The Ultimate Business Tune Up

How effectively are you Qualifying your New Prospects? It’s not uncommon for me to hear that the biggest issue or challenge a business owner is facing is the need to gain new customers. Many businesses have their team assembled, they have their product or service ready to go, and all they need to make the business work is to find and secure more customers. So this week I want to tackle one of the bigger challenges – Qualifying new prospects.

How are Your Employees Feeling About the Impact Your Business is Having on Those You Serve? This week, I want to dive deeper into the LEVEL THREE – or as I call it GEAR THREE – statements that every employee is asking and assessing on a daily basis. These Gear Three statements are related to whether the business is serving their customers well and if the business is making a difference in the community and world we all live in.

How are Your Employees Feeling About their Fellow Team Members and Their Future with Your Company? This week, I want to dive deeper into the LEVEL TWO – or as I call it GEAR TWO – statements that every employee is asking and assessing on a daily basis. These Gear Two statements are related to their supervisor and managers – the leadership of the business – and to their future with the business.

How Can You Keep Your Employees WITHOUT Requiring a Signed Non-Compete? You’ve probably heard the reports that the Federal Trade Commission, better known as the FTC, has issued a ruling that is intended to promote competition by banning all non-compete clauses issued by companies to their employees. I’m going to recommend that every business owner use this warning shot as a reason to double-down on creating a work environment that supports and builds a “radically-engaged” team.

How Good are You at Catching People Doing Things Right? No matter how good they are at their job, the majority of employees feel that their immediate supervisor or direct line manager focus WAY MORE on the things they get wrong than those things they do well. Great talent is hard to find. And when you have great talent, the LAST thing you want is for them to be discounted and disenfranchised from the business.

Why is it SO HARD to get your Team members to do things the way YOU want and need them to do it? Truth be told, it’s not impossible at all. In fact, it’s simply a math equation! That’s right. Getting someone to do what you need or want them to do is ALL about getting the math right. You get the math right, and the other person will do what you want, without exception, every time – like magic!

How Good are You at Generating New Leads when Networking? Over 91% of business owners surveyed said that Business Networking was a critical part of their marketing strategies and that Networking had been an integral part of how they grew their customer base. Since everyone is using business networking to grow their business, shouldn’t you take some time to get GOOD at it?

How Effectively do you Clarify the Roles and Responsibilities in your Organization? If you’re like most business owners I’ve met, one of the biggest challenges you’re facing is making sure everyone on your team knows, with certainty, what they are responsible for and what you expect from them in their position. Today I want to share a method that you may find useful – or you may find the concepts worth modifying to fit into your new hire orientation program and into your communications when someone gets a well-deserved promotion in your company.

Would You Like to Avoid the Dumb Mistakes that Sabotage Growth, Profits, and Business Success? Honestly, that’s what we’re doing together – trying to solve the biggest challenges in owning and running a business – and along the way, take the best path toward success – rather than getting stuck riding down the “stupid road” – the one full of potholes, dangers and pitfalls.

Have You Created a Brand That Speaks Clearly to Your Ideal Customers? Today I want to work with you on a topic that probably gets very little of your daily attention but is perhaps the most valuable asset you have in your business. This “most valuable asset” in your business is your BRAND! And today I’d like to spend a little time taking you through a little Brand-building exercise.

How Effectively are you using your Financial Metrics when Making Business Decisions? Today I want to look behind the curtain and discuss how you are making important business decisions. It seems that not a day goes by without you, the business owner, having to make at least one if not several important decisions related to your business. When it comes to big decisions that impact the financial future of your business, the first step is to get crystal clear on this critical part of your Hedgehog Concept – your Economic Engine.

Who’s on Your Speed Dial List When Trying to Grow Your Business? I think as business owners, we need to have a special list of people who are on our “speed dial” list when it comes to growing our business. Let’s be honest, trying to grow your business without the help of other business owners can be VERY difficult and challenging.

Does Everyone On Your Team Know How Their Performance Will Be Measured? I have found that most business owners find it difficult to start using position agreements in the beginning because it forces them to think through who should be responsible for what and how they should be measured – which is a different way to think about how work gets done in most businesses.

Is Your Value Proposition Driving the Behaviors You Require from Your Team? I want to discuss how critically important it is for you and your team members, that there is alignment between what you have promised to your customers and what you expect from your team members. I believe the BEST way to get your team members to follow your expectations or requirements is to demonstrate to them that your expectations are in ALIGNMENT with what the CUSTOMER needs and wants as they do business with you.

How Many of Your Team Members are IDEAL Team Players? Today I want to introduce you to this resource – a book written by Patrick Lencioni. If you’re not familiar with Patrick Lencioni, and you’re a business owner, you absolutely MUST get his books and make it a priority to read and apply his principles. I consider Patrick to be one of the foremost authorities on how to build a high-performing team. He’s written several that are MUST READS for any business owner.

Is The Rate of Your Business Growth Meeting Your Expectations? Today I want to talk about SPEED. Not the kind where you get into a fast car and break the speed limit, but the kind where your business grows at a consistently exciting pace. If your business is not growing, it means that the customers are not coming back to do business with you regularly and they are not telling their family and friends how much they enjoy doing business with you.

How is Your Business Going to be Better Today Than It Was Yesterday? It’s a simple but powerful question to ask yourself – especially if you ask it and work on it each and every day! For many of you listening this may not be a question you’ve asked in a long time. For others of you, it may be a question you ask from time to time, but certainly not every day.

What Causes the Most Friction on Your Team? This week I want to share a big lesson that I heard recently from a well-respected, winning coach. I’m not sure about you, but when someone gives me advice, the first thing I do is ask myself – Is this someone who I should be taking advice from?

When is the Right Time to Start Rewarding Your Team for Performance? I’ve found that far too many business owners struggle to find the “right time” to set up a “pay for performance” type of compensation system for their business.

Are You Maximizing Your Opportunities to Generate Leads? Most business owners I meet WISH they had more leads for their business. It’s one of the most frustrating struggles that many business owners deal with – not having enough leads to grow their business as fast as they had hoped. But a quick peek behind the curtain often reveals that most businesses are not fully utilizing their maximum lead-generating capacity?