How to Get Your Business to Grow Up and Run Itself

Ray Kroc, the founder of McDonald’s, understood that to have his business grow up and run itself, he would need to pay attention to all of the Seven Elements of a Business – so he did. Continue Reading

Visionaries Make Money, Dreamers Don’t. Which are you?

Dreamer - Someone who can describe some future hoped for situation, but has no clear date for when they want to be there, and isn’t actively right now pursuing that vision.  A dreamer loves to think about the future and what it could be like, but there is no concrete connection between that future situation and the work that needs to be done today to get there.  And a dreamer never puts a date on when they intend to get there.  Intentionality is not part of the dreamer’s tool set. Continue Reading

Seven Words a Business Owner Can Never Afford to Use

1) Try (the uncommitted’s word)
“We’re going to try to…”
Yoda – “Try not.  Do, or do not.  There is no try.”  Intentionality is a huge key to getting where you want to go.  When a business owner uses “try”, their escape route is clearly identified Continue Reading

The simple things are usually the ones that make us money

Occam’s Razor says that given two possible answers to a problem, the simpler one is usually right.  If we applied this ancient idea to business, we’d make a lot more money. Continue Reading

How I bought 10-15 days off, 21 mths from now.

We had five days straight of overcast, rainy, sloppy weather Friday thru Tuesday in Denver, something we almost never see.  It dominated Memorial Day weekend and kept us all inside for the most part.

Finally Wednesday was a gorgeous “Chamber of Commerce” day.  Not a cloud in the sky, no wind, no humidity, and no appointments the whole day.  Seemed like a great day to “reward” myself, play some golf and ride a bike.  Why didn’t I?  Am I workaholic?  No, to the contrary I worked Wednesday because I want more free time, and sooner. Continue Reading

Seven Decision-Making Principles Leading us to Profitability

Guiding Principles of a business are necessary (honesty, integrity, customer service, etc.), but there is another set of principles that help the Business Owner in particular: decision-making principles.

How we make decisions effects everything we do.  Problem – we make decisions subjectively, even when we think we’re being objective.  All the research shows this – even at the major company level – we even buy subjectively. Continue Reading

Guidelines vs. Rules – Creating Wildly Successful Employees

Employees have changed.  Rules don’t cut it anymore.   The newer generation isn’t sure it even wants to go to work and has in some ways decided to retire BEFORE working.  They’re out there “gigging” instead of working. How do you as a Business Owner respond to this new world? Continue Reading

Process Mapping - a Key to Owning a Business

Last week we talked about why processes are so much more important to small businesses than even big business.  This week we’ll cover just how simple it is to put together a good process that will actually have a significant impact on your business.  What we don’t need is more stuff sitting on a shelf – Process Mapping is designed to make us more money and free us up to enjoy the business we’ve created.  The Key – KEEP IT SIMPLE!  The more info you try to capture, the less likely you are to actually use the process.  Just the opposite of what you might think. Continue Reading

Simple Processes Create More Revenue

Once in awhile Mom would tell me on the way out the door to school that we were having hamburgers that night.  But when I came in from playing to eat dinner, I found chicken on the table.   I was disappointed by the switch, which was completely irrational because I like chicken just as much as hamburgers.  But she had set one expectation and fulfilled it with another.  I was an irrationally unhappy customer, but unhappy just the same. Continue Reading