What if you've already found your tribe without knowing it? It's worth considering, because they're probably sending you a message about your product or service that you can easily miss if you don't listen carefully. This was true for us, and we're learning some incredible things from our 'tribe', things that migh...
There are infinite possibilities for titles and positions in your business, but there are really only three kinds of relationships between any two of them. And understanding the dynamics of these three relationships - which are, more than anything, power dynamics - is critical to the professional development of yo...
I was at a seminar a long time ago, and the presenter, who was a jerk but had a good sense of humor, was trying to help a young man struggling to find himself. "Let me ask you something ... do you have parents?" he asked. A bit stunned, the young man replied "Um, yeah ... why?" "I'm not surprised," he quipped, ".....
Being a business owner means more than owning the company. You're also a business leader - whether you have a 50-person team, or you're a solopreneur. Right now, by design or by accident, you're setting the direction and tone of everything your company does. It takes a crisis for most business owners to start acti...
The kind of angel your business needs probably isn't the kind with new investment, but the kind with something much more important. What this other kind of angel can give you is a new perspective - a way of looking at things that you can't see when you're stuck in the weeds.
It's just not true anymore. The tools that are available today can let you do just that, and in ways you might not have thought of. The challenge of running a small business has always been to get it out of your head, out of your hands, and into a consistent and repeatable experience that every customer has, no ma...
Shouldn't business coaches have a great business of their own? How much can they really help you if they're teaching but not doing? And by doing, I mean working on their business the way they say you should be working on yours.
"Values" have gone viral, and not necessarily in a good way. The process of discovering and clarifying your values and building your business based on them is a deeply personal one, but the cynical marketers among us have other designs. If they have their way, and they will, saying you have 'strong core values' wi...
Time management is painful: real leaders do it anyway. We all want to feel good, and not feel bad. So we prefer that change be comfortable. Sometimes it is. Most of the time it's not. As is so often said in the fitness world, "No pain, no gain." You want to slim your waistline? Bigger muscles? You earn that progre...
There's no shortage of opinion as to whether Apple has or hasn't 'lost the magic'. And while time will tell on that one, focusing on Apple ignores a deeper question we should be asking, one that's far more relevant to you as a small business owner or leader, whether you have 300 employees or none.
The original EMyth call to action was simple and powerful: to grow your business you have to free yourself from the technical work so you have room to lead. If you’re an architect trying to grow your firm, you won’t get there spending all day at the drafting table. But that kind of obvious technical work is just t...
Your business plan is based on increasing revenue. You're looking forward to more revenue creating more profit. And with the increase in cash flow you'll finally be able to hire more people so that your struggles will ease and you will finally be able to get free of the technical work.
Passion and drive go a long way. There were 5,000 little things you did to survive in the face of long odds of small business success - the late nights, juggling expenses, praying for new customers. You leaned on that passion and drive to get through - and it worked.
Second Annual State of the Business Owner Report reveals that the top 3 factors that motivate entrepreneurs to start their business are: freedom passion independence For today’s entrepreneurs, starting a business is not all about the money. According to the 2013 State Of The Business Owner (SOBO) Report, announced...
As was famously said, you can't solve a problem at the level of the thinking that created it. Whether you're struggling with slow sales, low morale, or bleeding cash in your operations, the current issue has roots that go far deeper than the surface issue - the "symptom."
In 2008 my small business collapsed. It was heartbreaking.
Most business leaders and professionals lead with their head. It mostly works, and nobody will criticize you for it (usually because that’s the way they do it). But you’re paying a huge price every day in the form of stress, stagnation and self-doubt, in ways you might not realize. Leading by heart is a whole othe...