April 9, 2008

What Makes a Healthy Investment?

ME Liz Strauss wrote this at 10:18 am

Understanding Return on Investment

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The hardest part of building a business is the signal to noise ratio. Every second someone offers something to tilt our sails in another direction. What keeps successful business folks unwavering and always on course?

Serious businesses are future oriented. They chose how they will grow and plan a way there. That growth is viewed through a lens of return on investment. The return keeps the path moving forward.

A healthy investment is built on three major parts:

  • a flexible, realistic vision for growth
  • an actionable plan based on tested models that mitigate unnecessary risk
  • a support system, including advisors, to keep the vision and investment on an upward track

It’s easy to throw time and money to the wind, hoping they will grow.
A healthy investment builds in strategic controls that generate a more likely and higher return.

What sort of investment have made in how you want to grow?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!! SOBCon08 is May 2,3,4 in Chicago. Expert Models, An Actionable Plan, and the Support of a Mastermind Team! Register now!

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9 Comments to “What Makes a Healthy Investment?”

  1. April 9th, 2008 at 10:48 am
    Karin H. said

    Hi Liz

    Learning, learning, reading, reading, reading. Investment in time and money. A wasted one if all you do is read, perhaps learn too, but never implement the ideas you learned from reading.

    That’s the investment I keep doing time after time - reading, learning, implementing, learning, fine-tuning the implementation.

    ROI? Big!

    Karin H. (Keep It Simple Sweetheart, specially in business)

  2. April 9th, 2008 at 10:54 am
    ME Liz Strauss said

    Yeah, Karin!
    If we’re always planning to succeed and never start we’ll never get there. Implementing — executing — needs to happen for results. :)

  3. April 9th, 2008 at 4:47 pm
    Howard Cox said

    Hi Liz,

    I really like your simple three step process:

    1. Have a vision
    2. Have a plan
    3. Stay on course

    Jack Welch always says that business is simple. Of course, that does NOT make it easy.

    Something that I recommend to my clients to help them with step 3 of staying on course is the use of an outside independent Advisory Board.

    Thanks!

    Howard

  4. April 9th, 2008 at 4:55 pm
    Whitney said

    Well, for starters, I had a couple of sessions with gal named Liz Strauss. Some of you might have heard of her. She’s kinda famous on the Web. :-) With my interests, goals, and skill set, I could have been all over the place with my business. With a couple of PVM sessions with Liz, I was able to narrow my focus and find the right combination to promote with my business…one that also had excellent synergy with my personal goals and needs.

    I do a lot of reading and learning, and have had to be disciplined about my reading materials…borrowing from the library what I could, buying used what I could, and being careful about what I bought new. Otherwise, I would have spent too much on books. I take advantage of information offered freely on the Web by reputable sources, and sign up for a lot of online events to listen to other experts. You can learn a lot without ever having to back to school.

    Rory Cohen (www.take10now.com) recently did a Webcast at Marketing Qi (www.marketingqi.com). She talked a lot about how “information without transformation is useless”. If you keep filling a vase until it overflows, all you have is wasted water. If you keep filling a person with information until their brain is saturated, you just have wasted resources. The information is never transformed into experience, knowledge, and wisdom.

    Learning minus application = diminished returns

  5. April 9th, 2008 at 5:54 pm
    ME Liz Strauss said

    Hi Howard!
    I’m with you all of the way! In my experience, getting to simple takes longer and more thought. It’s easier to add on things and extend complexity.

    Mastermind teams and “boards of directors” — people who know their stuff and can offer an outsider’s thinking are invaluable. I so agree.

  6. April 9th, 2008 at 6:04 pm
    ME Liz Strauss said

    Whitney,
    You never waste a comment. Thank you for your kind words.

    You put it so well using the metaphor of the vase and water. I hope you don’t mind when I borrow that in the future. ;)

  7. April 9th, 2008 at 6:49 pm
    Pete Jones said

    Liz
    Very excited for my first SobCon in a few weeks. I am eager to learn and soak up all the knowledge in the room, or at least as much as I can take in.
    Regards,

    Pete Jones

  8. April 9th, 2008 at 8:50 pm
    ME Liz Strauss said

    Hey Pete!
    I’m looking forward to meeting you too! That’s the excitement of SOBCon — you nailed it — lots of incredible expertise in one room. I just stand back and watch all that brilliance happen. Yours too!

  9. April 17th, 2008 at 7:26 am
    Somerset Business Success Strategies » Blog Archive » Growth Tool #5, The Three Step Process that Ensures Success said

    [...] http://www.successful-blog.com/1/what-makes-a-healthy-investment/ [...]

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