When I was 26 I spent $150K to hire a business advisor/coach named Stew.

It was almost all the cash I had left in my business at the time, but I knew if I wanted to play a bigger game I needed to invest in myself and my business.

Here’s one of the many big ideas he taught me.

“Right time, right action”

This is the way it works ...

... you can have two different entrepreneurs execute the exact same list of growth strategies, yet a few years later, one could be flying around the world heli-skiing full-time, while the other is left liquidating his office’s entry level Keurig machine just to keep the lights on.

Why?

It all comes down to understanding what matters most today, versus tomorrow, versus next week, versus next year.

That’s the ultimate skill of a strategic leader.

So today I want to unpack the exact process Stew shared with me to leverage when evaluating my todo list.

The cool part is that you can teach this to your team.

To make it even easier to implement, I’ve added a simple scoring system.

Here’s how it works:

Start by listing your task, projects or strategies in a spreadsheet so we can easily score and sort them.

Here’s how to score them.

1. Makes Money: 3
2. Make Customers Happy: 2
3. Repeatable System: 1

If something doesn’t fit that filter, then it’s a 0.

So for every item in your list score it against those 3 criteria and for each use the weighted score.

Example:
- Implement paid marketing webinar: 3,2,1 = 6
- Follow up on aged receivables: 3,1 = 4
- Hour call with new connections: 0

Once you have each one scored then re-sort them based on highest score and start your day there.

Simple? Yes.

Do you have the discipline to implement it?

If you’re down for trying this for a week, then leave a comment with your commitment.

Over the next few months I’m going to share more of the key strategies I learned from working with Stew for over a year.

He played a huge part in the growth and exit of that company.

More to come...

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Dan Martell has advised more startups than his hometown has people and teaches startup founders like you how to scale. (Get the free 3 videos to grow your business here.) He previously created, raised venture funding for and successfully exited two tech startups: Flowtown and Clarity.fm. You should follow him on twitter@danmartell for tweets that are actually awesome.

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