If you’re fortunate enough to have taken your company on a journey through all of its highs and lows for 5, 10, even 20 years or more, chances are you’ve had those moments when you wished your business weren’t so damn dependent on you. No matter what you’ve achieved, most business owners know in their heart that i...
These eight unproductive leadership behaviors could be causing some of your biggest business frustrations. The Unproductive Leadership Behaviors Assessment will show you which negative habits you’re prone to and how to turn them around.
As you grow your business, it’s hard enough to know when it’s the right time to bring on that next employee or how to compensate them. When you add benefits to the equation, these employment questions are among the most complicated issues business owners have to address. Benefits can be expensive. It’s easy to fee...
Seth Godin once said, “Everyone is not your customer.” And he’s not wrong. While your potential market may consist of everyone in theory, not everyone is your ideal customer. For small business owners, the idea of turning away customers can feel foolish. Why would you narrow down the pool of people who may want to...
Most business owners don’t start off with expert knowledge in business finance. In fact, many owners we speak with still manage their books out of a checkbook register. (If this sounds like you, don’t worry—you’re in good company.) There are plenty of things that hold people back from diving into finance—fear, dis...
As a business owner, sometimes the hardest part of the job is knowing what decisions to make. Maybe you look to other businesses you admire and wonder: How do they do it? How are they finding the right customers, or building such a recognizable brand—and doing it with the same unwavering efficiency every single ti...
If there’s one thing most business owners struggle with (okay, aside from creating a budget), it’s the transition from managing no one to managing everyone. Most clients who come to us simply don’t want to deal with management responsibilities—period. They hope (and act on the belief) that if they hire good people...
If you’re reading this, chances are you already know a bit about business coaching. You may even recognize that you need something like coaching. At the very least, you know that some change or transformation has to happen in your business, because it’s just not performing how you want it to or giving you the free...
If you’re familiar with the “E” in EMyth, you know that most businesses aren’t started by Entrepreneurs at all. Entrepreneurs are people who go into business with a vision of a company that doesn’t rely on their own ability to make, sell and deliver it. Most businesses are instead started by Technicians. Technicia...
Business owners aren’t finance experts. It’s a sweeping statement, but as a business coach and business owner myself, I know the truth of it. One of the beautiful things about owning a business is that you don’t have to be an expert in everything—you just need to have the right experts at your fingertips. This is ...
Business owners aren’t finance experts. It’s a sweeping statement, but as a business coach and business owner myself, I know the truth of it. One of the beautiful things about owning a business is that you don’t have to be an expert in everything—you just need to have the right experts at your fingertips. This is ...
When small business owners find a moment to catch their breath and take a look at where everything stands, they'll sometimes find that there’s a gap between what's happened in their business and what they hope's to come. As a business coach, I often help my clients build the bridge between those two points, helpin...
If you own a business, you’re probably familiar with the feeling of being stuck on a gerbil wheel. It’s that perpetual state of expending all your energy just to keep your business running without ever making forward progress. It’s a feeling all business owners face at some point, and unfortunately most get stuck ...
The first month of 2021 is behind us, and I’ve spent a good deal of it meeting with clients to revisit the annual plan they created late last year. If you haven’t sat down to review your own goals for the new year, now’s a great time to pause and check in. And it’s not necessarily to check progress on those goals,...
When you’re a small business owner, you know all too well that the only constant is change. And chances are, you’ve had to make some major shifts in your company in response to the pandemic. One of the biggest areas of change universally has been adapting how we build, train and manage teams—all remotely. And that...
Last April, like many of you, I applied for the first round of Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) funds. My company had taken an immediate hit in revenue from the shock of the pandemic, and there was no certainty that it would rebound anytime soon. The only point of comparison I had was the 2009 financial crisis, a...
For better or worse (or both), 2020 has been an eye-opening time for business owners. As we close out a year that’s disrupted our lives and livelihoods in so many unexpected ways, we’d like to share some light. With all the challenges business owners have faced, there have been some equally remarkable lessons. Our...