His business had grown -- it was bigger now than he ever thought it would get to be. He's making good money, driving a nice car, has a big office, a place out by the lake...things are good. Except, he's tired, exhausted really. He's tried changing up his workout; he tried taking a big long vacation; nothing seems to work. It's not like there's something else he'd rather be doing, but this just isn't turning his crank anymore. He calls me to talk about selling his business, but I can tell he doesn't really want to sell. I glance over at his computer and look at his calendar -- it's a solid block of meetings. All day, every day, he's booked in meetings! What do you love to do? I … [Read more...]

So I've made some good progress toward my big goals for the year, and I've gotten some good help to make those goals happen. Is that all I need to do? Now I'm walking down easy street? Well, not for me! You see, things are going pretty well, and making all that change is uncomfortable. Since things are going great, I can just back off a bit, right? I don't have to be in that uncomfortable place all the time, do I? That's the problem with success, it makes you soft! If we want our businesses to keep growing - if we have big changes we want to make, we have to stay uncomfortable. It is the only when we're pushed past what we believe to be our limit that we take risks. It is when you … [Read more...]

In Saturday’s message I told you about some big changes I made this year, and how in the middle of those changes (and even now) I can get griped by a terror that I’ve made a terrible mistake.  What made it worse is that I didn't know where to go for help. In the middle of those fears, I tried to talk to my wife about what was going on. That didn’t work — she was in the middle of the fear with me. If I came to her and told her that I was panicked, that I thought we had made a terrible mistake, she wasn’t calm and rational. She would panic along with me! The same was true of my friends, even my business friends. Many of them thought that these changes were pretty risky. If I came to them … [Read more...]

I started this year with some big goals for my business. It was time for me to get out of my leased office and move to a virtual environment. I wanted to rethink my service offering to make a more significant impact — I wanted to see clients make breakthrough changes, and I needed a new service delivery model to do that. I wanted to maintain the growth momentum from 2018 and hit a new high in business income in 2019. To accomplish these goals, I: sold my house, bought a new house, changed out some of my team members, launched new services, reached out to about ten years worth of past clients, prospects, and referral sources,  and started a 3X a week writing … [Read more...]

When your business first starts to grow, hiring is a necessity. There’s work that needs to get done and you need people to do it. You want folks who will be a good fit, sure, but mostly you need work done.  Once you get to 10 - 15 people you need more than help to “do stuff,” you also need some adults who can solve problems for you, manage parts of the team, and eventually parts of the business! You go from needing “arms and legs” to needing “brains and hearts.” That's what gives you a team that can carry on if you aren't there! You need leaders.  You used to look for potential, for young up and comers; now you need to look for a track record of success doing the thing you need to be … [Read more...]

When I was in the business of buying entrepreneurial companies, the first thing we’d look at to determine the value is the cash flow. If you want the option to sell your business someday -- it might make sense for you to pay attention to your cash flow now! Most businesses are valued based on a “multiple of cash flow.” Smaller companies, with cash flow under one million dollars, might be purchased for 2X - 5X cash flow. A larger company with a strong track record of growth in a desirable industry might command 8X - 15X cash flow. But the base number was the most important — how much money is the company producing that the owners could take out of the business and spend on whatever they … [Read more...]

For the better part of a decade, I worked for a family-owned conglomerate and looked for businesses for them to buy. We’d look seriously at ten or so businesses a year, where we’d build a financial forecast, build a valuation, research their customers and market dynamics, meet the key leadership team, etc. Of those ten, we’d only bid on 3 - 4, and we’d be lucky to close 1 - 2 deals.  We spent a lot of time kissing frogs that turned out not to be “princes" because most business owners didn't build their business with the attributes that buyers wanted! If you want the option to sell your business for a good value down the line, you need to build these things in from the start! Buyers want … [Read more...]

You know what I mean when I ask, “How many adults are there on your team?” Right? How many people on your team  fix things that break correct mistakes when they see or hear them encourage others to be their best selves resolve issues when they come up meet deadlines take responsibilities for outcomes, not just tasks ...without being told to do it? Stop for a minute and go through your team: Is he an “adult”? Is she? When I ask business owners this question in a team of 10 - 15, they often say they might have two, maybe three, adults (outside of the owners). How many do you have? If you want to grow, you need more “adults.” If you feel unsupported, or like … [Read more...]

A week or so ago, I used the example of choosing an accountant to do your taxes to demonstrate the advantages of focusing on a specific target market that has predictable and expensive problems. Let’s look at that again. Pretend that you met two accountants who could help you file your taxes.  One was the self-described “smartest tax person in town.” He’s got a lot of great client stories and seems smart.  The second is an accountant who focuses their whole practice on doing taxes for service-firm owners with over one million in sales. They showed you specific tax strategies that would help you to pay less tax this year and likely for many years into the future. Which one are you … [Read more...]

I was listening in as a client of mine conducted an initial phone call with someone who was interested in her services. The call was going well and the prospect came out with,  This all sounds really great, how do we get started working on this together? To hear that sentence from a prospect is gold, right? They are asking you go close the deal. But what do I hear from my client? Well, let me go back and work on a proposal. There’s a number of ways we can approach this — so I’ll outline each method, along with the associated costs and send that off to you. Then you can tell me what you think… Did the prospect say, “Could you send me a proposal?” No!! The prospect said, “How do we get … [Read more...]