Business 300

Sure, there are consequences to firing someone. But there are many more consequences to tolerating the employee who should have been fired. And if you keep him, you are the one responsible for those consequences. It's not that employee's responsibility that customers don't trust your business, your business has stalled, people are frustrated, top performers are leaving, and nobody trust you. You b...

In business (and probably most of life, but this is Business 300, not Life 300).. in business, waiting is often more dangerous than moving. A key difference between founders and flounders is movement. Those who make it are moving - maybe it's too fast, maybe it's ugly, maybe it's imperfect, but it's forward.

Your customers are people who are trying to make their lives better. They buy from you because they believe what you're offering will improve their life in some capacity. So then, before making business decisions, why wouldn't you ask, “Does this help the customer win faster, better, or with less friction? How will this improve my customer's life?”

Profit is feedback from the market. Don't ignore it. It's not just a number. It's a conversation. You need to understand what is being said, and respond accordingly. If you can't speak the language, and want to be in the business of business, you'll have to learn to interpret. That's because profit is communication.

There may come a point in your business when it seems like your growth potential has hit a ceiling, but you'd like it to keep growing. You'd like to reach new customers, but your current market is tapped out. There are different things that you can try, some good and some, not so good. There are ways you can expand your reach without rebuilding your business.

Two down. First, speed up your cash in. Second, maintain your cash hold. One more left. For the next episode.  

We don't ever think about our breathing, until we can't breath. We don't think about our blood-flow, until we're bleeding out. Breath and blood is essential to our survival. And yet, when things are normal, it's not something we have to think about. However, we do take precautionary decisions and make choices to make sure we don't get put in a situation where we have to think about those sorts of...

Feeling doesn't excuse thinking. Wisely manage your effort, energy, gifting, and money to work towards the reward you're after. Is this business model sustainable for your life stage, energy level, and goals? Even if you love the game, be clear on what it costs to play. Will you be building this business, or will it be breaking you? Some mountains are worth climbing. Others are just tall distracti...

For this time, your take-away is the first 3 points: 1. Define the reward 2. Consider the business 3. Understand the effort It's good to think about the effort needed for the reward you're after when choosing a business.

Every business decision you make, should in one way or another be audited through the customer-centric filter: “Does this make the customer’s life better?” Everybody on your team, starting with you the business owner, must always keep the focus on the customer.

When starting off, you don’t need to be efficient. That'll come later. When starting off, you need to move. Efficiency is great when you’ve got momentum, systems, and clarity. But if you're at the starting line, still obsessing over the best way to take the first step, then you’re not building. You’re stalling.

You’re not stuck. You’re just avoiding the thing you know you need to do — because it’s uncomfortable, risky, or might make someone mad. So instead, you’ve built this pretty little lie called “stuck,” and you’ve wrapped yourself in it like a warm productivity blanket.

What are some tasks that make you want to light your laptop on fire? Figure out how to delete, automate, or delegate them.   And start solving burnout — not with vacations, but with systems. Because the goal isn’t to escape your business.   The goal is to build one that doesn’t make you want to. You don’t need a break. You need a better business. It's not ove...

Internal motives and thoughts do matter in our public and work life. To be effective overtime in our business pursuits - serving customers, employing people, blessing the community - we’ll need to plant a little deeper than just surface level behavior. Our entire being should be aimed at doing good.

If we want to have results, we’re going to have to be okay with the world having problems. Not only would we have to be okay with that, but we’d have to be excited about it. Almost, thankful for it. It's why you're in business. A problem in the business world is nothing more than an instigator for innovation.

Whether it's production runs, flow of product, financing needs, finding equity, resolving customer issues, or clearing work blockages, people build up a mirage of rules and explain away why they can't get through this problem. What they lack is a sort of freedom mindset - a creative approach - to be able to chart a path toward solving the problem. Some people are stuck finding the lights for their...

Take whatever sort of example in institutional culture. Maybe it's a culture of excellence, or continuous improvement, or disciplined execution. Maybe it's a culture of gratitude, or hard work, or competence. Whatever it is, why is it in the lifeblood of some institutions, and can't seem to get any traction in others?

The Value-Growth mindset is focused on the person for whom I'm providing value. In order for a business owner to be successful in his purpose of delivering value to a customer, he must care about that customer, and care about him as a customer - meaning, as a person who is the recipient of the value. What that means, is that although all businesses are in the game to deliver value to people in gen...

What if you're a competent, hungry, and disciplined individual, who would love to be a business owner, but can't seem to get traction in starting or owning a business? Starting a business isn't for you, and buying one isn't either. How can you enter into business ownership?

It's possible to create systems and standards that enable your business to profit and grow, no matter how much custom variation you're dealing with, or no matter how you're wired.

If you want to scale your business, you need to build systems. And if you can't do that, you need to find somebody who can help you. Either way, growth requires systems. That's how to scale your business.

Not all problems are created equal. When having to solve a problem, we must consider what sort of problem we're dealing with. On the scale of priorities, we weigh the consequences and rewards of not doing anything (that is, dragging out the problem) versus doing the wrong thing (that is, implementing a hasty solution). Sometimes letting the problem burn is the right thing. You can always make thin...

It's work to create and improve your value-offering. It's emotional work. It's mental work. It's physical work. And all of that demands your committed effort to see the thing through. It's a decision and choice that you must make and hold to until the work is done.

Typically our problems are not unique to us. There have been people who have gone before us to identify why these kinds of things happen and what can be done about it. There are solutions that we can work at to reduce and eliminate the frustration and stress that we experience at work. Most of these solutions, however, require nerve, focus, patience, and an unwavering tenacity to keep moving forwa...