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 ...
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...
Managing a business partnership may be the only thing more difficult than managing a business. Partnerships are hard for the same reasons that any relationship is hard. It takes diligence and work to bring together personalities, communication styles, and ideals. And if you want your partnership to serve your busi...
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 ...
Business owners are some of the busiest people I know. So it never surprises me when I hear a prospective Coaching client say they just don’t have time to work on their business. They don’t even have time to spend with their family or exercise or volunteer doing something they’re passionate about, so where are the...
How do you build a highly systematized, self-sustaining business that can give you the freedom to step away from it for days, weeks, or even months at a time? That’s what business owners like you most wanted to read about this year. In case you missed them, here are the 5 most popular blog posts of 2018.
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?
Some years ago, I called a client of mine (let’s call him “Mark”) who owned a skateboard design and manufacturing company to confirm an in-person coaching session we’d scheduled. When he answered the phone, he was out of breath. “Are you okay?” I asked him. “Oh, I’m fine. I’m just hanging from the ceiling, running...
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...
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 ...
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...
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 ...
Our natural world is a great example of systems at work—solar systems, ecosystems, weather systems, bodily systems, and so forth. As humans, we naturally look for patterns to solve problems and make extraordinary advancements. We search for ways to turn chaos into order and to discover efficient and repeatable way...
If you’ve ever had the thought that you weren’t a good leader or didn’t know how to be one, you’re not alone. Business owners rarely go into business for themselves in order to become the leader of a company. In truth, most are looking to secure a “job” where they can provide their product or service free of a bos...
As a business owner, attracting customers is so central and occupies so much of your focus that it’s easy to lose sight of the fact that not all customers are created equal. Not knowing who your best customer is results in countless and costly efforts to attract a customer who isn’t actually your ideal. You suffer...
When I started as a business coach, my life did not look like it does today. I lived in the city, in a house that was in the middle of a subdivision. I worked for someone else and had never considered myself an entrepreneur. My default vision at the time was that I would continue to build a career for myself insid...
