Small Business Minute

A very common trait of successful entrepreneurs is that many don’t have rear view mirrors. By that I mean, they rarely dwell on the past mistakes. They know their future lies ahead and not behind. The past is the past and mistakes happen. “Once distilled, they let it go and move on…” That’s not to say they pretend they never made a mistake, to the contrary. They acknowledge their...

I have a simple saying that I live by, and that is “Look as good as you sound”! We constantly tell people how great our product or services are but do we support that statement with a professional image? People tell me all the time that it’s not that important and I call that a cop out!  It’s about respect! “Image is that common thread that runs through  your organization” Business is...

Whether we chose to admit it or not, every entrepreneur has limitations and failure to acknowledge them can become an anchor that limits our success. “Unfortunately, most of us never seem to shake our start-up attitude” Granted, during the start-up years we must do everything to get our enterprise off the ground and there are many things that we aren’t very good at. Fortunately, we onl...

If you’re to believe everything you hear or read about innovation, you would be justified in thinking that innovation is an area best left to the big companies, but that would be wrong. “Don’t let the status quo be the reason you don’t try something new” If truth be told, every company, regardless of size, has the opportunity to innovate. Although small innovations never make headlines...

Everyone one of us needs to be motivated and inspired occasionally. Although successful entrepreneurs are inherently self motivated but none the less they still look for opportunities to keep themselves in the right frame of mind. Being inspired or motivated is only half the required elements to achievement. The other half is action. “Being motivated and inspired has little or no value if yo...

Many business owners complain that they never seem to get anything accomplished during normal business hours because they are constantly being interrupted to deal with relatively unimportant issues. As the business grows the interruptions just keep on multiplying. This happens because when they first started out they were accustomed to doing everything, because they were it and only had to take ca...

A common mistake entrepreneurs make is that they expect their employees to take responsibility for the job they are tasked to do but fail to give them the authority they need. “It’s a little contradictory and more than frustrating for your team.” This is particularly evident in customer service or customer facing positions. We tell our team that we want to provide the best customer ser...

Most successful entrepreneurs that I’ve met have a balanced approach to empathy, deep when required and non-existent when really necessary. On the other hand, I witness owners that aren’t so balanced. Those that have too much empathy, frequently worry way too much how a given decision or request will be accepted by their employees and regularly succumb to the slightest resistance. This...

Its not always your bosses fault that you don’t like your job. Sure it’s easy to blame someone else that you’re not reaching your full potential, that your job is boring and repetitive to say nothing of the fact that you feel stuck without choices. To that I say, get over it. Working for an entrepreneur can be both challenging and fulfilling Where is it written that they are responsible for your f...

I regularly tell business owners that you don’t have to be an expert in every area of your business, but you have to good enough at everything until you can afford to hire someone who is better than you in a specific discipline. This is pretty simple advice but it can be challenging for the entrepreneur because they don’t know where to begin. As humans, we tend to gravitate towards the things we l...

A wonderful piece of advice we can all use is that we should all have two mentors. One that is older that can share the wisdom that comes with age and can helps us avoid the many pitfalls that they’ve experienced. The second and younger mentor, and by younger I mean at least one generation behind us and not just a few years our senior. This mentor or group of mentors will be the ones that keep you...

Being the creator of our future is part of the allure to being an entrepreneur, however one of the costs of doing so is the increased stress we experience while chasing our dreams. The thing with stress is that although we all experience it, how we deal with it can be far different. Some even look upon it as a badge of honor and fool themselves into thinking that stress is a great motivator and th...

As entrepreneurs, we are faced with a daily buffet of decisions we must make. Some days the sheer quantity can overwhelm and dishearten an individual. Granted many decisions are simple and require little or no effort, however they all aren’t and this can really cripple an individual if they’re afraid to make a mistake. The saying “I’ve learned more from my failures than my...

Wilfredo Pareto discovered the 80/20 rule when he wanted to determine who owned all the lands in Italy in the 18th century. He found out that 80% of the lands holdings were owned by just 20% of the families. As he continued his research he soon discovered that many things fit that profile. Applying The 80/20 Rules For Sales So how do we apply the 80/20 rules for sales? Well as entrepreneurs we see...

Let’s face it, employees will screw up. But how we manage the situation can have greater importance and do more damage to your business than the actual mistake. It has been my experience that most mistakes occur because the information or directions issued were not clear or detailed enough yet as managers we assumed they understood. Too Little Information In many situations, we’re so busy or stres...

There really isn’t a better testament for your business than having repeat customer sales. It tells you you’re doing something right because your customers are coming back for more. But the true magic of repeat business is understanding the frequency a customer buys, what they buy and the value of their purchases. In Small Business Minute #21 , I discussed how profitability increases when you deal...

As entrepreneurs we are use to doing everything because in the beginning there wasn’t anyone else. As they say, old habits are hard to break so when a staff member gets sick or overwhelmed, we’re usually the first ones to jump in and cover the situation. But who covers for you when you get sick? Who’s got your back? We’re Only Human I know we think we’re superhuman, and sometimes we really a...

Have you ever taken the time to actually inventory your achievements? Every once in a while we should stop and look back over our shoulder to appreciate really how far we’ve come since we stepped into the abyss of self-employment. Success has many definitions. To some it’s a state of mind, to others it’s a financial achievement or the accumulation of possessions. Unfortunately, many have yet to cr...

I regularly work with small business owners who are so focused on growing their customer base that they ignore their existing customers. Existing Customers Are More Profitable What most don’t realize is that existing customers are far more profitable than new customers. In fact, it can cost you 5 to 10 times more to get a new customer than it does to service an existing customer. In addition, if y...

Prior to starting my own business, I literally devoured everything I could about owning and running a company. One thing that I could never understand was how a perfectly good business ended up going bankrupt because of cash flow problems. It wasn’t until I started my own first enterprise that I quickly learned that regardless of how profitable you were, it didn’t matter until that money was in th...

As a business owner, do you even know what you’re trying to achieve? Waking up and hoping that today will be better than yesterday is not much of a strategic initiative and will do nothing to advance your dream. Alternatively, simple statements like I want to be wealthy or sell the company someday and retire just don’t cut it, they are just too vague. Being successful in business is a combination...

Entrepreneurs are notorious for not delegating duties and responsibilities within their organizations. A common reason for this that they figure it’s just easier and quicker to do it themselves than to take the extra time required to train someone. So instead, they just figure they’ll work a little harder. Delegating Is Freedom For those lucky few who do find enlightenment, they quickly realize ho...

Trying to increase the profitability of our business is always at the forefront of our thoughts and that usually revolves around looking for the next big idea, product or service that we can offer our customers. Many times this makes perfect sense, especially if we’re confident we have maximized the opportunities within our current clients, products and operations. Unfortunately, more often than n...

One of the key skills successful entrepreneurs share is their ability to use the selling process as a research vehicle. Being a great designer, mechanic or programmer matters little if you can’t convince someone to buy your goods or services. Alternatively, hoping “to be discovered” may leave you waiting a long time. Sales Generate Revenue With the exception of sales, all other activities that you...

I often come across business owners whose sales style is to use scare tactics rather than a consultative sales process By scare tactics, I refer to that style whereby the sales individual attempts to pressure the individual into making a purchase decision based on world ending events. An example of this would be a roofing salesperson telling the client that they can’t wait any longer because their...