Do you have a Black Belt in Business?

What does it mean to earn a black belt in the martial arts?  To become a trained killer.  No,  martial arts training is a lot more.  It's a form of self-defense and exercise.  But, most importantly, it is a philosophy or a way of life.

I got involved in the martial arts at a very early age, but didn't receive my Black Belt in Tang Soo Do Karate until I was almost 30.  I found martial arts was not only a great form of exercise and self defense, but also taught me how to survive the battles of business and life.  When I look back, what I really learned was the importance of goal setting, focus, determination, and the use of systems.

Each martial art has a series of belts or levels, which each student strives to reach before they can become a black belt.  This systematized approach provides students a process to gain mastery over a particular level of skills before moving on to the next level.  Showing the importance of setting end goals with milestones along the way to keep you on track.

My sensei (Karate instructor) taught me that each level you reach before a black belt, you are just learning Karate but once you become a black belt, you are now doing Karate.  Once you reach black belt, you now have the knowledge and wisdom to apply what you have learned.  The journey doesn’t stop there.  There are new goals and milestones as you reach for the higher levels of being a black belt.  As a business coach, I have found this same systematized approached can also be applied to any business.  

When do you get your black belt in business?  When are you “doing” business instead of learning business?  At ActionCOACH we have a definition for this scenario, “A commercial profitable enterprise that can work without you the business owner”. 

So, how get a black belt in business?  Let’s take a look at the 6 belts you must master before you can be a black belt in business.

White Belt:  At this level, the emphasis is on basic business mastery over time, team, & money.  It’s about getting the chaos out of your business and getting organized.  It’s about making sure you can make payroll and that your employees understand their roles & responsibilities in your organization.  It’s where you learn to delegate tasks to your team, so you can concentrate on developing higher level skills needed to obtain your business black belt.

Yellow Belt:  This level is where you work on creating predicable cash flow in the business.  You develop your Niche and USP (unique selling proposition), so you can start selling on value and not price.  You find out why your business is unique and valuable to your customers.

Green Belt:  At this level, you are working on creating efficiencies in your business.  You are starting to develop systems that will run your business so you don’t have to.

Blue Belt:  Here you learn how to get the right people “on the bus”-- the right team players, who will run your systems that will run your business.

Red Belt:  This level is where we start to see all your hard work come together.  You’ll start to see the synergies of your systems and team develop.  Now, you start grooming your general manager who will run your business for you.

Black Belt:  Now you’ve made it!  You’ve created a commercial profitable enterprise that works without you.  You are now an entrepreneur with a business black belt!  You are  generating passive income from the business.  You can now take the skills and knowledge which you have learned and apply them to other businesses or start investing your profits, so your money is making money.

To learn more about how you can turn your business into a Black Belt business, sign up for our next free webinar.  Check out my latest workshops and seminars www.actioncoachseminars.com