Being a business owner is never an easy job, but if you add on the past few years of stress, the vast majority of us are overwhelmed. There are so many things on our plate, and it just keeps piling up. As a business coach, I work with leaders every day to help them feel […]
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As a business coach for more than 25 years, I get the unique opportunity of talking to thousands of business owners every year. I get to hear what is working for them and what isn’t, and over time you start noticing patterns that can help predict whether someone’s business is on the right track for […]
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I have seen the scenario play out a thousand times before: Your to-do list is pages long and your email box is overflowing, yet you keep finding yourself being pulled into YouTube, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter. You know deep down that you should be working on more important things, and that time is in short […]
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Finding yourself short staffed right now? You’re not alone. Millions of business owners across the country are struggling to keep their businesses running while dealing with a large number of call outs from their staff. While this certainly makes business more difficult, there is something that you can start doing right now that will ease […]
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It’s hiring season, and for many of us that means that it’s time to look for a few new employees. You have the budget ready, and the job descriptions have been carefully crafted and you are ready to start making offers. But before you do that, I want you to take a pause and look […]
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This past year, we leaders learned how to grow and scale our businesses during some really difficult challenges. We struggled with supply issues and we dealt with long lead times and increased prices. Most of all, we learned just how difficult hiring and retaining good talent can be. I have spoken with many business owners over this past […]
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I was recently talking to a business owner who was struggling to meet his project deadlines. No matter how hard he tried, it seemed like every project that he took on over the past few months has ended up way over budget or late. When I delved a little deeper into the problem, I realized […]
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If you have a service business, the chances are very high that you are losing money to scope creep. What is scope creep you ask? It’s when a project starts off with a defined set of parameters, and by the end of the project it has morphed into something completely different. Often costing you a […]
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Running a business can be really challenging, and managing a team of employees is perhaps one of the more difficult aspects of the job. Not only do you have your team with widely different personalities, learning styles and strengths and weaknesses to contend with but you have your own management style and tendencies that can […]
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Negotiation is one of those things that a lot of business owners struggle with. And it’s also one of the most often used skills in a business owner’s arsenal, whether it is negotiating salary and benefits for your new key team member, trying to get better pricing or terms with one of your vendors, or […]
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I was recently talking to a business owner who has really been struggling to get ahead. They have been working 80-plus hours a week and burning the candle at both ends. They weren’t sleeping, they barely saw their family, and, as time progressed, they appeared to make even less progress each week than they did […]
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As a business coach for more than 25 years, I have heard a lot of business advice from leaders and other business coaches in the industry. And much of it, while it may seem well intentioned, is actually pretty bad advice. And there are a few pieces of it that I have heard over and […]
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There is no shortage of business owners with dreams of growing and scaling their businesses. Almost every owner I talk to has a vision of what the future of their business should look like, whether that is growing to a point where they make a significant amount of money on their exit, or maybe they […]
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I was recently talking with a new business coaching client who has struggled to scale their marketing efforts over the past few years. They have had some big wins and some losses, but for the most part they have remained rather stagnant. And they weren’t really sure what steps they should take to get to […]
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As a business coach, I talk to thousands of leaders every year. Great business owners who have built and scaled businesses to serve their industry and their customers. Yet almost everyone I talk to wishes that they could be a better leader in some aspect. Whether that means being able to coach and support their team members, […]
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As a leader, accountability (or lack thereof) can have a huge impact on how you grow and scale your business. It is one thing to plan for growth each quarter and lay out the steps needed to complete a certain task or project, but it requires a completely different skill set to take those steps […]
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When I hear something along the lines of “I have decided to promote Linda to our executive team. She has been with us for over two years and I feel it is time” from a business owner, I immediately follow up with a series of questions. Mainly, it’s to find out if they have thought through the […]
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As a business owner, there are a lot of tasks or projects that need to get done to grow your business that don’t require a full-time employee. Especially when it comes to things like graphic design, technology help, and maybe even some sales and marketing projects. So for many, it makes a lot of sense […]
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As business owners, the world as we know it is rapidly changing and evolving. Every day we are confronted with new information, regulations, and choices. How we handle those choices, and how we mitigate risk during this time will be the difference between success and failure during this coronavirus crisis. One of the big things […]
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Hiring is tough. Depending on the position in question, you often have a lot of competition and time constraints to deal with coupled with an already ever growing to-do list. In the past month we have talked a lot about how to streamline the hiring process and narrow down your candidate pool. But today I […]
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“What are your summer plans?” Every June, I pose this very question to my business coaching clients. And about 65% of them go on to tell me about the trips that they have planned, the cruises they have booked and the weeks or months that they plan to step away from their business and spend […]
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Chances are you’ll receive a new email, text, or instant message before you’ve finished reading this article. Your phone will buzz or your computer will ding or your watch will vibrate. Probably all three. Will you check your email or stick with this article? In our work coaching thousands of business owners, we’ve found that […]
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Years ago one of my business mentors Roy shared with me on a rafting trip how time away from his business was one of the key tactics that helped him scale it. Over the past 20 years as an entrepreneur scaling companies has taught me that a business owner can cast a pretty big shadow […]
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For several years now, I have shared some of my favorite growth and leadership tools with our Inc. readers. Things like the 1-page action plan. Tools that can help you gain focus and clarity on the things that make the most difference in your business and help you grow even faster. Today, I wanted to […]
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Recently I was working on a tool to help our coaching team internalize the best practices we’ve developed to handle the most common business challenges. While the document I eventually created dealt with 12 key challenges, here is a summary of four that I’ve observed are most common to small businesses we coach ($1-25 million […]
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When it comes to drop points in your funnel, it’s important to know that many of your biggest drop points happen before you even know your customer’s name. For the majority of businesses, having a 50%+ drop rate on key pages isn’t uncommon and they can go as high as 60-70% if you aren’t taking an active role […]
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Now I might be dating myself by saying this, but I remember a time where telephones were used exclusively for making phone calls. I know that time has passed. And I laugh now when I see my wife spend 90% of her phone battery texting or using various apps and not actually talking on the […]
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In a world that is going further and further along the technological spectrum, there are some low-tech things that once upon a time would be considered “old-school” but have now become the new “cool thing.” Think about music. It used to be that people would always want digital, that was the cutting edge. Now there’s […]
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I’d say most business owners spend about 45 hours finding and hiring a new staff member. And it often takes another 40-some hours to onboard and train that individual, depending on their position and responsibilities. Which means that each new team member could take up to two weeks to get fully trained. And unfortunately for many business […]
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As a business coach, it’s my job to hold business owners accountable. Every day I talk with leaders who have aspirations to scale and grow their businesses, and we work together to get their businesses to the next level. At the end of each session, we part with a list of action steps that the business owner can […]
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When it comes to customer acquisitions and loyalty, time is of the essence. With each touch point in the funnel, you have the opportunity to grow and strengthen your relationship. Or you have the opportunity to lose that customer to one of your competitors. The difference between keeping or losing clients lies in the drop […]
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I recently talked about how project-management tools were so important to a remote team, and as many of us are now working either remotely or in a hybrid situation, I wanted to share some more tips on how my team here at Maui Mastermind uses project-management tools. Our team has been working remotely for over […]
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Pricing is something that, as a business owner, should always be at the forefront of your mind. Your profit margins can make the difference between a business that can scale and grow exponentially versus one that remains stagnant. But for many business owners, the idea of increasing their pricing is often met with some hesitation. […]
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When it comes to time management and productivity it all boils down to finding and eliminating your time thieves. Once you are able to identify the low value tasks that take up the bulk of your time, you will find yourself with more time to focus on the big picture tasks that fuel growth in […]
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Being a business owner comes with a host of problems and challenges, and many of those challenges are compounded by things like stress and anxiety. Another huge issue that I see far too often as a business coach is something called imposter syndrome. Dictionary.com defines imposter syndrome as “anxiety or self-doubt that results from persistently undervaluing […]
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“My business is special. I can’t scale it because there is no way it could function without me.” I talk to thousands of business owners every single year that think that they are special. They think that their business couldn’t run without them, so they work…a lot. They put in 70 or 80 hour work […]
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The majority of business owners I talk to are tired. They are working 60, 70, even 80 hours a week and still feel like they aren’t making any progress in their business. Their friends and family barely see them and they wonder how long they can keep this up before they reach critical burnout. Now imagine having […]
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You are busy. Your to-do list is never ending and you feel like you could work 80 or 90 hours a week and still not accomplish everything you want to do in any given week. Add onto that a myriad of meetings, phone calls and employee issues and it’s enough to make any business owner want to throw in the […]
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I was recently talking to a business owner, who seemed rather proud of their long to-do list. After a little prodding I learned that they thought a full task list was a sign of a growing business and that the longer their list, the more they were needed in their company. And while I understood […]
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Over the last 25 years I have helped thousands of business owners grow and scale their companies. And one of the biggest deciding factors on the rate of growth has to do with a business owners (and their staff) ability to focus on the bigger picture tasks that create the most value for the company. […]
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“David, we are so busy right now. We really need to hire more help!” Seems like a pretty straight forward business need. One that I hear all the time with my business coaching clients. Business is booming and hiring more help is the go-to for most entrepreneurs in such a situation. But what if there […]
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I have seen the following scenario a thousand times. You have worked hard on scaling your business. You have made all the right decisions and have grown your business to the point of being able to sell it for a significant profit. And once the time comes to pull the trigger and put it on the market, the […]
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Every year my team and I talk to hundreds of thousands of business owners in all stages of business, many of whom are just beginning their entrepreneurial journey. And one of the things that we hear time and time again, is the myth that “it takes a lot of money to launch a new business.” This is […]
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Landing a new client or project can be an exciting time for any business owner, but if you are like many entrepreneurs taking on a new client (or several) at one time can put a strain on you financially. Especially if there is going to be a significant amount of time before you are able […]
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Is your company susceptible to fraud? According to the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners, the answer is yes. Its findings report over $7 billion in total losses due to fraud in 2018 alone. What’s even more interesting is that small businesses with less than 100 employees lost twice as much ($200,000-plus) per fraud attempt than their […]
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As a business coach, I talk to thousands of business owners each year who are looking for guidance on how to shape their company culture for growth and independence. They understand the importance of company culture, but often struggle to shape it in a way that benefits both their company as a whole and their team members. So, today I […]
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Starting a new business can be exciting and terrifying at the same time. There are so many variables to consider, and a million things on your to-do list. And for many business owners, they aren’t doing it alone. They have a business partner (or two…or three) that they choose to take the entrepreneurship journey with. At face […]
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As a business coach for the past 25 years, I could tell you a million reasons why you need a business coach to help grow your business. But that’s not what today’s column is about. Today, I want to talk about the reasons why you don’t need a business coach. Having someone to guide you through the ups […]
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Ask any small business owner what they spend the majority of their time on, and you will likely hear something along the lines of: “I spend it putting out fires.” “I spend it answering employee questions and helping them do their jobs.” “I spend it helping my team with problems and challenges.” You are probably […]
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It has been estimated that executives can be in meetings for up to 23 hours per week on average. And business owners can spend more than that in a given week. That’s a lot of meetings, and if done improperly, it’s a lot of wasted time and missed opportunities. As a business owner, you have […]
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Hiring employees is supposed to free up your time. The goal is after we get past the initial hump of recruiting and onboarding, that having that extra person on the team will help free up your time to do more higher level tasks. That is the goal at least. But for many business owners, managing […]
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Another week is coming to an end, and if you are like most business owners out there your to-do list is still pretty full and you are running on empty. You may wonder “where did the time go?” You got up every morning and went to the office, put in a solid eight to ten […]
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Every product or service that a company sells to a specific target market carries with it predictable, specific and repeatable sales obstacles that you must learn to effectively deal with and overcome. Understanding the possible reasons for a “No” during the sales process, will go a long way to increasing the number of times you […]
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“I have a great idea for a new business or product!” It’s a statement that I hear almost every day, and for the majority of business owners, it isn’t necessarily a good thing. Let me explain. I coach business owners who have been in business for several years. They have a product or service that […]
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The most successful business owners set aside time each quarter to plan out their goals and action steps for the upcoming quarter. Not only does this allow you to focus your energy and attention on the things that propel your company forward, but it will also help you strategize the best way to leverage your team to reach your goals. […]
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When it comes to spending money in your business, not all expenses are created equal. In your business there are certain areas where a small investment can make a leveraged return and there are other areas where a big investment can be a waste of money. The flip side of that is there are places and times […]
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Scaling a company the right way requires that you balance keeping a clear focus on those fewer, better things that will make a leveraged difference for your company and that you stay flexible to learn and adjust as you go.
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Over the last 25 years, I have worked with and coached thousands of business owners to help them grow and scale their businesses. I have helped entrepreneurs, just like you, learn how to systemize their growth, take control of their finances, make smarter business decisions and hire more efficiently. But all of that pales in comparison to […]
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If you’ve ever been faced with a decision as to whether you should quit a course of action or persevere, then you’ll find the following six questions from New York Times bestselling author and business guru Seth Godin a big relief. I met with Godin several weeks back to talk about this very question, which […]
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With the new year upon us, many business owners spend a great deal of time reflecting on the past year and planning for the future. As a business coach, this is one of my favorite times of the year, as I get to sit down with clients and celebrate their victories and plan out the upcoming quarter. So, today […]
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