David’s Interview on Entrepreneur’s M&A Journal

Jim Cumbee of Entrepreneur’s M&A Journal talks with David about his new book, “SCALE”.

Main Questions Asked:

• What made you make the transition from operating a business to the coaching business?
• Tell us about your book and the development of it?
• Do people come to you asking to learn how to scale or do they come for something else and you get them there?
• Are there two or three starting points in your book that you can share?

Key Points made:

• I found that I had gotten really good at teaching in my real estate training business. (3:23)
• You grow a business by reducing its reliance on its owners. (5:41)
• The business cannot survive without them (the owners). (6:09)
• How to systematically get growth but get your life back. (6:27)
• Most people come to me saying they feel stuck, or they are happy their business is growing, but they spend their whole life working on the business. (7:09)
• You need a strategy to grow and how to do it without the owner there. (8:02)
• The more dependent the company is on its owner the harder it is to sell it. (8:20)
• It’s that hurdle at the 1 million to 20 million dollar stage (10:00)
• Set a one page strategic action plan use it for 90 days. (11:50)
• It’s not about more, it’s about better (Chapter 4). (12:40)
• Create systems that people use on a daily or monthly basis (Chapter 2 &8). (13:54)
• Cashflow is important to your business. (16:00)
• Good financial systems are necessary to good gross profit margins. (17:10)
• When we looked at their margin for clients, they were in the negative. (18:42)
• We usually help our clients by phone but once a quarter we get together personally. (21:19)

Keywords: executive coaching, business coaching, business coaching program, build a business not a job, grow your business