Following up on my post about how focusing is essential to growth I got a question from a fellow business owner, Paul asks; Hi Brad, I love this Venn Diagram; in fact, I have a copy hanging on my office wall! The dilemma occurs when the intersection of something we do well and don’t love…
We’re going to talk about, and work on, this process to help you to make more money for a while. But this might not be the perfect time in your life to do that. So before we get deep into this, I want to stop and check, are you all the way in? Even if…
On Thursday, we talked about how stupid money is. If you didn’t read it, or if you didn’t do your homework, click through and do that homework now. It will make this conversation a LOT more meaningful. You remember we talked about how most people don’t really want money. We want what money brings, enables,…
What if I told you that I had a magic spreadsheet? What’s magic about it? It is like a crystal ball for your business–you can use it to see the future! My spreadsheet can tell you: All of that from one spreadsheet?!?!? Sounds pretty neat, doesn’t it? It is! It is one of the most…
On Tuesday we explored what courage can mean to a business owner. Courage is knowing that there’s danger, feeling the fear, and then going ahead anyway. But, being courageous is different from being fearless. When I look back at my career and think about when I was afraid, but pressed on anyway, those situations mostly worked…
Walter Miller, who runs a terrific bookkeeping and outsourced CFO firm responded to my prior email about doing vs. being and I thought his reply was insightful enough to share with you all (with his permission): I am constantly having to pare down my to-do list. I’m trying to focus more on the to-do’s that move…
The turning of the year is, for many of us, a time of reflection. What happened in 2017? What was good? What was not so good? And what do we WANT to happen in 2018? It also just so happens to be the time when most business owners are planning and budgeting. It makes sense…
When I was a young executive in a corporate job I met a woman named Marylin Dyer Blair. Marylin had a PhD in Industrial Psychology that she had earned in the 70’s. She was barely five-feet tall, with short gray hair—the kind of person that it’s easy to underestimate. But to do so would be…
Almost everybody wants their business to grow; and if you want your business to grow you are likely working hard. For some companies that success comes right away; first some good clients, then some more, then… For others it comes more slowly—sometimes excruciatingly slowly. This can be a huge challenge. We live in an “instant”…
As a business owner, we all have more than one job (many of us carry 4 or 5); but two of those jobs are the same for every business owner. The first is being a great leader in your business. Whether you are the CEO/President, or a partner who shares the leadership, one of your…