Resources & Community

It’s Not (Quite) About You:

• Get personal with your customers.

• Connect your business mission to your personal passions.

• Never fear defying conventions.

• Great ideas matter…but not as much as you think.

• Timing matters more…in certain industries.

Do Your Customers Know Your Why? Do You?

• Connect your business to the problems it solves. DIRECTLY.

• Ideal customers believe what you believe.

• Ideal staff believe what you believe.

• Humility, drive and a focus on excellence makes a great leader and a great business owner.

• The Wright Brothers didn’t stand a chance compared to their better funded competition…except they had a passion to solve the problem of flight. First.

Avoid Failure Through Using Adaptability & Community

• Startup failures are both devastating and preventable.

• Business owners that stay connected with other business owners are MUCH better at avoiding failure.

• Investors know that adaptability is a critical trait in business owners.

• Customer interaction is the key to building the community relationships that will ensure your business is constantly adapting to solve the right problems.

These Two Seem Unrelated…But…

• It is so important to be mindful of our biases and the potential biases of others.

• Are you loss-minded or growth-minded?

• Can you effectively promote your business to loss-minded or prevention focused investors, lenders, customers and potential employees?

• Family businesses in the developing world have a different track record than those in the developed world. But the smallest family businesses in the developed world - like yours - may learn much from the developing world.

• A family business can build its brand based on trust and its reputation for excellence based on the family’s total immersion in the business and a commitment to purpose over greed.

Great Nuggets

• Never stop thinking about how to DELIGHT your customers.

• Don’t be discouraged if the business evolves in unanticipated ways.

• Clarify purpose.

• Passions can’t be taught.

• Learn quickly from mistakes.

• Be a great listener.

• Be great first, then scale it. It’s hard to improve a large, mediocre business.

• Constantly seek criticism, not validation.

• Attracting others to help foster and develop an idea is important.

And more….

From The Philosophical To The Practical

• Passions pick you. Be alert.

• Embrace and encourage boldness.

• Never stop experimenting.

• Work/Life balance is about finding meaning in all you do.

• Be stubborn about your vision but flexible about the details.

• When it comes to innovation, never lose a beginner’s mindset.

• Take an interest in your legacy.

• Know your customers and over-deliver to them.

• Be great in the little things.

• When times are tough, it is critical to really understand your financial condition - business and personal.

• Survival means pivoting. Pivoting means survival.

• Successful businesses stay hungry for knowledge and are constantly looking to improve.

• Your competition will make you better. Pay attention.

• Seek out lenders who take an interest in providing ongoing support for the business owner.

• Take time to build meaningful relationships.

• Value your time.

• The community impact of well-functioning, fully engaged small businesses is both immeasurable and invaluable.

• Fall in love with the community problems not your current solutions.

• Don’t be afraid to ask for help.

These Videos Couldn’t Be More Different. You Need To Watch Both.

If you want to transform your business from a job you own into a legacy you’ve built, you need to build systems that will allow your business to consistently solve the most meaningful problems your business exists to solve without relying too heavily on you.

How do you know which problems are most meaningful? Know your customer. Know your community. But, you cannot truly know your customer without understanding connection. It is CRITICAL to know what may be keeping you from personally connecting with your customers, with your community, with your staff or with your partners.

Find a way as a business owner to be vulnerable and authentic with the community your business serves in order to build deeper connections and make sure you own a business built to consistently solve the most meaningful problems that it is best suited to solve.