In This Episode

A common focus for our business coaching is helping owners of small companies pull together and executed a succession or transition plan for their business to hand things off to the next generation.  We have found that the majority of small business owners would like to eventually transition the business to someone else in their family (e.g. their kids).  Unfortunately most don’t have plans in place to make this happen.

We touched on a couple of recent articles citing examples of NFL teams and the family drama that can ensue when looking to transition ownership from one generation to the next.  While these transitions are often played out in a more public forum, the situations and challenges are no different from what is faced by smaller companies that aren’t under the public spot light of being a professional sports franchise.  Things like warring siblings, second or third spouses, and ego-filled founders, are as commonplace on Main Street as they are in the office of NFL ownership.

In tonight’s show we shared some stories of clients we have helped through this process and the lessons that applied to them as well as these NFL owners.  Some of these nuggets might appear to be common sense, but once the veil of family gets pulled over the situation, things can often get more cloudy vs. clear when it comes to transitions.  Enjoy the show!

People, Companies and Resources We Mentioned in the Show

• NFL Family Ownership Succession and Drama (https://www.si.com/nfl/2018/07/16/nfl-succession-family-ownership-bowlen-benson-adams-mccaskey)
• Cleveland Browns announce Succession Plans (http://www.crainscleveland.com/sports-business/browns-succession-plan-all-family)
• Al Lerner and Randy Lerner (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_Lerner and https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Randy_Lerner)
• Art Modell and David Modell (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Art_Modell and https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Modell)

The post How Do You Transition Your Family Business Like They Do It In The NFL? appeared first on Dirty Secrets of Small Business.

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In This Episode

One topic we discuss with all of our business coaching clients at some point is the idea of setting up a non-profit. It often comes up in conversations when we are dealing with a family business that is transitioning from one generation to the next. Starting a non-profit can be a great way for the current generation to transition from running the day-to-day family business to putting their energies into something they are passionate about.

What we have found is that most people don’t know much about non-profits and how they work. In fact, there is an overall perception that you can’t make money with a non-profit. In reality, non-profits have a lot more in common with for-profit entities than most people think. The same 7 Keys to Success we use to coach our for-profit business owners apply equally as well to non-profits.

During today’s show we shared several examples of non-profits that we have personally been involved with and helped set up and walked through a couple of current examples of non-profits we’re working to launch. If you’re a newbie to the idea of non-profits then tonight’s show is one you won’t want to miss!

People, Companies and Resources We Mentioned in the Show

• Types of IRS non-profit classifications (https://www.irs.gov/charities-non-profits/types-of-tax-exempt-organizations)
• Charitable Organizations Classified as 501(c)(3) (https://www.irs.gov/charities-non-profits/charitable-organizations/exemption-requirements-section-501c3-organizations)
• Non-profit employees making over $1 million annually (https://www.erieri.com/blog/post/2017/12/27/How-Many-Charity-CEOs-Will
• Earn-$1-Million-or-More-in-2018) and (https://nonprofitquarterly.org/2017/03/08/million-dollar-compensation-nonprofit-ceos/)
• MVP’s 7 Keys to Success (http://maximumvp.com/7-keys-to-success/)
• Family Feud (https://www.familyfeud.com)
• Esther Lewis Warburton Patient Education Initiative/The Patient Revolution (https://patientrevolution.org/about/)
• Wiener dogs (https://www.akc.org/dog-breeds/dachshund/)

The post How Truly Different are Non-Profits and For-Profits? appeared first on Dirty Secrets of Small Business.

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In This Episode

One area of business ownership that can be very uncomfortable is having everyone’s eyes on you as the Leader of the company.  As we’ve discussed hundreds of times, being a business owner includes a lot of things that folks don’t necessarily like or want to do.  Depending on your style, Leadership may in fact be one of those things you don’t look forward to, but you’re the owner so you have to at least give it a shot.

The world is full of all sorts of stories of poor leadership.  Just read or watch any of the news today alone and you see examples of the Catholic Church in Pennsylvania and the grand jury findings on abuse and cover ups.  Or stories about Maryland football and coach D.J. Durkin and his staff and how something they did lead to the death of a 19-year old player from heat exhaustion.

Like many things in life, we can often learn more from our mistakes (or mistakes of others) than we do from our successes.  One of the things we coach all of our business owner clients on is how to best lead their organization and help them work through things that aren’t too comfortable for them.  Part of how we do this is help them to focus on their role and reinforce what it means to be a leader vs. a doer all the time.  Things like:

• Plan Direct Control
• Do What’s Best For The Organization
• Help OR Get Out Of The Way
• Sometimes You Have To Jump On The Grenade
• Don’t Ask People To Do Something You’re Not Willing To Do

We covered these and several more nuggets in tonight’s show.  Enjoy!

People, Companies and Resources We Mentioned in the Show

• Footloose (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0087277/)
• Catholic Church Pennsylvania Grand Jury (https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/14/us/catholic-priests-pennsylvania-church-jury.html)
• University of Maryland Football and Jordan McNair death (https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/colleges/a-football-player-died-and-all-of-the-university-of-maryland-is-diminished/2018/08/14/77dfa104-9ffb-11e8-8e87-c869fe70a721_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.9566a5eedb30)
• Urban Meyer Administrative Leave and Ohio State University (https://www.sbnation.com/college-football/2018/8/1/17639616/urban-meyer-ohio-state-administrative-leave)

The post How Do I Lead My Team? appeared first on Dirty Secrets of Small Business.

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In This Episode

We touched on a couple of topics during tonight’s show. One topic has to do with why you should hire overqualified people even though we find most small business owners talking themselves out of it.  The second topic had to do with how do you know what to do next or where to start?  These are two common issues we have seen with a number of small business owners.

As counter-intuitive as it might sound, many small business owners are afraid of hiring folks who are overqualified.  Jack and I have a hard time with this as we know the tremendous value good people can bring to an organization.  Many owners make the mistake of viewing someone who is overqualified as being too expensive so they think they can’t afford them.  Usually this is the result of the owner not having worked with good people.  Owners may also express a fear that if they bring in this overqualified person then they will leave in six months or they will just go off to start their own competing business after they learn from this business.  Our response to this is SO WHAT!  Good people bring almost instant value to any organization they join and will leave that organization better off than when they joined.  It doesn’t matter if it’s six months or six years.

We find many business owners getting stuck with ideas they’ve had for a while but they just aren’t sure where to start or what to do next.  So too often they just freeze up or spin their wheels.  A big reason for this is what we refer to as “people not knowing what they don’t know.”  That may seem like an odd phrase, but just think about it for a moment.  If I don’t know what I don’t know, I’m probably never going to get to the answer on my next move.  I have to go searching for answers.  This will require me to engage with different people and investigate different resources to start to realize what it is that I don’t know and then start to get educated on that topic so I can move forward.  A big part of what we do with our business coaching clients is to help them work through this process quickly and suggest next steps for them to take to move forward.  It often starts with documenting stuff going on in your business.  That moving forward process creates tremendous energy for all people involved.

We shared several stories on tonight’s shows of client situations where there have been some great successes by following some of the principles we covered during the show.  Enjoy!

People, Companies and Resources We Mentioned in the Show

• Kramer vs. Kramer (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kramer_vs._Kramer)
• Atari (https://www.atari.com)
• Space Invaders (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Invaders)
• Centipede (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centipede_(video_game))

The post How Do I Know What To Do Next? appeared first on Dirty Secrets of Small Business.

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