As an entrepreneur the objective is to build a successful, stable business. So, how do you know if you are on the right path? Progress often gets measured through ‘transactions’ – completing a certain number of transactions in a given time period. How many ‘jobs’ you complete in a week, how many orders you secure in a month or how many pizza’s you deliver in an evening.   Although there are many valid reasons to measure transactions, I would suggest that the secret to long-term success and stability is more closely related to ‘relationships’ and less about ‘transactions’. Think about it
Read More

Last week we lost an exceptional member of our community – Bob Bartz. Bob had been the President of the Chamber of Commerce for 35 years and you would be hard pressed to find anyone in our community who touched more people or had a better reputation than Bob. It got me thinking, ‘What made Bob such an exceptional leader within our community?’ Although any list of characteristics will be both incomplete and inadequate, I have tried to summarize what made Bob so exceptional. Humble. If Bob was one thing, he was humble. He never needed to be in the
Read More

2017 is upon us and it is time to lay out a plan for the New Year. What are your goals for 2017? What do you plan on accomplishing? What do you want to get better at? Here is my ‘To Do’ list for 2017. 1) Attend as many of my children’s events as possible and help them to grow into confident, balanced individuals. 2) Be 100% present when I am speaking with my wife and children. 3) Have the courage to invest in good opportunities when they present themselves. 4) Regularly ask myself, ‘What would I do if I
Read More

7 Reasons Why A Salaried Job Is Like Crack Cocaine! From time to time I work with individuals who are perfectly positioned to become business owners. They have lots of money, no debt, great skill set, likeable personalities, and a true desire to break out of the employee mentality. However, at the end of the process, they decide to return to a job. Of course, for anyone who is a business owner, this is exceptionally hard to understand. Why would spend your life preparing for freedom but when the opportunity is presented, return to a job? There is only one
Read More

Some thoughts on Leadership and Vision from John Maxwell: ‘Without a challenge, many people tend to fall or fade away. Charles Noble observed, “You must have a long-range vision to keep you from being frustrated by short-range failures.” Vision helps people with motivation. That can be especially important for highly talented people. They sometimes fight lack of desire…. If you can see vision for your team, then your team has a reasonably good chance at success. Vision gives team members direction and confidence, two things they cannot do without.’ As a franchise coach, one of the first things I ask a
Read More