On this episode, Tom welcomes Al Levi of The 7 Power Contractor to bring you a real conversation about how to plan and prioritize your 4th quarter, ensuring a successful start to 2018. Plus, Tom and Al touch on the importance of finding the right people and allowing them to grow and hit personal goals within the company's overarching goals. Goals are often a scary topic for many business owners, you can write what you want to achieve but if you don’t plan a way to make that list happen then you essentially are cheating yourself out of being accountable.  You have to be willing to write down what you want, be specific, make it objective and put a time-frame on it. There is no such thing as the goal police, if you don’t hit the goal you set the world isn’t going to end. So you can’t let the fear of not hitting the goal prevent you from setting them in the first place.  If you’re like many human beings out there, you have a hard time holding yourself accountable. Luckily you can put yourself in a position to have outside help. Join an outside group so that you have peers helping to hold you accountable to getting things done. Don’t pick 100 things you want to do next year, focus on just the top few things you’d like to see get done and work your way through those.  Your goals need to be specific, pick your top five or ten and then write them out objectively and make a plan for reaching them. There’s plenty to be learned from when things go well in your business, just as much that can be learned when things aren’t going well. Celebrate and evaluate those wins to see how you can be doing it more in the future. Business is like going up a hill, you have to know where the plateaus are so you can catch your breath but you also need to know what items are crucial for the climb. It’s a false sense of safety if you are sitting on a plateau thinking that there are no problems or no ways to grow your business. Growth doesn’t just have to be  bottom line net profit or top line revenue. Growth in your business can (and should) be so many different things. It could be growing your employees, working on long-term marketing plans, helping your employees meet and reach their own personal goals, recruiting new staff, the options are endless.   Al’s 7 Powers Planning Operations Staffing Sales SlaesCoaching Marketing Finance  Listen in as Al’s breaks down how to find your Master Project List and then boil that list down to the top 5 goals you should be working on for next year. Your Top 5 Goals have  to be written down and posted on a wall where everyone can see them. Every week you are accountable to that board of goals, what did you do every week to make those top 5 goals come to life? Hold weekly meetings to discuss: What did we do right and how can we do it again? What did we do wrong and how can we fix it? What should we be doing next week to be prepared as a company? Always should discuss the top 5 goals and how as a team and company everyone is working towards those top 5 goals. Keep in mind that you do not have to be the one that has all the answers. Figure out what the biggest issues are and then take yourself out of the equation to see who can solve that problem instead. Then give them the power and authority to change it and let them take charge. You do not have to be in or doing every single change, bring your people into it and help your people grow while taking smaller things off your plate. To learn more about Al, visit his website The 7 Power Contractor and learn more about Al’s 7 Powers and how to implement them in your own business. You can also download Al's 7 Power Cheat Sheet and pick up a copy of his book The 7- Power Contractor . Be sure to join the community at The 7 Power Contractor's Facebook Page. Ready to level up your business IQ? Visit  The Contractor Fight Accelerate Group run by Tom! Don’t miss out, make sure to claim your seat at the must attend contractor event of the year, Revolution 2018. Podcast Editing and Sh