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…
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….
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…
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…
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…
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…
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.
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…
I’m sure you’ve read articles about the importance of “culture” to shape the behaviors of your employees. One of my favorite descriptions of company culture was as “the invisible hand that shapes team behavior when there is no defined process or system to tell them what to do.” But understanding the concept of culture doesn’t…
How to Increase Productivity What’s Your Biggest Time Waster at Work? What is your biggest productivity killer at work? Is it: A. Phone calls? B. Meetings? C. Email? D. Staff interruptions? If you are anything like the 353 U.S. business owners my company Maui Mastermind surveyed you’re likely answer is “email” (57%), followed by either…