Eventually, you are going to retire. You may sell or exit your business. That’s great! What’s next? If you don’t have an answer to that question, then read on for the second part of our series on The End. While this post will focus on selling your business, it applies to someone retiring as well. […]
Parting ways with an employee is one of the most difficult endings a leader must face. We deal with ending a professional relationship today in our third post on “The End”. Every employee is going to leave the business at some point. We may not like it but understand when someone retires, or moves, or […]
“Begin with the end in mind.” Sometimes “The End” is a scary thing to think about. Not always – the end of a bad situation or rough period of time can be something we look forward to. But often the simple uncertainty of something coming to a close is enough to cause us not to […]
We learn a lot as kids that we forget or ignore when it comes to our jobs and businesses. Watching a youth baseball game this weekend, I saw a team of nine year old kids model how we can be better at work. What lessons from sports can we apply to running a business? I […]
Growth is good – until it isn’t. If you grow too fast, you can damage your brand, compromise your product, and burn out your team. Good growth is managed and planned. Let’s look again at a lesson from recent history. Toyota has long been recognized for their quality. That reputation took a hit in the […]
If you don’t believe that management and culture make a difference in your company’s success, you are wrong. Let me give you an example from Toyota that I learned about from a recent podcast. When Toyota was making their first moves to manufacturing in the US, they teamed up with GM. They formed NUMMI and […]
Having cash in the bank doesn’t mean your business is making money. I’ve worked with many business owners who closely manage their cash flow and bank account balances. That’s great. I do the same thing both for my personal and business accounts. Unfortunately, some stop there. That’s a mistake. I’ve met business owners who have […]
I recently received an email from a new vendor telling me they were going to miss an appointment. I couldn’t have been happier. Not the usual response, is it? The vendor was making a schedule change for all clients due to weather conditions. They informed me of the action they were going to take so […]
There is a huge difference between possessing and being able to use tools effectively. One of my friends bought a new set of golf clubs. This is nothing new – he does that every couple of years. It prompted a mutual friend to sarcastically comment, “you have the best golf game money can buy.” The point he […]
Fractional COOs are the Swiss Army knives of the fractional executive world. “Operations” means different things to everyone and each industry. Because every client has different needs, we must have lots of tools at our disposal. We also have to be flexible in scope and deliverables. Some business owners need to delegate tasks they don’t […]
