I had the weirdest experience on the weekend.

I went down to the Los Angeles Art Show at the L.A Convention Centre.

I wandered through a cavernous hall full of paintings being sold at an average price of around $10,000 each.

And there were plenty of buyers.

Then as I left that hall I passed by another hall, with a sign outside saying that this was the Los Angeles Gift Fair.

What the heck, I thought, I'm down here I may as well go inside.

I was amazed by what I saw.

This hall was exactly the same size as the Art Show hall, and had a hundred or so booths just like the Art Show.

But instead of selling $10,000 paintings the people were selling little trinkets and gifts for an average of about $5 each.

Same address, same style of booths, yet one hall sold products that cost FIVE THOUSAND TIMES more than the other.

And both halls were full of people.

So what's the moral of this little story?

There are two lessons I took out of it.

1. No matter how expensive or cheap something is, there will always be people who will buy it.

2. Be careful selling low priced items, because you have to sell a mountain of them to make a decent living.

Questions for you to ponder:

Are you selling enough expensive items?

Are you selling to a market that only wants cheap stuff?

Should you be going after a different type of customer?

These are questions that are definitely worth thinking about.

By now you are back from holidays and getting stuck into the new year.

You are now faced with a turning point.

You can run your year like last year - and probably get similar results.

Or you can push yourself to ask daring questions, which can often lead to radically better results.

Truly, it's the questions we ask ourselves regularly that determine which direction we end up going in.

Ask small, timid questions and you get small, timid outcomes.

Ask game changing questions and you open up the possibility for huge shifts in your life and your business.

In my book, Why People Fail, which has just been released in the USA, I recommend you ask the following questions.

Treat them seriously and they can transform your business.

1. HOW CAN I MAKE TEN TIMES MORE MONEY?

Too many entrepreneurs are content with shooting for a 10 to 15 % increase in profits each year. While that rise is 'realistic', it too often shuts down your thinking, keeping you from considering genuinely radical steps that could revolutionise your business. 

Asking the 10X question jolts you out of your comfort zone and forces you to think completely differently about what your business could do and how it could pull it off. Life changes when you think 10X.

2. SHOULD I EVEN BE INVOLVED WITH THIS?

We usually start projects with a burst of optimism and the very best of intentions. Then as time goes on and our progress slows, we can all be guilty of continuing at half speed, with little real commitment or even interest in the results. If we're not careful we can muddle along like this for years - making just enough progress to feel okay about it, but not enough to create real momentum and feel the joy of mega achievement.

With this in mind, it's worth asking this: knowing what you now know, would you even get involved with this business/project/person/ industry in the first place?

If the answer is a clear No, maybe it's time for you to eject out of there asap.

3. WHAT WOULD 'X' DO?

Sometimes it pays to pretend you are not you. 

It gets you out of your thinking ruts and makes you consider all kinds of directions you may not normally be open to. Imagine you are Steve Jobs and ask what he would do if he became CEO of your company today. What would Thomas Edison do if placed in the same position? Or your mum? Or the person you most admire?

Trying on the mindset of somebody great and then applying it to your business, or indeed your life, can yield some extraordinary ideas and strategies. It feels funny at first, downright weird sometimes, but it's a brilliant technique for breaking the shackles of your own traditional thinking.

So for a huge 2012, take ten minutes today to sit down and ask these three powerful questions. Or any of the others I feature in my book 'Why People Fail. They take virtually no time to do, but can yield fantastic results.

And remember, when it comes to making breakthroughs, questions are the answer.

You don't need me to tell you that business is more competitive than ever.

It's hard out there for business owners.

Getting new customers can be ridiculously difficult, time consuming, and with the cost of marketing these days, expensive.

That's why it's crucial that you keep the customers you've got.

But so many entrepreneurs forget this.

They're so focused on acquiring new customers they forget to look after the ones that are already buying from them.

As the old Texan saying goes, "When you're at the dance, don't forget who brought you."

One of the very best ways to keep clients is by giving them regular surprises.

Little things that touch them in some way, or remind them why they chose to do business with you.

When was the last time your surprised your clients?

With a Thank You gift. An interesting book. A relevant report on what's happening in their industry.

Perhaps you could send them an article you found that they might find helpful to their business.

Or send a card for their birthday.

Maybe you could invite them to a concert or show.

Or better still, you could give them a suprise that's work related. Like finishing a project a week early, or discounting the cost of a job for no reason at all.

These are little things, I know. But it's the little things that will separate you from your competitors. It's the little things that will make an impact on them and make them glad it's you they work with.

These days, just doing the work well is not enough to keep clients. Good enough is not good enough.

We must excel, delight, and yes, surpise them.

So, it's time to institute a system for regularly surprising your customers. You'll be surprised at how it builds your business.

We all know people in business who exhibit tremendous personal charisma.

They exude an aura, an energy that those around them find highly attractive, even intensely magnetic.

This personal force allows them to lead people easily, persuade sales prospects and enables them to make large amounts of money.

Now most people assume that this charisma is natural - you're either born with it or you're not.

I think they're wrong. I think charisma can be developed by almost any entrepreneur, and I believe doing so can have an extraordinarily positive effect on your success in business.

So how can you develop mesmerizing charisma?

You need only focus on three areas:

1. Enthusiasm.
People who are highly passionate about their work captivate others. When they talk with delight about an idea, business or product those around them are drawn into their way of thinking. The fact is most people are ambivalent about what they do, even by their own ideas for their business. So when they suggest to others a new thought or direction it often has no power to persuade. The same idea however expressed with enormous enthusiasm immediately becomes more attractive and is usually taken more seriously.

2. Expertise.
Very few people are experts at their industry. Most stop serious study as soon as they graduate from college or university and even those that continue to learn about their field do so in a haphazard, half hearted way. But those rare entrepreneurs that endlessly learn more about their industry eventually find that they know much more about their field than everyone around them.
When they express that immense knowledge and understanding in meetings or sales presentations it is often mesmerizing to those in the room. Who hasn't at times been in awe of somebody's deep knowledge of their field? It is a highly attractive trait.

3. Certainty.
We live in an age of ever increasing complexity, caused by fast technological advancement, increasingly global markets, and more intense competition. As our own industry gets more complex, if we don't continuously update our skills and knowledge we begin to slip a bit behind the cutting edge. When this occurs our sense of certainty that we are right declines. We become more unsure of ourselves, which quickly erodes our charisma.

Certainty is also an attitude, and all attitudes can become cultivated merely by focusing on developing them. When you deliberately strive to behave with certainty it soon becomes your normal way of thinking. As Advertising legend Donny Deutch amusingly entitled his autobiography, "Often Wrong, Never In Doubt".

As long as it's not taken to extremes of dogmatic or bombastic behaviour, this sense of certainty is very charismatic.

So those are the primary elements of charisma, as I see it. Note that none of them are difficult to develop in your life. Indeed by merely increasing each of the three elements by just 20% you can become vastly more charismatic.

The epitome of charisma was of course Steve Jobs. He was famous for creating what became known in Silicon Valley as his 'Reality distortion field." He exhibited so much charisma when attempting to persuade others that they would be fully in agreement with him while in his presence, but in the hours following would realise the absurdity of many of his assertions, once they escaped his 'field'.

How did Jobs exude such captivating charisma?

Enthusiasm. Expertise. Certainty.

Most entrepreneurs think they are dedicated to building their business.

But I question that.

I think the majority of entrepreneurs are just dabbling.

Sure they'd like to have a successful business, but they don't really crave it.

The problem is that business today is really, really tough.

Unless you absolutely, madly desire to create an awesome business it probably won't happen.

Competitors that are keener, more fired up, will eclipse you.

Customers will sense your lack of fire and choose another supplier.

You may get some growth, but you won't get the hypergrowth that defines a highly successful enterprise.

You need to be really serious to make it in today's business world.

Here's a quick test you can do to ascertain how committed you are to creating an extraordinary business:

You need to be able to say Yes to at least 8 out of 10 of these points:

1. You think about your business night and day.

2. You know all the best companies in your field.

3. You are clear on the flaws and weaknesses of your business, and your main competitors.

4. You arrive at work early.

5. You know your business's key numbers intimately.

6. You are always studying ways to better market your products.

7. You are constantly making tiny improvements to how you run your operations.

8. You have turned your business into a system. Ideally summarised in a manual.

9. You have white hot desire to create a great company.

10. When you talk about your business to friends, staff or clients it is with genuine enthusiasm.

So, looking at these, how do you measure up?

Which of these points do you need to work on?

The rewards for building a great business are extraordinary: massive wealth, high self esteem, extemporary lifetsyle, kudos from society, significant contribution to mankind.

But you'll get none of these until you get really, really serious about building your company.

A friend of mine pointed out an interesting move by Subway lately.

They've quietly been setting up stores inside Walmarts.

Over 1400 of them in fact.

It got me thinking.

Surely one of the best opportunities to increase your revenues is to sell your products in unusual places, just like Subway are doing.

While you're competitors slog it out in the same old marketplaces, you could be growing your business in places they haven't even thought about.

What unusual place could you start selling your services?

It's worth brainstorming ideas for half an hour.

A health food company might open up stores inside universities.

A caterer might approach an electrician's association offering discount lunches for all their members.

A lawyer might do a joint venture with an insurance company to offer legal services to their clients.

A book publisher might seek to sell their cooking books in food supermarkets across the country.

A meditation teacher might open a branch inside the Los Angeles Police Department.

When you start thinking about it, it's easy to think of unusual places to sell your goods and services.

And there's plenty of reasons why you should:

You'll have very little competition (usually none).

You won't have to discount your products.

It will be easier to expand than via traditional avenues.

So next time you're thinking about how to grow your company, think outside the square.

Be lateral. Even a little crazy.

It's that kind of thinking that has made Subway the number one food franchise in the world.

And can make you number one in your field too.

One of the most underestimated parts of becoming a successful entrepreneur is increasing your level of daring.

You can read a thousand books on business and not see daring even mentioned, but it is a critical character trait to have if you want to build an extraordinary business.

You can be efficient. You can be great at managing your company's finances. You can have strong customer service. But if you don't dare to do amazing and unusual things you will not reach the highest level of business success.

What areas should you seek to be daring in?

Moving into new industry sectors.

Creating radically different products or services.

Offering money back guarantees.

Promoting yourself in daring ways.

Challenging industry norms.

Standing up for what you believe in at the office.

Shooting for huge growth rather than gradual uplift.

Massively altering your pricing, either up or down.

Adding something dramatic to your menu of products.

Starting a business in the first place...

They say that there's huge competition in the business world.

I beg to differ.

When you consistently take daring actions, pretty soon you will have very little direct competition.

Because most business owners are scared of doing anything really different, you will stand out hugely from your competitors.

Being daring seems at first to be a tough road to take, but it is actually safer than taking the so called safe road.

You get noticed. You attract more customers. You get more PR. You can usually charge more.

Think about it. Are you being daring enough?

Fortune does indeed favour the brave.

I do a lot of consulting for entrepreneurs building their companies.

No matter what the industry, I find the same things lacking in companies struggling to grow.

So this week, I thought it would be helpful if I put these common challenges into an easy to review checklist.

So take a few minutes to look at each of these areas, and ask yourself whether you can score yourself at least a 7 out of 10 in each vital department:

1. Clear vision for company over the next 3 years.

2. Clear company values (no more than 5, ideally just 3).

3. A manual for running the business. (How you and your staff do things day to day).

4. 90 day goals, with exact figures to aim for.

5. A marketing plan that uses at least 3 different media. (Most failing companies are not experimenting enough with different types of media).

6. Outsourcing or delegating non vital tasks (If you don't have an assistant you are one).

7. A coach, mentor or board to bounce ideas off. (No matter how smart you are it pays to have wise and objective counsel).

8. A sales presentation with at least a 1 out of 3 success rate. (If you're scoring lower than that you have either structured the presentation incorrectly, or you're selling to the wrong people.)

9. A clear understanding of who your customer is. (What they fear, what they desire.)

10. A system for staying in contact with customers and potential customers. (A company's biggest potential asset is its email list).

There are more areas entrepreneurs should keep an eye on of course, but get these ten right and you can be pretty sure that you're company will have strong growth over the next 3 years.

Get them wrong however, and your entire company's future is at risk.

In business there's a lot of talk about strategies for making more money.

But not enough about getting your mind into a state where it is highly effective.

That's a big mistake, because it's only when an entrepreneur's mind is centered, focused and clear that we can achieve at a high level.

Haven't you had days when you just weren't thinking clearly at work? Times when you weren't performing at your best, for no other reason than that your mind wasn't in the right place?

For most entrepreneurs this negative or distracted mind state occurs regularly, maybe every week or so.

It can be very costly too: we can make bad decisions, speak unkindly to our staff, or just not get much stuff done.

As harmful as this way of being is, the good news is that it can be easily fixed, with a simple technique I developed recently.

I call it The Two Reminders.

As you get ready for work, take a couple of minutes to sit with a pen and pad and just think about these two ideals:

1. Ideal Person.
What kind of person do you aspire to be? What are the character traits that you would most like to exhibit to others? What kind of ways would you like to think?

Typical answers might include: calm, focused, happy, uplifting, clever, inspiring, kind, effective, a top performer, creative, optimistic, efficient.

Spend a few moments each day seeing yourself as that kind of person.

2. Ideal Business.
What do you want your business to look like? What kind of services are you providing, and of what quality?

How do you want to come across to customers? How much money do you want to make? What makes your company different from the rest?

Think about your company as you would like it to be. Just for a minute or two.

Now, go and behave like you are indeed that ideal person, running that type of business.

The Two Reminders are so powerful because we often forget that when we get our inner self right, our outer circumstances soon change for the better.

But if all we do is work, without first focusing on who we want to be, then our results are usually ordinary.

Here's a fascinating new stat from the internet research company, GlobalReviews.

Generally, 1 in 3 visitors to a website did so because a friend recommended it to them.

Not because you advertised.

Not because they found you on Google.

But just because somebody they trusted told them about your website.

So, if website recommendations from friends are so important, how can you get more of them?

Make your site remarkable.

Either through unusual design.

Stunning pictures.

Ridiculously good value offers.

Or a radical, interesting philosophy.

If 1 in 3 people visit a website because their friends told them to do it, you need to do something, anything to make your website stand out from the pack.

Is your website worthy of discussion?

There's an old saying in the marketing industry:

‘The very best type of advertising is word of mouth.'

So go create a website people talk about.