Self Improvement Archives - Greg Weatherdon

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Regardless of whether you have two or twenty employees, leadership matters and for what it’s worth, there are few natural born leaders. That’s why leadership skills need to be learned and relearned all the time.

So here’s a question I bet most entrepreneurs don’t ever consider. Do you lead from the front or the back? Some entrepreneurs know instinctively when to lead from the front or to lead from the back. Others though need to consciously work at trying to balance between the two. But sadly too many haven’t got a clue and nor do they care.

To say that leadership is a large and fragmented topic, would be an understatement. A recent search of Google on the word “Leadership” returned an astronomical 4.7 billion results. That’s “B” as in billions. Therefore it’s safe to assume that there is lots of interest in the topic.

To be sure that with this many results there is bound be a fair amount of repetitiveness in the advice given. Fortunately, there are always those tried and true nuggets of wisdom that have stood the test of time.

One of those truths is that good leaders tend to be good leaders regardless of the environment. Having said that, one of the biggest challenge facing leaders today is that they may have to up their empathy quotient. This is so that they can accommodate the current crop of employees, as many appear to need more hand holding than previous generations.

Why step back?

Although every situation is different, the good leaders know when to assert themselves and take charge or when to back off and let someone else lead.

They’re confident enough to know they don’t always have to be out front. By relinquishing control, they give their staff the opportunity to grow their leadership skills.

Ultimately, the more you lead from the back, the more freedom you’ll have, allowing you to tackle more strategic issues, or to simply cut back on your workload.

The trick is to know when to take charge and when to let others do so. Finding the right balance is tough and should always be determined by the situation.

So when do you lead from the front?

So how often do you lead from the front? Unless you have a very green team, it’s a lot less often than you think.
There are a number of situations that require you, the owner, to step up and lead the charge. These tend to fall into two buckets, crisis or opportunity.

A crisis can best be defined as a showstopper. It’s any situation that can negatively affect the company’s reputation or performance and has a high degree of urgency.

Many times in crisis situations you don’t have the luxury of sitting back and letting things unfold in a natural way. It often requires immediacy of action.

This is where experience and knowledge comes into play, whereby the leader can react far more quickly to the situation.

Opportunities on the other hand may require someone to lead from the front for political or strategic reasons.

Here are some situations that may require you to be out in front and leading the charge:

Let’s first look at some crises situations:

1. Having a large client threaten to stop dealing with you after all attempts by your team have failed, would rank high.

1. Needing to defend the actions of your team with a client would be another situation. Many times the “customer isn’t always right!”

1. A massive competitive threat that comes out of nowhere might also qualify.

1. A product or service failure. You need to own it!

And now opportunity situations

1. Depending on your industry, you may need to lead the charge on launching a new product. This gives you the chance to get direct feedback, good or bad directly from your customers. Equally as important, it can show your customers and team that it is important.

1. Setting the vision or direction of the company requires you to lead from front. It’s not something you can delegate. Your actions speaks louder than words.

1. Matching is another situation where it’s important to be visible. Matching means exactly that. It’s where you match client title with your own.

For example, a new clients wants a presentation on your services. In attendance from their side will be mid-level person along with their company president or vice-president. In those case you should be visible and lead the conversation. It also shows the client that they are important.

The switch

Regardless of whether it’s a crises or an opportunity, the goal here is to ultimately relinquish the relationship to a team member.

This is done by stating something to the effect “Going forward Mary will be your key contact”, or “John will follow up with next week to discuss next steps”. By making that statement, you go from leading from the front to leading from the back.

Additionally, whether you lead from the front or the back, these situations must be used as teaching moments.

These teaching moments include taking the time to explain to your team the rationale for the given course of action and will be open to input.

However, being open to input doesn’t mean that you are obliged to act on it. So to counter this, you must take the time to explain why it will or why it won’t be incorporated it into the plan.

Equally important is that, when leading from the back you must let the individual know that you have their back and are available for consultation if needed.

In conjunction with this support, your job is to run interference for their team. In other words, you need to make sure they don’t get distracted with other people’s priorities.

Don’t jump in

The hardest part for any leader when taking a back seat is to avoid jumping in and rescue an individual when it’s clear that their chosen course of action will not achieve the desired outcome.

This was a lesson I learned many years ago as a newly minted district manager at a major consumer goods company. A big part of my job was to monitor, motivate and train a dozen or so sales reps.

Fortunately or unfortunately, very little of this could be done remotely. For the most part this was a feet on the ground undertaking, riding shotgun for hours or days as we visited dozens of accounts.

One of the golden rules when leading from the back, was never to interrupt or critique the individual, while they were presenting to a buyer. Sometimes this was painful, when it was clear that things were going off the rails or there was a missed upsell opportunity.

Had I jumped in to save the day on any of these calls, we would have surely walked out with a bigger order, but at what cost?

Taking control in those moments risked destroying the individual’s self-confidence and undermine their authority with that buyer. Not a fair trade to my way of thinking.

Instead, the right approach was to wait until the call was completed and undertake a post-mortem. Unless the individual was brand new, these after call reviews only took a few minutes and happened in the car on the way to the next call. Simple teaching moments that paid immediate dividends throughout the rest of the day.

Time well spent.

In hindsight, working this closely and exclusively with any team member for a day or two pays huge dividends. Unfortunately, that’s a rarity today and that’s a shame.

Fortunately though, time spent working with your team to show them how to be more effective is always a good investment. It gives you a chance to share your knowledge and experience, usually in real life situations instead of in hypotheticals.

People go to work to be successful!

Developing your team’s leadership capabilities by knowing when to lead from the front or the back is critical if you want to grow your company.

By developing a more capable workforce, it frees you up to spend more time on strategic initiatives, such as goal setting or keeping the organization on point vis-à-vis your vision. And let’s not forget the freedom to seek out new opportunities.

Understanding that if employees are enjoying their work and feel appreciated, they’ll perform at a higher level. There’s nothing new or complicated in that statement, but it’s surprising how misunderstood this simple concept is.

As with any delegation initiatives, the goal here is to free up your time and increase employee’s satisfaction. Always keep in mind that people go to work to be successful. Being bored with their work is a sure fire way to increase turnover.

There’s a time and a place to be that hard charging entrepreneur and there’s a time to step back. Knowing the difference can really help you and your company grow.

You may also enjoy SBM #33 Responsibility and authority

Get More LIFE Out of Your Business

You shouldn’t be the hardest working person in your company.

Many small business owners find that even after the struggling start-up years, they’re working too many hours and still managing every aspect of their businesses.

Greg Weatherdon has been there, done that. As an entrepreneur, he learned not only how to get a business to the point of running smoothly, but also how to reduce the number of hours he worked, delegate more responsibility to his employees, and take longer vacations while his business chugged along like a well-oiled machine. And now he is providing the secret to success.

Do you suffer from any of the following?

1. Business ownership isn’t living up to the dream.
2. Endless workdays.
3. You can’t find good people.
4. Profits are less than expected.
5. You can never take a vacation.

You’re not alone. But there is a solution. As Greg demonstrates, with some time and effort, you really can Get More Life Out Of Your Business.

ORDER HERE

SBM #112 Putting Lipstick on a pig

Tagged as: authority, customer experience, customers, delagting, entrepreneur, financials, operations, processes, responsibility, small business expert, success, templates

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I actually starting this piece 3 or 4 years ago, pre-Covid days. And as often happens when trying to be creative, you can be hit with a case of writer’s block that can leave any number of incomplete topics to collect dust. In my case, I can have upwards of a dozen or so pieces just sitting on the sidelines at any point in time. So was the case with this piece.

The reason I mention pre-Covid days is because many businesses are still facing challenges as they recover, however my original observation about customer experience were prior to Covid and yet still exist today.

Putting lipstick on a pig

The phrase to put “lipstick on a pig” means making superficial or cosmetic changes to a product in a futile effort to disguise its fundamental failings. {Wikipedia} Many businesses, both small and large, condone this kind of behaviour.

On a recent road trip south, we stayed in a number of hotels. Like many, when heading to a specific destination we tend to stay in mid range establishments that we book at some point during our day. Booking any farther ahead is pointless as we never know how far we’ll drive on any given day because of weather or traffic.

These establishment are well known chains, from Holiday Inn Express to Hampton Inns, to name a few. Fancy, no! But usually more than satisfactory for a quick overnight stop and they’re usually situated right near major highway exits. So easy off, easy on. In most cases they’re reasonably priced and provide a free breakfast. All in all, a good value proposition. Most of the time.

The following are just a few of the observations I made during our stays at various establishments.

Poorly trained and uncaring staff
Burnt out light bulbs in room.
Inoperative power ports or outlets in room.
Significant marks on wall and ceiling in room.
Peeling wallpaper in hallways.
Worn and scratched stain on bathroom door.
Poorly applied caulking around tub.

I ain’t buying the place

Individually, none of these shortcomings are a deal breaker and can be easily overlooked when just staying one night. As I like to say, “I ain’t buying the place” and for the most part the rooms and establishment were clean. But they tarnish the customer experience.

The point I’m trying to make with these observations is, when something such as a hotel room is serviced every single day, how do any of these items get overlooked? In one hotel we stayed in they were in the process of completely renovating the front lobby and the breakfast area. Yet, this is the same place where the wallpaper in the hallways was pealing and light bulbs in the room were burnt out. To my way of thinking they kind of got this back asswards.

I always wonder whose decision it is to invest tens of thousands of dollars in refurbishing the lobby when the rest of the establishment is in dire need of some loving. Especially when these items can be rectified at little or no cost. It’s akin to putting lipstick on a pig and again does little to improve the customer experience. Considering that these places are designed for travellers who typically spend more time in their rooms than in the lobby as they rest up for their next driving day.

When you think about it, once checked in, most guests spend their time in the room as they rest up for the next day of driving. So, wouldn’t think room maintenance would be a priority? Just saying!

To be sure 1st impressions are important and major renovations are part of the hospitality industry. As franchisees, they have requirements to update their facilities to new standards set out by the franchisor.

Out of sync

But many small businesses operate the same way. They are more concerned about their outward appearance, which I maintain is an absolute must, but useless if the behind the scenes operations are totally out of sync with that image.

Too often I see small business owners spend time, effort and resources on producing a great website and social media posts but only deliver mediocre products, services, or results for their customers. If they only spent a part of that effort on delivering great service to their customers, their profitability would soar. Unfortunately, that kind of effort doesn’t get them the likes or shares that they so desperately seem to need.

What many forget is that likes or shares rarely put money in the bank. Let me ask you how many times have you purchased a product or service only because of their social media activity? If you’re like most, not very often, if ever.

The sad part is that the return on investment on social media is, for the most part never measured. Mostly because most small businesses don’t have the knowledge or resources to track results. The assumption is that they’re successfully executing their strategy, because views or likes keep growing.

Focusing on the wrong things, rarely pays any dividends. The true metrics that they should be measuring are those that are focused on the customer experience. average order size, repeat sales and on time delivery. This is what successful entrepreneurs do. They focus on getting better.

Do you care enough?

So in order to determine if you are focused on the right things, the first question to ask yourself is “Do you care?”

Are you actively working on becoming more efficient? Are you paying attention to the little things that would make it easier for your clients to deal with you? Are you actively seeking input from your customers on what’s working and what isn’t?

What are their pain points in dealing with you? These are all legitimate questions and more often there are a myriad of little things that you and your team can do to improve your deliverables. But first, you must care. You must care enough to dig deep to identify your company’s shortcomings. It’s never easy to self-criticize but is necessary if you’re going to improve the customer experience.

What you can do to improve the customer experience

One of the best way to start the process is to ask yourself, if you were your customer, would you be willing to accept your service levels? To help with the process, the following is a list of questions to help you get started on the journey of discovery that cost little or nothing but will help with your customer experience.

1. When was the last time you looked at your website? Is the information relevant and current? Is it mobile friendly? Do a quick search on “outdated websites” and you’ll discover what turns off your customers when they visit an outdated website. It might be costing more than you think. Consider that over 70% of customers visit a website before visiting the business.

2. When was the last time you checked both the company voicemail and that of your employees? Does it still have your “out-of-office” notice from last years summer vacation? Does the message drone on forever with information, instead of directing them to your website. Do you use it for quick promotional messages?

3. What’s your response time to voicemails or emails? Many voicemail messages state that they’ll get back to you within 24-48hrs. Seriously, customer calls should be returned immediately, if not, then the same day at least. Get too many calls that you can’t return them the same day? Then hire more people or put the most commonly asked questions on your website to reduce the volume of calls that only require information. See point #1

4. Do you deliver on time? Are you constantly missing deadlines and having to make excuses? Maybe you’re taking on too much work and agreeing to timelines that you know will be impossible to meet. To correct this, you might need to be honest with the customer from the start and set realistic completion dates. Yes, you might lose some business, but it’s better than failing to deliver and damaging your reputation. It’s about managing workflow.

5. Is your staff working efficiently? That doesn’t mean they need to work harder. No, it means you need to make sure that they are properly trained and that you identify and remove roadblocks that inhibit their abilities. Do they need your approval on everything? Train them, then delegate the responsibility and authority to make decisions. (See SBM #33 Responsibility & Authority) Creating templates and processes can reduce the time and effort needed deliver the final report or product.

6. Are you trying to provide too much to your customers under the “value added” premise when nobody cares? Working under the pretense of “more is better” when in fact “less is more” might be the better approach.

7. Do you update your clients with regular status reports, or do you leave your customers in the dark? Having a customer constantly looking for an update is wrong. A quick phone call, text message or email to update them on the status of a backorder or delay can diffuse a lot of problems.

Rest assured that any time spent on providing exceptional customer experience quickly translates into reduced customer churn, increased repeat orders and of course, improved financials.

What’s stressing you out?

Another way to improve customer experience is to consider what’s stressing you out? It’s usually a good indicator of what needs fixing. Specifically, where do you think you can provide a better customer experience? What are your pain points? These are the things that keep you awake at night. What are you doing about them? Be honest with yourself, because we can all do better. Let’s face it, there’s no point attracting new customers only to lose them because you fail to deliver.

So what’s your peeling wallpaper or burnt out lightbulbs? In many cases it’s not the things we hear about that need to be fixed. It’s the ones we don’t hear about that’s troubling. This is where the silent majority just walk away, never to be seen again.

Sometimes good enough, isn’t!

You may also enjoy reading SBM #74 Average or Great

Get More LIFE Out of Your Business

You shouldn’t be the hardest working person in your company.

Many small business owners find that even after the struggling start-up years, they’re working too many hours and still managing every aspect of their businesses.

Do you suffer from any of the following?

1. Business ownership isn’t living up to the dream.
2. Endless workdays.
3. You can’t find good people.
4. Profits are less than expected.
5. You can never take a vacation.

You’re not alone. But there is a solution. As Greg demonstrates, with some time and effort, you really can Get More Life Out Of Your Business.

ORDER HERE

SBM #111 Practical Innovation

Tagged as: business, Canada, customers, entrepreneur, innovation, Microsoft, Practical, sales as a service, small business, small business expert, Small Business Minute, wristwatch, WWI

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Too often innovation gets confused with invention, when in fact they are not the same. Unfortunately, we are bombarded with articles and warnings that in order to survive as entrepreneurs we must innovate or be left behind. Ok, I’m not sure that we would be left behind, but innovating or improving how we do things, is never a bad idea.

The goal for any innovation should not be for the sake of innovation alone but should either enhance the customer experience or increase our efficiency. If you can do both that’s even better.

Microsoft Office 365

A simple example where, in my opinion, neither of these goals are achieved is Microsoft Office. Over the past few years, I have watched as this software grouping has morphed into a bloated feature laden product.. What was once a simple dropdown menu style that allowed access to the most commonly used functions have disappeared under renamed menus loaded with icons that would have an archeologist scratching their head trying to decipher these hieroglyphics.

I would hazard a guess that the vast majority of the Office 365 install base are not power users, therefore these improvements or product evolutions, fail my innovation test. It neither improves the user experience nor increases efficiency for most of us as we waste so much time looking for a simple formatting function.

I’m sure that some power users need these enhancements that the product engineers dream up but for most of us it’s overkill.

A recent experience with an Excel spreadsheet or is it now called a workbook or a worksheet? Regardless of what it’s now called, I needed to unlock a protected spreadsheet. Because I don’t use Excel everyday, I needed to hunt down that function. Once upon a time, you could simply click on one of the dropdown menus and click on that function. Well no more.

After I don’t know how long of hunting and pecking through the drop menus and trying to decipher the various icons, I typed “unprotect” in the Excel search bar to no avail. Finally, I turned to Google for help and finally found the answer. Seriously, nothing should be that hard.

A simple solution might be to just offer the everyday user an option for a “Classic” menu that would offer the user the most commonly used functions within the complete Office 365 lineup. Now that would be an innovation!

Alternatives such as Open Office, Libre Office and Google’s Workspace offer a simpler user interface. Aside from being free, their popularity might be driven partly by their ease of use.

Small Business

Innovation for most small businesses does not have to be earth shattering. In SBM #36 Innovation, I mention that what we need to understand is that most successful innovation comes from either borrowing ideas from other industries or reconfiguring your existing products or services to tackle new markets or customers. Put this way, innovation becomes less daunting and can be implemented incrementally over time and does not require wholesale retraining of your staff and customers. Therefore, they are considered natural or logical enhancements.

Merriam Webster provides the following definitions which may serve to clarify the difference between innovation and invention:

Invention

“a device, contrivance, or process originated after study and experiment,” usually something which has not previously been in existence.

Innovation

for its part, can refer to something new or to a change made to an existing product, idea, or field.

They go on to provide the following example:
One might say that the first telephone was an invention, the first cellular telephone either an invention or an innovation, and the first smartphone an innovation.

The wristwatch

Another simple and great innovation is the wristwatch. Prior to the 20th century, wristwatches were only worn by wealthier women as a fashion accessory, whereas men had pocket watches. It took a World War for the wristwatch to become a mainstay accessory for men.

As the story goes, coordinating troop movements, bombardments and attacks required officers and soldiers to be always aware of the time. The process of fumbling for a pocket watch proved cumbersome due to the necessity of having to always check. That frustration was compounded during the winter months when wearing gloves.

Someone gave this some thought. They simply stole or should I say borrowed the wristwatch idea and adopted it for men. That way soldiers wouldn’t have to reach for their watch at all, as they were wearing it. A simple twist of their arm and they could see the time.

My experience

When I founded the Marketing Resource Group or MRG, I brought this essence of innovation to the consumer packaged goods and healthcare industries. Prior to MRG, I owned The Sales Support Company which was a contract retail merchandising company. In other words an outsourced sales force. I had 150 people working coast-coast performing various sales functions in our client’s smaller retail customers.

Because our merchandisers needed to travel from store to store to perform their duties, wages and travel costs represented a significant portion of our costs. Raising prices was difficult as it would dilute the cost/benefit argument we had put forth. So, after eight years sustainable profits were elusive, so I sold the company.

My innovation

One of the reasons that made my decision to sell The Sales Support Company easy, was that I knew the industry still needed to service these accounts but needed cost efficient solution, which I had been quietly testing for over a year.

Once clear of my obligations with my previous company, I launched MRG to provide our clients with an alternative solution to service these accounts.

So instead of having an individual physically visit a store, we began telemarketing these accounts as a means to communicate and solicit orders. As an aside, we provided other services that previously required a sales representative to perform, but now were done remotely.

I knew of only one company that was doing anything remotely similar and that was Kimberley-Clark, the makers of brands like Huggies and Kleenex.

The big difference was that they were selling their own products, whereas we would be a sales as a service model, representing any number of companies and brands, albeit never at the same time.

Aside from Kimberley-Clark this hadn’t been attempted before and therefore it took a bit of effort to get buy-in from our clients.

Eventually, we convinced enough clients of the merits and gained the necessary momentum to make it a viable business that I owned for 17 years until I sold it.

This innovation had numerous benefits and few downsides for our customers. Considering that we handled what I referred to as their orphaned accounts, those retail establishment that due to annual purchases or geographic location, received no sales coverage from their existing salesforces.

Foremost, our reach was unlimited. If they had a phone, we could contact them, regardless of where they were located, even in the Artic.

Innovation through adaptation

So let’s be honest. I didn’t invent anything here. I simply took an existing service, telemarketing, and applied it to an industry that wasn’t using it. There is a saying “good artist borrow ideas great artist steal ideas.

Is that not the purpose of innovation? How many so called innovations, add no value to the end user and only add confusion.

First and foremost, innovation needs to improve the experience. But change for the sake of change is rarely a good idea. The best way to determine the value of your innovation is to ask your customers and not just your power users.

Also consider that instead of more features, maybe consider fewer and see if that improves the user experience.

You may also enjoy SBM #107 Beware of the whale

Get More LIFE Out of Your Business

You shouldn’t be the hardest working person in your company.

Many small business owners find that even after the struggling start-up years, they’re working too many hours and still managing every aspect of their businesses.

Do you suffer from any of the following?

1. Business ownership isn’t living up to the dream.
2. Endless workdays.
3. You can’t find good people.
4. Profits are less than expected.
5. You can never take a vacation.

You’re not alone. But there is a solution. As Greg demonstrates, with some time and effort, you really can Get More Life Out Of Your Business.

ORDER HERE

SBM #109 The Accidental Solopreneur

Tagged as: consultant, entrepreneur, focus, niche, playbook, sales, small business expert, success

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

The following is an edited transcript

{Greg}
Today I would like to welcome back Dennis Geelen the author of the Zero In Formula. Dennis was a previous guest on SBM #92 titled – The 2 Biggest Mistakes. If you haven’t listened to it, I encourage you to check it out.

The reason for having Dennis join us today, is that he’s launching his new book – The Accidental Solopreneur.
So, welcome back to the Small Business Minute.

{Dennis}
Hey, Greg. Thanks so much for having me back on the podcast. So happy to be here.

{Greg}
So, I thought a good place to is by getting Dennis to share his background as we really didn’t touch on any this the last time he was on.

So my first question is, what prompted you to leave the corporate world and start your journey as a solopreneur consultant?

{Dennis}
So, your question, what prompted me to leave the corporate world and start my journey as a solopreneur consultant?

Well, short answer is I was laid off, at the age of 43, for the first time ever. I was laid off from a corporate job and I decided, hey, why not bet on myself and start my own solopreneur practice?

The longer answer would be I had great encouragement and support from my wife. I had a nice severance package, so I knew that I could give it some time.

I decided to give it a full year. Really try and give it my all and start my own consulting business. And at the end of the year, if things were working great, awesome, I would have no regrets. I would have learned, and I’d be on to something. Just the feeling of betting on myself and making it, would be awesome.

If it didn’t work again, no regrets. I would know that I tried, gave it my all and I would never have that – “What if?” feeling. And I would still be young enough to jump back into the corporate world and probably be a better person because of it.

So that’s really what prompted me. If I hadn’t had been laid off, I never probably would have taken the step. So, I guess it was a blessing in disguise.

{Greg}
We all know there are many ways to become an entrepreneur and to co-opt some words from Shakespeare- “Some are born entrepreneurs, some become entrepreneurs, and some have entrepreneurship thrust upon them”

Being laid-off has always been a common theme for people transitioning to entrepreneurship. This is especially true if one has a decent severance package. As I like to say, it let’s you take your idea for test ride, and judging by the success your enjoying, it certainly seems to have paid off for you.

So, can you share what were some of the biggest mistakes you made early in your journey?

{Dennis}
Yeah, lots, lots of mistakes made early on. Where do I start?
So, when I first started zero in my consulting business, I was very naive.

I just thought, hey, I’ve got 20 plus years of corporate experience. I’ll just announce to the world that I’m a business consultant and I’ll give myself a catchy name, Zero IN.
I’ll create a logo, I’ll create a website, and then I’ll just sit back and watch the clients roll in. Of course, that’s not what happened at all.

I did those things, but the clients didn’t roll in. What I found was I really had to niche down. I really had to be the expert at something. Just calling myself a business consultant really didn’t appeal to anybody. That’s a generalist.

I had to get really specific. What specific business challenges am I helping you solve and for who?
What business is in what industry. So, I really had to go through the process of learning how to be the expert and then building credibility as a consultant.

In in my corporate life people didn’t know me as a consultant. They knew me as a director of professional services or a director of Project Management.

You know, I was not a consultant, so I had to brand myself. I had to build credibility and I had to become the expert. Then I had to learn how to package my services, and sell my services. So, all kinds of mistakes in the beginning. Just assuming that announcing to the world you are a consultant, and you know people will be lining up at your door. I had a lot to learn and luckily had enough runway to be able to make those mistakes and learn from those mistakes.

“who makes more money the heart surgeon or the family physician?”

{Greg}
Focusing (SBM #53) or becoming expert in a given area is one of the hardest lessons for entrepreneurs to learn. That applies equally to companies and not just consultants. It’s a lesson I learned many years ago and it paid off handsomely.

When I sit with struggling entrepreneurs, most can’t identify their target market or ideal customer. That’s because they’ve never really looked at what they do differently or can do better than anyone else.

To drive home the point on focusing, I usually ask the question “who makes more money the heart surgeon or the family physician?” I think we all know the answer.

But to become the expert, it requires discipline and commitment. Discipline, as you point out in the Accidental Solopreneur, to know when to say no to an opportunity if it doesn’t fit. And commitment, to learn everything there is on the subject matter. It’s tough to do, but so worth it!

So let me ask, were you impacted by the pandemic, and if so, how did you pivot?

“I helped companies solve indifference.”

{Dennis}
Yeah, the pandemic. Boy, that really messed up a lot of businesses. So, for me, I was finally rolling, I had figured out my niche.

I helped medium sized businesses with their customer experience and creating a culture of innovation. Or as I like to say it, I helped companies solve indifference. Indifferent customers or indifferent employees. And here’s how you do it.

I had got my package down, my services down. I was doing all kinds of engagements. I was doing all kinds of speaking.
I was doing all kinds of workshops and then boom, the pandemic hits.

So, what I did was OK, now I had runway again. I had just made a bunch of money in the early part of 2020, in late 2019, from having figured things, so I had some time
I was given by the pandemic.

I had some money that I was given by my success. I decided to sit down and write the book the Zero in formula. It’s where I took everything that I was doing with my clients. I put it into a book released in September of 2020, and that’s right when things were starting to open back up again.

And boom, that got me all kinds of exposure and more, you know, companies understanding what I do and who I do it for and how I do it. And because I was on so many podcasts and, you know, there was articles about the book and the book hit bestseller. That really was a blessing in disguise. For me, the pandemic is what allowed me to do that.

{Greg}
So many business owners felt the wrath of Covid. They just weren’t prepared. As much as Covid was a health issue, it was also an economic one as the lockdowns came into play.

Long before Covid, I had always told my clients that you need to have a rainy day fund to survive any form of business slow down or interruption. I was usually thinking along the lines of short term illness or a fire, etc.

Like most people, I never in my wildest dreams would have contemplated a pandemic. However, those that heeded my advice, made it through. It wasn’t pleasant, but they made it.

By having cash reserved, it allows you to continue doing the things that need to be done or as in your case, gave you the opportunity to write Zero In.

I noticed that you now also help other solopreneurs start their own practice, what prompted that new initiative for you?

{Dennis}
Yeah, so a funny thing happened. After a few years in at zero in, things were rolling. I now have a book. I now had online courses.

I was doing all kinds of workshops and consulting engagements and I was just starting to write another business book. I thought, ok, I should have a follow up to the zero in formula. Similar niche, similar type of stuff I’m talking about, but a different spin on things just to keep things fresh.

What I noticed was a lot of people were reaching out to me at this point now saying, hey, I want to do what you did.
Hey, can I pick your brain for a little bit? Hey, I’m starting my own consulting practice. Can you give me a few pointers? Can you give me a few tips?

This was happening through e-mail, through DM’s, the zoom calls, people were wanting to spend time with me and pick my brain. I thought maybe there’s another niche here for me as well while I’ve got zero in going and I can help these medium sized businesses.

I could also start working with other solopreneurs to help them get started, so I pivoted and wrote a very different book.

Instead of the business book I was planning to write, I decided to write a book for solopreneurs and this one, The Accidental Solopreneur, which it ended up being called, is told in a fictional parable format.

I always love those types of books where it’s told in the form of a story with interesting characters. But tips and strategies come out through the book, so that’s what I did there. I started up a whole other side business as well, where now I’m also coaching solopreneurs where they can book calls with me.

I’ve created an online course called the Solopreneur Playbook where I take people through the six steps that I went through, to eventually build a successful solopreneur consulting business.

That’s really been a great new initiative for me, and it was really just prompted by all those people reaching out to ask and I thought there’s a market there. I’ve got expertise, I can help these people.

{Greg}
That certainly sounds like an interesting opportunity. Going into business is never an easy decision and most underestimate what is required.

By the time they do realize that they’re unprepared, they’ve used up their whole runway and have to throw in the towel. Fortunately, for those that get a reality check early in the process, they’ll now have a new resource available in The Accidental Solopreneur and the accompanying playbook.

So that a great segue to my final question. The Solopreneur Playbook that you have developed is based on your new book The Accidental Solopreneur. Can you give a high level overview of the playbook?

{Dennis}
So, like I said, the book came out of that and an online course as well. Really what I show in the book and in the course itself is a 6 step playbook. I call it the Solopreneur Playbook and it’s basically this.

Step 1 Be the expert. Like I said off the top, that was the first mistake I made, I didn’t niche down enough, but it’s easy to say that. How do you do that? What does that look like? So, in the book you get to see how the guy does it in the story.

In the course, there’s all kinds of resources to help you niche down and be the expert.

Step 2 is to build credibility. It’s great that you’ve niched down now, but you’re still probably one of several options in that niche. Why you? How do you build credibility so that people want to choose you instead of your competitors?

So, in the book, again, it shows how the guy does that in the course, all kinds of resources and examples on how to build your credibility.

Step #3 How do you refine? Which is extremely important is how do you refine and offer your services? How do you package them so that you’re not just selling your time for money so you’re not just saying, hey, it’s 100 bucks an hour to work with me?

What’s your proprietary process? How do you package what you do into a certain number of steps or a certain process and then sell it at a fixed price so people feel like they’re buying a proven methodology or a proven product?
I’ve been telling people in the course sell it like it’s a product, package it that way and price It that way.
So how do you do that?

Step #4 How do you sell it? Learning to sell and getting good at sales is so critical because if you don’t have any customers, you don’t have a business.

So, learn to sell is step #4. Now, I tell people in the course, those first four steps are probably going to be iterative.
You’re not going to get it perfect right off the bat. You’re probably have to go through several iterations before you get that, and then you might stop there.

You might have an offering that’s so good and is priced so well that you’re making all kinds of money and you’re helping all kinds of people or businesses and you’re good with that. But if you want to go further, that’s where steps five and six come in.

Step #5 is build an audience. Now, can you have a podcast? Can you have a newsletter? Can, you know, generate a large following on LinkedIn or Twitter so that you can really cash in on Step 6.

Step #6 is to build assets that generate recurring revenue instead of just offering your time and your services.
Can you write books? Can you do online courses?
Can you have people sponsor your podcast or your newsletter?

Can you create Cheat Sheets that people pay for? You know, what can you do now that you’ve built an audience? Build something once and sell it 1000 times.

So that’s the playbook. That’s the six steps. But it’s very important that you do them intentionally and in order, and you do them properly and that’s really what I go through in the book and the course.

“No Sales, No Business!”

{Greg}
Thanks Dennis for that overview. Those 6 steps make a lot of sense and that’s coming from someone who has been there. Step 4 Learn to Sell is the one that stood out for me the most.

Too often entrepreneurs are technically competent, but they lack the ability to properly present their expertise. I have a saying that I use frequently and that is “No sales, no business!” You can have the best mouse trap but if you don’t have any sales skills you’ll never get any customers.

That’s pretty much all the time we have, and I want to thank you for your time today as well as I want to wish great success with the book and the playbook. I’m sure it will help those many solopreneurs who want to grow their practices.

Also, I lied. I have more question for you. How can people contact you?

{Dennis}
Thanks again for having me on, Greg. So great to be here.
Yeah, if people want to get in touch with me, you can reach out through LinkedIn.

Always happy to connect with people there.
Or you can visit my website, www.dennisgeelen.me .
There you can see all about the book. You can see all about the courses or book coaching calls with me. Love to connect with people and help them through their journey.

{Greg}
Dennis has graciously offered a 25% discount for his online course to my listeners. So just head over to my site at gregweatherdon.com and you’ll find a link for the course, the discount code and his new book in the transcript of this interview.

Here is the link to the course – https://dgeelen.gumroad.com/l/solopreneur_playbook Use this promo code for 25% off – tvzvajc

Here’s the link to his book The Accidental Solopreneur

Get More LIFE Out of Your Business

You shouldn’t be the hardest working person in your company.

Many small business owners find that even after the struggling start-up years, they’re working too many hours and still managing every aspect of their businesses.

Do you suffer from any of the following?

1. Business ownership isn’t living up to the dream.
2. Endless workdays.
3. You can’t find good people.
4. Profits are less than expected.
5. You can never take a vacation.

You’re not alone. But there is a solution. As Greg demonstrates, with some time and effort, you really can Get More Life Out Of Your Business.

ORDER HERE

SBM #108 – The goose that laid the golden egg

Tagged as: advice, entrepreneur, fairy tales, golden eggs, goose, selling your business, small business expert, Small Business Minute, success

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

“There was once a Countryman who possessed the most wonderful Goose you can imagine, for every day when he visited the nest, the Goose had laid a beautiful, glittering, golden egg.

The Countryman took the eggs to market and soon began to get rich. But it was not long before he grew impatient with the Goose because she gave him only a single golden egg a day. He was not getting rich fast enough.

Then one day, after he had finished counting his money, the idea came to him that he could get all the golden eggs at once by killing the Goose and cutting it open. But when the deed was done, not a single golden egg did he find, and his precious Goose was dead.”

Every time I hear this story, I’m reminded of a conversation I had with a relative of mine a number of years ago. In passing, I happened to mention that after 25 years, I was thinking of selling my business and taking my chips off the table.

To my surprise, he immediately responded that it was a terrible idea and that I should just hire a manager, sit back, and collect an ongoing dividend. “So don’t kill the Goose that laid the golden egg” he said.

“Theory is great,

until it is put into

practice”

Now this is a fine idea in theory, however as we all know, many theories are only good until they’re put into practice, then they just fall apart.

What really set me back with his theory was that he had never c0me close to risking his future on anything remotely entrepreneurial. He had a secure position, plus a bullet proof pension. That is far different than the life of an entrepreneur.

We do it all!

As owners, we deal with far different issues than being a corporate manager. We don’t have the luxury of having an HR department to handle hiring and discipline issues. Nor do most of us have a CFO to manage cashflow, payables and receivables. No, we tend to do it all.

In addition, we carry the burden of our family and employees futures on your shoulders. Let’s not forget the hours spent worrying how we are going generate revenue during a particularly lean period or wondering where the next threat to your business lies.

Let’s face it, if we are honest with ourselves this is what we signed up for and for the most part these challenges are what drive us forward, but the list of things that preoccupy us is endless. And unlike an employee, we don’t leave these worries at the office. They are always lingering just below the surface, 24-7.

This theory of hiring a manager to run your business is a great idea if your plan is to expand your business holdings in other areas. This is because you are still engaged. However, if you have reached a point or age in your life where you’ve achieved your goals or are no longer motivated, then this is just a bad idea.

For many of us, we have built our companies up over several years and any success we’ve enjoyed is a result of keeping an eye on the critical metrics of our enterprise. Turning everything over to a stranger in the hopes they will be as diligent as you have been, is a bit of a stretch.

Of course, if you’ve built a large enterprise and have the luxury of professional managers in place, then stepping away may work. But this is not the reality of most small businesses.

No, its never as easy as just walking away and have someone send you a check every month. There’s just too much at risk.

When you consider that most small business owners have upwards of 80% of their wealth tied up in their business, you’ll certainly need to stay engaged in some manner, lest you wake up some day only to find your business wrecked on the side of the entrepreneurial highway. This is not like a guaranteed annuity that sends you a check every month until you die, without ever lifting a finger.

Further, do you want to risk having to reengage in your business after an extended absence from the industry if the manager doesn’t work out? If you’re like most of us, the answer is probably no!

What the uninitiated don’t realize is that most owners decide to sell because they feel it’s time to move on and take their chips off the table and leave the worries behind.
Hiring a manager and hoping they do well just gives you one more thing to worry about. Isn’t that what we are trying to leave behind?

The moral of the story

Every fairy tale has a moral and so does this one. It’s simply, watch where you get advice! It’s always easy to be an armchair quarterback and offer an opinion when you’ve spent your life on the sidelines.

Let’s remember that it’s just a fairy tale, there never was a goose that laid the golden eggs.

You may also enjoy SBM #42 Successful People Do the Hard Stuff

Get More LIFE Out of Your Business

You shouldn’t be the hardest working person in your company.

Many small business owners find that even after the struggling start-up years, they’re working too many hours and still managing every aspect of their businesses.

Do you suffer from any of the following?

1. Business ownership isn’t living up to the dream.
2. Endless workdays.
3. You can’t find good people.
4. Profits are less than expected.
5. You can never take a vacation.

You’re not alone. But there is a solution. As Greg demonstrates, with some time and effort, you really can Get More Life Out Of Your Business.

ORDER HERE

SBM #106 – 4 Ways to deal with difficult clients

Tagged as: clients, customers, difficult clients, entrepreneur, lost revenue, relationships, revenue, small business, small business expert, Small Business Minute, success

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

The reality of being a small business owner is that you are going to have difficult clients. How you deal with them comes down to how much you are willing to endure.

These are the clients that hire you because of your expertise, but then try to tell you how to run the project. They can also be the type that doesn’t respect your time or are late in getting you the information you need but still expect you to meet the original deadline. Of course, let’s not forget those that expect you do more than originally agreed upon, and don’t think they should be charged more. I could go on, but you get the point.

(more…)

SBM #103 Complacency

Tagged as: Airbnb, complacency, customers, entrepreneur, expectations, lazy owner, small business expert, Small Business Minute, standards

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

For Thanksgiving we decided to get the whole family together and rent an Airbnb. Since our family has grown significantly over the last few years with marriages and the explosion of grandchildren, we now require a much larger accommodation.

For the most part, many of the larger places also come with a higher price tag. In keeping with the higher price, such locations typically boast of a higher level of amenities. This is all good and is what it is.

As one would expect, with a higher price tag, there is an expectation that everything should be in working order and that cleanliness should be a priority, especially during this Covid era.

Unfortunately, what we encountered is a case of what I refer to as a “Lazy owner”. This is something I regularly caution all business owners against. No one sets out to be a lazy owner, but it happens to most of us at one time or another. Another term that can be easily substituted for Lazy owner is – complacency.

Complacency doesn’t just happen overnight, at least not for most people. No, it creeps in over time, where little by little we let our standards drop.

Short term vs long term complacency

Short term complacency is easy to understand and why it happens. When you consider that as entrepreneurs, we are always on and even for the best run companies, there are times when we have more issues to deal with than available resources. So, in our haste, we might let our standards drop a little.

However, once the storm has passed, conscientious owners usually up their game and re-establish their standards. Not ideal, but it happens.

Then there is the issue of long term complacency that has the potential to damage your business reputation. This kind of complacency truly reflects the lazy owner and is rooted in arrogance.

I say arrogance because the owners believe that they have a great product or service. It might be because it is popular and in demand now, so they feel they no longer have to try as hard anymore and dismiss any feedback as whining.

It’s been my experience that these owners used to sweat every detail about their business. They did so in order to establish themselves so, hard work is not foreign to them. In addition, their current success, reinforces that they have good instincts. Unfortunately, these good instincts can also lead owner to reject and negative feedback, because they think they are in tune. This combination can easily lull an owner into complacency.

Unfortunately, they fail to realize that they must put forth some effort in order to uphold those original standards. Sadly, many let success go to their heads and over time they lose sight of the finer points of their business and good enough becomes the norm.

Our experience

The Airbnb we selected had very high ratings and came with a price tag of $800/night. Not cheap but considering the size of our gang and the promised level of amenities, it was acceptable.

In general, the property met our expectations, however on closer observation, signs of complacency were everywhere. The following is the list of deficiencies we encountered during our 4 night stay:

1. Numerous burnt out light bulbs.
2. Very weak or no Wi-fi in many parts of the house. The listing stated working wi-fi however, the router was situated in a bedroom in the far corner of the original stone farmhouse which is not conducive for signal travel. Therefore, most of us had to use our cell phone data plans.
3. Satellite TV not functioning.
4. Water dispenser/ice machine on the fridge was non-functioning.
5. Remnants of leftover dry foodstuff from previous guests including empty containers.
6. An instruction manual that included updated data that was placed behind older instructions. The binder was full of with updated handwritten notes that conflicted with printed sheets and chalkboard information i.e., Wi-fi password, security codes, etc.
7. Numerous hairs found in and around master bedroom and bathroom.
8. A severely stained mattress and no mattress cover in one of the rooms. Unfortunately, it was not discovered until we were checking out
9. Unresponsive owner to text messages.

Except for the cleanliness issues, such as the hair and mattress cover, none of the items were a deal breaker, but it goes to show a level of inattention that is not acceptable.

So, what should have been done?

1. This owner should be doing is a quick walk around inspection between guests after the cleaning crew had left. Doing a walk around with a checklist would ensure the property was up to standards and that the cleaning crew was maintaining the property. I call this trust but verify.

2. Check the instruction manual. How hard would it be to check that the instruction book was up to date, without conflicting information? Writing in new information and scratching out the old is not acceptable.

3. If the appliances don’t work as expected, communicate that to the next guests or replace the unit.

4. Look up and around to ensure the lights are functioning.

5. Test the wi-fi and satellite tv and take corrective actions without the client having to discover sub-par performance. In other words, be proactive instead of reactive.

Unfortunately, this property appears to be consistently booked and therefore has effectively lulled the owner into a false sense complacency.

The review

After checkout, Airbnb requests a review of the stay. So, in a very diplomatic way, we mentioned the deficiencies. Unfortunately, the owner responded in what I like to call the “Not my fault syndrome”, suggesting that we were somehow at fault for some of the shortcomings and that we should have notified her, etc. etc. Which, by the way, we had attempted, but got no response.

So, instead of humbly apologizing, this owner goes on the attack. If you dig deep enough into the reviews of this property, you will discover that this a recurring pattern by this owner when faced with critical or negative reviews. Frankly, it’s not a great way to build relationships.

So, what’s the lesson?

I get it. We are all guilty of letting things slip occasionally, but it’s what you do about it that counts. When was the last time you took a fresh look at your office, retail space or warehouse? Is it looking a little tattered or cluttered with stuff? Are there a few more scuff marks on the wall or chipped paint than the last time you noticed?

What about your vehicles, are they clean and safe for your staff to drive? How do your employees look? Are they presentable or have their standards dropped? How do they talk to customers? Are they a little abrupt? How’s their language? Is it professional or a little too casual?

Even after you have asked all these questions, there is still a much bigger question to ask, and that is, how is your attitude? Because as an owner, you set the tone. Have you become little complacent and as result so have your employees?

Yes, these are all little things, but they go a long way to projecting your professionalism and show your customers that you are not a lazy owner.

Get More LIFE Out of Your Business

You shouldn’t be the hardest working person in your company.

Many small business owners find that even after the struggling start-up years, they’re working too many hours and still managing every aspect of their businesses.

Do you suffer from any of the following?

1. Business ownership isn’t living up to the dream.
2. Endless workdays.
3. You can’t find good people.
4. Profits are less than expected.
5. You can never take a vacation.

You’re not alone. But there is a solution. As Greg demonstrates, with some time and effort, you really can Get More Life Out Of Your Business.

ORDER HERE

SBM #102 Passion vs Passionate

Tagged as: advice, business, customers, entrepreneur, passion, passionate, professional speaker, sales, small business, small business expert, Small Business Minute, success

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

An often published piece of advice to aspiring and to lesser extent existing entrepreneurs is to follow your passion. By doing so, riches or success will surely be yours. But, as with most of these sound bites, this is rarely the case.

Let’s be honest. There’s lots of things that people have a passion for that could never support their dream lifestyle. Unless of course their dream is to just grind out a meager living.

There are plenty of examples of bankrupt restauranteurs who have a passion for cooking but couldn’t run a restaurant. What about the numerous clothing stores that couldn’t make it even though the owner’s passion was fashion?

Plenty of people have a passion for gardening, knitting, pottery, or music, but few would ever be able to or even consider creating anything more than a side hustle that adds a few dollars in their pockets. Of course, there are always the exceptions to this, but they are by far in the minority.

Be Passionate

So, just because you have a passion for something doesn’t mean you can make a business out of it. But then what would happen to all those “Follow your passion” sound bites and their perpetrators?

So instead of “Follow your passion”, what we should be promoting is “Be passionate about what you do!” To some this may be just semantics, but it’s far more than that. It’s about believing that what you do provides a better solution for your customers and not just wishful thinking.

Another way to look at it is that being passionate more closely resembles enthusiasm whereas having a passion is more emotional.

Merriam-Webster defines enthusiasm as having a strong feeling of active interest in something that you like or enjoy. The operative words being “active interest”. Emotions on the other hand, is defined as a strong feeling such as love, anger, joy, hate or fear.

Being passionate is also about continually trying to improve what you do. It’s about immersing yourself in the industry and grasping its nuances. It’s about becoming a student of your industry and the needs of its customers. In other words, to strive to be an expert.

What are you good at?

Another reason being passionate wins out over passion, is because being passionate usually means your good at something. You’ve found a niche that allows you to excel and therefore you just naturally gravitate towards the area where learning and subject matter information is easily consumed.

At the end of the day, most of us would never achieve any level of success if we just followed our passion. And having talked with hundreds of successful entrepreneurs it was interesting that most didn’t follow their passion.

As a matter of fact, I don’t recall anyone of them telling me they followed their passion. No, most just saw an opportunity that aligned with their skill set and went for it. But they were passionate about what they were doing. Being “passionate” about what you do, is far better advice than “follow your passion” in my opinion.

You may also enjoy SBM #64 Defining Moments

Get More LIFE Out of Your Business

You shouldn’t be the hardest working person in your company.

Many small business owners find that even after the struggling start-up years, they’re working too many hours and still managing every aspect of their businesses.

Do you suffer from any of the following?

1. Business ownership isn’t living up to the dream.
2. Endless workdays.
3. You can’t find good people.
4. Profits are less than expected.
5. You can never take a vacation.

You’re not alone. But there is a solution. As Greg demonstrates, with some time and effort, you really can Get More Life Out Of Your Business.

ORDER HERE

SBM #97 Think

Tagged as: Canada, entrepreneur, focus, knowledge, professional speaker, small business expert, Small Business Minute, social media, strategic thinking, think, worry

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

“Five percent of the people think; ten percent of the people think they think; and the other eighty-five percent would rather die than think”. This often repeated quote is regularly but wrongly attributed to Thomas Edison, Henry Ford and philosopher Bertrand Russell, all big thinkers in their own right. The reason for this is that they all had similar thoughts on the on the capacity or desire of humans to think, because thinking is hard work and most shy away from it. By the way, the actual author is Woods Hutchinson, an American physician who published “Balanced Work” in an edition of The Saturday Evening Post.

As entrepreneurs we are faced with a myriad of decisions we must make on any given day and quite frankly it can be exhausting. Couple that with all our other responsibilities, it leaves little time or more precisely, the energy to think. By think I mean intentionally focusing on a problem, opportunity, or challenge without distraction for an extended period of time as we search for the best solution. This is often referred to critical thinking.

Think not worry!

This is one of the reasons I repeatedly tell my audiences that as entrepreneurs, they need to make time to think. They need to find a way or a place to mentally retreat from all the day to day noise of our businesses and concentrate on the issue. For years I have used my daily walk or bike ride to ponder an issue. This 30 to 60 minute escape effectively disconnects me from all the other noise or distractions and provides focus time needed. I do not always resolve the issue, but this diversion usually provides a fertile field for ideas from which to germinate.

Too often people confuse worry with thinking and that is a mistake because there is a big difference between the two. Worry usually has too much emotional baggage attached to it and often has negative connotations that cloud our judgement. Whereas critical thinking on the other hand, is starting with a clean sheet and an opportunity mindset. This sets the stage to evaluate the issue or issues from a 360 degree perspective. The other upside to pondering our own solutions, is that it enhances our decision making process. To seriously think requires you to draw on all your knowledge and to determine any gaps you may have. Researching these gaps then adds to your knowledge and the more knowledge we gain, the more information we have to apply against future decisions.

Another way to look at it, is thinking is like exercise for the brain. As with all exercise it builds strength, resilience, and endurance to specific parts of our bodies. The same principle applies to thinking. The more we do it, the better we become, which in turn allows you to perform at a higher level.

The impact of Social Media

Although based purely on my observations, I see a disturbing trend evolving with many entrepreneurs and, for that matter, many individuals. They turn to various forums on social media platforms to solve their every problem. To my way of thinking this is doing the individual a disservice. Relying on others to help you make a decision does nothing to enhance your skill in this all important area.

To be sure two heads can be better than one, but hundreds of opinions, not so much. The problem is the audience lacks the context of your specific situation and are better used when dealing technical issues rather than directional ones. Relying on others does absolutely nothing to enhance this much needed entrepreneurial skill set. Just remember old saying that “practice makes perfect”.

IBM – Think

Thinking was so important that for years IBM had the word THINK strategically placed above every doorway as a reminder. They expected their employees to solve problems both internally and externally for their customers. Apparently, the origin stems from an uninspiring sales meeting. Thomas Watson, the founder interrupted the meeting, saying “The trouble with every one of us is that we don’t think enough. We don’t get paid for working with our feet — we get paid for working with our heads”. Watson then wrote THINK on the easel. (Wikipedia). The word THINK has since long been an IBM trademark and they even named their laptops ThinkPads, that are now owned by Lenovo.

The ability to think critically opens our minds to our own possibilities and if done well it allows you to solve problems or envision what your future could be. By thinking through the pros and cons and all the what ifs, allows you to distill a course of action that is home grown and is tailored to your specific needs. But it cannot happen unless you make the time to think.

You may also enjoy 10 things to overcome business failure

Get More LIFE Out of Your Business

You shouldn’t be the hardest working person in your company.

Many small business owners find that even after the struggling start-up years, they’re working too many hours and still managing every aspect of their businesses.

Do you suffer from any of the following?

1. Business ownership isn’t living up to the dream.
2. Endless workdays.
3. You can’t find good people.
4. Profits are less than expected.
5. You can never take a vacation.

You’re not alone. But there is a solution. As Greg demonstrates, with some time and effort, you really can Get More Life Out Of Your Business.

ORDER HERE

SBM #96 Where’s Your Wealth?

Tagged as: Canada, entrepreneur, greg weatherdon, money, profit, small business expert, Small Business Minute, successful, wealth

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

For newly minted entrepreneurs, the biggest priority is to generate revenue, any revenue in an effort to transition from struggling to profitable enterprise. To those of us who have made the crossing, we have more often than not sacrificed our own financial needs in order to create a proper fiscal foundation for our business. Because so few of us ever get investor capital, we are left to our own devices to fund our enterprises. That’s okay. As that old saying goes “What doesn’t kill us, makes us stronger!”

Unfortunately, we have trouble letting go of this attitude once the business moves off life support and begins breathing on its’ own. Of course this is understandable. Having lived through the tough times, it’s not something we’re eager to revisit. So under the guise of “reinvesting in the company”, we continue to pour our profits back into the organization and rarely do we consider taking it out of the company. Not to spend on toys, but to take some risk off the table.

80% of owners wealth is in their company

Considering most business owners hold upwards of 80% of their wealth in their business, this “all your eggs in one basket” scenario is a high risk situation. Ask these same owners if they would invest 80% of their net worth in shares of just one company on the stock exchange and they would certainly question your sanity. Yet these same individuals don’t think twice about their current wealth strategy.

In my case, I had set a target of getting 66% of my wealth outside of my operating company and to provide some form of creditor protection. I did this not because I was anticipating any sort of business crisis, but because I realized I didn’t want all that I had worked for to be totally dependent on the future performance of me and my company.

5 simple steps to get you started

Okay, so where and when do you begin? The following steps may help you frame your own initiative. Your corporate structure will dictate what vehicles are available to you and by all means consult your accountant, lawyer, financial planner and any other professional you need to maximize the effectiveness of this strategy

Make sure you’re taking a regular dependable salary. Not your dream salary, but one that allows you to work without the stress of your personal financial situation overwhelming your decision making. In other words comfortably covering your basic needs.
Begin formally moving a set amount from your current account to your chosen vehicle i.e. holding company, corporate savings account, etc. The formula you choose can range from 5% of all your billings that automatically gets transferred monthly to upwards of 50% of annual profit being transitioned out.
This money should not be put at risk in another venture.
Although minimizing taxation is always important, it can’t be the deciding factor.
Eventually you will have transferred at least a portion of your wealth and created another pillar in your financial portfolio.

Freedom and security

If you were expecting some magic formula, I’m sorry to disappoint. This is basic wealth management, a rainy day fund, often ignored by business owners. Too many owners are hoping to cash-in when they sell their companies and are devastated when they can’t sell or get significantly less than they anticipated and have no additional source of wealth.

Being an eternal optimist is a necessary ingredient to having any chance of success as an entrepreneur, but it needs to be tempered with a bit of realism. It’s truly amazing the sense of freedom and security you feel when you’ve consciously created an additional source of wealth outside your operating company.

How you do it is up to you, but starting today in small increments is a must, because like a journey of a thousand miles, financial freedom begins with a single small step.

You may also enjoy The 1st Million is the Hardest

Get More LIFE Out of Your Business

You shouldn’t be the hardest working person in your company.

Many small business owners find that even after the struggling start-up years, they’re working too many hours and still managing every aspect of their businesses.

Do you suffer from any of the following?

1. Business ownership isn’t living up to the dream.
2. Endless workdays.
3. You can’t find good people.
4. Profits are less than expected.
5. You can never take a vacation.

You’re not alone. But there is a solution. As Greg demonstrates, with some time and effort, you really can Get More Life Out Of Your Business.

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Category: Self Improvement

Why step back?

So when do you lead from the front?

Let’s first look at some crises situations:

And now opportunity situations

The switch

Don’t jump in

Time well spent.

People go to work to be successful!

Get More LIFE Out of Your Business

Putting lipstick on a pig

I ain’t buying the place

Out of sync

Do you care enough?

What you can do to improve the customer experience

What’s stressing you out?

Get More LIFE Out of Your Business

Small Business

Invention

Innovation

The wristwatch

My experience

My innovation

Innovation through adaptation

Get More LIFE Out of Your Business

Get More LIFE Out of Your Business

We do it all!

The moral of the story

Get More LIFE Out of Your Business

Short term vs long term complacency

Our experience

So, what should have been done?

The review

So, what’s the lesson?

Get More LIFE Out of Your Business

Be Passionate

What are you good at?

Get More LIFE Out of Your Business

Think not worry!

The impact of Social Media

IBM – Think

Get More LIFE Out of Your Business

80% of owners wealth is in their company

5 simple steps to get you started

Freedom and security

Get More LIFE Out of Your Business

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