The 7 Triggers to 7 Figures Strategy™ has been developed over many years through observation of the predictable influences that impact business success trajectory for Entrepreneurs and Small Business Owners as they leveraged Coaching at AchievementBridge to support their goal achievement.

Every business owner aspires to optimize the opportunity they created when they launched their vision for a business into the marketplace. But once the business has started to form, almost predictably, obstacles to growth, profitability, and sustainability begin to show up.

"Triggers" are simple, powerful actions or areas of focus that, when deployed, will create immediate impact on those obstacles and catalyze new momentum to new success. Any one of the 7 Triggers is powerful by itself and may be all you need to launch a new chapter for success. However when you take action on all 7 Triggers your business will fly - Guaranteed!

The 7 Triggers are organized in Four Simple Steps. Starting at (roughly) 12 o'clock and working clockwise you'll notice the sequence of steps.

It is important to implement the Triggers in the sequence represented to make the biggest impact on your business. Many business owners that have come to Entrepreneur Excellence feel urgency to start with Step 3 - Mesmerizing Your Market - aka strategies for increasing sales. While this may seem the best place to start, we find that not laying foundation in other areas first will derail best efforts in the others.

Each Step will be explained in more detail as you click through the graphics in this model.

Step 1 - Perfect Your Priorities
Contains Two Triggers: Authenticate and Integrate.

Your Business started with You: your idea, your energy, your focus. And you likely had a vision for how your business would serve an amazing life - freedom, wealth, passionate pursuit - while also leveraging competencies that you were proud of.

But many business owners unconsciously allow the business they've birthed to "hijack" this vision - literally consume them so that the "you" that started it all isn't being served.

Step 1 is about getting those priorities back into focus so that your business is doing the right things, and the right time, for the right reasons...and serving an Amazing Life for You.

Explained in more detail below, Trigger 1, Authenticate and Trigger 2, Integrate are about YOU...assuring your business is designed to serve you personal priorities, while structuring the strategic focus of your business so that it expresses the best you to the market.

As you will learn in the Trigger 1 and 2 descriptions, it is very easy for ambitious, tenacious Business Owners think, "I'll get to the stuff outside of my business later". But when those life priorities and personal ideals are put back into focus and placed front and center first, you immediately discover new, powerful clarity on strategy, decision-making, and leadership for taking your business to its next level.

Trigger 1
Authenticate: Defeat The Drift

The marketplace knows instinctively whether a business is "authentic" or not, and will be much more attracted to, and loyal to, an authenticated business. An authentic business has the following characteristics:

• The Business expresses the Owner/Founder's unique passion and competencies in a differentiated manner
• The Business serves a minimum viable market that genuinely appreciates the business's products and services
• The customers/clients being served are enjoyable - even fun - to work with for the Owner and those representing the business
• The majority of the customers/clients being served are delighted with what they receive from the business
• The business's brand is clear and easy to recognize - "one of a kind" vs "one of many"
• The Owner/Founder loves their business
• The Owner/Founder's role and routine involvement in their own business is enjoyable for them

The Drift

The intersection of your unique Passion, the Competencies and Skills that you are proud of and are on your way to becoming World Class in, the Product Offering that is invented by the overlay of Passion and Skills, and a targeted Market that appreciates and values the Offering of the business creates a "Sweet Spot" that defines a business's Authenticity.

It is common, over time, that one or more of the "bubbles" (represented by these four essential drivers in a business) begins to "Drift" and therefore upset the business's potential for optimum success.

For example, if the Owner has allowed all the minutia of running a business to consume her focus, the Passion that sparked the business in the first place begins to "Drift", taking the Owner's energy and focus with it.

Or, let's say an over-inventive Owner keeps coming up with new ideas for products or services. Eventually, the original "target market" might begin to be confused about who the business is serving and what it stands for and as a result, the "Viable Market" drifts and starts to erode profitability and customer loyalty.

The starting pace for building - or rebuilding - an authentic business is to evaluate whether you are operating in your business's "Sweet Spot". Consider discarding or reassigning tasks, duties, products, or even customers that are pulling your business out of alignment and causing The Drift.

Trigger 2
Integrate: Feed The Goose

A business can serve the marketplace mightily - for a time. But for a business to truly be sustainable and enduring, it is critical that the business serves the Owner rather than the Owner being perpetually beholding to the business. This is called "Feeding The Goose". And, in case you missed it: YOU are The Goose!

This dynamic can easily be derailed: the business starts to get busy, the Owner/Founder (Inventor) feels obligated to touch every aspect important to the business's success - from sales, to accounting, to production, to invoicing - and soon the business has consumed 20 hours of every day leaving nothing for other important aspects of life that, in fact, were the drivers for starting the business in the first place. The business has hijacked life!

The Four Domains

Every Human Being strives - consciously or not - to attain outcomes in four specific areas in order to feel fulfilled and successful.

Wealth is not only how much money is being generated to support lifestyle, but also the money that is accumulated to provide security through to the end of life. As well, Wealth is defined by how generous we can be to give and contribute without feeling obligated for a return.

Health of course pertains to taking care of ourselves physically through nutrition, exercise, sleep, and stress management - but also feeling vibrant, able to take on challenges as they come, and resilient to the pace of a life fully lived.

Connection is the outcome we experience when we feel truly engaged and rewarded by relationship - the closest and intimate relationships we have in life, in the community around us, and even the aspiration to connect with a broader, global community.

And Influence is the outcome of feeling we are making an impact, a difference-maker, a person that has made a contribution that will live on long after we are alive on the planet.

Honoring these four domains is critical for success and fulfillment or one will reach the end of life feeling regret or insufficiency.

The great news is that Small Business Owners - among all the personas in a society or marketplace - have more control over assuring their business serves and honors these 4 Domains better than anyone.

So how to get started taking better care of The Goose? Do a quick assessment and personal inventory considering each of the Domains. Are they being served? Are there aspects that are strong but other aspects of each Domain weaker? Then look at how you have your business set up, or not, to directly impact each Domain (or aspect of each Domain). Wherever the business has hijacked time, attention, or resources away from fulfillment in each Domain, create a strategy to re-align your priorities so that those areas are no longer neglected.

Step 2 - Grease Your Gears
Contains Two Triggers: Concentrate and Invigorate.

In order to prepare your business for an epic, new chapter you must consider a "tune up" of the machine that makes up the business. Vision bringing in a giant oil gun into your business to make sure everything (and everyone) is operating in it's most efficient manner possible - and lubricated enough to tolerate a new level or engine rpm's!

Many Business Owners become so focused on "business as usual" that they allow their business to accumulate unnecessary or inefficient clutter.

Meanwhile, critical elements of fuel can be neglected as well that over time must be revitalized before the business can fly to a new height.

"Greasing Your Gears" is about focusing on the internal workings of your business with the goal of making your business lean, lubricated, and optimally efficient so that you can - as they say - "put the pedal to the metal" and rev it up to lifetime best performance.

The Triggers are explained below (click on each image) but in summary, we are cleaning out clutter and anything unnecessary, while stoking the fires with fuel that will allow your business to operate at a new pace of marketplace attraction and fulfillment.

Be brutal with these Triggers. Take on the mindset that you might when you are moving your house... asking yourself, "Do I really need this?" and "What do I need to make the new place extraordinary?" This Step is about cleansing, and also equipping, your business machine to operate at its never-before achieved optimum.

Trigger 3
Concentrate: Clean Out The Closet

Entrepreneurs are typically excellent goal setters. Casting a big, bold, hairy vision is effortless. However, focus on only the destination also ignores the very important process of assuring there is a clean highway ahead to get there without stumbles, distractions, avoidable hurdles, and roadblocks.

When we "Clean Out The Closet" we are making room for more: more production, more innovation, more profit, more success. There are 4 simple steps to executing this refreshing Trigger:

1. Find Yourself on The Map. This is taking stock in where you are vs where you want to be. When you are 100% clear about where you are on the trail, it is much easier to plan your route to your destination. Without this important exercise, you will be running in tangential and even desperate directions only to find your way to an exhaustive journey.
2. Define Your Linchpin. Your "Linchpin" is the intersection of your most popular products/services and your most ready and appreciative market. Once defined, ask yourself, "What is absolutely necessary (systems, resources, people, etc.) to support success of my Linchpin?"
3. Eliminate Irrelevance. Every business has products that don't sell, systems that don't work, clients that will never be happy, and resources that don't contribute equal or greater than the investment made. Throw them all in the Trash...all of it! We are shooting for a "Return on Everything" - making certain that we are putting 1 unit in for 10 units out with everything we can in our business: time, money, people, programs...resources of all types.
4. Do the Math. Now, once you've got a clear idea of where you are in the context where you want to be, and gone through the brutal reconciliation of the resources you need to get there - simply pull out your calculator and start working the numbers: how many units or customers or contracts, at what level of revenue, gets me to the gross revenue and net profit I need to honor Triggers 1 and 2?

Now these steps might take some time away from your current swirl in business - but by deploying this exercise strategically, you will literally be creating a new "calm" before and very exciting new "storm" of performance and success in your business!

Trigger 4
Invigorate: Turn Up The Heat

We are almost ready to hit the market with new energy and potential - but before we leave careful calibration of our internal machine, we need to stoke four important sources of "fuel" that exist in every business...though are not always appreciated or nurtured.

When all four forms of fuel are stored up and ready for display, you will be able to "turn up the heat" in your business for never-before attained levels of performance and success.

Culture

Every business has a culture, even if it is a business of one person. A business culture is defined by the personality that is presented to the marketplace through the sales and delivery of the product and services providing value. To "stoke" the fire of Culture, take some time to reflect on how you showed up to the marketplace when you first sparked your business and made your first sale. You were likely enthusiastic, transparent, energetic...completely convinced that you had "the answer". Channel that persona and be conscious of the simple truth that when we emit positive stuff, we attract positive stuff.

Values

Connected to the Culture of your business are your Values. Values are the set of criteria you hold as "the way the world is supposed to work". Everyone has a unique set of values and, when honored, you will be Authentic (honoring Trigger 1) and efficient (honoring Trigger 3). Stoke this fire by doing a reflective assessment of what you stand for...what you believe is the right and good way to do business, to treat people, to sprinkle good vibes into everything and everyone you touch. Once clarified, determine yourself to honor those Values in everything you do - especially in executing your business.

Systems

Every business owner knows that when systems built and deployed, the business runs more efficiently, predictably, and at a higher quality. The challenge is that often systems are ad hoc or born without thoughtful or deliberate construction. For example, how you sell either has a defined, repeatable system - or you sell differently depending upon the circumstances or mood of the day. Some will defend that they want to keep things open, operate on gut feel. This might get you started, but it won't get you to new success. Take a look at every aspect of your business from the system you use to make yourself known to the way you invoice and collect payment for your services. Every system can be confirmed, refreshed, fixed...or sometimes eliminated.

Accountability

Finally, the fuel of Accountability is the method we use to keep score and track progress. Setting goals is terrific, but achieving goals only happens when we are measuring our progress, course correcting, and celebrating benchmarks on the way to success. The more rigorous your accountability methods, the more "heat" you create inside your business. This is a simple and powerful, but often overlooked, element of truly "greasing your gears" for new success!

Note that all four forms of fuel interact and relate to one another. For example, Culture intersects Values but without Accountability both will break down. Or, Systems define how our Values are expressed but without attention to Culture, Systems can actually cause friction and resistance. Look at the interrelationship of all four forms of fuel to make your new heat white hot.

Step 3 - Mesmerize Your Market
Contains Two Triggers: Penetrate and Resonate.

Once you've Perfected Your Priorities (Step 1) and Greased Your Gears (Step 2) you are now ready to focus on attracting and converting new business.

No one has to tell you, but let's state it as important context: There's a lot of competition out there! You have competition from those selling the same or similar services, competition from alternatives to your services, competition in the form of complacency or lack of urgency to adopt the solutions you offer.

So in order to defeat competition, it is imperative that you determine to position your business as a "category of one" vs simply "one among many". Triggers #5 and #6 guide you in how to accomplish that.

As you learn about the principles embedded in these Triggers - Penetrate and Resonate - challenge yourself to break from "business as usual" and be prepared to spark "business as unusual". Differentiation begins with being willing to look differently at your role and relationship with our prospects that will become clients, while making sure that you have a strategy for nurturing relationships and over time becoming a compelling, must-have, solution.

Trigger 5
Penetrate: Get Airhorn Noisy

Imagine walking down a very busy urban street, and suddenly someone from the 7th floor of a building across the street stuck an airhorn out the window and blasted it. What would happen? Simple answer: most everyone would turn around and look.

And that's exactly the effect you want for your marketplace penetration strategies.

Trigger #5 guides you to assure that you are honoring a very important client acquisition continuum so that everyone you are selling and marketing to "looks". The continuum is simply described as:

Reach > Engage > Convert

Every client/customer that eventually paid you money for your solution started with some sort of "Reach" campaign. For example, you might have:

• Called them directly and invited a conversation
• Sent them an email or letter
• Built an announcement or advertisement
• Compelled them to come into your establishment with signage

These are all strategies to create awareness. But what you really want is dialogue - that is a conversation that turns into learning about the prospect's needs so that you can frame how you can serve them. This is Engagement.

But the goal of Engagement is of course Conversion: turning "tell me more" into "I'm ready to do business with you."

To put this continuum in motion, it is imperative to have two complimentary and simultaneous strategies:

1. A Pick Strategy. This is where you go into the marketplace with a very clear idea about who your ideal target prospect is and approach them directly with a message that simply communicates "I believe you may have a problem that I can solve and I invite you to have a conversation about that." Essentially this is a selling strategy that is deliberate, targeted, and precise that is structured to make a prospect feel we have picked them to do business with and in so doing, open up an Engagement conversation.
2. A Pull Strategy. This is when we construct messaging to invite prospects to learn about us, give them value that positions us as an expert and a class of one (vs one among many). Over time, those we nurture with these time of messages will inquire with more curiosity - and we have successfully pulled them into Engagement.

Now you may be terrific at one of these strategies already - and if so, awesome. But it is likely you are missing either impact in the strategy you're deploying or you are relying too much on one or the other. Pick and Pull are synergistic - and essential to successful market Penetration. Be sure you've constructed a consistent, ongoing strategy for both.

Trigger 6
Resonate: Transformation Triage

You can go to the book store or jump on Amazon and find many books stating that "no matter what business you think you are in, you are really in the Selling business!" Then another book will tell you that we are all really in the Marketing business. And still another will say we are in the Customer Service Business.

All may be true - or could be debated. But the real truth is that we are all in The Transformation Business.

Let me explain. When you are having a dialogue with a prospect that is exploring doing business with you, they have determined themselves in a particular state or having a set of circumstances we'll call Position A. And at the same time, they recognize that a new state is possible where they have more, different, or better experience of fulfillment, success, or problem mitigation (peace). This is Position B.

And here's the key: Everyone that ever has, or ever will, pay you money pays you to guide them from Position A to Position B. This is called Transformation.

So when we want to truly "Resonate" with Prospects that we have attracted using our Pick and Pull Strategies (Trigger #5), it is imperative that we deliver a compelling "Transformation Story". This is essentially describing how we go about guiding them to experience Position B. This Transformation Story is what begins to move Prospects from Engagement to Conversion (see Trigger #5).

But we don't stop there! To really add power to our "Transformation Triage", we should have a picture - some sort of simple graphic representation - of what it looks like to go from Position A to Position B. When you stop to think about it, you have a predictable and consistent system for serving your Clients...likely a "Step 1, 2, 3" sort of a process. When you create a graphic representation of this - sort of like a Roadmap or Trail Guide - your Prospects will feel immediately feel like they can trust you as an expert. If you don't have this tool, Prospects will only hear you "selling" and will hesitate to make the jump from Engagement to Conversion.

So Transformation Triage is revealing your "Secret Sauce" with a story and a picture. But these components together and your closing rate for new business will soar.

Trigger 7
Duplicate: Freedom To Fly

Ok...this is the big one. Are you ready?

Once we have ignited all the Tiggers 1-6, you have a fresh new business machine likely generating more revenue and with more possibility than ever before.

But here's the rub: If you don't design your business so that it runs as well or better without you as it does with you, you will be trapped by your own success.

That's why Trigger #7 is so essential, and powerful.

Now there's many ways to duplicate yourself and the way your business operates. Examples include adding locations or geographies, structuring a franchise model, mentoring or teaching others to do what you do and know what you know, setting up Joint Ventures or relationships that perpetuate advocacy and add value...and many more.

But first - and before you can duplicate - you must disconnect yourself from the inner workings of the business so that it relies less on you and more on the systems and resources you have set up to get the business to its current state of success. This is what we call removing yourself as "the Sun" in your business. And the easiest way to stop being The Sun is to go back to how you started your business in the first place, and spark Innovation; ie look for as many ways as you can to remove yourself as a bottleneck, find ways of working less to get more done, and positioning yourself as a leader, guide, and mentor versus the "doer". Ask yourself, "What is that that I love doing inside my business" and then find/innovate ways to discard all the rest.

Another way to change/shift your role from being The Sun to freeing up your business to fly on its own is to Elevate your significance inside your business. Many business owners unconsciously have wrapped their ego and self worth around "being busy" or "doing everything" or "staying on top of all of it". This may be heroic for a time, but sooner or later sucks the life out of you. Instead, consider giving yourself a promotion to being significant in new and more important ways: position yourself as the Chief Advocate or Thought Leader in your domain of expertise, let go of being CEO (chief everything officer) to COI (chief of Innovation), or consider taking a long sabbatical or retreat to create a new vision for your future in the business and marketplace and force yourself to let your business systems take care of itself for awhile.

Finally, to set duplication in motion, consider everywhere and anywhere where you can "Proliferate" your ideas, ways of serving, advocacy, and marketplace leadership. When a business owner sees themself as an unselfish source of inspiration and motivation for change she becomes attractive and can easily find a following. From this following you'll find many options for people and other companies that would like to emulate you...and in no time you will find yourself duplicated.

Remember: the goal is to build your business so that it works as well without you as it does with you...and this means unhooking yourself from being The Sun.