Have you grown a business but feel stuck?
Are you working harder and seeing smaller progress like the end of a bad diet or a workout where you plateau?
There are common roadblocks that sneak up on business owners that trap them inside “a job”.
Here we talk about how to identify and ultimately remove them.
Discover the power of business valuation!
Unlock your venture’s true worth, financial health, and growth potential while comparing it to industry peers.
Use valuation insights for strategic decision-making, powerful negotiations, and measuring success.
Unleash your small business’s potential with upscaling! Investing in your team’s skills and expertise will help you make more money and stay ahead of the competition.
Evaluate current abilities, target high-impact skills, create tailored plans, and make upskilling continuous.
Here we go through 5 examples of winning sales processes so you can see what you might be able to adapt and use for your business.
Much of it is fundamentals which allow you to succeed without worrying about the latest fads and trends.
Are you looking to grow the business and increase its value without relying on a huge influx of new customers? We tackle that in Day 4 of this sprint.
Start by managing your cash flow like a pro. Here are five tips from creating cash flow forecasts to negotiating favorable payment terms, that can help you optimise your business for growth and success.
Want to make more money with your business? Then you need to start focusing on customer retention! Just a 5% boost in customer retention rates can dramatically increase profits – up to 95%, according to research. But how do you achieve lasting relationships with your customers?
Follow our heroine Sarah’s lead: she reached out, asked for feedback and implemented initiatives to enhance the customer experience. The rewards were greater than she ever dreamed of.
Feeling like your business is stuck in a Groundhog Day loop? Kickstart your growth with these six tips. From tracking your customers, to analysing performance to exploring new markets and targeting audiences, you can break free from stagnation AND unlock the keys to success.
Struggling to find the time to both run and grow your business? In Day 1 of our sprint, here are some practical tips and strategies that can help you become a master of time management while making sure you don’t burn out! Follow these simple steps and learn how to unlock the secrets of success – without having to pay top consultants thousands of dollars!
As we enter the Easter break, why not use this time to freshen up your business strategy? Take part in a 10 day sprint that touches on burning issues such as time management, customer retention, revenue growth and more.
With insights and strategies to implement, you can make sure that your business is well-positioned for success in the future. Let’s get started!
Succession planning is key to ensuring the long-term success of your business. As a business owner, it’s important to ask yourself: Who do you trust to take over the reins and lead your business forward? In my latest blog post, I delve into the critical topic of succession planning and share my thoughts on how to identify and groom potential future leaders.
As a professional, you should try to engage potential clients and partners effectively.
But sending out crappy, unsolicited emails isn’t the way to do it. Instead of generic messages, take the time to research your recipients and personalise your messages to show that you’re an expert and that you care.
Not only will this increase the likelihood of a response, but improve your reputation and credibility too.
To save on merchant fees, are you willing to delay payments by months or not even get paid at all? What does it cost you in terms of missed opportunity costs, working capital financing costs, etc?
Once money comes into your business, you have opportunities to invest it in your sales/marketing, service, or other opportunities which have an ROI much greater than 3%.
It’s not about the margin on every transaction, but the ROI and timing of it in your hands
Cash is king and your payment terms can sometimes be sabotaging your business by influencing customers to delay and extend the payments owed to you. This is part 1 of a situation that I came across about payment terms and cash flow, and how you can optimise both.
Cash is King, and this is clearly seen by business owners who have great margins and profitable businesses, but for whatever reason, getting paid takes a while and so they face the stress of having to scramble to meet payroll and other obligations.
The answer is to introduce recurring revenue models where possible and provide incentives and make it easy for your customers to pay you as soon as possible.
Ever been told you can’t bring a customer on board, or you can’t take the opportunity you dreamt about? If it’s from a non-business area of your company (such as the accountant or compliance) it’s worth pushing back 100% and having them give you a fully justifiable 100% reason why – and eliminating 100% risk so their jobs become easier is not a valid reason.
Is your path of success a nice paved multi-lane highway, Freeway, Potholed Freeway, street, dirt path, or pile of garbage no one can get around? Here is the opportunity to turn lemons into lemonade and pave clear paths of growth for a future that can transform your life and one you would not have expected.
Sometimes it’s best to hear directly from business owners on what it means to own a “sellable” business. I think you will find some of what my friend has to say inspiring.
Managing employees is a challenge, especially as businesses grow. It’s important to maintain good communication, productivity, and collaboration within the team. Thankfully, there are simple solutions that can help small business owners manage their employees with greater efficiency and success.
We have been talking about the purpose of business being creating customers who create customers. Here we show the math and the proof. What will it mean to your bottom line? What investment can you make that beats the return on providing an exceptional customer experience.
The exceptional experience gives you the growing and predictable revenue that makes scaling your business easier and better positions you to sell at your price and terms one day.
In part 2 are the answers to some common objections to investing in the Customer Experience.
I stress customer experience because it directly leads to driving up your Customer Lifetime Value, your profits, and the enjoyment of owning your business.
Continuing with the Purpose of Business is to create customers who create customers.
An important aspect of that is investing your time, focus, and yes money to provide a superior customer experience.
For many business owners, they see customer service as an expense to be limited.. not as an investment like advertising or sales.
Some of the common objections are in this post… the answers in the next one ..
The purpose of business is to create customers who create customers.
To do so, you have to provide a superior experience. Are your customers making more customers for you?
“Because the purpose of business is to create a customer, the business enterprise has two–and only two–basic functions: marketing and innovation. Marketing and innovation produce results; all the rest are costs. Marketing is the distinguishing, unique function of the business.”
– Peter Drucker
Taking Peter’s quote I found an expansion of that in one of Dan Kennedy’s BS books. It’s the theme of this short story and my following 3-4 posts.
“The Purpose of Business is to Create Customers Who Create Customers.”
Growing a business doesn’t always require more hours or resources; sometimes it just requires smarter strategies like automation, outsourcing, and delegation.
Automating to help make things more efficient at work. Outsourcing to free up your time to invest in more important activities, and delegating to utilise your staff better and take the stress off your back.
Ever feel like you are a trapped in the trenches of a price war.
You don’t have to be.
Ron Holt shows the power of standing out, scaling up and ultimately selling at a premium.
By standing out he could charge what he wanted. That funded his growth which then made him attractive for a high premium offer.
Trolls beware! Don’t mess with my wife’s 20 years of experience as a teacher and senior leader in the British Curriculum.
When it comes to phonics, she has literally transformed hundreds of children from struggling readers to confident ones.
A reminder that when you’re choosing mentors or resources for your business, don’t be fooled by ideologues who preach without getting results.
Go for the real thing – those who take the time to get to know your unique situation and help you reach your goals
Working hard is great, but don’t forget to rest and rejuvenate too! Maintaining a good work/life balance can be a key to success.
Taking regular breaks to relax and unwind can help you mentally, physically and you’re your creativity – all of which are essential for growing your business.
So take some time off, let your mind and body recover – you’ll be glad you did.
People do business with those whom they like and trust. Do the following to help people feel comfortable trusting you and doing business with you.
When they trust you and you exceed their expectations, you gain repeat customers. The ones who will keep buying from you, referring you, and funding you to help your business grow.
The Sermon on the Mount is one of the most famous and influential speeches in history. And if you look at it from a “business perspective”, it’s a masterpiece in showing the power of communicating benefit and transformation. In short, how to stand out from your competition and communicate it effectively.
Every try to assemble something when the instructions are pure ****. Best is EU purchases where the only instructions are in 15 different languages and they are warranty cards.
If instructions are included, often it’s written by engineers for other engineers and as useful as just telling us to ask the Cat how to put it together.
But here’s the thing.. purchases that do not get consumed get returned. So why deal with refunds because instructions are not clear. Start there and see what happens…
When it comes to valuing a business, risk is everything. Imagine bidding at an auction on a note that might pay $1 million or might pay nothing—how high would you go?
Now, if that $1 million was guaranteed, suddenly, you’d pay much more.
The difference? Predictability. Too many profitable businesses fail to sell because they lack this key ingredient.
Curious about building investor confidence? Join the free Business Owners Club and our live Zoom session on November 19.
As a kid, “Uncle Ted” terrified me—he saw through my spoiled antics and wasn’t afraid to call me out. Later, I realized he was more than tough; he was a self-made success and, eventually, a mentor. But when it came time to sell his thriving business, things didn’t go as planned. Now, I share his story to help other business owners avoid his fate.
9 out of 10 business owners struggle to sell their businesses on terms they want. Why?
They can’t convince investors of their business’s future potential in the right hands.
If you want to attract serious buyers and keep control over the deal, start planning now.
Sign in to the Owners Club for the 4 questions you need to answer to make your business investor-ready. Plus, join our Open Office Discussion!.
Last night, I watched a documentary on the 2004 Red Sox—a team that, after 86 years, made bold moves to secure a championship.
It reminded me of a key insight when valuing businesses: like a traded sports icon, your past efforts alone don’t drive investor interest.
Investors focus on future potential under their control.
Find out more in our free Owners Portal and Join me on November 19 for a free session where I’ll cover how to make your business irresistible to investors.
Ever thought about what would happen if life threw you an unexpected curveball?
I recently heard a story that hit me hard—a business owner who poured everything into his work until, one day, he couldn’t anymore.
No backup plan, no safety net… and in an instant, everything he’d built was on the line.
It’s a powerful reminder of why having a business that can be sold today really matters.
A conversation with Brian highlighted the millions he saved by building a sellable business even when he didn’t have any intention to sell at the time.
It was on another election day that I started my new life here in Dubai. The people I’d meet and the experiences I’d have in that job would shape why I started Sophiall and why I strongly believe that every entrepreneur deserves success and shouldn’t miss out like 70% of other business owners who build profitable companies but can’t successfully sell them or pass them down.
I got to experience first-hand the ridiculous pitch a café owner made when it came time to sell her business and I wished to see her current financials.
Now her answer wasn’t so out of the ordinary. Often business owners have the incorrect conception of what makes their business attractive to someone else.
The stakes are too high to find yourself in this same no-mans land so we have released a new course in the Owners’ Portal. Read on to find out more.