy in very interesting ways.  Strategy is a plan of action designed to achieve a particular goal.  It could be a game of cards, chess game, monopoly or starting a business.  What is your plan?

Budgets

An important part of business success is a budget.  You know that structure, you need to achieve your financial goals.  My parents would work with their bookkeeper to find out their income and expenses to create a budget.  They used the budget as a plan or structure to run their business.  Many people develop a budget as part of a business plan to go to their banker to borrow money.  They used it to keep them profitable.  Profits were invested in the businesses because they never borrowed money.  This is a good lesson in itself!

Bonus

A bonus is something given or paid over and above what is due.  If success is achieving the goal, a bonus is payment for success.  I see it as extra payment for a good or better than expected performance.  A bonus can be something you earn while working for a company or it can be additional profit when you are in your own business.  A bonus is definitely a payment for success.  A bonus can be the money you earn from selling the business.  A bonus can be the depreciation you can offset against income and pay less tax.

Final Thoughts

This is the second article in the series about success; I expect to publish throughout 2012.  There will be twenty-six (26) of them, one for each letter of the alphabet.  The 3 B’s of success discuss business, budgets and bonus.   Success for many of us revolves around money.  Money and profit are good measurements of success.  If a business does not make a profit, it is considered a failure.  A budget must lead to your financial goal to be successful.  A bonus is just indication of success.  These are just three (3) examples of success using the letter B.

I started this series because I run into so many people who have difficulty reaching success.  They want to know my secrets!  So I thought I would share them in a format that will be most helpful.  I also think this format may make it more interesting and easier to use.  My goal in these articles to provide useful and interesting information that will help you succeed.  The 3 B’s of Success is a series.

Photo by:  stefan erschwendner

The 3 B’s of Success is a series.

Comments

  1. I like these definitions. Their entrepreneurial spirit must have rubbed off of you while you were young. I never met my dad because he ran away and my mom always depended on others and took the easy way out, but I learned what not to do. 😉 My grandmother had a lot of experience in meeting adversity head on and a couple decades back, after a tornado had swept through, she started a brick-laying business and gave my uncle his trade. She saw an opportunity and took it, and she was able to help out her son at the same time, as there was not that much other work. He now gets a good salary as a project supervisor, so it worked out!

    • The entrepreneurial spirit is alive and well! I am glad you had at least one good role model in your life.

    • Things are much more expensive these days, but the internet is changing things too. Opportunities are all around us.

    • Businesses require multiple goals and a blog is no different. Increasing traffic requires considerable effort and still appeal to your readers.

  5. From my point of view, a sale of a business is value you built up over time. You should be earning more than you would have working for someone else.

    When my children worked in my business (restaurant), they were not thrilled working, but they enjoyed the lunches and the time we spent together. I tried to make it fun by making it a game. My daughter loved serving drinks, but hated cleaning tables. I think they appreciate it more when the were older. Spending time with your children is still important.

  8. Those budgets certainly are important.  One can have all of the plans in the world but without the resources and the budget nothing will end up being done. 

    • A budget is part of the goal and a plan. Resources are a key part of the plan to the goal.

  9. I look forward to reading more of this series.  Background can have a huge impact on your success, definitely.

    • I agree background has some effect, but to a lesser degree. There are many successful people who came from meager beginnings.

  10. Thanks, I limited myself to only 3 B’s, but I get your point. If you walk over people it will come back and haunt you. You must also create real good will amongst your customers. A good example is Apple, great customer care!

  11. I definitely agree with having bonus in there. You need to be rewarded for your hard work and success. This is how us humans are wired. It is how we stay motivated and determined to keep going.

  12. Success can definitely be a moving target and can be defined differently for different people.

    I agree with the earlier comment(s) regarding the inclusion of bonus. I do think it can serve as a score card of how one is doing!

    • I go back to my original definition of success which is the achievement of something you set out to do. This may be a goal or just something desired.