Tips and Tools for Small Business Leaders

Only about 1/3 of small businesses survive to their 10th year. Those that do are here for the long haul. So reaching a 10 year anniversary is worth a sizeable celebration, not just because you survived but because of what you learned along the way.

If only we’d known 10 years ago what we know now, we’d probably have more money in the bank and a bigger company, it’s true. But that kind of thinking isn’t practical, it isn’t productive, and can create paralysis.

While the pandemic postpones our big party plans, we’re marking our 10th time around the sun with a look back. But we’re not looking back with regret. We’re analyzing the mistakes and pulling out the most important things we’ve learned. And our goal is that you and all the small business owners who read this will benefit.

Click here to see pics of Roger and Susie and the team and read a Q and A with Roger and Susie as they recount their own missteps and lessons from 10 years as small business owners coaching small business owners.

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Join Roger this Friday as he walks through the Top 10 Lessons learned from 10 years as a business coach and business owner. In this coach-led discussion with fellow business owners you get practical advice about how to take action in this ever-changing environment.

We'll kick it off with a 15 minute presentation then open it up to questions and comments so business owners can seek advice from our Inspire Results business coaches.

Back to Business Roundtable's occur every other Friday from 9-10am EST.

Submit this form or Email Kena for the link to join our next virtual meeting.

Growth Plan Workshop

Start 2021 strong and join us at the January Growth Plan Workshop to create or update your small business plan

January 7, 2020 9-3 pm

Discover the potential in your business by completing a Single Sheet Business Plan. Then break it into quarterly, monthly, weekly & daily goals, getting a line-of-sight from the daily tasks to your 10-30 year purpose. Step out of the day-to-day business for just 1 day, get organized, complete a prescribed planning process, and walk away with an action plan that leads to greater profits and free time back.

Get more out of your business in the next 90 days than you ever thought possible!

Holiday Inn Indianapolis Airport
8555 Stansted Rd, Indianapolis 46241

For owners & leaders of small to medium sized businesses. Bring your 2nd-in-command or your whole leadership team!

10. Small business owners are problem solvers by nature. It is one of the reasons you’ve survived when so many fail. But please enjoy the journey – stop and smell the roses. Look for accomplishments and milestones to celebrate and recognize improved performance levels. You’ll build up a level of trust, optimism and a can-do attitude that will not only produce continued success but enable your entire team to have fun along the way.

9. In our first 10 years in business, we’ve faced the Great Recession and the Covid-19 pandemic! The next crisis is just around the corner. Build financial strength into your business so that you have the resources to survive in the worst this life can throw at you (we recommend 2 to 3 months of overhead expense in savings). But when the crisis hits, don’t go into survival mode! Stay "Above the Line", deal with the reality of what your facing and the impact on your business. Know your strengths well and leverage them with optimism and innovation to adjust and take advantage of the crisis! Don’t slow down and don’t lose momentum and you’ll find yourself in a better place than before the crisis.

8. We cannot tell you how many business owners have reached the end of their working life filled with regret for what they sacrificed in their personal lives for a business that gave them little in return. Our Personal Business Alignment tool was born out of this reality. At the top of the tool is your Personal Vision. Nail down your Personal Vision, then create a Business Vision that produces the personal outcomes desired from your Personal Vision. This ensures that your business is an asset to your personal life and not the destroyer of your personal relationships!

7. To ease the incredible burden that business owners carry, you simply must make accountability a cornerstone of your culture (as a value or belief). To unleash the full potential of your business without overwhelming you, everyone must be accountable (Above the Line). Tools such as the Above/Below the Line model (from "The Oz Principle" and "Change the Culture, Change the Game"), the Eat That Frog tool and the development of a solid Meeting Rhythm/Cadence of Accountability are vital to making accountability real in your firm.

6. Culture is key to unleashing your team and ending micromanagement forever! Every company should have a documented Culture Statement based on the character of the owner. This must become your "playing field, the rules and boundaries through which everything you do or don’t do is filtered. Hire employees for culture fit first and train for skills. Create your Ideal Customer Profile based on your culture and choose suppliers and vendors based upon who best matches your culture.

5. Leverage the Profit Growth Methodology to get a full picture of how your business is functioning… from Marketing Lead Generation to Sales Conversion Rate to Revenue per Customer to Gross Margin to Overhead Cost mitigation to Net Profit growth. Review the components of the Methodology at least monthly to identify weak areas in your business.

4. Raise your prices! Many of our clients have gone 3 to 5 years without a price increase. Do an in-depth review of pricing at least annually and raise prices at least every other year. If you rely on materials that fluctuate significantly based on commodity prices, adjust pricing with every major commodity pricing move. Do job and/or project pricing after each job is complete so you can react quickly to resolve estimating, productivity and efficiency issues. Most businesses grow faster due to raising prices as they can afford to purchase the latest equipment, hire the best employees and innovate!

3. Cash is the lifeblood of your business. Ignore it at your peril! Take a hard look at cash weekly and diligently work to accelerate its flow through your business (from the 1st dollar spent on marketing to when that dollar lands in your checking account). You should never be a bank for your customers unless you’re getting a premium margin to do so. Rule of thumb: never let past due accounts receivables go longer than 90 days. Once they go past 90 days kiss those dollars goodbye! Begin the collection process on the day they become past due (in a friendly way, of course).

2. Take time out of the day-to-day to develop and maintain your company’s Single Sheet Business Plan and Quarterly Action Plan. We have worked to refine our planning process for 10 years based on the real needs of real business owners. It’s tough at first but, once mastered, we have seen it literally transform leadership teams and the businesses they lead! We’ve boiled it down so that you can view your business’ entire life-cycle on 2 pages—one for the longer view and an accountability plan to make it easy to delegate actions and execute. The basis of our system is that persistent, incremental progress leads to success. It’s not sexy but it gets the job done!

1. Growing from 3 to 4 people is only a 33% increase in staff but a nearly 400% increase in complexity! And complexity continues to increase with every hire at an exponential rate. You MUST consider adding personal and business capacity with every new hire and every significant customer addition otherwise the business will grind you to a pulp. This is the #1 reason people reach-out to us for coaching support.