Business Coaching

Warren Buffet wrote a column about how the U.S. could lessen its debt.

“The United States economy is now out of the emergency room and appears to be on a slow path to recovery.”

That’s what billionaire Warren Buffet wrote in a column in the New York Times August 19. He added, “But enormous dosages of monetary medicine continue to be administered and, before long, we will need to deal with their side effects.”

Buffet is not so subtly referring to debt.

It’s tough to not incur debt, when it seems like the only answer is to borrow money. After all, when you need money, it seems like the solution – and the side effect, debt, is just something that comes later.

Money and debt are two things business owners must deal with every day. Credit is necessary and a necessary part of business. But borrowing beyond the capacity to pay is dangerous, as many large companies found out last year.

Overly leveraged, they couldn’t afford to meet their interest obligations, and many defaulted.

For those companies and individuals who have overleveraged themselves, now is the time to do something about it.

Brad Sugars, founder and CEO of ActionCOACH, says the best way to get out of debt is to not borrow excessively in the first place. However, if you do need to borrow, you need to stay on top of your numbers and make certain you can pay down your outstanding balances as quickly as possible.

These days, creditors and suppliers may be looking to extend or revise terms, because the credit markets are still tight, and everyone wants to “stay in the game” of business.

Try going to your creditors and see if you can change or revise your terms. Then get on a budget and stick with it.

“Knowing your numbers,” as Brad would say, is one key to succeeding in business and in life.

Knowing when to borrow (and when to pay down what you have borrowed) is key to long-term financial success.

College football season has started, and some teams might use the spread offense.

College football season is here, and that means the return of the spread offense.

If you follow college football, you should recognize the term “spread offense.” It’s an offensive system that is very difficult to beat according to many college football coaches.

Note the term “system.”

Because of this system, many college football teams have run the offense to tremendous success, including the Houston Cougars in 1989, Georgia Southern in 2000, West Virginia in 2005, Hawaii in 2006 and Florida Gators in 2008.

Last year, Florida won its second national title in three years – and is looking at another chance this season, with the same offense and many of the same players returning to run it.

The spread offense works by spreading out the offense across the field, taking advantages of mis-matches on the defense. For example, the ball could be passed to a wide receiver, who is defended by a heavier linebacker.

The system puts pressure on the defense to make every tackle count – a very difficult thing to do.

Since the offensive players are spread out everywhere, there isn’t a sure-fire way to defend against system, which might explain the correlation between teams who use it and teams who win a championship.

Because the system is adaptable, a variety of coaches have used it, with different teams, in different parts of the country. But they have achieved the same results.

The same is true in business and in business coaching.

The goal of using systems in a business is to save time and energy and to achieve consistent results.

For example, The 5 Ways – a system with five factors that are guaranteed to multiply profit – is the system Brad Sugars and his team of Business Coaches have developed and apply to all of their coaching clients.

Even though each client runs a vastly different business, in the end, the system works.

It doesn’t matter who the “players” are, or what the business is, the 5 Ways always delivers results.

So maybe it’s time to “kick-off” better results in your own business. Take a look at how Brad describes the 5 Ways here.