Few business owners start out as entrepreneurs. Just like building a company, becoming an entrepreneur is a process full of growth, both personal and professional. And the truth is, no one can do it alone. We all need guidance, mentorship, and inspiration. So here are six lessons from great leaders that will help ...
“I just can’t seem to stay focused on Strategic Work,” a client of mine told me recently.
The Seven Essential Systems represent every system your business needs to work. Our free EMyth Mastery Worksheets help you understand each system and give you the tools to start building more structure into your business.
Many small businesses experience the bulk of their annual sales during a short season or cycle. For many retailers it’s the holidays. For fitness centers, January new years’ resolutions typically bump up new business only to dissipate in the summer months. Some businesses do amazingly well when the weather gets wa...
Entrepreneurial vision has been the catalyst for change throughout history.
It’s tax season, a time when finance—and finance management—is on all my clients’ minds. So I usually take the opportunity to ask them: “Are you abdicating or delegating your finances to your accountant?” In other words: Do you defer to your accountant, waiting for them to give you financial results that’ll help y...
Business owners often face a frustrating dilemma: They’re so busy with the tactical work of their business, they can’t find time to create the structure needed to escape that tactical work. It’s an overwhelming cycle that—for many—feels inescapable. But I promise it’s not. It’s not easy to escape it, but it’s not ...
Unless you’ve had personal experience with it, business coaching is probably a bit of a mystery. Do business coaches just walk in and fix the broken parts of your business? Are they only there to motivate and support, or do they get down in the weeds with you? In our 40+ years coaching owners to be entrepreneurs, ...
When you think about your business, what do you see as your product? Is it the commodity you sell? The service you provide? The community you help build? Or is it the business itself?
Take a moment to think about your business. Go ahead—picture your typical work day. What does that picture look like? Does it look like you clocking into a job, immersed in the technical work of your business? Does it look like you putting out constant fires, struggling to check a single task off your to-do list w...
When I started as an EMyth Coach in 1996, I had a client (let’s call her Kathy) whose biggest frustration was not being able to trust her people to take care of the business in her absence. She confessed that it had been ten years since she’d gone away for longer than a weekend. Just one week prior, she’d stepped ...
If you want to confidently step away from your business—whether it’s for two weeks, two months, or two years—you need to trust that two key dynamics in your business can operate consistently and predictably whether you’re there or not.
Let’s be honest: Building a business that doesn’t depend on you isn’t easy. It’s going to take lots of time, attention, and know-how. You’re going to be drawn into fighting fires you wish weren’t happening; you’re going to worry about having the right resources to create the right results; you’re going to have to ...
Can you be a business owner and still be an artist? There are many talented and successful artists working hard every day to do what they love. Some people are able to periodically earn money with their passion, but for many artists, that income is not enough to consider it a “living.”
Let’s start with one thing we all know: Being good at something – designing a building, baking specialty cakes, performing micro-surgery, repairing cars, promoting artists, installing electrical wiring or plumbing, providing legal or financial advice – achieving a level of expertise in any area for which you have ...
I met with my client, Paul, earlier this week. Because of the Thanksgiving holiday, it had been three weeks since our last meeting. I was looking forward to reviewing with him his list of Key Strategic Indicators that he’d committed to delivering – the critical, quantifiable reference points he’ll use to track the...
The money you make in your business is hard-earned. It’s the reward for all of the sales calls, difficult client deadlines, and customer support challenges. So it’s hard to give it up to anyone—least of all the government. Yet, taxes are a part of doing business in almost every country on earth. And we want you to...