small business Archives - Greg Weatherdon

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 #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

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 #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

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.

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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

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 #99 Are You Ready?

Tagged as: entrepreneur, entrepreneurship, office, small business, Small Business Minute, work life balance

With the vaccine rollouts well under way in many countries, the talk has turned to the reopening of the economies. One of the biggest issues facing many entrepreneurs, is the return to the workplace.

At the start of the pandemic, millions of office workers were sent home to work remotely. Once the initial technical issues were resolved, everybody seemed to profess that they are never going back to the office and their future was a zero commute remote work environment.

So confident that this new structure would be the new forever normal, many moved out of the big cities to rural or small communities, never expecting to commute again. Unfortunately, this might be a decision that they come to regret.

Understandably, no one knew if or when a vaccine would be developed. However, in less than two years many countries are experiencing high vaccination rates and are slowly reopening much of their economies as life returns to some form of normalcy.

So, what’s next? Well for starters, offices will begin to reopen, and people will be required to show up for work. Just wait for the howls of injustice, that after more than a year of remote work, employees will be required to be physically present at their place of work. But, the interesting thing is that this vocal group may be in the minority.

Research

Recent research from KPMG is revealing that the majority of employees want to return to the workplace stating they “miss the social interaction, the buzz, the creativity of being at work”. However, they do want some form of hybrid arrangement combining the opportunity of working remotely part of the week.

Interestingly, another survey conducted by Accenture of financial firms in the US shows that 80% of executives want their employees to return office at least 4 to 5 days a week. Clearly there’s a misalignment between employee and employer expectations.

Just to muddy the waters a little more, EY conducted another survey, whereby more than half the employees surveyed around the world would consider leaving their job post covid-19, if they are not afforded some form of flexibility in where and when they work.

This juxtaposition could prove quite interesting for both parties. When you consider that most employers want people in the office, where exactly are those employees willing to leave their present positions going to go?

Lots of discussion

Apparently, HR consulting firms and employment lawyers have been exceptionally busy over the past 18 months. For the most part they been dealing with work from home challenges many businesses have had to manage, and it doesn’t look like it will subside any time soon.

The new challenge is how to deal with the return to office post Covid-19.

But, depending on the jurisdiction, employees may not have much choice as to where they work. According to some employment lawyers, employers have the right to expect their employees to return to the office as the pandemic was an aberration or a departure from the norm and didn’t change the employment contract.

Granted, for some businesses, working from home may not be an issue and therefore will continue the practice. However, other employers will be less open to continuing the work from home concept. This is primarily because the pandemic has shown that communications, productivity, and creativity has suffered because of remote working.

In SBM #89, Work From Home I related how IBM recalled 11,000 of their employees back to the office 18 months after sending them home to work remotely. They realized that they were missing out on the innovation that happened through in person interactions. So, I think there’s an opportunity to learn from their experience.

Now what?

So, the question to small business owners is what are you going to do? This question needs to be dealt with now and should not be put off, because once the economies reopen, you may be just too busy to give this the necessary thought.

The best advice I can give any employer is to decide what you want. Yes, it’s important to weigh the needs of your employees against any decision you make. But one thing we must remember is that your business is not a democracy. At the end of the day, it’s your business, your vision and your decision. The buck really does stop with you.

Managing the desire of employees to work when and where they want to will be an absolute nightmare for most small businesses. And let’s be honest, the reason many employees want this flexibility is that they are free to do what they want, when they want to do it. Whether that’s going to the gym or shopping and they’ll just do the work at nights or on weekends.

When you consider that prior to the pandemic the clarion call was for work life balance and the separation of the two. Now some have reversed their position solely in order to support their desire for utmost flexibility. Unfortunately, that’s not how the world works. Business needs to operate in a structured environment, where individuals can depend on their teammates to be available when needed.

For example, when everyone was working 9 to 5 at the office and a crisis erupted, the typical reaction was to gather everyone around and brainstorm a solution. The same could be said about an urgent opportunity. However, with everyone working when they want, chances are your company can’t effectively react with the urgency that these situations require. Unless of course you mandate that everyone needs to be available during normal working hours, but that is contra to their desire to work where and when they want.

Will a hybrid model work?

Much discussion has taken place around some form of hybrid solution, whereby employees work part of the time in the office and the rest of the time at home. This may be easier for a large company but probably less so for a small business.

Another major challenge to the hybrid model, is who gets to participate? It could be argued that administrative people can split their work, but what about the person responsible for shipping, receiving or order fulfillment? How do you make this situation equitable?

Another way to look at it, is if your employees were unhappy before pandemic, you probably have a leadership or other issues. However, if for the most part everyone was happy before Covid-19, then why should you change?

For many entrepreneurs, this situation is going to cause a few sleepless nights as they try to weigh their needs versus the needs of their employees. But at the end of the day, you have got to do what’s best for the business.

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

A year ago, had you asked small business owners what 5 things could put them out of business?, I would have bet a pandemic would not have been on their top 10 let alone their top 50 things. But a lot has changed in just over a year. According to the CFIB (Canadian Federation of Independent Businesses), it is estimated that 1 in 6 small businesses won’t survive because of Covid-19. The UK is also predicting hundreds of thousands of failures with the US expecting that number to exceed 1 million according to McKinsey.

Assuming the 1 in 6 estimate to be true, that means that approximately 83% of small businesses will survive. Most certainly won’t flourish and it’ll take a long time to recover, but they will survive. Unfortunately, with the ongoing lockdowns, just surviving is incredibly stressful, to say nothing about how exhausting it can be.

5 areas that require every owners attention

Managing the work-from-home environment is not easy for most small business owners. For many, current technology has made it possible to continue, but only after a number of implementation headaches and costs. The learning curve has been steep. Because for many, technology is just something they’ve never understood.

What we need to understand, is that most small businesses are run in an impromptu or spontaneous manner. The owners have been so busy trying grow their businesses prior to the pandemic, that the majority lacked formal processes. Most just spent their days acting, or more accurately, reacting to whatever the day had instore for them. They are more like fire fighters directing their staff on a moment to moment basis depending what fire was burning the most brightly.

To be sure this pandemic has forced a few owners to get better organized in how they structure their working days, but for many it has become quite the challenge in keeping everyone focused, productive and motivated. In episode #93 Pivot, I discussed the whole concept of pivoting, which is far more difficult than people are led to believe, but so is changing the way a company operates.

So this brings me to my question – What 3 things would put you out of business? Well if you are surviving, you can scratch off pandemic. Sadly, because so many entrepreneurs are so focused in the moment, they don’t realize there are a whole host of issues that can kill their
businesses in a heart beat. The following is a primer list of 5 pretty common areas that require every owners attention, in order to safeguard their business’s future.

“Those who think they have not time for bodily exercise, will sooner or later have to find time for illness.”

Edward Stanley, former Prime Minister of the UK

#1 Your health

Unfortunately, most of us don’t even consider what would happen to their life’s work if they were suddenly struck with an injury or worse a life threatening illness. What would happen to the business if you were laid up? Would it survive? If not, what would you do for income? How would you handle the debt? How would it affect your family? This is serious stuff and requires your attention. Contrary to what we think, we are not invincible.

The following are few of solutions that you can minimize the impact of a health problem.

First off, you should investigate disability insurance. Yes, it can be expensive and yes, it usually pays out less than you’re currently earning. But something is better than nothing.

Secondly, many health related issues are self inflicted by our lifestyle. Making time for some form of exercise should be mandatory for every owner. It can range from taking a daily walk to a full on cross-fit workout at the gym. Something is better than nothing. There’s a wonderful saying that kind of drives the point home and it is from Edward Stanley, former Prime Minister of the UK that says:

“Those who think they have not time for bodily exercise, will sooner or later have to find time for illness.”

An additional item that should be mandatory in every small business and that is delegate. By delegating absolutely everything you can to your existing staff, this will certainly relieve some of the pressure. That way, there’s a good chance that the business will survive, while you are laid up. Unfortunately, this is one of the hardest things to get entrepreneurs to do. (See Small Business Minute #18 Delegating is easier than you think)

#2 Key staff quits.

Having your key staff member quit can really ruin a perfectly good day and for some people it can take their business down.

People leave companies for a lot of reasons and sometimes there is nothing you can have do to prevent it. From career changes, to better opportunities to relocations, sometimes it’s just out of your hands. But in many cases it’s not. One of the top reasons employees leave is the lack of recognition and this is something you can control. An occasional pat on the back or some other form appreciation goes a long way. It can be as simple as a thank you for their efforts.

However, if a key employee leaves, what’s your plan? If you’re like most you don’t have one and chances are you don’t have a deep bench of trained people ready to assume that position.

Therefore one of the best things you can do is to cross train individuals. The secondary person doesn’t have to be as well versed as the key person, but they should have been given enough exposure that they could perform the job being vacated even though they may be less efficient.

Additionally, creating in depth documented processes for all positions, allows other personnel to perform those functions until such time as you can find a replacement. This will go a long way to ensure that your company will survive. (see SBM #34 Processes- Shampoo, Rinse and Repeat)

#3 Business interruption

Covid-19 aside, there are lots of things that can cause business interruptions. A flood, a fire, even vandalism can shut your business down for weeks, if not months. A closed business can’t generate cashflow, yet bills still need to be paid.

It is estimated that over 80% of small businesses have no form of business interruption insurance that would pay out a set dollar amount in the event of a catastrophe. This is different than typical commercial/business insurance, whereby the physical damage to your business is repaired. Business Interruption on the other hand can cover Gross Earnings, Profits, Extra Expenses. Certainly worth considering.

#4 Competition

What would happen if a new competitor came into your market, how would you deal with it? Being so focused on the here and now, is a great way to get caught off guard. As I’ve stated before, too many entrepreneurs are so busy just handling the daily priorities, they never have time to lift their heads up to see what going.

Inevitably, they are not even aware of that a competitor has set up shop until they start stealing your customers. By the time they do realize what’s happening that trickle of desertions turns into a flood and is hard to reverse.

One of the best ways to avoid getting sideswiped is to stay in touch with all your customers on a regular basis. Too often the only time business owners talk with their customers is when they call in an order. The thought is, “they know where we are if they need us and I don’t want to bother them.”

Staying in regular contact with customers signals that they are important to your business and can also provide you with competitive intelligence. Most customer don’t change on a whim unless you’ve treated them poorly. So, by staying in touch the fact that a competitor is circling is often shared, thereby giving you time to react. (See SBM #76 Pick up the phone)

#5 Bad debt

This one item alone has contributed to the demise of many small businesses. Aside from not being diligent in collecting receivables, having one customer represent more than 15% of your business can be potential fatal if they close their doors or refuse to pay.

When you consider that many small businesses have net incomes of less than 10%, taking a hit from a major customer can be devastating. For example if a client reneges on a $20,000 invoice and you only net 10%, you’ll need to generate $200,000 in additional revenue just to recover that loss.

When you think about it, most small business are not flush with spare cash, missing out a major payment means you can’t cover payroll, rent or suppliers.

If you do find yourself with a client that represents more than 15%, you have two choices. First grow your business to get them below that threshold or alternatively collect early and often. Don’t forget you can set the rules, so don’t be shy about protecting your company. (See SBM #20 Cash Flow, the Breath of Life).

These are just 5 areas that should get you thinking, but every business has it’s Achilles heel. Spending some time thinking about “What 3 things would put you out of business?” certainly deserves your attention. Then pick the #1 item on your list and make a plan.

Let me know your thought sand ideas in the comment section.

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

Pivot! Just pivot! That’s what your being told if you’re having challenges running your SME. It’s another one of those words that actually had value once upon a time. Now, it’s so abused that’s it’s nothing more than a throwaway statement by individuals who want to sound like they’re offering intelligent advice, but really aren’t. Realistically, most businesses can’t pivot.

If we’re to be honest, most individuals have a heck of a time coming up with one idea that they can get excited enough about to take the plunge. That doesn’t mean it’s a good idea. It’s just an idea that they’re prepared to risk their time, energy and resources on to make happen. Even then the failure rate exceeds 50% in the first 3 years and upwards of 85% in 5 years.

So my point is pivot to what? It’s so hard to have one idea let alone coming up with a second one, especially when under duress. I say duress because you wouldn’t even be considering pivoting if everything is running along fine.

No, most often a pivot or rethink is a result of a failed idea, a competitive threat or 100 year storm such as Covid-19. So I say duress because in most cases your business is heading to the ground with the power on and you’re desperate. And when things get desperate, we need a fix and in a hurry. That usually means doing something, anything to generate revenue and stop the bleeding. Unfortunately, being stressed out is not necessarily the best time to make decisions.

The news is full of stories showcasing various companies that have reinvented themselves during Covid-19. But on closer inspection of the stories, I don’t think they’d qualify as pivots as much as a survival strategy.

It’s about survival

For example, how many clothing manufacturers converted their sewing rooms from producing apparel, to manufacturing medical masks? I’m pretty sure they’re not going to continue once the storm has passed. It’s a safe bet that most will return to fashion as soon as they can. This is not a pivot, it’s about survival.

The same can be said about distillers and micro brewers who started producing hand sanitizer. This is not a long term strategy. It’s about generating some short term cash flow by utilizing existing facilities and processes. Which at it’s core is distilling alcohol. It’s nothing more than a finger in the dyke. Once demand is satisfied, then what?

“Chances are their pivot is only a few degrees off of their original idea”

Alternatively, some businesses have got nowhere to turn. Take the hospitality industry for instance. They can’t just convert their hotels rooms into alternative use. To be sure restaurants can offer takeout or delivery, but that’s not a pivot. It’s just an extension or alternative to what they are already doing and sadly won’t cover their costs. Again, it’s a just matter of generating some cashflow and of survival.

Retail is another example. Making your offering available online because of a massive drop in walk-in traffic, certainly sounds easy. But it’s a lot more involved than most imagine. Such as setting up your website, getting and managing your inventory online and establishing your payment gateway. None of it is easy and it costs money. Money that most small businesses don’t have.

Let’s not forget all the time and energy required to promote and get visible once you are setup online. That of course assumes you have the necessary skills to begin with. Granted, you can try to learn these new skills, but that takes time. In the meanwhile, you still have rent and utilities to pay.

Yes, there are companies that have managed to pivot and have found success. That just tells me that their original idea probably may not have been as sustainable as they first thought. However, these companies appear to be sufficiently versed in their industry that they’ve managed to leverage their insights and skills to offer an alternative solution. Chances are their pivot is only a few degrees off of their original idea and not a wholesale change.

My Pivot

After 8 years of running my first company, The Sales Support Company, I realized that I was working way too hard and felt like I was treading water. Even though revenues were continually growing at a nice rate, it never translated into any significant profit.

The company provided retail sales services representing some of the world’s largest packaged goods companies. I had 150 employees working coast to coast at a time before the internet and cell phones. Because of that, communicating with regional supervisors always took place after hours, so the days were long. It finally got to the point where I was just tired of trying to make it work. I was putting in endless hours, getting no closer to my goals and not making any money.

I knew the industry still required our type of service. So, I set out to come up with alternative method to service these stores. Two key criteria were, that it had to be profitable and give me a better quality of life. So, my pivot was to take what we were doing “live and in person” and attempt to do it via telemarketing, which really hadn’t been done before.

In order to find out if this idea would fly, I created Marketing Resource Group and tested the concept over the next 18 months. This happened all the while still running my other company.

Since it was a new concept for the industry, it did require a lot of convincing clients to test it. Fortunately, one by one clients began to support the concept as we were able to deliver the promised results.

More importantly though, is that this pivot was actually fulfilling my first priority of being profitable. My second criteria of having a better quality of life would be up to me, but profits would go a long way to making that happen.

Once I could see the momentum growing for our service, I sold The Sales Support Company. Well actually, it was more like I gave it away, but that’s a story for another time.

My pivot worked so well, I kept The Marketing Resource Group for 17 years before selling it. At which point we were making over 300,000 calls a year in Canada and the US.

Advantages

The point of that story is that I got to test the concept while I still had my first company. Although I was extremely well versed in retail sales and service, I knew nothing about telemarketing.

So the test phase allowed me to learn, trial, and refine the concept on my schedule. Unlike typical telemarketing organization that is script driven, our service had to be adapted to creating long term relationships. That’s why having the luxury of testing and refining made this pivot possible. Doing it overnight would not have had the same results and most likely would have failed.

A couple of advantages that I had that increased my odds at pulling off a successful pivot were:

I knew the industry and
I had a solid relationship with existing pool of potential clients that I could leverage.

As I stated before, most sustainable pivots are only a few degrees off the original idea and not massive wholesale changes. If we’re to be honest, there are far more businesses that can’t pivot, than those that can.

Sometimes that pivot can mean throwing in the towel, cut your losses and live to fight another day.

You may also enjoy SBM #82 Starting Over

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

Podcast

SBM #92 The 2 Biggest Mistakes

Tagged as: bankrupt, business, customer centric, Dennis Geelen, fail, failure, flexible, innovation, small business, small business expert, Small Business Minute, speaker, value add

This is a guest post by Dennis Geelen of Zero In.

Take a minute and think of a few companies that pop into your head that were once seen as leaders in their industry but, for one reason or another, eventually came crashing back down to Earth. Maybe they have since been surpassed and are no longer a household name. Perhaps they filed for bankruptcy. Or maybe you are thinking of a company that was forced to close its doors and shut down for good.

Why be Customer Centric?

When I ask people to go through this exercise, many typical companies pop into their head. Blockbuster, Kodak, and Sears being among the most notorious that come to mind.

But the truth is, most businesses are not set up for long-term success. Any company that is currently a leader in their industry could potentially be a footnote in history 5 to 10 years from now.

In fact, the stats are staggering. 25% of all new businesses do not make it past the first 2 years. 50% don’t make it past the 5-year mark and only a quarter of businesses end up being sustainable past 15 years.

That is insane! The obvious question here is ‘why’?

To answer that question, we need to look at some trends that so many companies (large and small) tend to fall victim to. Whether they got off on the wrong foot from the beginning or whether these trends slowly creep into the business over time, they are both common to so many businesses and ultimately cause their demise.

They are, or they become, too inward focussed
They are, or they become, too set in their ways

Let’s examine each of these issues and I am sure you will be able to see these trends in so many businesses (maybe even your own!).

First, there is the issue of being too inward focussed. By this I mean that they have a tendency to spend the majority of their time thinking, talking, analyzing, and strategizing about their products, their services, or their financials.

Now don’t get me wrong, these are all important things to consider and manage in a company. However, a major focus (probably the biggest) should be outward. Your customers. Who are they? Why do they purchase your product or service? What value are you adding? Why do some choose your competitors products or services?

Being a customer centric company, top to bottom, from your purpose, to your sales, to your marketing, to operations helps protect you from fixating inward too much and losing touch with why you are in business in the first place.

Second, there is the issue of a business being too set in their ways. By this I mean that a business can become too rigid over time. This happens when a company has found processes, methodologies, or business models that they believe very strongly in (and likely for good reason). However, unless you have been living under a rock the past 20 years you understand that things change, and sometimes fast! If you find you or your team members saying ‘this is the way we do things around here’ your business may be at risk of falling into this trap. You might be too rigid.

A more subtle way that this can happen is that your business becomes too complacent. In this case, the phrase you may hear amongst your team members is “if it isn’t broken, why fix it?” Now I am not saying that businesses should invoke change just for the sake of change, but you easily run the risk of getting into a complacent comfort zone and be ill prepared to be nimble and flexible and open to change when you have to be. Whether your business is too rigid or too complacent, watch out!

Set yourself up!

The antidote to this issue is to foster a culture of innovation. Businesses need to be intentional about always finding new and better ways to deliver value to their customers. They can do this by implementing principles and practices so that their employees are encouraged to come up with new ideas (in a structured environment) and then pilot them and see how they resonate.

When disruptors come along (competitors, economic downturns, changes in consumer habits, pandemics, and so on) businesses need to have a culture of innovation in place so that they can be flexible and pivot quickly as needed

So how do you protect your business from becoming the next statistic and falling prey to these 2 mistakes? Be intentional about turning your company into one that is customer centric and innovative. Set yourself up for long-term success.

You may also enjoy Innovation Starts at Home

THE ZERO IN FORMULA, Dennis Geelen’s latest book, challenges business owners, CEOs, and leaders to think differently about their company.

In THE ZERO IN FORMULA Geelen walks you through the recipe. You will learn what it means to be customer centric, with strategies and tools you can apply to your business. You will understand what it means to be truly innovative, with principles and practices you can implement. You will be guided through the recipe step-by-step to build your successful foundation. You will learn from stories and examples of other businesses and their successes and failures. Whether your business is just starting out and looking for a blueprint to follow over time, or your organization is an existing business and you realize you need to make some corrections and get back on a better course, this book is your guide.

https://www.zero-in.ca

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

I’ve been wanting to golf at a rural course for a number of years now. The reason is that this golf course now sits upon farmland that was once owned by two of my uncles. I had spent a lot of time of these farms as a kid growing up and I had only played the course once many years before and my memory suggested it wasn’t a bad little course.

So when a neighbour suggested that we get out for a round of golf, I recommended we go to this course and told him about my family heritage. He agreed and a tee time was booked.

For the sake of brevity, let’s just say the course condition was less than stellar. The fairways and greens looked like they hadn’t seen water the whole season and were harder than concrete. Needless to say I was a little embarrassed that I had recommended the course.

“…playing on what was the equivalent of a parking lot didn’t help.”

Aside from the terrible course condition, the signage was askew, and you were left to your own devices to find your way between holes. All in all, not a great experience and my score reflected my frustration. Heck, golf is hard enough at times and playing on what was the equivalent of a parking lot didn’t help.

My Google review

So, having wasted good money playing a bad course, I felt compelled to leave a Google review. Needless to say they only received a one-star and my write-up stated that the course was unkept and appeared to be unloved as well. I further stated that they clearly couldn’t maintain 36 holes, so maybe they should try to focus on 18 and do it better.

About a week or so later, I noticed a message alert in my Facebook feed. To my surprise, it was from the course operation manager asking if we could chat, to which I agreed.

This individual went on to tell me that my review pained him because they are family owned and they work hard. He further explained that their water pump had been down for three weeks and that they’d been hauling water day and night during the hottest time of the year. He then proceeded to ask me to remove my review now that he had explained his position.

My initial response to his request was that he should have let us know at the time that the course was unplayable and let us make the decision to play, or they should have offered some form of discount when we showed up. This is a common theme with many small businesses, when they are unable to provide an acceptable level of service for whatever reason. They just keep quiet and continue to charge their regular fees, instead of coming clean and being honest.

Responding to Google reviews helps

It’s been my experience, that the main driver for this type of behaviour is that they are so in need of the revenue, that they place customer service or experience a distant second. But what they don’t realize is that this attitude costs them far more in the long run and just compounds an already bad situation.

I further suggested to the individual that they should reply to my comment on Google because people want to see how businesses react to bad reviews. I also told him that responding to bad reviews with a legitimate reason actually has a positive impact. He responded that they would just prefer that I remove the original comment because they don’t think they should have to air their disputes in public.

Shortly after this, the conversation started going off the rails. I explained to him that I wasn’t prepared to remove my comments, because I experienced a subpar course regardless of the reasons. In addition, I also wanted him respond to my review as I knew it was in his best interest, but he wanted none of that.

The point of this story is that far too many businesses fail to pay attention to the impact of good or bad reviews can have on your business. But even more importantly, is the impact you can have in responding to any and all reviews. Just think of how you go about searching for goods or services on Google. Once you’ve narrowed down the search results, do you read the Google reviews? How do you react when you see reviews that have no response from the business owner? How do you feel when there is honest commentary from the business owner to each comment?

When asked, most people agree that they value Google reviews when researching businesses and the research overwhelmingly support this position. Unfortunately, too many businesses do not pay any attention to this free resource and it’s costing them a lot of business.

Google provides every business the ability to be listed in their search results. It’s always of interest to me when I do a search within an industry to see businesses that haven’t claimed their listing. To find out if your business is listed, simply go to Google my Business. If your business is not listed, they make it quite easy to get a listing included in their search results by logging in and completing your business profile. That way you’ll be able to get the benefits of having Google reviews

In a recent survey by BrightLocal, an online agency that helps marketers working with a local business do their job better, found the following key statistics:

Key Statistics

90% of consumers used the internet to find a local business in the last year, with 33% looking every day
82% of consumers read online reviews for local businesses, with 52% of 18-54-year-olds saying they ‘always’ read reviews
The average consumer reads 10 reviews before feeling able to trust a business
Only 53% of people would consider using a business with less than 4 stars
The average consumer spends 13 minutes and 45 seconds reading reviews before making a decision
Among consumers that read reviews, 97% read businesses’ responses to reviews

A link to the complete survey results can be found here:

https://www.brightlocal.com/research/local-consumer-review-survey/#influence-of-reviews

Additionally, research has also found that consumer give more credibility to businesses that respond to reviews, good or bad. That’s because it shows that the business actually cares about their customer service. For proof, just think about how you react to reviews with and without responses from the business. I know how I feel, but to qualify this, I asked approximately 10 people what their thoughts were regarding businesses that respond to reviews. 100% agreed that they look favourably upon those businesses that take the time to respond.

Make them personal

If you’re going to respond to review, avoid the standard cut and paste responses, such as “Thank you” and make them a little personal. Whatever you do, do not offer any discounts or bribes to people in order to get them to write a Google review. It’s highly frowned upon by Google should they find out and will seriously impact your search ranking. However, asking people for reviews is quite acceptable and worthwhile.

As for my little story, in order to end my conversation with the individual, I stated that I will consider updating my comments to reflect that the owner did reach out to me. However, after further ruminating on the subject, I decided not to update my comments. My rationale was that it’s not my responsibility to do his job.

I’d like to know your thoughts if you were faced with a similar situation. So, leave your comments below.

You may also enjoy Want More Sales-Follow up

If you found this of value, please pass this along to any business owner that you fell could benefit by understanding the upside to Google reviews.

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 #86 – Entrepreneurs in Crisis

Tagged as: control, crisis, customers, employees, entrepreneur, small business, small business expert, Small Business Minute

Covid-19 is creating utter chaos for many small business owners. Fear is taken hold of many owners as they wonder what’s next? No one knows when or if they’ll reopen. Most don’t want to admit out loud what they are secretly thinking-bankruptcy. It’s just too difficult to fathom.

Making any kind of decision while under duress is never a good idea. We’re just not thinking clearly. This is especially true when your dream or life long work is about to evaporate in front of your eyes.

Covid-19 has forced governments to mandate closure of all but essential services in many parts of the world. In turn this has created panic amongst many entrepreneurs and their reactions range from submission to lashing out at everyone. To be fair, this is a once in a lifetime scenario. Much like a 100 year storm, most individuals and businesses are not prepared, and the aftermath will be disastrous for many.

There is no cavalry coming.

Not to be the bearer of bad news, but there is no cavalry coming, sorry. Governments can only do so much, and many small businesses will not qualify for the many programs that are being unveiled.

Many individuals think that the banks should automatically suspend all payments, but that’s not going to happen. However, if you’re business was solid before Covid-19, you can probably get some short term concessions. If your business was struggling beforehand, then don’t hold out hope.

Many landlords are small business owners themselves. They, like you, can’t afford to offer much leniency. They too have mortgages and bills to pay. Unlike residential mortgages commercial mortgages don’t usually have deferral options, so their payments must be made.

Hope for the best, but expect the worst

So, what’s an entrepreneur to do? To state the obvious, batten down the hatches. But instead of just fretting away, it’s time to get proactive and lay out a plan. Actually, it’s time to lay out two plans. The first plan is based on your business starting up in 4-8 weeks and the other is the worst case scenario plan, business shutdown. Regardless of which way it goes, working on your plans will be a distraction from all the noise and give you something to do.

Plan #1 – 4-8 weeks

Assuming you’ll be able to restart, you’ll need to put a game plan in place, so here’s a primer on the things you’ll need to think about.

• Call your landlord- If you haven’t already, it’s time to make that call and ask how you can work together. They may or may not be willing or able to offer any concessions. But you do need to know, don’t assume, ask the question.

• Business most likely won’t return to the pre-crisis level, so how do you plan on managing it? How much staff do you need, short and long term? You need to let your employees know your thoughts.

• How are you going to get your customers back? My suggestion is to call them and let them know you’re planning to restart as soon as you’re able. An alternative is to email them. But it’s far less personal.

• Depending on your business, do you have to do a thorough sanitizing?

• Do you have product that expires? What’s your plan on disposing of it?

• Do you have receivables? How do you plan on collecting these? Are you prepared to offer the same concessions you’re looking for from your suppliers?

• Call your suppliers. Has your status changed with them? If you had credit with them, is it still available? This is important to know. If you no longer have credit available, how do you plan on getting your supplies?

• Make a regular habit of checking your on your place of business. Some leases and insurance policies have clauses stating that you must check the premises regularly.

Plan #2 – Business shutdown

This is not fun, but you need to be prepared if this becomes the inevitable. Planning a measured shutdown is far better than doing nothing and just letting things happen. As soul destroying that this can be, there’s an old adage that says, “if you find yourself in a hole, quit digging!” If shutting the business down is your only option, it’s best to initiate it sooner rather than later, to stop the financial bleeding. Now is the time to get your head around this potential outcome, so that you are in control. The following steps should get you started in the event a windup is necessary

• Contact your lawyer and discuss the situation. Find out what needs to be done to close a business and the cost to do so. Get their input and direction on how to handle your suppliers, including your landlord.

• Contact your accountant and ask them what your liability is regarding taxes owed and their role in a business wind up.

• Make a list of all your payables. This list includes absolutely everything. This way you’ll know how much you owe.

• Make a list of any receivables you have and your plan to collect on these. The more you collect, the less you’ll end up owing.

• List all your inventory and contact your suppliers to see if you can return any unused product. Otherwise develop a plan to liquidate.

• List all your business assets i.e. equipment. These can be sold. Just remember that their value will be significantly less than you paid or what you think they’re worth, as many other businesses will be liquidating at the same time.

• Contact any other creditors to determine what you owe them. Some will be willing to negotiate a lesser amount or some form of payment plan.

• Make sure you complete all the necessary paperwork for laying off your staff, if you haven’t done so yet.

Regardless of your experience or years in business, no one could have foreseen what has gripped the world economies as a result of Covid-19. Most recessions and depression come upon gradually over time and gives people the time to adjust their course in order to weather the storm, but not this time. It was immediate and without warning.

What you do next matters. How you do it also matters. So, by putting your plans in place now, you’ll be prepared, in control and be able to live to fight another day.

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

1 2 3 … 6 »

Tag: small business

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

Small Business

Invention

Innovation

The wristwatch

My experience

My innovation

Innovation through adaptation

Get More LIFE Out of Your Business

Be Passionate

What are you good at?

Get More LIFE Out of Your Business

Research

Lots of discussion

Now what?

Will a hybrid model work?

Get More LIFE Out of Your Business

5 areas that require every owners attention

#1 Your health

#2 Key staff quits.

#3 Business interruption

#4 Competition

#5 Bad debt

Get More LIFE Out of Your Business

It’s about survival

My Pivot

Advantages

Get More LIFE Out of Your Business

Why be Customer Centric?

Set yourself up!

Get More LIFE Out of Your Business

My Google review

Responding to Google reviews helps

Key Statistics

Make them personal

Get More LIFE Out of Your Business

There is no cavalry coming.

Hope for the best, but expect the worst

Plan #1 – 4-8 weeks

Plan #2 – Business shutdown

Get More LIFE Out of Your Business

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