Monthly Archives: November 2018

How Do I Start A Small Business and Succeed?

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Just about everyone, at some point, has danced with the idea of starting their own company. Of being the boss. The one in charge. But so few actually do it. How come? Can it really be that difficult and confusing to start a company? Do I know a lot about business or very little? Does it matter?
While it’s easy to dream and talk about starting a company, the knowledge for how to actually do it is where most folks run out of steam. Where do you find ideas for the type of company to start? How do you decide what type of corporate structure should be set up? Where do you find money? How do you know if you need money to start, and if so, how much money do you need? When are you officially “in business”?

In tonight’s show we shared some steps for you to take to get your business going and answered the above questions and a lot more. The new American dream is to own a business and it’s becoming the dream of many others worldwide as well. Tonight’s show will help you avoid the common false starts!

People, Companies and Resources We Mentioned in the Show

  • Inc. Magazine’s Inc. 500 and Inc. 5000 List (https://www.inc.com/inc5000/index.html)
  • Lake-Geauga Fast Track 50 (https://www.news-herald.com/business/eastlake-company-captures-no-spot-on-lake-geauga-fast-track/article_bf550ca8-dd55-11e8-8a27-6376a8d9e3f0.html)
  • Weatherhead 100 List (https://weatherhead.case.edu/events/weatherhead100/)
  • Local Chambers of Commerce
  • Local Incubators (e.g. Braintree Business Development Center, http://www.braintreepartners.org)
  • Most Businesses Fail Within 10 Years (https://www.fundera.com/blog/what-percentage-of-small-businesses-fail)
  • The Matrix (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0133093/)
  • Joe Tye No BMWs (https://www.valuescoachinc.com/joe-tye)
  • MVP’s 7 Keys To Success (http://maximumvp.com/7-keys-to-success/)

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How Do I Avoid Common Pitfalls of Working With My Spouse?

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As far back as I can remember, my parents always worked together in their business. So growing up, I thought this was a pretty normal thing. It wasn’t until I got out into the business world that I truly gained an appreciation for everything my parents did to not only have a thriving business for 40 years but also a wonderful marriage that is approaching 50 years.

We’ve coached dozens of clients over the years where both spouses are directly involved in the business. We always caution our clients and encourage them to think long and hard before bringing their spouse into the business as there are several potential pitfalls they will want to avoid.

Some of these pitfalls are more obvious than others. For instance, most business owners understand that they shouldn’t bring personal stuff into the business. So that dumb thing your husband did last night that caused all the fuses to blow out in your house, keep that at home. But what about abdicating the financials to your spouse without any oversight from you? I mean, your spouse wouldn’t steal from you, right? We’ve seen lots of things you wouldn’t believe!

During tonight’s show we share a lot of “Do’s” and “Don’ts” when it comes to working with your spouse. So whether you currently work with your spouse, you are considering bringing your spouse into the business, or you know some spouses who already work together, tonight’s show is for you!

People, Companies and Resources We Mentioned in the Show

The War of the Roses

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How Do I Make Time To Plan My Business?

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One consistent theme we hear from small business owners is that they don’t have the time to pull together a plan for their business. As we’ve often said, this “time” pushback is code for folks not understanding why something is important enough to pay attention to so that they’ll make the time for it. Owners will justify not pulling together an annual plan because they know it will be “wrong”.

Well, the point of pulling together an annual plan for your business isn’t to get it “right” but instead to get your best thinking pulled together and provide a beacon of light to guide everyone in the organization. It’s more about the mentality of looking ahead and trying to make things happen on purpose vs. constantly reacting to what the outside world is throwing at you.

Keep in mind that when we’re talking about a plan, we aren’t referring to a 50+ page business plan. We are referring to MVP’s 7 Keys to Success. One of the first things we do with all or our coaching clients is to pull together what we call a Profit Plan (you may refer to it as a budget). The Profit Plan is where you give your best shot at forecasting sales and expenses for the next 12 months. This is more than simply an exercise of plugging a bunch of numbers into a spreadsheet or QuickBooks.

Chances are you won’t be able to do this Profit Plan alone. So that means you’ll have to engage some other members of your team. This is perhaps one of the biggest, and often missed, benefits of pulling together a Profit Plan. What better way to get a sense of your team and how they think and work together than to have them pull together some plans for the business. Don’t worry, you won’t have to tell them how much money you or any of the other team members make, but you’ll want to be open with just about everything else when getting your plans pulled together.

During tonight’s show we provide some good guidance for how to get this plan started and how to use it throughout the year. We also share several stories about clients of ours who wound up being better forecasters than they ever thought they could be, even though the plans didn’t go exactly as they thought! There’s no better time to start pulling together a plan for the next 12 months than now!

People, Companies and Resources We Mentioned in the Show

MVP’s 7 Keys To Success ()

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Photo © Frank Schulenburg 2016

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Why Should I Get Involved In Politics As A Business Owner?

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A collective sigh of relief as our latest elections are finally finished. We can certainly understand why you might be looking to have a timeout from any more political talk and advertisements. Good news here is that we want to highlight some of the key takeaways for business owners from the 2018 midterm elections and also give you some ideas for why and how to get involved.

We’ve spoken with just about every one of our business coaching clients about the importance of getting involved in politics. As you might guess, we get a lot of pushback from our clients. The top pushback is “I don’t have time to get involved in politics.” As we say all the time, when some tells you they “don’t have time” that is code for “you haven’t convinced me why what you’re telling me is important enough for me to MAKE TIME for it.”

Well tonight’s show is geared to help you understand why getting involved is the lesser of two evils when it comes to the impact on your life. We shared several stories of clients of ours and how the government got in their way and what to do about it. We also shared several personal stories about getting involved in politics. Not only did we share several reasons why you should get involved but also how to get started.

People, Companies and Resources We Mentioned in the Show

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How Do I Get My Team To Take Ownership?

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Being the owner of a small business can often be a lonely place, even when you have several employees.  One of the things that takes away from that loneliness is when you have good people stepping up to take ownership of different parts of the business and different projects.  The challenge is how do you get people to step up and do this?  We work with most of our small business owners to help them do exactly that with their teams.

One good guiding principle to keep in mind is that people tend to take ownership of ideas that are their own.  As the owner/manager, it’s key for you to make sure the idea belongs to your team as opposed to coming from you all the time.  One way to do this is to focus the team on presenting solutions vs. simply identifying problems.  Too much of a focus on problems can go negative real quick and won’t lead to the changes you’re looking for.  Get people listing ideas on a white board or flip chart to get their best ideas out and discussed.

Another thing to keep in mind as the business owner is that you have to get out of the way!  Have your team present their plans for how to handle a situation or start and project and then let them go once you’ve had some input.  Let them stumble and even fail.  Your job is to help remove barriers and ensure they have everything they need to succeed.

People, Companies and Resources We Mentioned in the Show

The post How Do I Get My Team To Take Ownership? appeared first on Maximum Value Partners.

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