Dirty Secrets of Small Business

In This Episode This might seem like a strange question, but think about the question if you were to substitute attorney or accountant or insurance person for the phrase business coach.   Wouldn’t you be surprised to learn a business owner friend doesn’t have an accountant or insurance person?   So why would it be so odd to expect that every small business owner also have a business coach?   We ad...

In This Episode We all know couples where it’s evident who wears the pants in the relationship.     Other couples have more of a shared power concept going on.   So which one is right if you and your life partner are also business partners?   Should one of you be the boss?   Should you share the boss duties? The “who’s the boss” question is one that needs to be answered in any business partnership...

In This Episode One of the most overlooked opportunities for growth in the small business world is that of acquiring other companies.   This could mean buying out competitors or perhaps adding new products or services to your current offerings.   It could also be a way of expanding your geography or finding some good new customers or team members.   There are many benefits of growing through acqui...

In This Episode Have you ever not liked going to work because of the people you work with?   Perhaps there is tension at work between you and a colleague where you just can’t get along on a regular basis.   Maybe you disagree on the direction of the company or it could simply be you don’t like how they do certain things.   What do you do when this person is related to you?   What do you do if this...

In This Episode So what does it look like when you’re ready?   Does it always look and feel the same?   Kind of like when you’re lost?   In today’s show we talk about how to know when the next generation is ready to take over.   Like many things in life and business, it’s not always so clear, but there are some key things you can look for. One of our areas of specialty in coaching is working with...

In This Episode You may have heard that one of the benefits of owning your own business is that you get to choose which 12 hours during the day you’d like to work.   Many small business owners will crack a smile at a statement like this, in part because they know it contains some truth, but also because it’s one of the things many business owners struggle with.   Just how much should I be working?...

In This Episode One of the areas we specialize in for our business coaching is helping family businesses transition to the next generation.   One of the biggest gating items for a transition of any business, is the current owner deciding when it’s time to hang things up and move on to the next phase of their life.   Sometimes the current owner is the last person to realize it’s time for them to mo...

In This Episode It’s pretty easy and common to get excited, nervous, and stressed when running your small business.   You can often feel like Atlas with the weight of the world on your shoulders.   Everyone from your employees to your customer and vendors, not to mention your family depending on you.   So how can a small business stay calm and in control in the often chaotic world of running a sma...

In This Episode No offense to Marshall Field, the retailer who is often credited with creating the slogan “The customer is always right,” but give me a break.   Following this piece of advice has probably put more small businesses out of business than anything else.   We have seen way too many small business owners justify keeping bad customers by quoting this phrase. Part of our goal with this po...

In This Episode Whether you’re currently contemplating starting or buying a business or if you already own a business, one question you might be asking yourself is if you’re cut out to be a business owner.  Depending who you talk to you might hear things like “people are born to be entrepreneurs” or something similar.  Don’t always believe the hype! During the show we talked about different pathwa...

In This Episode If you’ve owned your business for several years, chances are someone at some point has talked to you about a business valuation.  Either someone has asked you directly what your company is worth or the idea of your company’s value has come up in conversation.  The question we address in today’s show is just how valuable is a business valuation? Like many things in life and business...

In This Episode Most people’s only experience with firing someone is watching Donald Trump say “You’re fired” on the TV shows The Apprentice.  If you’re one of those people you may think it’s no big deal.  I mean the person is being terminated for a reason, right? Even if there is a good reason it is still difficult in a small business because you likely know a lot about this person.  Chances are...

In This Episode Many folks are confused why business owners have trouble stepping back and selling or transitioning their business to the next generation of ownership.  We have found in our decades of working with small business owners transitioning to the next phase in their life that one of the biggest items holding them back from exiting their business is finding ways to stay relevant. This is...

In This Episode It’s rare that a small business owner wakes up one morning and decides it’s time to transition their business to the next generation.  It’s something they usually think about for a while, likely many years before they are finally ready.  But once they decide they often want it to happen yesterday.  But before the current owner leaves they want to make sure the next generation knows...

In This Episode If you’ve ever been involved with the buying or selling of a business, chances are you’ve heard of a term called seller’s remorse.  Even if you haven’t been involved in a deal it’s likely you’ve heard about it or seen it.  And it doesn’t matter how large or small a deal is, it can happen to anyone…even a billionaire. The simplest definition of seller’s remorse is the person who was...

In This Episode One of the key success factors in running and growing a small business is surrounding yourself with good advisors.  Talk with any small business owner and they are likely to have all or most of the following “advisors” helping their business: accountant, attorney, insurance, payroll/HR, banker, financial planner, marketing, and business coach/consultant.  But how do you know if you...

In This Episode If we had to pick a movie to be the theme for a small business owner, it would likely be the 1993 classic Groundhog Day starring Bill Murray and Andie MacDowell.  Even if you’ve never seen the movie you can probably relate to what it feels like to have the same day over and over again.  Unfortunately for too many small business owners this can be the case.  So what’s a small busine...

In This Episode Today we were joined on the show by Sherry and Dan Jones. They were clients of ours when they owned their franchise business Seniors Helping Seniors.  We not only helped them grow their business but we also helped them with a successful exit of their business. We covered a lot during our chat but some of the highlights include: Importance of their experience with their “welded” fam...

In This Episode One of the reasons we started this podcast was to help dispel many of the myths we’ve seen in the small business world.  One of those chief myths is the idea that if “you’re not growing you’re dying.”  This has become so popular in the small business world that folks seem to think it must be true.  Not so fast my friend. Quick question for you, have you ever experienced significant...

In This Episode Today we were joined on the show by business owners John and Terri Sonnhalter. Oh yeah, they also happen to be Adam’s parents!  They shared with us their 40+ year journey of working together in a business as spouses.  We heard from John a few years ago when he appeared on our show back in January 2020 (see below for a link to that show).  But this time, Terri got a chance to share...

In This Episode One of the dirtiest of little secrets we’ve discussed related to business ownership on this show over the years is that as a small business owner you’re also running a bank.  With all the talk of recessions and tough times ahead, if you haven’t had this issue before, chances are you’ll be dealing with some slow paying customers over the next year or so.  Today’s show is to help mak...

In This Episode If you’ve been around us at all then you know one of the things we specialize in with our coaching is helping people with buying and selling companies.  Not only have we helped hundreds of people with various transactions, we’ve also bought and sold several businesses ourselves.  So as we finish one year and head into the next we thought it might be a good topic to address for thos...

In This Episode Today we were joined on the show by business owner Bob Scaccia, who is the Founder and CEO of USA Firmware. Bob shared with us some of the ups and downs of his first decade in business and the tremendous growth he’s seen over that time.  We heard from Bob a few years ago when he appeared on our show back in January 2019 (see below for a link to that show). We covered a lot during o...

In This Episode We are big fans of partnerships.  Surprisingly, we tend to find ourselves in the minority when it comes to that positive view of business partners.  We’re guessing you may have heard a lot of negatives about partners as well.  So why do we often recommend that business owners look for good partners? As you might imagine, not everyone is partner material.  That means you might not b...

In This Episode Everyone loves something new and shiny!  Many of our small business clients refer to those bright shiny new objects as squirrels.  But while we’re all chasing these new shiny objects, we might just be missing something that’s right under our noses that can help grow our businesses.  Past customers. Oops, did we just take all of the air out of your balloon?  Are those past customers...