This year seemed to be so long that would you believe we are now nearing the end of 2020? Before it catches up to us, start preparing the right things to make sure you’re making fundable decisions that will protect your fundability in the years to come. To help you with that, Merrill Chandler welcomes you to the three-part Year-End Business Planning series. Kicking it off, he discusses how to use the Slingshot Effect for a better 2021, prepping to close down 2020 and launch into a hardcore and prosperous next year. Merrill also shares how you can prepare for better funding and plan for the Holidays without hurting your fundability.

—

Watch the episode here:

Listen to the podcast here:

Using The Slingshot Strategy For A Better 2021

Year-End Business Planning Series: Part 1

We have got an amazing three-part series on how to prepare for the end of the year 2020. Make sure you close down your business doing all the right things and making sure that you’re making fundable decisions that will protect your fundability™ and your funding approvals where you can learn nowhere else.

—

The Slingshot Effect

In this episode, it’s the first of three parts to how to use the slingshot effect. How to slingshot your success, prep to close down to 2020 and launch into a hardcore and prosperous 2021. The first thing that I want to do. If you’ve been to my bootcamp event, I talk about the slingshot effect. Now, we’ve even grown it from an effect into a strategy. Think of it this way, the slingshot effect is the pullback, the drawback of a slingshot. The further back you pull, the more stress and tension it creates.

It also creates the impression that you’re going backwards. That’s meaningful. You appear to be going backwards, but you’re creating dynamic tension so that upon release, you have your trajectory, your speed, the distance that you’re able to shoot that marble, that BB, that rock or whatever it is that’s in your slingshot, has the opportunity to sail long distances. The lesson here is how do we effectively use that slingshot strategy and launch into 2021?

How do we use the next three months to drawback strategically, carefully, intentionally with perfect planning and then release for a powerful 2021? Let’s go through some of the things that are going to be helpful for this. First of all, there are going to be three episodes. One in mid-October, in mid-November, and in mid-December. Each one of these is going to help us pull back that to slingshot further and further so that we create the most dynamic tension for 2021.

I just share with you what’s happening for me. In the last quarter of the year, I’m all about business planning. We’re still fulfilling the goals that we set in the first month of 2020, but in the last three months, we spend more time on strategy than we do on tactical implementation. That’s one of the recommendations that I have for you as well and you’re going to find all of these in the checklist. If you go to www.GetFundableBusinessChecklist.com.

Tell us where to send it and for free, I’m sending you a business inventory. It’s how to evaluate your business, especially while you’re planning for a big 2021. How to review what your accomplishments are, how to celebrate and how to establish a benchmark for the upcoming year. We’re looking at building a business. This is a great opportunity here in October for your business. Take a look at your year to date. Take a look at your revenues, the number of fixes and flips, the number of franchises that you have purchased or whatever your metrics are that you said is your goal.

How are you doing? What do we need to do to hit our goal for the end of the year? If you’re behind or ahead, that is going to help dictate what your behaviors are for the last quarter of 2020. In my world, I love a fast start in the first quarter. It’s a young year. You’re pummeling it. You’re doing everything that you possibly can. You start realizing some of your momentum in the second quarter, from all the new strategies you’re implementing, all of the new tactical differences that you’re making from the year before. The thing that you learn and the new things that you’re pivoting to do in a new year.

You accelerated in the first year, you gain momentum in that second more quarter and more momentum in that third quarter. The results are in your fourth quarter. The results aren’t about December 31st. If you’re hell-bent on hitting your goals like I am, then it’s going to be a sprint. The last quarter of the year is the sprint because while you may start out fast, while you may gain momentum, you’ve learned things all year long. At this time, the fourth quarter is where we hunker down. If it’s a football metaphor, this is the drive to the goal line. There’s the pressure on the clock and we’re designed and we’re doing everything we can to meet our goals. The interesting thing is October is the perfect month to review all of the best results of your previous year.

Look at all of your results, celebrate them as the checklist says. Once you have all of that inventory of what you’ve done in the first three quarters, fourth quarters where you cherry-pick the best possible strategies so you can finish strong. In Get Fundable, we’ve done a lot of these. We pivoted and we started our Momentum Mastermind program with an eight-week course. We know that that was strong. We had awesome results. People were getting awesome funding. We brought that back for the fourth quarter. We shift our bootcamps from monthly to every six weeks so we had a better build time so that we could get more people into the bootcamp so that we could infect them with fundability™ principles so they could implement them before the end of 2020.

You can’t say, “On December 15th, what a great idea. Let’s charge to the finish line for the next two weeks.” You got to start in October and that’s why we’re talking about it now. This is the time to review. It’s almost like Get Fundable’s greatest hits, whatever your business is X, Y, Z, fix and flips. Pick your greatest results and use those in the fourth quarter to help you sprint to the finish line and blow past any goals that you have made set. This is the business-building month. In November, we’re going to be talking about a slightly different strategy. In December, it’s a slightly different strategy still.

Remember how I said you accelerate in the first quarter? In the second and third quarter is you create momentum and then your results. The impact that you’re hitting is in the fourth quarter. We’re going to shorten that down to three months. October is to accelerate, build momentum in November and then let our impact hit from all of our results in December. I believe that. You guys have read articles. You may have already read an article in one of my tribe emails or newsletters that I send out. You may have already gotten the relationship. I believe in it with all of my heart. Acceleration creates momentum and impact. October 2020 is about getting down and dirty and creating, harvesting the best results from the year and accelerating those results now.

I’m doing that very thing in my business. We’re literally picking on all the things that were massive winners. We’re doing another masterclass. The masterclass was off the chain. We had hundreds of viewers and they were able to watch the Thrive, Survive and Protect Masterclass. We’re going to be doing another one in the fourth quarter. Every one of the winning strategies, you do it at the end of the year. Take a look at that checklist and then make sure that you’re planning in October. How can you accelerate leveraging in using your greatest hits from the previous months of the year?

Slingshot Strategy: October 2020 is about getting down and dirty, harvesting the best results from the year, and accelerating those results right now.

Preparing For Better Funding

The next thing you need to do is funding. You guys come to me more for funding support and funding awareness than you do for motivational speaking. Some of the Get Fundable show greatest hits are all my heart to heart with you. Thank you for reading. It makes a big difference when I get to connect with you individually about what’s important to me. Along the lines of preparing for better funding, if you haven’t done so yet, this is the time to start preparing to separate your personal credit instruments from your business credit instruments.

If you don’t have business credit instruments, then get my book, go to my bootcamp and do something because it’s likely that you are using personal credit cards to charge up your business expenses or you’re using business credit cards that are posers. Spark from Capital One, Discover, a business credit card, each one of those reports to your personal. Even if it says it’s for your business, it’s ruining your personal profile every time you use it. The idea is you’ve got to do something to move over your business expenses, onto business credit instruments and everything that I offer. I’ve been teaching you, sharing with you, trying to inspire you to make that move because it is a game-changer.

Remember, the second you start getting credit instruments on the business side, then it’s easier to write off because you’re not piercing the corporate veil. You have got to make sure that if you’re using a personal credit card for business expenses, that you lease it or you have an agreement in the minutes of your organization that says that this particular credit card is used only and exclusively for your business. If you don’t, then your business and personal are all one big thing and you can be sued 100 different ways to Sunday because not even a dumbass attorney can pierce the corporate veil and you have no protections. It’s easier to write off and make sure that everything that you’re doing is on the up and up. The whole truth and nothing but the truth.

This is coming at you last minute, but October 15th I the last extension due date for your taxes. We did get an extension through July instead of April for filing because of COVID, but October is still a hard and fast date. Make sure you get your taxes filed and everything in there. One of the big things that if you haven’t done so yet, because my clients are the number one group, the demographics of reading this show. If you’re not one of my clients nor students, whatever you’re going to do to build your fundability™, do it in this quarter. If it’s going to the bootcamp, if it’s becoming a solutions coaching client, do it now because every one of the fees that you pay me to help you build your fundability™, they’re 100% write off-able because if it goes in your professional business fees. We are your business consultant whether you go to the bootcamp, whether you buy the book or whether you do solutions coaching. Whatever it is you’re going to do, each one of those is fully write off-able.

If you need something before the end of 2020, get it on deck. I do want to tell you that because you’re buying a package, a product that even if you take me up on my opportunity for payment terms, talk to your accountant. There are ways that the entire amount can be purchased before the end of the year, the entire coaching amount, bootcamp amount can be written off in 2020 and you may still be making payments in 2021. Since it’s a package, the purchase price is write off-able by December 31st. If you’re going to do anything with me, make sure that you do it before the end of 2020 so you can realize those savings and realize the results this last quarter.

Holiday Planning

Let’s take a look at holiday planning. Even though Halloween’s thrown in here, it’s not the same as Thanksgiving and Christmas, which takes time off. More and bigger family, commitments and etc. Let’s start planning the holidays in advance. Here’s one reason why. In all of the lender seminars that I attend, all of my research, Black Friday, which was usually the last Friday of the month has turned into Black October. That means that every one of these big retailers, online, big box stores is moving up from Black Friday sooner because they want your wallet share.

Everybody has an X amount of either credit limit or disposable income. One of the two or both. They know that you only have so much credit. They know that you only have so much available cash. You will notice that the date is creeping forward where Black Friday has become Black October and retailers are giving their out of control 60%, 70%, 80% off sales earlier in the month. Let’s take advantage of those, but with some caution because one of the things we need to remember is that these big deals are very attractive to us and believe we can get more for our money. Let’s remember a couple of things we need to prepare for.

First of all, I teach us in the bootcamp. I’m giving this as a public service. Any time you carry a balance over, that means for month to month over 38%, you’re going to enter the risk department of your particular credit card. We want to make sure if we can at all keep your balances under 38%. If your balances are under 28%, it is likely you may still be able to qualify for a credit limit increase, but it depends on how long you’ve been carrying it. If you’ve been carrying that 28% or less for 2 or 3 months, you’re likely to get approved. If it’s more than that, then you might get approved for smaller amounts or the night completely.

The reason why I shared this with you is because one of the greatest travesties that you’re going to run into is that your desire to take care of your family, give them a special holiday, give them a great Thanksgiving, come and visit, pay for flights for children and family. Whatever it is that you’re doing, this is the time where lenders hardcore push the extension of credit, raising limits and new cards you’re going to see. Watch the TV, news and your emails. The number of offers skyrockets, even and during this pre-recessionary time.

The problem is that the qualifications to get approved are going to be super tight. In prosperous times, your target for approvals may be way out here, but during a financial stressful times, your approval target is small. That’s why going to the bootcamp, reading the book, going to momentum mastermind, solutions coaching clients. The whole point is to become what we call bulls-eye borrowers. You want every one of your funding criteria to hit the funding bullseye, not further out on the rim of the funding target.

You’re going to be offered credit. Sometimes you’re going to be offered credit from the wrong places and the temptation is crazy. I’m warning you here, stop, don’t do it. I’m going to share with you how to ruin your credit and save 10% on your next purchase. We’ve talked about tier 1, 2, 3 and 4 banks. Every tier 4 is 40% valuation, all of the consumer finance accounts, the accounts that count against you by FICO and automatic underwriting software. The retailers are going to be offering, “I’ll give you 10% off if you fill out an application.” Here’s the problem. If you get approved, you’re going to drop your average aging. You get a zero month of 40% worthless junk card.

You can charge on it and that charge is going to be able to help you purchase things you may want for the holidays. The havoc that is going to wreak on the fundability™ of your profile is devastating. You may have a perfect payment history and FICO downgrades your fundability™. Downgrade your score by you having mall store cards on them. Anything from a mall, anything from online, tier 4 is 40%. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, get the book at GetFundableBook.com or go to my bootcamp at GetFundableBootcamp.com.

Slingshot Strategy: You want every one of your funding criteria to hit the funding bullseye, not further out on the rim of the funding target.

You’ve got to get empowered and you got to know what the game is about because these retailers are going to be pummeling you with credit offers because they know you’re susceptible right now. They’re going to be pushing, “Take care of your family. Give them a great Christmas. Give them a great Hanukkah.” They’re going to want you in every way to ask for more credit, but the credit they’re offering you is junk credit, and it is going to harm your profile. The next thing is, your score is going to also drop because it’s 3 to 15 points just for getting the inquiry. If you don’t get approved, forgive me, I hope you don’t get approved because I don’t want you to ruin your profile. A better strategy is to lower your balances under 28% with those lenders that are your tier 1 and tier 2, or even tier 3, your credit unions so that by the time you hit mid-November and Black Friday comes up. November is going to become Black November moving towards Black October.

Everybody’s trying to capture wallet share, you’re going to want to be able to lower those, make a couple of payments so that it’s under that 20% and you might be able to get a credit limit increase sometime in mid to late November. I know this is late but count your blessings. This is the stuff I teach my clients exclusively. I’m giving it to you because this is 2020. It’s been a mess of a year. I don’t want you guys to suffer further by stepping on landmines you don’t have to step on. Make your holiday plans in advance. If you’re carrying balances, lower them to under 20%. Make at least two payments on that and then ask for a credit limit increase on your tier 1, your tier 2, your national banks, your regional banks and your credit unions and community banks.

You then might have a chance of having a better profile and still having room to make your great holiday. Third of all, we may be heading into the slide of the century in 2021. Don’t get into debt. If you insist on it, how to protect yourself the best you possibly can, but be conservative. Spend time together doing things more than presence. I’m sharing with you my value set, but that’s why you at least reading this. Take care of your finances. Give the gift that keeps on giving and that is don’t add more to your debt because we may have a very difficult year ahead of us.

Another important thing is back to our business planning. We’re harvesting all of our great ideas from the year. The things that work. We’re implementing, we’re trying to accelerate through October and then create momentum in November so we have the highest possible impact by the end of the year. The next thing you need to do is remember that lenders look at your top line, not your bottom line. Even when they’re asking for your taxes. They want to know how much revenue you generate. They’re less interested. There are things they still count, but it’s not as powerful of an impact as your top line.

What am I going to tell you? Sell. Get sales on the bottom line. Top line revenues. All your flips, all of your refi. However, you’re making money, do as much of it you can as intelligently and deliberately as you can so that you are able to have the highest top line possible before the end of the year. We’ve talked about a couple of cool things, both on your consumer side, on your borrower side and your business planning side. This is all about acceleration.

Go out, review your year and take a look at the checklist at www.GetFundableBusinessChecklist.com. Tell us where to send it. Go through the exercises and review your most successful strategies and let’s sprint to the end of the year. This is part one of the slingshot strategy so that we can build out a crazy awesome 2021. Keep reading, share the love, make sure that everybody in your life is as fundable or f*able as you possibly can. Be well. Have a great day.

Important Links:

• www.GetFundableBusinessChecklist.com
• Momentum Mastermind
• GetFundableBook.com
• GetFundableBootcamp.com

Love the show? Subscribe, rate, review, and share!

• Here’s How »

• GetFundablePodcast.com
• Get Fundable! Facebook
• GetFundableBootcamp.com