Build a Business, Not a Job

The First Thing You Should Do About When Scaling Your Business

I recently shared the idea of the business coaching concept of the six hats from the late Dr. de Bono with our readership and I wanted to go into more detail about the second hat in the series: The Red Hat. This hat is often one of the first hats that you will put on […]

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Why the Timing for Hiring Top Talent Has Never Been Better

Just a few short months ago, businesses were flourishing. In February, the unemployment rate was hovering around 3.5 percent . It was the perfect situation for job seekers and as employers we had to work hard to attract, recruit and retain top talent.  Fast forward to the present. Job seekers are facing a completely different […]

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This Trick Will Change The Way You Look At Your Business

I recently shared the idea of the business coaching concept of the six hats from the late Dr. de Bono with our readership and I wanted to go into more detail about the first hat in the series: The White Hat. This hat is often one of the first hats that you will put on […]

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4 Strategic Ways to Tap Into Your Competitors’ Client Lists

For many small business owners the idea of working with the competition can make their blood boil. It seems counterintuitive. But after twenty five years of business coaching, I can tell you that some of best boosts in profit and revenue come from thinking outside of the box. So today I wanted to share six […]

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Change the Way You Think About Your Business With These 6 Thought Exercises

Many entrepreneurs have taken to wearing the same thing day in and day out to reduce decision fatigue and free up their time to focus on more important matters. Barack Obama, Mark Zuckerberg, and the late Steve Jobs all believed in minimalist wardrobes. And while I agree the concept is a sound one, I want to […]

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2 Things Top CEOs Always Do When Creating Business Plans

I have talked many times about the importance of having a focus day. The act of setting aside a day (or two) once a week to work on your business’s top goal and taking steps to make it a reality is crucial to growing your business and gaining independence. We have seen first hand the […]

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Want to Stay in Business Longer? Keep Your Company Small–Very Small. Here’s Why

I was recently talking with Ian, a business coaching client who had seen amazing growth over the course of the past year. He had increased his revenue by almost three hundred percent and had reduced his overhead and staffing costs by almost seventy five percent. He had great systems and controls in place, and was […]

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Do This One Thing Every Week To Grow Your Business

As a business owner, you are constantly looking for ways to be more productive. You use the latest software programs, read all the books and try to make your time spent working in the business the most valuable possible. But ultimately, you end up putting out fires and dealing with staffing issues and training. Which […]

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Your Impossible Standards Are Ruining Your Company Culture. Here’s How to Fix It

A few days ago I took my kids to the local public library. As I sat there in an uncomfortably small chair waiting for my oldest son to pick out another ninja book, I happened to overhear a father and a son at the table next to me. The boy, no more than eleven or […]

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The 1 Word Successful CEOs Say More Than 35 Times a Day

I recently wrote a piece entitled The 6 Words Successful CEOs Say Everyday and the response has been overwhelming. So many of you resonated with the piece, and let us know via social media and through email what your favorite word was and why. So I thought that I would expand on the idea of […]

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2 Huge Mistakes That Are Causing 99 Percent Of Your Staffing Problems

As a business owner, you know how important your team members are to your success. And like many, you spend a great deal of time in the hiring and firing process. It can seem like a never-ending quest to find the right team members. Over the course of the last 25 years as a business […]

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The Real Reason Business Partnerships Fail–and How to Save Yours

I met Jake (name changed to protect the innocent) at one of our business workshops recently. He had been in business for almost ten years now, and was looking to scale his business and gain more independence. When I asked him about his business, his eyes lit up with excitement as he talked about his […]

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5 Things You Should Do Right Before a Big Negotiation

Want to make more money? Negotiate. Want to get a better price with a vendor? Negotiate.  Want to hire that rock star new hire? Yup, you guessed it….negotiate. Negotiating is a tactic that is used in many different situations at work with an intended purpose of coming to an agreement. It is something that is […]

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Think You Understand Your Financial Statements? Ask Yourself These 4 Questions

Do you know how to read a profit and loss statement? Do you know what your gross profit margin is and what it means for your bottom line? How about your Cost of Goods Sold? If you are like many business owners, you have a basic understanding of your financial statements but leave the heavy […]

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Effective Communication – What Does It Really Mean And How Can You Improve Yours

Almost every job description for a manager includes some variation of “must be an effective communicator” as part of the requirements. Problem with this is that if you poll (as I often do in my workshops) what people define as “Effective Communication” you will get a lot of different definitions. And that’s where the problem […]

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The Real Reason Customers Won’t Buy From You (and How to Convince Them)

Last week, I took my son to the orthodontist. While he has had countless cleanings over the years, he was experiencing quite a bit of anxiety over the unknown of a trip to the orthodontist. Would he need braces? Would they want to put them on right away? How long would he have to wear […]

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3 Things You Need to Know About Hiring Top Talent in Today’s Job Market

As you are probably aware, finding and motivating talent to fill your job openings is becoming increasingly difficult in today’s very competitive job market. The following will provide you some insight to the reasons why and what you can do to be more effective. There’s a shortage of great talent We are at a historically […]

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The 6 Words Successful CEOs Say Every Day

As a business coach for the past 25 years, I have helped thousands of business owners reach their full potential. They often come to me frustrated, overworked, and anxious about the future. Together we find ways that help them create an owner-independent business that is able to scale quickly and efficiently. The secret- these 6 […]

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This CEO Lost His Elite Platinum Status With American Airlines, And Couldn’t Be Happier

When I first met Daniel he was at a crossroads in his business. By many accounts he was successful. He had a consulting firm in North Carolina and had recently acquired two firms in California. When he reached out to me for business coaching, he was struggling to put the pieces together. He was working […]

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How to find a business mentor

These days, it seems like business owner is talking about finding a business mentor and the importance of having an experienced mentor. An entrepreneur mentor is essential when an entrepreneur is wondering how to scale a business. There are websites, blogs, podcasts, radio, and television programs popping up all around the globe talking about business […]

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Where to Find a Business Advisor

Planning, projecting, managing employees, tracking and increasing sales, designing and implementing marketing strategies…are just some of the things on the to-do list never ends for business owners, especially for startups, small companies, or companies who are focused on growing quickly. Sometimes it feels like you’ll never be able to get everything done without four hands […]

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Why Every Entrepreneur Needs a Business Mentor

The internet, peers, friends and even family – all of these sources provide a steady stream of industry news, updates, analysis, knowledge and advice. While these sources can be a great starting point, this stream of information will only help to a certain extent. Online publications are typically generic, peers have their own personal set […]

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Business Coaching: a Guide to Everything You Need to Know About Finding the Right Fit

If you’ve decided to hire a business coach, but are having trouble knowing where to start, this article is for you. If you’re wondering what exactly a business coach does and how it can benefit your business, you might want to check out this article before continuing.  Hiring a business coach will expedite the growth […]

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Forget the Resolutions, Let’s Talk About Professional Growth

I really enjoy creating action plans. My inner-nerd gets really excited over the possibilities of a new year or quarter. There are so many opportunities for growth and development, and I love laying it all out on paper and then working towards those goals over the coming quarter. As a business coach, I not only […]

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Do You Need To Find a Small Business Coach?

Planning, starting, running, and growing a small business is not a small undertaking for any entrepreneur.  It takes detailed planning, long hours of hands-on work, and a healthy dose of determination, flexibility, and versatility to overcome all the obstacles that come your way. But if you’re an entrepreneur that’s already started your own business, or […]

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Business Coaching 101

What is a Business Coach?

Whether you are a small business owner or medium business owner, there’s nothing wrong with asking for help. And it’s also never too late to learn from an executive business coach. Working with an experienced business coach is the secret weapon to help entrepreneurs, executives, and business owners increase their wealth potential AND quality of […]

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How to Find a Business Coach

There are 4 main ways to find a business coach: Utilize your personal network Search online Search locally Start with your favorite business author A business coach is an experienced business leader and trusted advisor who can help a less experienced owner and their company to reach new heights.  Finding the right business coach provides […]

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What Does a Business Coach Do?

A business coach does four essential things for their clients: Provide structure for growing and developing their business Provide an invaluable outside perspective that solves internal problems Provide accountability to make sure you follow through Provide support through the tough moments leaders inevitably endure The goal of a business coach is to accelerate the growth […]

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The Freedom Formula: Available Now!

How To Succeed In Business Without Sacrificing Your Family, Health or Life BUILDING A SUCCESSFUL COMPANY AND CAREER DOESN’T MEAN SACRIFICING YOUR FAMILY, HEALTH, OR LIFE. You check email the moment you lift your head off the pillow in the morning. You bring work with you on vacation, sneak glances at your smart phone during […]

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Why You Need an Exit Strategy, Even If You Plan on Owning Your Business Forever

To a new business owner the words “Exit Strategy” are akin to “quitting.” The majority of new small to medium business owners are so wrapped up in the passionate phase of growing and scaling their businesses, getting out doesn’t even cross their mind. They have a romantic notion that they will still be actively working […]

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How to Lead Your Team During a Heated Election Season

When it comes to owning a business, managing employees is one of the most difficult aspects of the job. A great deal of your time and energy is spent developing a positive company culture and connecting with and coaching your key staff members. A lot of hard work goes into creating a nurturing work environment […]

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5 More Ways to Increase Your Profits and Make More Money

Tired of working longer hours with no increase in revenue? Try these 5 simple things that you can do today to increase your bottom line. I recently shared with you my top 5 Ways to Increase Your Profits, and the response was very positive. So much in fact, that I would like to share you […]

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The 5 Most Important Negotiation Skills

Intimidated by negotiations? Focus on these five simple negotiation skills first and get much better. Think of all the times in your business week you negotiate: with new hires and existing employees; with sales prospects and long-term clients; with vendors and suppliers. If you’re a business owner or leader, you need to know how to […]

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A Small Business Hack to Improve Your Efficiency

Here’s a 3-step small business hack to improve internal and customer facing processes and boost your company’s efficiency fast!

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The Single Biggest Recruiting Mistake (and How to Turn Your Job Ad Into a Powerful Magnet to Attract Your Ideal Candidate)

Do you have an open position that you just can’t seem to fill? Having an open position for longer then 30 days has turned out to be a real hot spot for our business coaching clients – recruiting more effectively to find the right people for your open seats on the bus. In fact, I […]

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The 5 Most Powerful Sales Techniques

The 5 Most Powerful Sales Techniques

At business conferences I speak at, I often get asked, “If you had just five techniques you could use to improve a sales process, what five techniques would you use more than any other?” Well here is my answer. This list holds my 5 favorite sales techniques has been proven over the past 20 years […]

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7 Tips to Being a Better CEO

Brian grew up in business. His dad, Ronnie, started a manufacturing firm, his mom, Marge, ran much of the administrative and financial aspects of the company, and family life revolved around the company. Brian studied engineering and earned his degree. After college he came back home and went to work for the family business, quickly […]

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Business Coaching Systems: 6 Steps to Redesign Your Core Systems

In a few weeks, I’m going to be speaking at a one-day conference on scaling a medical practice in Tampa. As I was preparing for this event, I started writing out my best strategy to help a medical business leader refine and strengthen its core systems. What I realized was this business coaching system would […]

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4 Tips to Write the Perfect Job Ad

Alan’s firm was growing, but growth was constrained because he needed new talent. His last two rounds of job postings on indeed.com brought a lot of inquiries, but none of them of the caliber he wanted. He made a simple mistake of thinking all he needed to do was think like an “employer” and just […]

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The 10 Key Employee Business Coaching Best Practices to Develop Your Team Members

On a recent web enabled round table with 12 of my top business coaching clients we dived deep into the subject of key employee business coaching. What became clear that a big part of our job on our respective companies’ payroll was to develop our respective teams to grow as producers, team members, and leaders. […]

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How to Train Your New Admin

6 Tips to help Your New Employee Help You Both Stay Productive You know you need help to get even a fraction of your to do list done, but unless you have deep experience on how to best leverage the admin help you have in the office, often it feels like more work to get […]

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It’s Not About the Money! 15 Non Financial Ways to Engage Your Team

Tired to trying to get your team to engage? Try these 15 non financial ways to engage your team. The statistics are depressing: • A January 2016 Gallup daily tracking survey showed that only 32% of workers are engaged. • Only 49% of employees would recommend their current employer to a friend! (Glassdoor Data Labs, […]

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A Simple Strategy to Immediately Increase Profitability by 12% or More

Johnathon, one of our business coaching clients, ran a successful professional services firm with just under $4 million a year in revenue. In his niche the firm had a strong reputation. When I questioned him about his pricing strategy he shared that he billed hourly for his professional staff. A deeper dive found that his […]

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30 Simple Ways to Increase Your Profits

When you give lots of keynotes or public talks to business owner and entrepreneurial groups like I do you get hit with the same questions over and over. One of the most common questions I get is, “How do I increase my profitability?” It’s a great question. Here in one list are 30 simple strategies […]

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The 4 Top Leverage Points to Scale a Manufacturing Company

Over the past 20 years of coaching business owners I’ve enjoyed a number of business coaching clients who ran small and mid-sized manufacturing businesses. Here is my take on the four main leverage points to scale a manufacturing business. My thinking on this was deeply influence by my friend and co-author of, Build a Business, […]

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Four Simple Ways to Help Your Employees Feel Employee Success

One your key jobs as a leader in your company is to help your team feel employee success, especially your direct reports, feel the progress they are making. All too often business leaders focus on all that’s left to be done, glossing over the very real victories and successes that their team has accomplished. This […]

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The 6 Most Costly Mistakes to Avoid When Selling a Company

Over the past twenty years I’ve sold multiple companies and helped my business coaching clients sell many more. Here are the six most costly mistakes that I’ve seen entrepreneurs (including myself!) make when selling a company. Mistake #1: Celebrating the sale before it has closed. You need to make sure you run your business well […]

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27 Things to Delegate to Your Personal Assistant to Make Your Life Smoother, Faster, and Better

Based on the popularity of my earlier article, 10 Tips to Leverage Your Personal Assistant to Get More Done in Less Time, here is a list of 27 things you can ask your assistant to do. 1. Organize your travel (including learning your travel preferences). This includes making all your travel arrangements, organizing all your […]

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The Top 10 Action Activators to Close the Sale

Have you ever felt like you were talking with a strong prospect for your product or service but somehow the sales process stalled? Here are the ten most powerful “action activators”  to help you push through to close the sale. 1. Set an Up-Front Agreement. This powerful sales technique is used at the start of […]

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How to Pinpoint the Real Cause of Your Cash Flow Challenge

Over the past twenty years I’ve coached thousands of companies in dozens of industries. One of the most common reasons someone reaches out to my company, Maui Mastermind, to help them scale their business is a painful cash flow challenge. Here is the diagnostic process we’ve refined over the years to help pinpoint the precise […]

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Reactivating Former Clients (a simple way to immediately boost your sales)

Dr. Kim had owned two successful dental clinics for over a decade by the time she became a business coaching client. Over the years competition had gotten stiffer, resulting in periods when one or both of her two clinics suffered low patient volume. Because there was no pattern to these ebbs and flows of patient […]

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Is Your Company Lying to Itself?

This past weekend I was leading a leadership retreat for business owners and CEOs when the topic of “strategy” came up. It’s been my experience that there are two layers to strategy. Layer one is your “stated” strategy. This is where you say you company will invest its best time, attention, talent, and money to […]

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7 Business Partnership Lessons Every Entrepreneur Must Master

Are you thinking about staring a business partnership? Or formalizing a strategic relationship? Here are seven of the most critical lessons to consider before you finalize the deal. Lesson One: Only bring on a formal partner if that is the only way you can gain the talent, resources, or other element from your prospective partner. […]

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What’s Your Best Leverage Point for Growth?

Brian ran a successful manufacturing business selling consumer products in a specific sporting niche. They had reached sales of just over $15 million per year and wanted to increase sales and profitability. So where should they look for business growth? Focus on new markets? Improve their production efficiencies? Here is a simple tool that they […]

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Business Owner Gut Check: 3 Ways You Are Pissing Off Your Employees (And what to do about it)

An international study by the Center for Creative Leadership titled, Always On, Never Done?, which surveyed professionals, executives and managers in the U.S. and 36 other countries found that the average respondent works a whopping 72 hours or more a week. And who do you think they blame for the stress and overload from their […]

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Business Advice: The Top 20 Financial Controls to Protect Your Company from Fraud, Theft, and Embezzlement

In my last article I shared some business advice with our readers. Three time-tested, broad-stroke strategies to protect your company from fraud and embezzlement. Let’s dive deeper into the nitty-gritty details of financial controls. Here are the top 20 financial controls to safeguard your company and protect your bottom line. I’ve divided these powerful suggestions […]

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3 Time-Tested Strategies to Protect Your Company from Fraud and Embezzlement

Karl (not his real name) ran a successful medical group specializing in elder care in the Midwest. Smart and hardworking, Karl was like a lot of small business owners we know. He was focused on the operational side of his business, in his case the practice of medicine, and didn’t pay close attention to the […]

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Email Productivity: Tame Your Inbox with This Simple Technique

What if there was a simple email productivity technique that helped you process your email faster, saving you 30 minutes or more every day? What would that mean for you, reclaiming control of your inbox and freeing up several hours each week? First, let’s be clear, email is a massive problem. In a recent survey […]

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