JJ Virgin: How a focus on achievement can bring you entrepreneurial success

los_clm_JJVirginI am often asked what made the difference for my success as a bestselling author and fitness and nutrition expert — and I tell people that you simply need to take action.
Too many entrepreneurs are afraid to act. You have to be willing to take imperfect action.
If it’s not quite right, put it out there anyway. You have to act, and that is more important than getting everything perfect.
Another thing I did that has been invaluable was to form a Master Mind group. This type of group was first described in the 1930s and the idea of has grown and evolved to become a frequent tool of successful individuals.
This lets you get bright ideas from others that can help move your business forward. Part of this is setting goals — but make them “stretch goals,” ones that will get you motivated and off the couch. I take these goals and tell the people in my Master Mind group what they are. The funny thing is I have now met all the ones I set!
Learn how to focus
Another critical area is the ability to focus. Entrepreneurs have to focus on their goals and ignore activities that do not progress toward them. You can get involved in a lot of different activities — but will they really help you progress toward your goals? If not, ignore them.
Keeping focused also plays a big part in handling stress. You have to be able to handle stress, and beyond staying focused, a major part of this is taking proper care of yourself. Exercise, enough sleep, proper diet — these are all vital.
The way I have grown my business is through information marketing, and particularly important is a reliable fulfillment company for production, inventory, and shipping of print and CD/DVD materials as well as direct mail and marketing collateral. My fulfillment company is very flexible and really works with me.
When I came to them, I had been using other companies who recognized I was kind of stuck — needing to get out product but having to do small runs — and they took advantage of that. My fulfillment company, Disk.com, doesn’t do that. I needed one-stop, full package production of CDs, DVDs, printing, packaging and integrated fulfillment.
Business are faced with questions like, “How do you start when you don’t know how much you are going to need?” You generally need to do small orders to begin with, and you don’t want to carry inventory.
Then if you need to accelerate quickly, is your fulfillment company flexible enough to do it? My fulfillment company helped me. They would do small runs and would not charge us a lot to do it.
Customers, you see, are unforgiving of a late or unfulfilled product. I just had a sales rush on my website and needed 500 units produced and shipped in a couple of days — and it was done and delivered!
JJ Virgin, a fitness and nutrition expert, has earned recognition as a weight loss expert. Author of two bestselling books, “The Virgin Diet: Drop 7 Foods, Lose 7 Pounds, Just 7 Days” and “Six Weeks to Sleeveless and Sexy,” she is based in Rancho Mirage, Calif. Her website is www.jjvirgin.com.