One year ago, I was at a conference and publicly declared to the jam-packed audience I was going to help 40 entrepreneurs in 2017 build their businesses using what I call the “give method.”

You know, that biblical principle that says, “Give and it will be given unto you, pressed down shaken together and running over.” I wanted to teach speakers, pastors, coaches, consultants, and authors how to give their products away yet get paid handsomely for it. 40 seemed like a massive number to me as I only had 2 clients.

Well, come to find out the “give method” works. At the close of the year, I will have worked directly with over 200 entrepreneurs in 32 countries and 6 continents and indirectly countless more.

I believe this breakthrough happened in my life due to the power of a public declaration, a determined and resilient drive, and a solid implementation strategy.

As the new year approaches, entrepreneurs around the world will once again set goals to improve their quality of life, relationships, and businesses, and strive to make 2018 their best year ever.

I know the power of a declaration; therefore, I’d challenge you to wrestle with the semantics, create a declaration statement, and publicly tell the world.

Declarations help us become realistic with our goals.

Declarations help us go for it.

Declarations have consequences if we don’t achieve them.

Declarations provide the motivation needed to take the next step when uncle status quo is telling us to slow down or quit.

Once you’ve made the public declaration, you’ll need a solid implementation strategy.

Here is a 10-Step Game Plan to Launching Your Business and Building Your Platform.

First. Compose a compelling vision or a Chazown.

There’s an ancient Jewish proverb that states, “Without a vision (Hebrew word = chazown) the people perish.” As you study that phraseology in the Hebrew language you learn the people don’t actually die, but without a “chazown” they wander around aimlessly without any direction or purpose.

As business owners if we don’t compose our “chazown” we can accidently find ourselves wandering around aimlessly pursuing every fad, gimmick, and gadget on the market.

This can cost us time, energy, and money. We’ll appear busy but not accomplish much of anything.

Craig Groeschel, in his book titled, “Chazown” states, “To create a clear vision focus on three elements: Gifts/Talents, Past Experiences, and Core Values. Where those three elements intersect is your ‘chazown.’”

What are you great at?

God made you brutally terrible at almost everything. Be honest… you suck at nearly everything (there’s the affirmation statement of the day). But, you are great at 2 or 3 things. What are they? How can you use those gifts to change the world?

What have you done?

Have you had hobbies, personal experiences, and jobs in your past that served to develop a unique skill set within you? Leverage these to solve problems and you can create a business that helps others.

What are your values?

What have you always cared about? What values seem to define your core? If money were not object, what would you do for the rest of your life? These questions can help you determine your core values.

Create your vision around your gifts, talents, and core values.

Second. Draft a game plan.

What is the map, strategy, blueprint, etc. you are going to use to implement your vision? You may need to hire a business strategist or coach to help you create this.

Third. Design a product.

I can’t tell you how many people I’ve coached this year that are trying to make money online and don’t have a product. Umm. That’s a difficult proposition.

What do you have to sell? In my opinion, start with your high-ticket offer. Literally. In my experience, it takes more expertise to sell a $97 product than it does a $10K product. I know it sounds backwards, but I’ve proven this time and time again.

Give your product or service a name.
• A name allows your potential client to purchase a tangible product as opposed to something theoretical or hypothetical. This powerful psychological component is congruent with our purchase habits.

Create a product summary.
• Fill in the gaps for your potential audience by giving them a few sentences of what your product or service consists of. If you answer their questions before they are asked it will build your credibility and increase your conversion rates.

State the expected outcomes.
• Emphasize the transformation. It’s not about what you are offering but what the transformation and life-change your audience will experience. Write from their perspective.

Give it a price.
• Pre-determine your rate and do not feel the need to negotiate. Research I’ve done with my students tells me when someone can “see” the price as opposed to simply “hearing” the price your potential clients are less likely to want to negotiate. However, if they do try to negotiate you know they are very interested in purchasing. My recommendation isn’t to lower your rate, but add an additional bonus or payment plan to close the deal.

Have a Call-To-Action button to allow a purchase.
• This CTA button can simply lead your potential customer to an order form where they can purchase your product or service. The “perfect” order form consists of an image or graphic of your product or service; the product description and expected outcome statement; a bulleted list of your offerings; a testimony or two; risk reversals; assurance badges; contact information; and a way for them to pay.

Fourth. Find “the other one.”

Solopreneurship can be a difficult journey. If one is not careful you can become isolated and lonely. Perhaps even depressed. As a “one-man-band” you feel the need to do everything on your own.

As Tony Soprano would say… Fuhgetaboudit.
My recommendation? Get a partner!

Identify your expertise. Strive to do what only you can do and outsource the rest. After assessing your skills and passions consider finding someone else who compliments your personality yet has a skill set in areas that are your weaknesses. Hire them. Partner with them. This one action can earn you the freedom to focus on what you love and can restore the passion and vitality to being a business owner.

Fifth. Resource your vision.

A mechanic can only be as good as the tools in the tool box. The same can be said for entrepreneurs. You don’t need a “ton” of resources to be successful, but you do need a few vital ones. I’d recommend a solid funnel builder; a good autoresponder; a decent camera (a smartphone is great); a little lighting; video editing software; a payment gateway; and one highly rated and reviewed online course that will help you specifically in your niche.

A word of caution. Be careful not to chase the “latest and greatest” tools and resources. If you aren’t careful, you can break the bank on tools and not have any budget remaining for traffic. Also, every time an expert creates a new strategy that resonates you may be tempted to abandon your current path to pursue another one.

Sixth. Apply sustained pressure.

Casey Graham said, “Passive income must have a very aggressive approach.” I couldn’t agree more. To keep your business on a consistent upward trajectory you must find a strategy that works and do it over and over and over.

Just as you always must apply pressure to a gas pedal for your vehicle to move forward, you must apply sustained pressure to your vision to keep it moving forward.
If you have a funnel, it must ALWAYS be on. Your links should be tested daily, and you should be sending paid and organic traffic to your lead magnet 24/7/365.

If you have an email subscriber list, send a broadcast email with helpful content at least twice per week. Give them a call to action in the P.S. section of every email.

Update your social media with helpful content and phrases at least twice daily.

Participate in large social media forums by helping others at least 30-minutes to an hour each day. This will increase your visibility to potential clients and establish you as an expert in your niche.

Send out at least one proposal for your high-ticket offer each day.

Teach on Facebook Live regularly.

Publish your blog consistently, and podcast the same day and time every week. Do not miss.

Schedule yourself to be interviewed on others podcast weekly.

Your business will trend upwards if you apply sustained pressure. However, don’t give up if you have a bad day or week.

Seventh. Create Momentum.

Imagine a bike race where the last one to the finish line wins. You learn quickly if you aren’t moving forward it’s impossible to gain the momentum needed to stay upright.

Andy Stanley says, “Momentum = forward motion fueled by a series of wins.”

For your business to have the fuel needed to propel forward you have to incur a series of “wins,” even if they are little.

Determine what a “win” will look like in your business and create an action plan to achieve them.

For me, when someone asks to join my Facebook group, or I get an email confirming someone made a purchase, or I receive a positive text from someone I helped, or I’m asked to be on a podcast I feel fulfilled. This acts as the fuel that propels me.

Therefore, I help someone for free, and work hard to provide so much value they feel extremely grateful. If you do this, I promise you they will make you incredibly popular online.

What can you do?
• Get your first 100 email subscribers.
• Host a webinar and sell something.
• Create a flash sale to increase sales volume.
• Get a rock star on your podcast and let him/her educate your following.

Whatever you do, keep moving forward.

Eighth. Invest money in yourself and your vision.
A large objection to investing in our vision is, “I don’t have any money!” Therefore, many of us ask others to sacrifice for the sake of our cause, but many of us don’t sacrifice for our own cause.

Make the necessary sacrifices to insure you can fund your dreams. Dave Ramsey says, “Live today like no other, so you can live tomorrow like no other.”

I’d encourage you to turn off cable. Eat ramen noodles. Wrap your Christmas gifts in newspaper. Stop your Netflix subscription. Drink Folgers instead of Starbucks. Unsubscribe from any paid memberships you aren’t using. Sell something. Trade in your expensive car.

• Invest in a good coach.
• Invest at least $20/day on Facebook ads.
• Invest in ClickFunnels.
• Invest in a nice funnel template.
• Invest in one good event this year (go for the networking, and not the content).
• Invest in “the other one” who can bring you freedom and flexibility.

Invest in yourself and work hard to create an incredible ROI.

Ninth. Become fearless.

Fear acts as the emergency break to our vision. Fear gives us a scarcity mindset. Fear gives us limiting beliefs. Fear causes anxiety. Fear forces our mind to dwell on the negative. Fear asks, “What if it doesn’t work?” or, “What if I lose all my money?”

Dave Daley, the Monster Motivator says, “Fear barriers can be boiled down to the fear of failure, and the fear of what others think.”

Failure is my biggest fear because it becomes so personal. I feel like a failure when I don’t succeed. I feel I let everyone down. I feel the shame of my failure. I’m learning to understand failure is not a person. Failure is an event.

I want to encourage you to create a different mindset when it comes to failure.

Because failure is an event, not a person, the moment you fail at something it becomes a moment in history. It’s forever in past tense. Failure is always in your past, never in your future. Allow yourself to feel the disappointment of failure, but not the disapproval of failure.

You overcome fear by building your faith in a positive outcome. You overcome fear by creating a “go for it” attitude understanding, even if you fail, everything is going to be ok.

Take a chance, the upside is worth it.

Tenth. Take Massive Action, Now!

Eckhart Tolley, in his book, The Power of Now, states, “Any action is often better than no action, especially if you have been stuck in an unhappy situation for a long time.”

What’s the difference between someone who’s making money with their online business and who isn’t? One started and the other is still perfecting.

You’ve heard the saying, “Done is better than perfect.” Although, being a perfectionist I’m not a fan, of the totality of the statement I agree with the premise. You can’t sell something until you make it available to the marketplace. Online experts such as Michael Hyatt, Brendon Bruchard, and Eric Ries teach entrepreneurs to simply create a MVP — a Minimal Viable Product.

According to techopedia.com, a MVP is “the development and launch of your product with sufficient features to satisfy early adopters. The final, complete set of features is only designed and developed after considering feedback from the product’s initial users.”

Truthfully, your product will never be perfect. Therefore, launch your business, service, or product before it’s completed. Offer it in “beta” mode and adjust it fix it on the fly.

2018 can be your best year ever, but it all starts with a declaration. What does your best year ever look like? Declare it to the world.