What did you learn from your business this year?

It’s the end of another year. Wow. After looking back for a while I can see it looks a lot different that what we thought it was going to look. So many things we planned for did not even happen and a whole bunch of stuff we did not think would happen, happened. Either way we survived. Some might even say we thrived. It was the most successful year we have ever had in business. I cannot point to one thing that Tom, Scott or I did that was the tipping point. It was years of small decision, failures and successes all coming together. Business as in life is not all about the one thing, it is a series of things. Maybe even a mindset or dare I say values, principles and practices.

I just finished the book Onward by Howard Schultz. He is the CEO of Starbuck. He wrote the book about his experiences at Starbuck leading them through the tough recession of 2008 and 2009. Below I copied down his insight about what he learned about himself and his company during these tough times. We all know what works during the good times, almost everything.  But it is during the tough times that our principles, values and practices as business people are tested.  I know I learned much during the last recession and  I will never be the same. Our business was off 70% by the time it was over. We had to look at every part of our business and see how we could improve it or eliminate it. We learned much about ourselves. As Coach Wooden put it “adversity does not develop character, it reveals it”.

Read these words from Onward by Howard Schultz,  page 309, and reflect on how you can use them to build your business and your brand.

Grow with discipline. Balance intuition with rigor. Innovate around the core. Don’t embrace the status quo.  Find new ways to see. Never expect a silver bullet. Get your hands dirty. Listen with empathy and overcommunicate with transparency. Tell your story, refusing to let other define you. Use authentic experiences to inspire.  Stick to your values, the are your foundation.  Hold people accountable but give them the tools to succeed.  Make the tough choices; it’s how you execute that counts. Be decisive in times of crisis. Be nimble. Find truth in trials and lessons in mistakes. Be responsible for what you see, hear and do. Believe   

Tracking your progress.

As a small business owner and business coach, I am busy and I mean real busy. I try to juggle two businesses, family, friends, ministry and more. There are never enough hours in everyday. Don’t get me wrong, I love it. I get meet so many people and everyday is a different adventure. Some days I sit back in the evening and reflect and think, I sure was busy but was I busy doing things right or busy doing the right things. I tend to loose focus from time to time and become reactive to my environment instead of proactive.

I have found that if I set some measurable goals that are in writing and keep them within view all the time, I deliver better results. With our tooling business, it is all about sales dollars and sales volume. The margins are set and do not change nor do our expenses. On the other hand, with our business coaching there are several revenue streams that compete for our attention with differing margins and investments of time and networking and this causes conflicts for us at times. I still keep track of daily progress associated with sales volume and expenses. If this is difficult as an owner, how do you think it is for your team?  We have worked to develop some Keep Performance Indicators (KPI) for each team member and we review them regularly. They say you cant expect, what your don’t inspect. We track a lot of things but keep our eyes on only a few key indicators. Each day we begin with the end in mind. Our goal is to grow repeatable sales, profitably and long-term. We then tie our actions to our goals and measure the outcome. More sales calls over time results in better relationships and opportunities to serve. We know we can’t sell people any service or product they don’t need. As we get to know clients and understand their needs, we then can customize and adapt our products and service to meet these needs if the fit is right. The following is a list of items I gathered from a new book by Mark Thompson and Brian Tracy called Now … Build a Great Business. Pick three or four of these items and track your progress and watch your company grow in the areas that are strategic to you:

1) Sales of all products from all sources (your top line)

2) Other revenues of all kinds (nonsales activities)

3) Cost of goods sold (all inclusive)

4) Expenses (every cost of doing business)

5) Salaries and wages ( usually the biggest single expense)

6) Lead generation (number and cost per lead)

7) Conversion rate from lead generation

8) Cost of customer acquisition

9) Average size of a sale

10) Average gross profit per sale

11) Average gross profit margin as a percentage

12) Average net profit per sale for each product or service

13) Average cost per sale (specific total cost per product)

14) Average number of times a customer buys

15) lifetime value of a customer

16) sales per employee (average)

17) Sales per day, week, month, or even hour

18) Sale per specific product or service

19) Average size of up-sells or cross sales

20) Average number of referrals received

21) Average sales per square foot (retail)

22) ROI (return on money invested and working in the business)

23) ROE (return on owner’s equity in the business)

24) ROS (return on sales, or net profit from sales after all expenses

25) Amount of receivables and how long outstanding

26) Amount of payable and when due

27) Amount of money in the bank

28) Amount of money drawn down on credit lines

29) Amount of debt in total owed by the business

30) General trend of key numbers

31) Number of order for future fulfillment

32) Number and size of bed debts and past-due payments

33) Daily active users of your website, your services, your products.

Three common small business errors

After hosting Dave Ramsey's Entreleadrship Simulcast on Friday, I was asked the same question twice. What are the three most common errors you see small businesses make? Great question.  The three most common I see in my office are all related to each other.  First I see entrepreneurs mixing personal and business expenses. I will confess that in the early years I was guilty of the same thing. I would pay the car insurance bill out of the business account and fill up the car with the business credit or debit card. Commingling funds hides the true state of both your business budget and your household budget. Having separate budgets for both home and business are critical. How can you know how much profit you have at the end of a month if you cannot record all of your costs correctly? Likewise, how do you know how much it costs to run your home if you are hiding costs for items such as insurance, gas, utilities and more within your business. In fact, if you have an LLC or are incorporated, you could be compromising your personal veil of protection if the government deemed that you have used business fund to support your personal lifestyle. 

This leads to the second huge error I see, not setting aside money for personal and business taxes. Please don't get me wrong, I don't like paying taxes and I don't want to pay more than I owe, but I do know that I must pay taxes on every dollar of income or profit that I take in. What I see happen every week is that people do not set asset at least 25% for quarterly taxes and use the money as if it were their own to support a lifestyle that is a little more than they can afford. Then when taxes come due, they have a huge number to come up with. Please just start the habit of opening up a separate account for taxes and set aside 25% each month. This will reduce your stress.

The last mistake is debt. The late Larry Burkett stated that 60% of all businesses become unprofitable once their interest rates reaches 15%/. Think about it, most business are considered a success if they have a 5% to 10% profit margin after taxes at the end of the year. Now add an additional ten to fifteen percent debt burden and the company is now operating to pay debt payments. We win and loose sales and contracts by just pennies on the dollar. If your company has to carry a large debt burden it may not be in the position to successfully and profitably gain the next order.

This is just what I have seen from my side of the desk and as the owner of two small businesses and business coach. Remember, we are not just in the business to make money but also to keep some and enjoy it.  

Wisdom in Counsel of many

As independent business people we literally have to make thousands of decisions a month. Most of the time, since the responsibility for the outcome of those decisions rests on us, we usually make the decisions our selves.  Wisdom tells us, that there is wisdom in the counsel of many.  Let me ask you a question, where do you turn for advice for you business? In the past I did it alone. I did not burden my wife or my business friends with my issues or problems or even my successes. I have learned that the more information I can share with my wife, the better she can help me process my situation. Since at the end of the day, most of the decisions that are made, she get to live with the results and with me (good mood or bad mood). I have learned that many times she has an intuitive insight that I don’t see many times. We have joked that every time I don’t listen to her insight it costs us money. 

I have also learned to develop a working group of other business leaders that have gotten to know me and something about my business. I have asked this group to hold me accountable to goals and standard we have all developed together. This has helped to keep me humble and not believe what the market is saying about my business during both great times and down times. As a person of faith I also look to the Bible for wisdom concerning decisions I make both at home and at work. For me the Bible gives me great insight into whom really in running “my” business. I have made it a habit to read one Proverb a day, everyday of the year. You would be amazed at the wisdom the writers of the Bible had for today’s business situations. If you would like help in developing your advisory board contact us at www.lighthouse-coaching.com and set up a free 45 minute consultation.

The More you Make the More you spend

The more you make the more you spend.

In the past 28 years I have sold millions and millions of dollars of products and services. I have been on compensation programs that included base salary plus a small commission to the 100% commission and everything in between. If you are like me, the more I tend to make the more I tend to spend. The $200 weekends at home can turn into $5,000 family ski trips to Colorado. The one mistake I made early in my business and I see in my office every week is that people take too much money out of their small businesses. Small business owners tend to ratchet up their take home pay as business increases or they keep taking the same take home pay when the business is hit with decreases in sales and profits such as what many of us just experienced during the last two years.

My question to you would be, how would you feel as a small business owner if you had three to six months of business expenses set aside?  There is no doubt that I am a big Dave Ramsey junkie, but when I changed the business models for both of our companies to include a percentage of income to be set aside for retained earnings, my stress level decreased 50%. I say 50% because I still work in the real world and things are changing all the time with end users, principles, distributors and clients. I now have a sense of peace that we will be OK if there is another downturn in the economy or if something goes wrong with one of the company cars or if we are fired by a client. There is no doubt it will hurt but having a fully funded retained earnings account gives me the security to take my time to make a good sound financial decision for the company instead of a move of desperation driven my the fear of failure.

 The hardest part about establishing a retained earnings account is the habit of spending every dollar that comes in the door on your business or yourself. There is always something that you may need or want for the business and we all can do the math and justify the expense. As we all know, most of it is tax deductible and we can write it off (touchy topic for another blogg). We need to emotionally embrace the benefit of having the reserved funds account and start to set aside a percentage of each months profits for the account. You don’t have to do it all at once but think about building it up to three months expenses over a year to 18 months. The peace of mind and the reduced stress is an awesome experience. The stress we live under running small businesses is tremendous and anything we can do to eliminate it can extend our lives and the life of our small business. Set a goal and make this a part of your business model. 

The Deadly Dozen small business questions

It the book of Proverbs is says"the wise see trouble and take refuge, but the fool proceeds and are  punished". In my office I get to see it all. So many times the solution was easy a few weeks or a few years ago and there was little or not cost other than the change in habits or direction.

 In Larry Burkett's book Business by the Book, he states that 60% of all businesses become unprofitable once their interest rate reaches 15%. Debt is surely a slippery slope that some business owners manage but there are other key areas that we also need to make sure we have a plan to address.  We see so many people who are so busy working in their business they never get to work on their business. 

We have compiled what we call the deadly dozen to motivate you to work on your business. This list of 12 question are for small business owners who want to take refuge and change their direction. If you can not answer yes to most of these questions, what are you going to do when something happens like a death of a partner or something to your physical health. If you need assistance coming up with a plan and then help implementing your plan, stop in and see us or give us a call at 330-808-3905 or visit our web site at

 www.lighthouse-coaching.com. Don't wait till it is too late. Take control of your future before someone else does.

Small Business quiz

Answer yes or no to each of the following questions

1) My business has a monthly written budget we use as a guide?

2) We have written job descriptions for each employee and job?

3) We have partner/lose of key man insurance to cover us in the case of the death of a key team member or myself?

4) We have checks and balances in place to protect our assets against an employee or accounting service from embezzling or stealing from us?

5) We have a board of “advisors” you can turn to for wise counsel?

6) We have a plan to become debt free and stay debt free?

7) We have a plan for setting aside money for quarterly taxes ?

8) We have a plan to develop or do you have six months of expense in retained earnings?

9) We have a plan or strategy for succession planning?

10) We have short and long term disability insurance?

11) We have a program in place to develop our future leaders? 

12) We are pleased with the lifestyle we  are currently living?

What question would you add to our list?

What question keeps you awake at  night?

Calculating Risk.

How much time and effort do you spend worrying about your financial future?  In the beginning days of my first business, I was too busy to worry about it and honestly, I had no other options. I was on the trapeze without a net. If I missed a connection, it was all over. Not a smart way to go for the long run and it was very risky. The second time around, I did worry but I always had a back up plan plus some. When I started the second business I did not quit my first job and go all in on one hand. I kept working during the day and did coaching in the evenings and weekends. I have read that other owners such as David Green from Hobby Lobby and others have done the same thing. In fact, David Green did not make the transition to full time at Hobby Lobby until his third year in business. I also read about Sr. Richard Branson and some of his risky moves that were not all that risky.  You see, when Mr Branson started Virgin Airline, he cut a deal with an airline manufacture that if the company did not make if off the ground after the first year that he could return the plane and walk away. 

This is a great example for any small business owner. Never have “everything in one hand” that if it went bad, you are out of business.  Learn to make calculated risks. I always try to calculate my odds of surviving a deal based upon both the “best case” and “worse case” scenarios. Once we had to say no to a deal that would have over doubled our business. In my head we could not successfully recruit and train a sales and support team to pull the deal off in the amount of time needed without risking our relationships and service with our existing clients.  I have never regretted that decision and we have had the opportunity to grow at a pace where we can sustain our service levels, train good people and keep our culture in tact. As you look upon the horizon of your businesses future, what decisions do you have to make and can your business withstand a “worse case” scenario?  Are you calculating risk into your financial calculations as your grow your small business successfully?

Is it time to feed the ducks ?

Is it time to feed the ducks ?

What kind of question is this? I thought this was a Small Business Blogg? I own and run two small businesses. I regularly put in 60 to 70 hour weeks working many evenings and Saturdays with Coaching clients while doing sales, marketing and calling on end users during the day. Like most of you I am driven by my desire to do things with excellence, written goals, lists and so one. Sometimes I catch myself being tired and overwhelmed just running to the next appointment or answering E mails and voice mail. It is like I am working so hard and it seems like I am not being as effective as I am at other times. I catch myself being short with my team or my wife and I am not taking time to work out or eat healthy. I think Stephen Covey calls this “Sharpening the Saw” in his 7 Habits of Highly effective people. I had a great boss who called it “stopping to feed the ducks.” This boss used to call me up to work with me back in the days when I worked in the corporate world. I was one of his best sales guys but I tended to get a little high strung and short with the inside sales and engineering people who obvious did not have the same high standards for customer service or quality that I did (I used to be a real jerk, now I am just a flake). This boss would not pull me aside and chastise me, he would simply take me golfing. We would take our sticks out and play a round of golf and he would help me to relax and “sharpen my saw.”  Many times after these rounds of golf we had and a good steak dinner, I was back to my old self. Little things became little again. I was not accepting every invitation to a fight that I was offered by a customer or customer service person. I was patient and caring again. It like a lumberjack swinging away at a tree with a dull axe. It may take him an hour and 300 hits to take down the tree. If he stops for an hour and sharpens the saw it only takes 30 minutes and 150 swings to take down each tree for the rest of the day. 

There is no doubt there is a lot of work to do being a small business owner, but how much more effective would you be if you took some time off during each day or during each weak to sharpen your saw or to take a walk and feed the duck? I know when things get too stressed out during the long hours of coaching and serving, I think about “feeding the ducks” and I smile and schedule my next visit away from the business. It helps me become effective again. 

Is everyone in your Small Business in sales?

Being in sales for 28 years and a small business owner for the last twelve years,  I know we all have to wear many hats. But do we all have to sell? I hear people tell me all the time, I don’t have the personality to sell, I hate salespeople, they don’t pay me enough to sell, it’s not my job to sell. Well if you have heard or maybe even said any of these or worse, relax. What if you just change the word from selling to serving? We can serve. Recently I was at the dentist and the receptionist was so harsh, direct and cold that honestly, I don’t want to go back even though I love the dentist. Every member of our team that comes into contact with customers or even potential customers is communicating a message. What is that message? I love going to Chick-fil a to get an iced tea. I am always greeted with a smile as they ask me “how may I serve you”.  How can we make it a measurable goal for each member of our small business team to be responsible for making a customer’s interaction with our company a positive memorable experience? One that a customer could walk away thinking, “wow was I served well”. We always greet our clients with a smile and offer them a cup of coffee or a bottle of water with a smile. It just makes people smile and they can then relax and we can enjoy our time together as we listen to what their needs are and then explain how we can serve them. 

So how can you and your service team make develop some measurable goals that will increase your service levels? I would suggest reading and giving copies of the two following books to your team to talk about.  It changed our approach to sales. The two books are The Three Signs of a Miserable Job by Patrick Lencioni’s and the Secret by Ken Blanchard and Mark Miller. 

Three signs of a miserable job

The Secret

Workplace Literacy, what is it costing you?

I just finished reading a report by the Federal Reserve that documented the cost of workplace illiteracy. The report stated that most Americans would get the score or grade of  “F” if they took a basic financial literacy test. The productivity lost to the employer was huge. It starts with the lost of productivity because the employee did not sleep well or was being distracted by thoughts brought on by stress associated with financial matters. Employees also took out pay-day loans and loan against their 401K plans who struggled with finances. Many workers were getting  sued and had their wages garnished. The cycle just keeps continuing over and over. Some employees left jobs they loved simple for a small raise due to the financial pressure they were under do to making poor financial decisions

Most people had never received financial literacy training. If they had it was given to them when they were in High School or College. This is good, but like Geometry, if you don’t use it right away, you tend to forget about it.

Or, could it be that the person teaching the class on financial literacy was educating everyone to buy one of his or her financial products such and insurance or investments.

In a controlled study, workers who were taught in a classroom about personal finance at the workplace and were given one-on-one financial coaching were more productive and had less stress at work than employees who did not get financial coaching. In fact, in the controlled study of hospitals, there was a 70% reduction in malpractice laws suits at the hospitals who participated in the Financial Literacy program. Other benefits of the program were as follows:

Employer Benefits

1) Reduced cost associated with processing wage garnishments of employees

2) Increased participation in 401K saving by lower compensated employers that results in the ability to offer higher compensated employees more generous retirement benefits. 

3) More employees participate in flexible spending accounts result in lower FICA or Medicare taxes because the employee contributions are tax-free.

4) Less theft and embezzlement from the employer due to financial stress on employees.

5) Increased productivity due to the fact that the employee is not dealing with financial issues on company time.

6) Less absenteeism due to financial stress

7) Increased productivity due to lack of financial stress at home.

8) Reduced workplace violence

9) Reduced on the job accidents due to distractions and inattentiveness brought on by financial stress

Employee Benefits

1) Reduced late fees due to paying bills late

2) Eliminate the use of Payday loans

3) Reduced interest rates on credit cards 

4) Reduced credit card payments due to paying off debt systematically

5) Reduction of 401K loans that have high tax consequences

6) Increased savings

7) Better insurance coverage at lower costs

8) Increase wealth at retirement because of increased participation in retirement programs

9) Better overall health due to less stress

10) Lower divorce rate

If you are interested in inviting the team at Lighthouse Coaching to come to your facility and educate, equip and inspire your team concerning Financial literacy, contact us at fdavewilliams@mac.com or 
330-808-3905. 

Would you hire your as a pro?

A friend of mine was sharing a story about her friend’s husband who was starting a new business. The business was struggling because the husband was teaching himself HTML or something like it so he could design his own web site. I get being frugal with your business. That is what we are all about. We actually had to pay more to get our office furniture moved than we paid for it at auction. But at some point in time we must first value our own time, which I have talked about in a previous blog. There are some small business activities that it just might makes sense to outsource to professionals. Here is a short list of reasons:

1) They do a better job in most cases

2) They are quicker

3) If frees you up to work on revenue generating activities 

4) It reduces stress

5) They may be less expensive because of the volume they do and the tools they use

6) Save money

Some of the activities to think about that may make sense to outsource may be: accounting, payroll, web design, graphics design, painting, lawn care, car care, general maintenance, IT, networking, and computer support. 

One of the rules I have learned to follow is to always get at least two quotes and a recommendation or reference from someone I know who has used the services that I am looking at outsourcing.  This just makes good business sense and helps me have time to work on my business not just be my business. 

Can you afford the time to count?

A friend of mind just called from an airport in the Northwest. He had to fly out there to help count products for an inventory audit. Yes, a Nation Sales Manger who gets paid six figures was counting $.39 widgets for three days. Think about this, round trip air, hotel, rental car, travel time, five days out of the field, to count widgets. If my accounting is correct, the cost for the trip including his time, food, lodging, and transportation should be around $5,000. He said he did about 20 hours of work for the $5,000 or $250 an hour for his efforts. My point here is, do we value our time as small business owners?  If we are billing our clients at $60 to $150 an hour for our services, what are we charging our businesses when we do necessary but non-revenue generating activities, such as picking up office supplies, data entry, making bank deposits, cleaning the office, waiting on the service guy to fix the dish washer for three hours and getting our car fixed. 

I have calculated that I have about 12 to 15 hours of these kinds of duties to take care of. Honestly at the end of the week, after running two businesses, I am exhausted and do not have any extra time. I have found a solution. I have hired a personal assistant who I can delegate these kinds of tasks to. This frees me up to be more productive tasks such as write more blogs like this and to do other necessary income generating activities. Think about the math, do I want to pay me $125 an hour to get office supplies or pay someone else $15 to $18 and hour to do it. When I looked at it this way, it was a no brainer and it reduced my stress and increased my productivity. Do the math, does it make sense for you in your business and personal life to delegate some of your activities. The last I saw they were not adding any extra minutes, hours or days to my work schedule. This make good business sense and helps me have time to work on my business not just in my business. 

Check the following books for more info on these kind of time saving ideas:
Time Traps
4 hour work week

Do you trust who is writing your checks?

As a small business coach I get to see almost everything in my office. The one issue I see over and over again is financial infidelity by an employee. I have seen so many small business brought to their knees by the person who is writing the checks or has access to writing the checks. I my opinion this kind of theft hurts more than just financially. I see the emotion wound that goes deeper than the money. The bleeding of this emotion wound drains the energy out of the business owner and they are not able stay focused on leading their business, or have the energy to stay in the race. So many times the owner spend time and emotional energy being upset with the employee and themselves. It is like driving down the road at 100 MPH and taking your eye off the road to see what is happening in a lane going the opposite direction. These can only lead to a second collision. 

If this has happened to you, I feel for you. My accounting friends tell me that for every dollar you can document they have stolen from you they may have taken three times that.  Having been in business 28 years and owning two business currently, one of the first pieces of advice I would give a small business owner would be to write every check himself or at least sign and or look over every check. This may sound like a huge burden but think about the alternative. Secondly, I always take the time to reconcile my checking accounts on a regular basis to make sure I have recorded and deposited everything correctly. And finally, it is imperative to have a close working relationship with an accountant you feel comfortable with and trust. I have seen so many sets of books walk in my office that are missing huge chunks of financial information such as debt and debt payments and IRS debt. The best money I spend each year is for business coaching advise for my business and my accountant. If you cut corners in either of these areas or do not trust or work well with them, things can become difficult. Be proactive, do not delegate check writing to someone without having several checks and balances. This makes good business sense and helps me have time to work on my business not just in my business.

Who is leading your organization?

John Maxwell say’s everything rises and falls on leadership. His law of the lid states that our leadership ability determines our level of effectiveness and our level of effectiveness determine the success of our organization. The activity I see with so many small business owners is that we are so busy working in our business that we do not set aside time to work on our business. We are busy doing things right but we do not take the time to evaluate if we are doing the right things. Our markets and economies change so rapidly that the strategies and tactics that we have used the past 3 or 5 or 10 years may not be the most effective strategies and tactics today. Think about the advertising part of business, Google has taken the place of the trusted Yellow pages and where and how do we effectively use Face book, Linkedin and Twitter. Someone is making a million dollars out there using social media and someone is wasting a lot of time. What is the difference?

As small a small business owner and small business coach, I have had to work extra hard both networking with successful professionals, and reading up on what it takes to become successful in the ever changing small business market. Small business owners tend to isolate and insulate themselves from others who may have fresh perspective on what we are doing. My question to you is, who are you listening to and whom are you reading about that will help you become a more effective leader and/or small business owner?

I am subscribing to podcasts by people like Andy Stanley, Dave Ramsey, Dan Miller and Steven Levit. I am following Scott Stratten  and other social medial professions on Twitter.  I listening to CD’s while I drive by John Maxwell, Zig Ziglar, Jim Rohn, Tom Hopkins and more. I am spending my down time reading Magazines like Success and trade magazines as well as books such as Tony Dungy’s Mentor Leader, Patrick Lencioni’s Five Dysfuctions of a team and John Kotter’s Leading change. Things can’t change for the positive in your organization, if you as a leader are not open to change.  Things are always changing and the choice is ours.  We can choose to learn to make positive change or keep doing things the way we always have and take a chance. Choose to change. This makes good business sense and helps me have time to work on my business not just be in my business.

Check out some of the following book lists

Dave Ramsey book list

Who is leading your organization?

John Maxwell say’s everything rises and falls on leadership. His law of the lid states that our leadership ability determines our level of effectiveness and our level of effectiveness determine the success of our organization. The activity I see with so many small business owners is that we are so busy working in our business that we do not set aside time to work on our business. We are busy doing things right but we do not take the time to evaluate if we are doing the right things. Our markets and economies change so rapidly that the strategies and tactics that we have used the past 3 or 5 or 10 years may not be the most effective strategies and tactics today. Think about the advertising part of business, Google has taken the place of the trusted Yellow pages and where and how do we effectively use Facebook, Linkedin and Twitter. Someone is making a million dollars out there using social media and someone is wasting a lot of time. What is the difference?

 

As small a small business owner and small business coach I have had to work extra hard both networking with successful professionals and reading up on what it takes to success in the ever changing small business market. Small business owners tend to isolate and insulate themselves from others who may have fresh perspective on what we are doing. My question to you is, who are you listening to and who are you reading that will help you be a more effective leader and/or small business owner?

 

I am subscribing to podcasts by people like Andy Stanley, Dave Ramsey, Dan Miller and Steven Levit. I am following Scott Stratten  and other social medial professions on Twitter.  I listening to CD’s while I drive by John Maxwell, Zig Ziglar, Jim Rohn, Tom Hopkins and more. I am spending my down time reading Magazines like Success and trade magazines as well as books such as Tony Dungy’s Mentor Leader, Patrick Lencioni’s Five Dysfuctions of a team and John Kotter’s Leading change. Things can’t change for the positive in your organization if you as a leader are not open to change and things are always changing. The choice is ours.  We can choose to learn to make positive change or keep doing things the way we always have and take a chance. Choose to change. This makes good business sense and helps me have time to work on my business not jus in my business.