ADACI

You ever feel like you’re way too busy or haven't had a chance to take a breather? Can’t seem to find a break in your busy hectic life!?

Your zen, peace, serenity, CLARITY, etc....there are tons of different ways of finding it again or finding it in a new way. But, most times, we forget to do so because we allow the chaos of our lives take over. There's "no time" for peace and relaxation.

Easier said than done, but you can’t let your chaos fill up your free time. When you have free time, you have to take advantage of getting back in tune with yourself. When you do, you'll be more than likely to be perceptive to opportunities you didn't see before. You'll gain clarity to go about things in a different light. Have open eyes and a fresh mind so you can unlock the endless possibilities coming your way.

I’ve got a few ideas on how to do that!

Here's an outline of some activities you can check out or at least gain an idea of how to go about it. Everyone is different and has their own rhythm. Find one or a few beats to dance to and have fun!:

- De-clutter: When the stress of life is just hammering away at you throughout the week, you need to dedicate some time to yourself and zone out! Or, you need to at least re-organize your thoughts and get back into your body’s rhythm.  

- Pinpoint the Important Stuff:  Write down Passion Statements for career, future, & life goals. Only what YOU want...no one else!

- One Thing at a Time: Immerse yourself in the task at hand. Don’t let your phone, people or other distractions get in the way. 

- Eliminate Distractions: Period. 

- Eat Well: Having a healthy diet makes you feel good and fulfilled on the inside, therefore making you feel complete.  

- Get Quiet: Find a space where you can reach complete serenity and quiet. Center and ground yourself. However you need to find some escape from life for a few minutes, at the very least, make sure you get your serene time as often as possible.   

- Write to Get Clear: Whenever and as often as you can, spill the beans!...onto a journal or just a piece of paper. Bottling up your emotions, worries, and dreams can be a cryptic mess in your head. Writing them out will help present it physically and organize your thoughts, therefore clearing your mind.  

- Experiment: Learn about new things that could improve or provide growth for you and your life! It can also be beneficial to document the current habits you have and see if any of them are advantageous or risky to you.

- Put Your Physical Body Where Your Heart Wants To BE!: Goes back to one thing at a time, except this is more about you working on your passions and focusing solely on them.

- ALWAYS Challenge Your “Never”: Ever say the term, “I’ll never do that...” or “It’ll never work for me...”? Not anymore! The only time you can say “never” is when you day: “I’LL NEVER GIVE UP!” Always be hungry to see what kind of adventures are out there for you...because you might end up liking it!

However you find your clarity, zen, peace or new perspective, you should always be looking out for you and yours. No matter how busy life can get; building your brand and business, managing someone else's, or you just have no idea what to do...things look better when you see the bigger picture before you start filling in the little spaces. Once you do that, you’ll have created your very own beautiful mosaic painting!

As always, God bless and keep it pushin'!!!

What we mean by that is: How do you measure your business? If you're new to the game or feel like you're a little unsure...take a minute and step back. Look at it from afar for a second.

Business can grow and develop in many different ways. Two would be either Incrementally or Vigorously. 

Like that of the story of The Tortoise & The Hare: The Hare: Fast, Quick-Minded, and a Risk-taker

The Tortoise: Slow, Progressive, and Calculated Thinker

Both of these can be beneficial and detrimental to any business. And, they can also interweave with each other making up for the others lack thereof. If you started your business aggressively, then you might've seen rapid growth in client and income...but may also be struggling in how much you're taking on or losing business because of how quickly your attained success. If you started your business progressively, then you might've gained and kept a small loyal circle of customers and seen a slow incline in profit...but you may have an imbalance with your expenses and income where you're paying for more than what you’re bringing in.

But, do you see how both have a relationship with each other? Both need the other to survive. Experiencing both and finding a balance between the two, it is the best learning curve any entrepreneur can go through.

Starting a business is always going to be a frightful and immensely huge feat to take on...but, the fact that you're even considering it shows your intense conviction, incredible endurance, strong discipline, and ability for continued self-encouragement to keep moving forward with it....to keep it pushin'....No matter what anyone says. As you should! We hope this helped encourage or give a slight push in the direction to pursue your goals or dreams of building your business.

Hey everyone!  

Who likes stress...at work...in life? No one, but we all deal with it everyday.

You might be wondering or have tried many methods in order to relieve that stress in the workplace. But, check out our list that we implement to get through the work day!

Here are a few ideas and or suggestions you can try and see if they’re beneficial to you!

Start Your Day Off Right: Create a positive routine or mantra to start the day off that can be easily achieved by you.

Positive Affirmation

Yoga

Meditation

Morning Walk/ Run

Have a Clear & Concise Task List: When you arrive at work, make sure you know what your work day entails.

Keep a physical list of everyday activities needed to complete.

Or, a visual list on your computer to reference to.

Extra activities and you’re not sure what all you’re supposed to do?

Get clarification from your project manager/ supervisor/ lead, etc.

Stay Organized: Easier said than done, but remains true in keeping the day’s workload less of stress on you.

Plan ahead - Brainstorm your week and anticipate what may be asked of you

Organize your time

Pomodoro Technique: uses a timer to break down work into intervals, traditionally 25 minutes in length, separated by short breaks.

Keep your workspace clear and free from clutter - Less Clutter = More Space (for everything else)

Keep Comfortable in Workspace: Enough said.

Make sure your chair is accommodating

Take standing breaks and walk around on your 10-15 min short breaks throughout the day

Give your eyes a break and try reading or writing

Don’t Multitask. Instead, use Chunking: Chunking is where you take pieces of info and group them into chunks of info for better memorization.

Numbers: Like with a phone number, 7 digits brain easily remembers

Mnemonics: Call list - Mary, Adam, Cox, Rancheros & Henry = MARCH

Rhymes, create Visuals, etc.

Walk on Lunch: Exercise is ALWAYS good

Don’t Strive for Perfection, Strive to Do Your Best

(My Favorite Activity) Listen to Music: Before work, on break, after work, etc. However you can, listen to music to help destress and relax. Work Mode Off.  Peaceful Mode ON.

Any of these ideas sound like something worth trying? Let us know if they work for you!

We look forward to hearing what you guys think. Feel free to reach out or to respond back to this email. Also, check out our social media!

As always, God Bless and keep it pushin’!

Do you ever walk into your office and see those piles of papers? And, then  all you feel is utter dread when you know you have to go through them that day?

If you’re currently dealing with this and need ideas on how to declutter both your physical and mental workspace, then see what ideas we list to help put your office back in line!

Manage your Office Space: Keep your surroundings neat, organized, and have a specific, labelled place for everything.

Plan your Social Media Campaigns: Best thing to do is schedule your posts throughout the week and plan to film any videos weeks in advance before posting them to all your social media platforms.

Manage your Expense Receipts: It’ll help keep transactions in order especially if you use software to automate the type of expense when logging it in.

Record Transactions

Document & File Receipts

Review Unpaid Bills

Go Paperless!: This will be a tremendous help to you and your office space. The ways in which you can accomplish this is:

Taking notes via Microsoft, G-Docs, etc.

Voice-recordings or Voice-to-Type docs

Virtual folders on computer that can be organized and categorized

FIND SOFTWARE THAT CAN ACHIEVE THIS FOR YOU via Copper, Salesforce, Monday, etc.

Organize Passwords: We all tend to accumulate so many passwords for websites, subscriptions, etc., making it difficult to remember all of them. There are ways to keep track of them:

Keep a physical log book of your passwords and place in a secure place

Or, there’s online software where you can do the same thing: Sticky Password, LogMeOnce Password , True Key, etc.

There are many other ways and systems you can choose from to implement the organization of your space, but try each one before you settle and see which one you like.

The most important thing: a clean office equals a healthy mindset.

Both physically and mentally.

Thanks for taking the time to read this! Hope to hear what you guys think about it…feel free to reach out or to respond back to this email. Also, check out our social media as we are also updating it everyday with new material and things you may or may not know about taxes!

As always, God Bless and keep it pushin’!

Ever feel like your goals are just out of reach? Or, you might be putting more focus on others rather than yourself?

ONE: It may be because you have lofty goals that lack specificity.

“I want to be rich!” “I want to be happy!” “I want to be successful!” Those are great goals, but they’re vague and leave too much to chance. While having faith is important, it’s only 50% needed in trying to achieve your goals.

The other 50%: What are you going to DO to obtain them?

Write it out: Bullet point the steps to get the ball rolling

Build a Map: Brainstorm smaller routes to achieve your big ideas

Create a Vision Board: Cut out the closest visual representations of exactly what you want to obtain, paste them on a small poster board and place them somewhere that you pass by every single day

Most importantly: BE SPECIFIC on how you want to accomplish them. And don’t let failure discourage you… failure is life’s greatest teacher, second only to repetition.

TWO: Focusing on solving other people’s issues is simple for you to do because you are an outsider. You lack their mental restrictions holding them back, therefore, you being objective is effortless and helps shed light on things from a new perspective.

While it is appreciated when you do help, it can be easy to focus on them rather than yourself. Sometimes, it can result in the altering of your creative mindset and ambition. 

Always give guidance...when asked, but don’t take it upon yourself to try to be Superman to everyone.

Help as much as you can without giving your whole self away. Remember you’re just as important as the one you’re helping.

We all need each other...that’s why we have therapists, motivational speakers, preachers, group meetups, friends, and family. Lean on each other and work on your goals at the same time.

Hope to hear what you guys think about these questions and ideas we posed...feel free to reach out or to respond back to this email. Also, check out our social media as we are also updating it everyday with new material and things you may or may not know about taxes!

As always, God Bless and keep it pushin’!

Starting out, as a new entrepreneur and trying to build up your small business, can be a rather difficult task. But, it doesn’t have to be if you know the right people.

Networking! It’s one of the most beneficial things you can do for yourself. But, when you are networking you have to go about it the right way meaning having the best intentions. Value is what you’re shooting for. Not just money. It’s easy to just hand out your business card and say, “Come check us out! We’re really good at what we do!”...And that is what exactly? Be prepared with your card, yes, but be more prepared to create relationships.

Getting to know other people and what they do provides you so much: knowledge, companionship, sharing experiences, and more! In doing so, both parties will have shown the value they can offer to one another, thus, having established a good business relationship and not just a contact. And, maybe not all of whom you’ll meet will be your best friend or partner. But, so long as there is some sort of open honest communication established, then you can’t go wrong.

Creating and obtaining relationships: they are an important piece of the puzzle in helping you and your small business to grow, expand, and thrive.

So, get out there! Find like-minded and open-minded people to connect with! Build your brand, show them who you are, and give to whoever you connect with! And, they’ll be more than happy to do the same!

As always, keep it pushin’ and God Bless!

We all know that it’s that time of year: As a small business we need to make sure all of our information, data, licenses, etc. are retained, updated and in compliance.

Here’s a list of some of the various items you may need to start getting things in order:

 - Renter’s Insurance

 - Worker’s Comp. Insurance

 - EEO/ Liability Insurance

 - Business Vehicle Insurance

 - Labor Law Poster

 - Business License

 - Statement of Information

 - CA Tax Education Council Certification (CTEC)

 - All Taxes are Filed & Paid

 - All Employment Docs. are updated for all Employees

 - Website meet and have all necessary standards:

        o   Privacy Policy

        o   Disclaimer

        o   Terms and Conditions

        o   One-One Client Agreement

        o   Testimonial Release

 - Documentation for all Workers’ Training

 - Making sure all Annual Minutes, Corporate By-Laws, and Required Noticed are kept and noted down officially

Be sure to research if there are any other required documents for your specific businesses.

We suggest that you not only keep a list of compliance documents, receipts of taxes paid, licenses, registrations and continuing education requirements in a calendar with the associated deadlines for filings and payments in order to maintain with the current standards, regulations and or laws.

If you have any questions about keeping your business in compliance, be sure to contact us and we would be more than happy to help!

GOD bless and keep it pushin’!!!

Everyone has their own flow, routine, or way of going about things. A schedule for running the ship and those on it is extremely beneficial in keeping everything in motion. But, when you know and understand your flow...that’s where it counts the most.

In order to understand it better, you have to ask yourself questions or observe what it is you’re doing in your daily schedule. If it’s working in a certain time of day, alone or in a group setting, the type of environment, and or any other advantageous additions (music, audible, podcasts, etc.), being aware of this will help enforce and build structure to your work flow.

You may be asking, “Why do I have to ‘know my flow’? If it works it works.” And, yes, if it works...it works. But, why does it work? Do you ever wonder or ask yourself? In analyzing your routine and seeing how all the mechanics of it work, you could potentially apply this flow to other sects of your life. We all have many different schedules we adhere to throughout the day: work, school, travelling, life, etc. The benefits of knowing what assists you to go about your day are astronomical. Consistency, normalcy, which avenue to go, which pen to use, what program is best to work with, which studying technique helps the most...all of these benefit you.

So, take a moment to think about each flow you have and how each gear guides the machine that is your flow into functioning to the best of it’s ability. Once you have, you’ll begin to understand how amazing these “autonomic” schedules are really extensions of yourself.

Know it...breathe it...live by it.

Thank you for taking the time out to read this. We, at ADACI, want to wish you a Happy Thanksgiving!!! May your holiday be joyful and safe one! As always, keep it pushin’ and we’re taking over the world!

A flag usually has few to no words, yet represents entire states, nations and countries! The images shown on a flag are often polarizing to those that brandish it, as well as those that gaze at it's vibrant colors and imagery flapping in the wind.

Why? Because they have some emotional connection to what that flag represents: the nostalgia of youth, the support of family, opportunity that they took advantage of or even hardship that helped forge their identity.

This is the epitome of branding: emotional connection.

Our brands as entrepreneurs, business owners and marketing directors must build in an emotional connection.

I was told that the three main reasons the masses purchase anything are due to fear, greed and vanity. However, what about necessity, charity or desire? These are double-sided coins to some and totally different currencies to others. Regardless, each of the aforementioned reasons have emotions connected to the very words themselves.

I was recently inspired by a story-teller by the name of Quentin Allums. I noticed a video of his on LinkedIn a few months ago. Yesterday evening he appeared in the suggestions of my YouTube homepage. After hearing his story of entrepreneurial failure at a young age and then again a subsequent failure before finding success, I immediately felt an emotion of humility and gratitude from going through the same thing. This along with his Zorro-esque hat and seeing "#justQ" on almost Every post started to sear his brand in my mind.

We all can recount several individuals or companies that have stellar brand recognition; whether good or bad. That is because of this emotional connection. To this day, every time I see a thick brown leather belt, an image of my dad comes up, which so happened to be a dedicated advocate of child discipline in the '80's and '90's... I also immediately think of Michael Jackson whenever I see white socks in between tapered black pants and black penny loafers. These two brands are two of the biggest memories I have growing up, because of the emotional connections they made with me.

These emotional connections come from exceptional engagement over time. Brands aren't built over night. They're built through consistent impact that speaks more to a persons passions or personality rather than just their plans or pocket books.

In conclusion, aim to drive an emotional connection between your prospects and your brand that will last through time. Your brand has to be more than merely a visual, it must be an experience; an emotional experience.

“Whoa! Are you sure you want to do that?...I don’t know if it’s worth the risk.”

We’ve all asked or told ourselves this before, but we always find a way to work through it and make a decision for ourselves. The successful listen to that little voice in the back of their minds telling themselves, “It is worth the risk; because if we don’t do it, we’ll never receive that potential reward or feel like we've accomplished anything.”

But, more often than not, we hear this doubtful unwavering comment from others. And, they tend to come from those closest to us. The ones we trust the most: our loved ones. As soon as we hear it from them, their voices become intensified therefore making the voice inside you inaudible and lost in the background.

Then, there comes that doubtful and fearful feeling that what you’re about to do, is wrong. You are now lost. You don’t know what to do because it feels as though you’re in a tug of war. A tug of war between your desires and what your loved ones will think about you. Their worrisome thoughts and opinions may be coming out of love. But, at the same time they feel insecure about this risk you are about to take. They say things like, “You should be average because it’s safe.” That may be true for some, but is that true for you? Is that what you want?

No. No, it’s not. Otherwise, people like Steve Jobs or Oprah Winfrey would not be here today. People like YOU.

If anything, the ones you trust the most should be saying, “I’ll support you no matter what and let me know if there’s anything I can do to help.” If you’re not getting that from them, then you need to listen and rely on yourself. You are the one taking the risk. So, you should be investing in yourself!

Three things to do to help you overcome those doubts and turn them into encouraging thoughts:

1. Know who you are; take the risk and trust yourself!

2. Know your purpose; if it’s to start a small business, then make it happen!

3. Quit caring about what other people think; otherwise you’ll never see what you can do.

You only have one life to live, so live it! Believe in who you are. Trust that what you’re doing on this Earth is worth it because in the end, it always was.

God Bless and keep it pushin’!!!

So you want to develop your employees?

Adding mentorship to your company's culture will be the greatest form of employee development obtainable.

Now of course, you can go the regular course of employee development: hiring speakers, sending employees to conferences and seminars, coordinating quarterly trainings, etc. However, development happens in increments, not in isolated events. These increments, furthermore, need to be connected to a valid representative of your company's culture; needless to say, someone on the 'inside.'

This is where mentorship comes in.

Mentorship is a term that's up to each person's interpretation. Some state that their mentors include: YouTubers, Mastermind groups, business coaches, book authors, professors, etc.

However, the mentorship referred to in this article refers to the kind where the mentor is someone you speak with on a regular basis, someone who knows you by name and someone who genuinely wants you to succeed; whether it benefits them directly or indirectly.

This reference is no jab at the aforementioned forms of guidance or information that some may deem as mentorship, but is merely meant to differentiate the medium of engagement.

Mentorship is both formal and informal; scheduled and impromptu; related to business and related to life outside of the business. The only way that mentorship works is when the mentor has the respect of the mentee AND the mentor has respect for the company's time...

So the key in building a culture of mentorship is to focus on identifying the proper mentors. The proper mentor is indoctrinated with the company's culture, garners the respect of others in the company and has an evidenced loyalty to the company.

Next, schedule a short, regular and consistent time for mentorship and allow the rest to work itself out. Once again, the key is the mentor. So long as each mentor respects the company's time you won't have to worry about a culture of mentorship that wastes the company's time; you'll just be making an investment of the company's time, which should have a significant ROI later on.

Finally, mentorship has to be connected with progress. Those being mentored must be able to chronicle their progress; either in promotions, bonuses, noticeable efficiency bumps, improved relationships, expanded responsibilities and benefits. This progress should be quantifiable, one way or the other, and it will be the fuel that allows internal mentorship to permeate the culture of your business and develop employees that expand the scope and scale of your company.

A culture of mentorship increases camaraderie amongst employees, reinforces best practices from the top down, reduces formal write-ups and employee turnover, and assists in employees taking more initiative in engaging in ways to improve their efforts.

The only way for this to work, like anything else in an organization, is for it to be adopted by the Owner/CEO/Executive Director/Principal/Managing Partner a.k.a the boss... The mentors must understand self-awareness, empathy and have a certain level of vulnerability in order for it to be effective. This is where most of the external training may come in; in training the initial mentors.

Remember that culture is not created overnight, it's created over cycles. Culture is created only when it remains consistent through both the highs and the lows, the feasts and famines, seedtime and harvest of a business' various cycles.

Let's start creating a culture of mentorship my friends! Keep it pushin' and GOD bless!

Creating systems and putting them in place are absolutely crucial to ensuring the success of your business. More importantly, you need to have primary ones that are the infrastructure in which all other systems created can be based on. But, you have to figure out where to begin. A lot of the time...we just do. A lot of us think, “Okay this is a great idea, let’s do it!” or “that sounds like it could work!” But, often times it’s not completely planned out and those ideas can overwhelm you with growth or deplete your business. Especially when you’re first starting out because your processes may not be entirely set in stone. This is exactly why you should have written systems to put in place.

Your operations need to be updated periodically and evolve with your business. But, the key that makes them primary processes is the foundation on which you built them. Suppose, we a system for customer service.

There are three main standard operating procedures, SOPs, with customer service.

Intake: initial contact with potential customer or client

Follow-through: performing your service or selling your product

Follow-up: satisfaction rating of client/customer, repeat business and or referrals

For example, a prospective client calls and starts asking you questions about what you do. Let’s say you’re a florist who has a shop in downtown San Diego, CA. First stage, intake, you have to make sure you make a good lasting impression. You answer their questions. They become more interested in your product or service and this is where the second stage, “follow-through”, comes into play. You tell them more about said product or service. They say, “Great! Where are you located?” You give them your address, meet them, perform the service or sell your product, and now you have a happy customer. The last stage, “follow-up”, is vital in keeping this customer and spreading the word about your business. Some ways to do that are by asking them about their experience, giving them a rating card and/or business card, a discount, add them to a call or email list, or what have you to obtain repeat business and gain more customers. Now, that is a pretty decent customer service guideline to follow. It’s vague, but a solid foundation to improve upon that specific guideline.

It’s important to make sure that you keep a record of your first “script” or standard operating procedures that way you have a chance to develop them. Every system you create is going to alter as time goes on. But, as long as you keep the foundation maintained then your business will continue to flourish and build.

As always, keep it pushin’ and never give up!

What IS the difference between growth and development? We ask because more often than not these two terms are lumped together most of the time. We believe the difference is that growth takes time and development takes effort. 

Growth is relative to quantity because things, like a tiny rosebud blossoming into a stunning rose, increase in size and take time. Development is relative to quality because things, like many drafts transforming into a spectacular novel, they improve based upon the amount of effort put into it. And therein lies the difference: growth doesn’t take that much effort whereas development takes all the effort.

Why do we need to know that? Well, it is imperative to understand that distinction in order to see your ambitions ALL THE WAY THROUGH. Small businesses start small. But, they build over time no matter what; it’s just automatic. Yes, there are few that tend to fizzle out due to lack of incoming business or some that gain too much business because they’re expanding too quickly for them to get a tight grip on the reins again. And, then there are some that focus so much on how to run the business resulting in the business not ever taking off. Those are exactly why there needs to be checks and balances for the growth and development of a business, or anything.

BiG Al is always saying that as much as you work in the business, you also have to work on the business. It takes enormous amounts of effort to help keep a business growing. You have to develop policies, schedules, goals, systems to put into place, and constantly enhancing all of those things to parallel your growing business. Also, you have to ensure that your business keeps expanding at a rate that makes it simple to coordinate the development of the business. It might seem easy when it’s been said, but once you’re in the game it’s all a learning curve. But, that’s what makes business fun!

The literal definition of customer service is the assistance and advice provided by a company, such as ours, to the people who buy or use it’s products and or services. Now, what makes each company different from the rest is how they or we execute our customer service!

Some common methods we all use are:

Patience and time between a client and company

Attentiveness to a client

Communication with a client

This is essential if you want to build rapport and keep the relationship in good standing

It is important that any and all clients feel they’re reassured and being cared for; especially when they come to you about something they’re unsure of

This goes in hand with the attentiveness: if you don’t have a clear line of communication with your clients, then they will get frustrated and stop reaching out to you, which will result in a loss of a client.

It is imperative that there is an equal and crystal amount of communication between the two

These are the main three ways, the lifeblood, to conducting and performing customer service. The way we go about it though...is key to how one makes themselves stand out as a company.

In this day and age, most companies reach out via social media because it is so convenient, but innovative. It personalizes the experience for potential clients turning them into actual clients therefore making the company or business seem more human.

Most individuals prefer to work with another human. Therefore, the most important aspect is how everything goes face to face. If one can seem “cool” through social media, then your client is going to be expecting that. If that is what your business is known for, like a marketing company, then go for it! But, if you’re a business that is more technical, like a law firm, then hopefully you’re still “cool”, but they know that they can depend on you.

Knowing whom your target clientele is and then going about making them a client, it should all revolve around those three concepts above. Being vigilant in your presence as a business, what you feel customer experience means to you and how you talk to a potential customer, it will produce an end result that will beneficial to all!

GOD bless and keep it pushin’!

Wanna learn seven steps on how to open your business? Visit the link below! 

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