Entrepreneur

Have You Thanked a Business Owner Lately?

November 29, 2018 By kwmccarthy

The small business owner (aka solo owner, solopreneur, SOHO, or solo) is the unsung hero of modern society. Their pursuit of a dream is epic, daring, and brave. Small businesses dot the business landscape, and in the years to come more people will turn to starting a business for additional income or to replace a lost job or create one. Profit making is alive and we all benefit from the efforts of solopreneurs.

What does it mean to be in business? Being in business is a high and noble calling!

I love what the opportunity to start and run a business brings in terms of

creativity
production
value-adding
improved standards of living
funding of worthy causes

People who start businesses have my respect. Regardless of whether they’re starting a home-based business, a family business, or a high-growth/high-potential venture, they’re pursuing a dream with boldness.

Small business people are heroes. Every business starts as a small business. Business owners are to the Knowledge Age what the farmers were at the turn of the 20th Century: men and women who are willing to lay the mantle of responsibility on their shoulders and pull the greater load in hopes of a greater gain.

Business owners risk much in hopes of gaining much and giving more.

Certainly, profits and a better lifestyle are part of the anticipated gain. But there’s more. The measured ability to create and control one’s life, schedule, and vocational pursuits is the height of healthy individualism.

Truth be told, if you want to mature and grow into a better person—start a business! Government doesn’t build businesses, people do.

Find a need and fill it! That is the mantra of the business owner.

Like ants scouring a picnic ground for food, entrepreneurs search the marketplace for a business opportunity or find gaps of need in the market through inventive initiative. All types of businesses are launched—service, retail, professional, manufacturing, industrial, and, the hot item today, an internet-based business. Opportunity abounds!

Business owners do more than employ people.

Business owners create jobs when they manage their businesses prudently. Most of the business owners I know are generous with those in their charge.

For many, employment is simply another form of ministry.

I’m not talking charity here. No, we’re talking about

mentoring and development of others
providing opportunities
raising up leaders
entrusting managers
training the unskilled

Business owners see, find, and act on the good in others because it is simply good for business and, even better, for life.

Who’s typically volunteering? Look around and notice.

You’ll find small business owners serving on boards, volunteering for coaching, taking their lunch hours to serve the poor, being active in a church, driving Meals on Wheels, and more. These are the backbone of society. They’ve chosen a different path from their corporate counterparts who must manage vacation days, punch a clock, or otherwise account for their time to their employers in terms of ROI, not altruism.

So do this: Thank a business owner today for improving your community and life.

As you prepare to purchase gifts or engage services, make the special effort to support a local small business person. Investing your hard earned cash into a sale in their business recycles into your community in ways you may never fully grasp. Be thankful for them, for you know not their struggles and thhe hardships it takes to keep the doors open to be there for you when you need them.

———

Recommended Resource: CLARITY FOR SOLOS

My colleague and Winter Park neighbor, Adam Dudley, has written a book. I had a few sneak peeks along the way in the writing process and I really liked what I read. While our writing styles and perspectives are different, we share a heart for the plight of the solo owner.

Adam, a huge advocate of yoga, brings a rather chill, yet focused perspective to the realities of being a solo. He gets himself out of the way to care for your needs. Adam is a thoughtful coach who listens well, processes in your best interest, and then offers wise counsel. Below his peaceful nature, the wheels are spinning as he’s thinking about what you need to succeed.

CLARITY FOR SOLOS offers great advice for solo and small business owners who are confused, stuck, or unsure about what to do next. It’s available on Amazon.com. Click the image to preview it.

Is It Right to Pray For Business? (Part 2)

September 13, 2018 By kwmccarthy

Yes! Pray for Business.

My most recent On-Purpose^® Business Minute, Is It Right To Pray For Business, clearly struck a chord with many viewers as the public and private comments came pouring in. Additionally, I had a record number of unsubscribers from The On-Purpose Business Minutes. Too bad for us all.

In my decades of business advisory and consulting services I’ve worked with founders of a Fortune 100 company to floundering entrepreneurs. The principles of sound and ethical business can all be found in the Bible. But if you don’t have a biblical understanding, it is hard to know that.

Purpose is a spiritual concept.

That may make you uncomfortable. Don’t let discomfort keep you from growing as a leader or growing your business. Learn to pray for business success. Matters of faith often arise in my work with leaders.

Prayer is a natural outgrowth of these engaging relationships.

Plus prayer beats talking to yourself.

Your insights and comments are always welcome below.

Be On-Purpose!

Kevin

Are Your Prepositions Working?

August 23, 2018 By kwmccarthy

How are your career and/or business results? Who doesn’t want better results?

The solution you seek lives in one of three business “prepositions.”

Are you:

Working IN your business
Working ON your business
Working WITH your business

Michael Gerber‘s business book, The E-Myth, introduced many of us to the concept of working “in” and “on” your business. Michael nails these two concepts.

Let me add to his equation the concept of working “with” your business.

Watch today’s On-Purpose Business Minute and use the three prepositions to assess your business proposition so you can be on-purpose!

Is More Money Your Answer?

August 2, 2018 By kwmccarthy

Ask most business people what they need and the likely answer is “more money!” That’s like asking a football coach what he needs: “More points to win the games.” The real issue is What does it take to produce the points or the money?

Money (or points) is a self-deceiving answer or an easy target to articulate.

While Stephen Covey’s Habit #2 is “Begin with the end in mind,” it is as promoted just a beginning to the end. When we only have the “end in mind,” shortcuts are probably even ethical compromises.

The “Management by Objectives” movement has suffered many of these challenges. While never the intention of its creators, it became a rationale for sloppy management and the abdication of leadership and strategy.

Having worked as and with business owners for five decades (I started very early), I can tell you that money may be the obvious answer, but it is rarely the right answer.

Money is a specific commodity with well-defined functions, mostly as a measure.

Oddly, the lack of money in business may be more valuable than the money itself. It forces us to get real, to be creative, and to assess what’s working and what isn’t working. In the end, we’re apt to become better prepared and more capable of adding higher value and better services at a lower cost. Ergo, we make more money.

Being in business provokes us and pushes our buttons emotionally.

I’m not saying go out there and look to take stupid hits. On the contrary—avoid them, but some number of hits are inevitable. Rather than letting them take you down, let them build you up by learning, growing, and maturing.

In this On-Purpose Business Minute, I’m sharing with you the three most common attributes that attract money to businesses: law, order, and opportunity. If you’re a business owner or entrepreneur, this is a must see Minute.

Need some help with your business? On-Purpose Business Advisors has worked with start-ups and entrepreneurs to Fortune 100 CEOs. Email me to learn more.

Resource

Invest 9 minutes to learn about The On-Purpose Business Plan. This maps out the essential infrastructure to create sustainable growth and profitability.

Why Does Change Management Fail?

June 7, 2018 By kwmccarthy

What is change management’s greatest failure?

I am a contrarian about change management. It is just plain sloppy, imprecise language by the manager to describe a process and not an end result. The strategic work and a meaningful communication and action plan are missing. In the end change management invariably whips the corporate culture into a phase of unneeded confusion resulting in lost productivity and broken momentum.

There is a better way—growth management!

Change management is too often the latest in a line of misguided management marketing ploys to justify their efforts and position themselves to employees and shareholders as being on top of the business when they’re not. The employees know better and the shareholders are too distant to recognize the deficit of details being sold to them as strategy and leadership.

Change management is used at every level in organizations where two or more persons form a team. Supervisors to CEOs use the word “change” as a subtle form of control. Change management is a “wonderfully” accepted and euphemistic term in the general management business community for “a bunch of people (but not me) are going to pay a price for what’s getting ready to happen in this company.” Change managers use a variety of terms to disguise the stark reality that they are imposing their will upon their team and the consequences will fall upon the team.

Per Wikipedia, the definition of change management is “… any approach to transitioning individuals using methods intended to redirect the use of resources, business process, budget allocations, or other modes of operation that significantly reshape a company or organization.”

True translation:

Change = everyone else is going to accommodate what the change agent is saying and that person is just trying to figure out a way to break the bad news to you but doesn’t have the guts to speak plainly.

Amazingly, change management is the name of courses in business schools with professors and degrees focused on it. Major consulting firms have entire practice areas focused on it. Yet it remains a misdirection and distraction to the health and well-being of organizations.

As a business person or business leader, change is a word that you need to take as a warning to your own management approach. When you talk about change, it means the leader is either unclear about his or her vision or is unwilling to state it clearly. The subjects of the change, who are often far too trusting or at risk of challenging, will eventually learn whether the change was for good or for bad.

Regardless of the venue, leaders who market “change management” are as laughable as the emperor’s new wardrobe. The “beauty” of change is that it offers no measurable result, direction, or accountability.

Change can be negative or positive.

It just means something will be different, period. Well, of course, something will be different. Don’t settle with change—clarify what it means and where it is leading. Know the direction. Understand the destination.

Change is blind strategy with an escape clause for the change agent but rarely for the recipients of change. In reality, expect decline unless luck prevails!

The Power Option: Growth Management

Change is risky business. Few of us like change. Yet change, like breathing, is a fact of life.

Instead of change, let’s make the standard one of growth management.

Now the business person (or CEO) is focused in an upward direction and has a measurable result with a charge to add value instead of an ill-defined, open-ended nothing strategy that’s likely to result in decay rather than in growth. Decay is easy—do nothing. Growth, however, requires rolling up one’s sleeves, yanking out the weeds, and nourishing what’s discerned and defined as desirable.

Growth can include profits, behavior, people, relationships, and morale. Change is ultimately unaccountable babble left to the discretion of the leader making the change and an empty vision. It may sound inspiring, but it is merely sleight of hand illusion.

Growth requires a proactive partnership of time, money, talent, and a host of other factors coming together to a common cause. Growth is still a broad term that, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder. It does, however, call forth cooperation, effort, and something of a more positive and productive nature on the personal, professional, and organizational levels.

Here’s a simple example. Pretend your boss walks in and says, “Let’s talk about a change I’m making to your paycheck.” What’s your response? You’re sure a pay cut is coming. You anticipate that your job or territory is getting ready to be reduced or eliminated. Am I right?

Now let’s imagine your boss walks in this time and says, “Let’s talk about a growth I’m making to your paycheck.” Growth has replaced change. Now assuming your pay stub doesn’t have a tumor, in the second example, you’re getting engaged and excited because your boss is communicating that plans are in process for a raise and an explanation for your coming reward. Economic growth and development trump economic change (and decay).

The mere act of replacing one word makes all the difference. Change is an implied downer. Growth is an exciter.

My suggestion: only use the word change when describing what’s in your pocket after buying your Chick-fil-a lunch any day of the week except Sunday. Change is apropos when reporting on the past. It is not a strategy for the future. Be in the business of growth and you will more likely be on-purpose.

Learn more about how to strategically and effectively create a pathway for growth management and value creation. Watch The On-Purpose Business Plan 9-minute instructional video.

What Is Your Cost of Pride?

May 10, 2018 By kwmccarthy

We businesspersons tend to be an independent breed.

We take pride in our work ethic, standards for excellence, and accomplishments. This is often what it takes to start a business, to persevere in the challenges, and then thrive.

There’s often (not always) a downside to this self-reliant trait.

This On-Purpose Business Minute invites you to consider the cost of pride especially in light of the subtitle to The On-Purpose Business Person: Do More Of What You Do Best More Profitably.

How do you know if your pride is costing you?

After watching today’s On-Purpose Business Minute, invest 159 more seconds to assess yourself with the following 10 questions:

Here are the 10 questions about pride:

Do you describe yourself as a helper?
Are you a low-maintenance friend or employee?
Are you apt to say, “It’s just as fast to do it myself“?
Do you believe “If I want something done right, I have to do it myself”?
Are you one who hates to burden other people with your problems?
Are you the person most people turn to for advice, wisdom, and counsel?
Do you find yourself being more and more burned out and then bitter towards others?
Are you easily frustrated that others can’t do what you do as fast or as well?
Do you say, “I can’t afford to hire the expertise I need, so I have to learn how to do it myself”?
Do you say, “I know what I need to do. I just haven’t gotten around to it yet”?

The more questions you answered with a “yes,” the more likely it is that your self-reliance is costing you more than you imagine. You are pushing people away from helping you and shouldering too much of the burden yourself.

Determine your cost of pride.

It could include job loss, slow business growth, long hours, stress, high turnover, ill health, strained relationships, being passed over for a job/raise or a hundred other costs. Do a quick assessment of your cost of pride. You may be stunned.

Share your assessment with a trusted advisor or friend. Invite them to identify what you’ve missed or where you are blind. Ask them for their opinion, be quiet, and avoid being defensive.

The simplest and most comprehensive action to take is to adopt and live into the On-Purpose Approach of Doing More of What You Do Best More Profitably.

Keep this adage in the forefront of your mind. You will prosper!

Are You In The Midst Of A Tough Shift?

April 10, 2018 By kwmccarthy

A Tough Shift™ occurs when we’re caught in the middle of change and struggling to make a smooth transition.

We each react differently. On pages 93–96 in The On-Purpose Person you may recall Bob Scott telling the man about “floaters, fighters, fleers, flitters, and navigators.”

A Tough Shift™ reveals your natural response to challenging situations.

As Dr. Phil would ask, “So how’s that working for you?” On-purpose persons strategically think through how to navigate the circumstances, people, and flow of a Tough Shift. In time and with training, you’ll learn to navigate your way more smoothly and rapidly through Tough Shifts.

Becoming the navigator of your life is a personal leadership learned skill and trait that anyone can master over time with experience and practice. If once a year, you’ll grab and work through The On-Purpose Person and On-Purpose Peace, you’ll be amazed at your improvement with navigating Tough Shifts.

You need not go it alone either. You can start or join a facilitated small group and begin mastering what it means to be On-Purpose^®.

Do you find yourself fretting, fearful, or discouraged? As you come to appreciate that Tough Shifts are inevitable, then you’re in a better position to productively and positively navigate the change upon you.

Tough shifts are events such as

changing careers
starting a business
having a baby
retiring
getting married or divorced
the dying of a loved one
moving
switching jobs

They’re all around us. Some are smoothly managed; others are not. That’s when we need help.

Tough shifts happen in business, too. They come in the form of

changing markets
competition
job changes
personnel transfers
mergers
acquisitions
new bosses and co-workers

In a global economy, changes in one part of the world can affect you in your part of the world.

What to do? Take heart!

Purpose is symbolized by the heart. Knowing your 2-word purpose statement provides a “north star” and a home base even in the midst of the swirl and turbulence about you. Once you have your north star, you’re in the best position ever to navigate the challenges you face with a healthier, less stressful response that is more likely to produce a better outcome.

As a kid, I remember learning to drive a stick shift in a grey-blue 1962 MG Midget that our family owned. This car made today’s Mini Cooper look big. It was basically a tin coffin with an engine and wheels and a removable lid. It had paper-thin doors, slide on windows, a pull starter, and it was absolutely the most fun car in the world to tool around town in. (I can’t believe I found a photo online of one that looks just like ours! Same color and style even to the dark blue convertible top.)

My digression into my ’62 MG Midget personal history is about learning to shift gears. I remember the first sounds and feel of that gearshift in my hand as I attempted to sync the clutch, the gearshift, and still steer the car. Today, I still find myself driving two-footed every now and then with one foot on the gas and the other on the brake. Growing up in the “South Hills” of Pittsburgh meant I needed to master it all fast, lest I drift into the car behind me at all stops! Today, driving a stick is still second nature thanks to what I mastered at age 16 to 18.

Tough shifts in life are similar to my experience of learning to drive a stick shift. They can be difficult, noisy, rough, clashing, and damaging with the threat of even worse things happening. On the other hand, once mastered, the ability to make what used to be a tough shift becomes an opportunity to efficiently go places. The skills are transferable to other “vehicles.” The lessons learned stay with us.

So when you’re in the middle of a tough shift, remember your purpose, press onward, and know that every shift can lead to the next gear.

Every tough shift gets you closer to your destination.

Discover your 2-word Personal Purpose Statement at ONPURPOSE.me. This online app will guide you through a process of selecting a purpose statement, plus you’ll receive a 10-email course that’s practical to being on-purpose. The limited-time reduced launch price is currently available.

What Is The Purpose of A Business Plan?

March 22, 2018 By kwmccarthy

Writing a business plan?

It is hard to argue against the idea of writing a business plan, yet experience tells me very few business owners actually write one.

Wrong choice! In this fast-paced dynamic business environment, a business purpose and plan have never been more needed. They’re essential to decisions and growth regardless of the business size.

The problem isn’t with the business plan, per se; it is the speed of the person creating the business plan which makes it irrelevant to the business. Most business owners aren’t skilled as business plan writers so their mythologies and misgivings are often unfounded in reality. Speed comes with experience and practice.

Too many times, I’ve heard business owners lament that they don’t have time to do a business plan. Hint: maybe the reason they don’t have time is because they’re not working from a plan. That’s more a comment about their limited skills, experience, and understanding or unwillingness to get help.

60-Minute or Less Simple Planning Method

Consider the old adage, “If you have only a day to cut down a tree with an ax, then invest time sharpening the ax before you begin.” Let me add: Continue to check and sharpen it throughout the day. A business plan is a sharp ax that you can take to the forest of business challenges you face and make progress faster, more affordable, and with less energy … sounds like profits to me!

Pull out a blank sheet of paper, go to a whiteboard or flip chart, or open an electronic file to capture your thoughts. Do the brain dump! Then sort it out into a more coherent and logical flow of actions steps. Assign people and dates and you’re ready to go!

A simple idea-clarifying informal business plan can often be done in less than 60 minutes. Practice the following method on smaller projects where the risk, scale, and scope aren’t so large. Practice the process on less demanding content and matters and you’ll be preparing for writing the business plan for the entire business.

Who Are You Fooling?

I’ve even been told by business owners, “A business plan isn’t relevant to my business.” There may be a good reason why business planning is often put aside, but dismissing it as irrelevant is risky business. While creating a business plan is something every entrepreneur or CEO is wise to do, they often don’t. It is a unique skill set that they don’t invest time in learning how to do. In their minds, it seems to be an exercise for the academics and not for people of action.

Reconsider what the pros do.

For example, your favorite NFL team has a plan for the franchise, the season, and a game plan and playbook going into every game for every week of the season for as long as they’re winning into the post-season. They’re professionals who have learned to crank out a “business plan” for every week. To get the results they seek they don’t have an option. Even then, games will be lost. Lessons learned and personnel trained to improve.

Action, even well-intended actions, without a purpose and a plan incrementally lower the trajectory of achievement.

Business planning, hey, it’s optional. That’s a dangerous mindset fraught with avoidable pitfalls. Running by the seat of one’s pants can become a way of life and business. Could this be part of the explanation why the failure rate of small businesses is so high?

Candidly, if taxes didn’t have to be paid, I wonder how many small business owners would have a financial and accounting system in place! Because the IRS likes to be paid and has means of enforcement to be paid, bookkeeping and accounting are done because outside consequences exist. Because business planning is “optional,” it is too easy to not get it done.

So what is the purpose of a business plan?

It helps to know that there are three broad types of business plans:

Financing business plans are done to obtain financing from either investors or lenders. These business plans tend to be formal and time consuming because of the scrutiny of due diligence. Most business planning software leans in this direction.
Functional business plans are more operational or oriented towards helping team members get on the same page to move the business forward. These blueprints for the business are informative and best used for internal use, direction, and communication.
Strategic business plans are very useful, for example, for taking your business ideas and transforming them into a business model. These can be very informal—notes on a yellow pad or napkin—to PowerPoint presentations to more formally written documents.

Audience Matters

Who is going to be reading your business plan and why? Your need for a business plan really depends upon the audience for whom it is written.

Financing business plans are targeted toward outsiders to attract investment.
Functional business plans involve engaging the team. There is a certain amount of assumed inside knowledge.
Strategic plans are best written for the leader of the plan to gain insight and clarity. This enables the entrepreneur to capture thoughts and sort the various elements of a business into an orderly approach.

Each of these business plans has common elements that you’ll find layered in The Service Model™ (see graphic) from The On-Purpose Business Person.

Creating a business plan is something every entrepreneur should do, but you need to know why you are writing the business plan and the audience.

I’ve seen far too many start-up organizations buy business planning software and invest months writing it. The process of doing their market research, developing cash flow statements, defining their organizational chart, etc. is useful, but is the marginal return on investment worth it? Sometimes you just need to get started and prove your concept in order to improve your business model.

Practically, it is rarely as valuable as the benefit of having a simple business plan and getting started. There’s nothing quite like opening the doors on a small scale and learning from the market. This said, if you have only one part of a business plan to get right—put together your business marketing plan.

Planning is not about perfection.

Rather it is about anticipating pitfalls and avoiding them, as well as leveraging opportunities to the max. Plans are meant to save us time, money, and energy. Always consider the ROI (return on investment) for your planning process.

Over the years, I’ve told my clients to use this ratio when business planning: 1% planning:99% execution. Rinse and repeat!

On-Purpose Business Tip: The Service Model from The On-Purpose Business Person provides a simple business plan template to provoke thoughtful inquiry and usefulness.