I’m betting this sounds familiar ... New years resolution, more goal setting, big intentions, lots of promises on how this is your year and its going to be better than any other. Seven days later ... back to the grind, struggles remain, fighting for clients, searching for leads and just hoping, praying and wishing things will change because ... at some point they have to!

And if news reports are anything to go by it’s looking like 2013 is going to get even tougher for business! MORE tax, MORE cutbacks, MORE pressure on you!

I can tell you … Praying won’t help, wishing does nothing and hoping for change leads to total failure. Everything in 2013 can change for you and I can of course prove that! First can you answer yes to the following?

• Do you want change in your life?
• Do you need change in your business?
• Do you need change in your finances?
• Do you need good marketing?
• Do you need good solid proven advice?
• Do you understand investing into change?
• Do you understand nothing in life is free?
• Have you had enough of being stuck in a rut?
• Do you know there is more but not sure how to get more?
• Are you hungry enough to work hard for change?
• Have you tried changes and nothing happened?
• Are you good at listening and taking advice?
• Are you willing to prioritize change?

Of course I can fire more questions at you but can you say yes to what you read above?

I am predicting a huge year of incredible change for my clients and I can tell you the clients I deal with here are more fired up for change than ever.

Why? Here are the top two reasons you could be failing.

One: Failure to take good or ask for good solid advice. Good advice can and will shortcut or fast track you and your business and in many cases actually save a business from going under.

It can redirect life and business in a moment. I should know, I have seen this take place so many times over my 27 years in business. One business mentor client went from … almost bankrupt and chaos to a 53.4% increase in four weeks to a 116% increase over 12 months. This enabled her to create a new business that generated a windfall of over £20,000 in a single week and build another two new business on a foundation of everything I had taught her.

Remember previously her own way of doing business resulted in an 8 year endless struggle of cash flow and bad marketing. Now she has 3 business built on new foundations that have given her a new lifestyle!

Good advice works … will you take it or not?

Two: Failure to take action. You can take good advice yet a failure to take action will result nothing happening. In fact a failure to take action will results in a catastrophic failure – no question.

I had one client that had been asking for advice for years. He never really took the advice although he listened. One day I got an almost hysterical call from him. He told me he had finally taken action and done exactly what I had been telling him to do with his sales copy. The big results for Dave were a windfall of $300,000 in a single weekend campaign. Despite the fact it took him around four years to take action and during that four years he took almost no action, once he finally did his windfall was huge. Dave now has fantastically healthy business that gives him what he needs in life.

Failure to take action on great advice is the death of most businesses. Yet when action is taken, when you are being mentored into action the results are clear to see with Dave and many others like Dave.

And lets add a third here and it’s this … Investment vs. Cost: Good mentoring and good advice is seen by most as a cost. That’s cannot be right when you look at the return on investment that can come back to you.

Honestly I would have walked over broken glass to avoid a lot of the mistakes, lost time, lost sales and lost profits over the many years in business.

When clients ask me what kinds of cash do I charge or have charged for something like a sales letter and I tell them - £25,000 – the response is always the same … OMG… WOW … That’s expensive but when I then tell them the page pulled in £1.2 million despite the facts they get stuck on the cost.

One client I work with had spent around 4 months struggling to get any sales. He was pretty much broke but offered his payment on a credit card. He paid for his advice and paid for his copy in advance. Just 21 days after the promotion his sales had totaled $485,000.

That’s over 23 grand a day. He paid me half a days sales and he kept the rest. In other words he saw the investment. Smart people in life take calculated risks but never blind risks. That’s exactly what Mark did he calculated the risk, he made an investment.

So will 2013 end like a crumbling number chiseled in old stone AGAIN or will 2013 be the year that changes everything for you?

Even if we never work together do this for yourself.

• If you need advice, go ask for it?
• If you need to be mentored or guided, it’s just a calculated investment.
• If you are shown what to do remember it won’t do it alone, take action and do it.

Life is time and time is life. Every year that passes is another year of your life gone. Eventually we all run out of time and life.

Can you afford to have another same old year? If you need MENTORING click here If you want to work closely with me CLICK HERE. In Your Service

Alan Forrest Smith