Stop the howling!

I’m often reminded of a story I heard many years ago. It goes something like this…Bernard, on occasion, enjoyed stopping by Larry’s house for a cup of coffee and some great conversation.  During each visit, Larry would greet Bernard at the front door, and lead him into the kitchen.  During the first, and all subsequent visits, Larry’s dog would meander into the kitchen, sit in the corner, and begin to howl. Larry always just ignored the situation, so Bernard felt compelled to mind his own business.  Over time, Bernard became more and more puzzled by the dog’s odd behavior.  So, one day, Bernard waited until the dog started his howling and he said,
“ Larry, what's going on here… why does your dog sit in the corner and start howling bloody murder?"
"Oh, that; Larry responded, that's no big deal, there’s a rusty old nail coming up through the floor in that corner. Bet that hurts like hell don't you?” 
How many of us continue to sit on rusty old nails expecting something different to happen.  Can we expect things to change without taking a new path…  trying a new way… stepping outside of our comfort zone?

Here’s a list of the Top Howling Items I've heard most often:
I wish I had a database for my contacts
I wish I had an emailed newsletter
I wish I had a ________ follow-up system
I wish we had an online employee training system
I wish my assistant would do _________ correctly
I need to figure out what to do with all this Social Media stuff
I’m great with clients… I just don’t have  enough prospects to keep me busy
I wish my email was organized
I wish I had all of my contact information in one place
I have no idea of what is happening with __________
I wish we had a way to keep the office in the loop- we get too bogged down with email!
I wish I had a way to group my contacts
I wish I had a way to know what my customer's are thinking
I should be more organized
I wish I had a way to remember what was discussed during client meetings
Networking events are just a waste of time
Email is always hard for me
I wish I had a way to find out why my customers don't call us back
I wish I had a way to quickly prepare new quotes and proposals
I wish I had a clue as to what my sales people are doing with their time
I wish we had a way to track sales
​I wish we knew what our customers want to buy

The solution is to create a simple, easy to use, system building platform that you work with every day. Get off that rusty old nail, stop all the Howling and take the time to end the madness... Build a Business System! 
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Then, let’s all stop by Larry’s with a hammer and give that poor old dog a break!

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