Why Positive Check-Ins Are Worth Your Time
Starting weekly tactical meetings with a positive check-in has become a standard practice for many small business teams. It’s that moment when everyone shares personal or business good news to set a warm, upbeat tone before diving into strategy. Some executives love it, citing the camaraderie and rapport it builds. Others? Not so much. They […]
Should You Grow Your Business or Stay Small?
Most business owners talk about growing their companies. In fact, Bank of America’s 2024 Business Owner Report shows that 87% of medium-sized businesses expect to grow. But here’s the catch: many business owners don’t truly want growth. What they actually want is a good income and a balanced lifestyle. And guess what? There’s nothing wrong […]
Avoid Crazy Plans for Sustainable Business Growth
Can you guess the biggest obstacle to sustainable business growth? No, it’s not the lack of money, people, technology, or systems. Sure, all of these matter eventually. But even without them, you can still make progress some of the time. What you absolutely must have, though, are practical, actionable plans. Why Solid Plans Matter Without […]
Inoculate Immortality in Your Business
If you know me, you’ve likely heard about my obsession: to inoculate immortality into small businesses. I call this mission “Eradicating Business Covid.” What is Business Covid™? It’s a pandemic quietly killing 180,000 small to medium-sized businesses every year. This silent epidemic takes 2 million jobs and 4% of U.S. GDP growth with it annually. […]
Build a Business That Wins Like the Tortoise
Years ago, I worked as an M&A advisor with Laszlo, the owner of an HVAC business. Over time, he became one of our best customers, snapping up every service we offered—valuation, acquisition advisory, capital raising—you name it. Laszlo was a mix of challenging and entertaining to work with. His curiosity and self-reflection made him a […]
Embrace the Pain of Building a Growth Business
In my last blog, we talked about the difference between Lifestyle Businesses and Growth Businesses. To recap: If you want to own a Growth Business, you need to: Sounds exciting, right? Here’s the catch: growth is painful. Why Growth is Always Painful Both spotting opportunities and building a scalable business require creating something entirely new—amid […]
How to Win Your Team’s Buy-In
Do you feel like younger generations just aren’t as motivated as we used to be? They want remote work, “Bare Minimum Mondays,” and “Flexible Fridays.” They don’t care about your company’s mission or your endless meetings. They just want to check off tasks and live their lives outside of your business. But here’s the thing—this […]
Why the “Integrator” Concept is a Myth
I’ve always struggled with the idea of the “Integrator”—a person who runs your business while you focus on being the “Visionary.” In 2015, Gino Wickman and Mark C. Winters published Rocket Fuel, promoting the concept of hiring an Integrator to free visionary entrepreneurs from the burden of managing their businesses. According to Wickman’s Entrepreneurial Operating […]
Beware the Trap of Pocket Rocks
Setting priorities is one of the hardest things for an entrepreneur… Wait—scratch that. Setting priorities is easy. Sticking to them is hard. Actually, both are hard. Let me explain why and what you can do about it. First, let’s talk about why setting quarterly priorities (Rocks or OKRs) is so challenging: Why Sticking to Priorities […]
Be Your Own Private Equity Firm
As a young investment banker, I grew up inspired by the legendary leverage buyout (LBO) stories of the 1980s. One of my favorites was Barbarians at the Gate, which chronicled the 1989 bidding war for RJR Nabisco. The deal ended when Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. (KKR) “won” with a staggering $31 billion bid —nearly […]