Thinking about the exit, first.

When I started as an entrepreneur in my teenage years, someone gave me a piece of advice I have not forgotten: no matter how "pumped" you are about a business, always think about your exit strategy.

Lately I've been advising my clients to really think long-term about their content, their marketing investments, and even their social media usernames and accounts. Treat everything as if it's coming to an end (hopefully with a specific result). Sounds a lot like doomsday advice but..

Every decision in the beginning can snowball into positive and negative results (even if a goal has been defined). As a consultant, I help my clients reduce the negatives - but you can also use "exit thinking" to help yourself in your everyday work.

This works kind of like Jeopardy - the answer/exit comes first:

• A specific customer is reading your whitepaper. (How is that whitepaper going to end up in a potential customer's hands?)
• Everyday, I talk to my ideal clients on the phone. (If your audience is not on Twitter, why are you there?)
• I'm not doing enough business development. (What kind of process can you set up at your organization to ensure that you can focus on what you need to do everyday?)

These statements are very tangible and can help you work out a series of steps in reverse when you are just getting a project started.

So, next time, instead of gathing everyone for the next kick-off meeting, gather them together to celebrate a specific result and ask them the steps it took to get you there.