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…
Knowing your audience can be a force for good or evil.
For good so you can provide the solution that can change people’s lives into their hands.
For evil, like poor Mr Ed….
Regardless, knowing your audience makes it possible to scale your business because they are more likely to listen and buy from you.. that is if you know how and when to speak to them…
Five principles of direct marketing can help lift your business out of a rut by helping stand out and stand up and scale to the next level.
Sometimes Schools can give us the best lessons on how to grow a business outside their classroom. Just look at how they are run…
Being successful in business is about understanding the core desires that drive your customers and providing solutions to fulfill them. We can learn a lot from two very different restaurants – one aimed at impressing clients for business deals, and another for throwing a 3 year old’s birthday – on how to create the right atmosphere, understand customer desires and price accordingly.
By doing this, you can outsmart your competitors and attract the customers you want and charge the prices you want. At the end of the day, it’s not about prices – it’s also about understanding and fulfilling customer desires.
This headline is ridiculous because pairing blue fin tuna sushi with sliders doesn’t have anything wrong with it logically, but rather awkward from an emotional aesthetic point of view.
it’s about atmosphere and how it reflects some of our deepest core desires.
Ever wonder why you go to the restaurants you do?
Do you only go because you are hungry?
If that’s the case why go out and not just deliver?
What restaurant would you take a client to win a critical project?
How about 20 3-year-old children to a birthday party?
Pick the same place? If not.. why?
Ever get a call from a company that only cares about price? it’s like a robber calling you to offer a discount on buying back what he just stole from your house.
“A man who doesn’t spend time with his family can never be a real man”
– Vito Corleone
Tips to be a real man or woman and build a business by freeing your time.
As a busiess owner what does it mean to “maximise” your time? There is lots of hype and cliches around.. but here are some practical steps the hero in our story took to maximise his time.
Four quick strategies for business owners to grow and build the value of their business and set it up to sell one day on their price and terms.
Budgets are necessary to control spending, but mindlessly following them is insane when it comes to scaling and growing your business beyond what the budget “allows”. You can be flexible and still grow smart as long as you look at key metrics for growth and allow them to supersede what some arbitratry budget measure says.
When and how do you balance growth while making sure you don’t go nuts on spend?
Your Business can be like a winning horse if you train it well and feed it with steady and growing profits.
On the big race day (the day you exit) it can give you a huge payout.
Have you ever felt really intimidated by an upcoming challenge? Like time I stepped onto a wrestling mat to face “Mr T.”* in the 1980s.
But then something amazing happened: when we got into the middle of the match, I realized he wasn’t so scary after all! In fact, if it hadn’t been for me being pysched out in the beginning and gave up points for nothing, I would have won.
This experience taught me an important lesson: don’t judge a situation by its cover. You never know what lies underneath. So be confident in yourself and take that leap of faith—you may surprise yourself!
*(P.S. It wasn’t the real Mr. T just in case you were wondering…)
As I posted this article on my Linkedin profile, I saw the date 26 January. It’s a coincidence, but it’s extremely relevant (and I’ll explain shortly).
Growing up in Chicago in the 1980s we witnessed one of the best NFL defenses to ever be on a field. It caputed a whole city and people went crazy.. even waiting in hundreds of thousands in 20 below zero to welcome them back after a championships.
Why do I bring them up? Because it’s a cautionary tale. How a system that brings you to the heights can also fail you when it outlives its time.
Like in business, and the system you used to launch can now destroy the value you built ..
As for the date? 26 January 1986 was the date they won the Super Bowl..
What if I told you there’s one thing sitting right in front of you…
That silently reveals whether your business will give you freedom—or burn you out slowly?
It’s not your revenue.
It’s not your brand.
And it’s definitely not the hustle.
It’s something most founders overlook.
Even though it tells the truth—every single time.
Here’s what it is…
And what it might already be telling you.
What happens when you build your business like you’ll sell it—even if you won’t?
You get your time back.
You get freedom.
And sometimes… you 50x your revenue in 36 months.
That’s exactly what one founder did without ever stepping foot in his office.
No hustle porn. No VC. No consultants.
Just the right structure, the right people, and a business built to run without him.
Here’s what that looks like…
What do you get when John Carlton, Brian Kurtz, and Bond Halbert drop into a casual book club?
Not a pitch.
Not a product launch.
Just a room built right—by people who lead with value and play the long game.
This wasn’t a flex.
It was a masterclass in how real relationships attract the right people.
And why the best opportunities come when you stop selling… and start serving.
Here’s what happened
When you bring the right people into the right room, something changes.
It’s not about small talk.
It’s not about swapping business cards.
It’s about real conversations that open doors—and the opportunities that follow when hands are grasped with real intent.
Here’s a glimpse inside a gathering where growth wasn’t just talked about. It started.
One leak.
Two missed calls.
Three years of customer loyalty—gone.
That’s all it took.
-Not because of pricing.
-Not because of competition.
But because of a simple failure to show up, follow through, and solve the actual problem.
Bad customer experience isn’t just annoying.
It’s what turns profitable businesses into unsellable liabilities.
Here’s what happened—and why you need to look at your own business through the same lens.
They said a wave of business exits was coming.
Retiring baby boomers. Millions of dollars changing hands.
The so-called “Silver Tsunami.”
But… where is it?
Most owners didn’t sell.
Many didn’t retire.
And a frightening number are still grinding—burnt out, stuck, and quietly hoping for a buyer that never comes.
This post breaks down what’s really happening…
And what it means for every founder still waiting for the perfect time.
Today’s not just another Tuesday.
It’s St. George’s Day—the story of a man who stood his ground, defied the empire, and became a legend.
Most people remember the dragon.
They forget the courage.
And that’s exactly what most founders forget too.
The businesses that lead? They stand for something.
The ones that fold? They tried to please everyone.
Here’s why standing your ground might be the most valuable move you make.
You didn’t miss the exit.
You just kept telling yourself it wasn’t time yet.
Until suddenly… it was too late.
Most business owners don’t crash and burn.
They slowly wear down—working harder, earning less, and watching the business slip away while they keep saying:
“Just a bit longer.”
This post isn’t about planning.
It’s about what happens when you don’t..