In our last conversation, I talked about two ways to grow your business, a high-intensity, hard-working, risk-loving environment, and a more planned, lower-stress, environment. I pointed out that some of us are hard-wired for the former — we love “living on the edge”; but the wiring of most of our employees is different. (That’s why…
Finding your core service that is valuable to your ideal client and focusing on that means that you are going to do a lot of similar assignments. For creative people, this sounds like a kind of death. “You want me to do this thing over, and over, and over, and…ARUAGHHHH!” Well, yes, and no… First,…
I had a prospect come to me with a desire to grow her income, and at the same time to make her business processes less dependent on being “hands on”. “Why do you want that, Linda? What makes this important now?” I asked. “Well, I just came back from visiting my Father in Tucson, and…
We talked previously about focusing on higher value clients as a way to grow your business and make more money. But successfully implementing this strategy has a catch, you have to let go of lower value clients to make room for the higher value clients we want to attract! For some folks letting go of…
If you own a business, you are on a mission. You have some way in which you want to dent the universe, something that’s going to make life better for your clients, and your community, and make you some money in the process. For most business owners the thing that holds them back from getting…
If you are committed to making more money this year, it’s imperative that you get control of your time. You are going to need to invest time in making changes, and that means letting go of some of the things you are doing now. When I bring this up with business owners, I usually hear…
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…
When you started your business you wore all the hats. But as your business has grows you have to give up some of those hats and instead take on the job of the “manager” or team leader. This is one of the toughest transitions for people to make. You have to change what you do,…
I have a friend who owns a farm. It’s a small farm, but still; he’s got chickens, sheep, goats, pigs, cows, and produce in the summer. I went up to visit him for a weekend and we spent the better part of the weekend building a chicken coop. Just the two of us, with some…
“How do you know you are doing a good job?” Early in an engagement with a new client I usually go around and ask this question to each of the management employees in the company. It’s a simple question, but having employees who are clear about the answer is key to driving employee engagement and…