From Struggling SOHO to Entrepreneurial Success
“The single biggest mistake businesses make is attempting to grow without a simple strategy to guide their daily decisions. Absent a simple strategic plan you are constantly stepping over dollars to pick up dimes — a leading cause of small business failure.”
“Sure, you probably use Quick Books or some other accounting software. They are good at telling you what HAPPENED. But to turn your business into a gold mine takes a unified strategy, skill and street smarts… to know what to MAKE HAPPEN.”
“Smart business is having a constantly-evolving strategy to WIN… not just to hope and work hard… but to actually PLAN to WIN… then PLAY to WIN. This is what gives you the EDGE over your competitors.”
“We help you do this in HOURS, not YEARS in the trial and error university of hard knocks.”~ E. R. Haas, CEO
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The Business Dream…
Please take a moment to THINK about your business goals.
Maybe you are a SOHO (Small Office Home Office) dreamer.
Maybe you have grown to experience the joys of a rapidly expanding enterprise.
Or maybe you have just passed the big hurdle moving from basic subsistence to full sustainability.
Subsistence vs. Sustainability…
All business grow though 4 stages and experience growing pains at every step.
In the early days, cash is king, and every decision is made through the filter of cash flow control.
Sales start to take off, and more cash is now needed.
You must hire people, train them, and get them to the peak of productivity fast.
Over time, you will make it to the first stage: Basic Subsistence.
This is best described as a hand-to-mouth pursuit of the next big opportunity.
You exist, not excel.
At some point, usually through hard work and grit, you get to the point where your business is sustainable at a growth level you can maintain — barring emergencies and catastrophes.
These stages are incredibly important to understand:
- Stage 1 — SUSTAINABILITY: Your business has moved beyond cash flow negative, hand-to-mouth subsistence and has mastered the FUNdamentals. While not yet consistently profitable, it is sustainable. Sales may be somewhat erratic, but you have proven that your business has products/services that people want to buy. You have high hopes that it will become a lot more fun sometime soon. Actually, you feel like your dreams of working for yourself, more freedom and financial independence are on the cusp of being realized.
- Stage 2 — PROFITABILITY: Regardless of the size of your gross income, you have a successful business that actually generates a net taxable profit from day to day operations. Everyone on your staff is getting paid what they are worth… including you! You are providing WOW customer service, and loyal customers are telling their friends to do business with you. Financial, operations and administrative management is in place sufficient to service the current needs of the business.
- Stage 3 — GROW-ABILITY: Your business has mastered the day-to-day fundamentals. It has, through automation and strict cost and performance controls, turned every business process into a hardwired system that allows you to easily duplicate your success. You have excellent financial management in place, a positive and high internal cash flow, and funds available through lines of credits or cash reserves to move the business up the ladder of success — either through organic growth, newly invested capital or through Mergers and Acquisitions.
- Stage 4 — VITALITY/SALABILITY: Your business has an unstoppable Strategic Plan with tremendous management bench strength. You have grown to a prominent position within your industry. You can aspire to build a business that is VITAL, FUN, EXCITING and makes a real difference in people’s lives. Think Google, Apple, The Body Shop and the like! Or you can sell up or sell out… from a merger with another business… to an IPO… or an employee buy-out, with highly skilled leadership teams who will continue to operate the business in pursuit of its true mission.
Without question, each stage presents different issues, so having a clear strategy is vital to success.
Some businesses never get beyond SOHO… some fail well before they achieve Stage 1 Sustainability.
Where are you right now?
A Simple Strategy…
Once you determine what you are going to make happen you can move forward toward the goal. Until then, you become overwhelmed, locked on the horns of a dilemma.
A simple strategy, executed well is the key to growing the next Apple, Whole Foods, Nike… even the next hot new restaurant, cycle shop, or salon.
We make strategy push-button simple.
You answer a few deeply engaging questions, tell us what your objectives are, and we give you the answer to the question, “What should we do next?”
Your Choice: Hours vs. Years…
MyBizIQ is like gaining the operational savvy of a Harvard MBA in 6 hours… not 6 years and $500,000!
Your Stress Test takes about an hour. Simple questions but profoundly predictive.
The personalized results will take you 2-3 hours to fully absorb. We have distilled the complexity of business success into a simple to understand, gaited package that guides your thinking at every step.
Then, each week you return to your secure, personal strategy page and review your actions, decisions, and your next focus.
The result is that you know exactly what you must do NEXT.
It means thinking WIN WIN…
What’s Important Now?
What’s Important Next?
The Key Word For This Decade: Volatility…
Just look at the crosscurrents of a constantly changing business landscape: China trade issues… NAFTA… ruthless competition… lack of quality and quantity of new hires… tough new business regulations… the list is endless.
Let’s take a quick walk around the Biz IQ Success Clock.
And what you can do to tame this volatility and chaos is equally endless:
√ Faster new product development and innovation…
√ Smarter marketing…
√ More effective customer creation and retention…
√ Better financial controls…
√ Better operations management…
√ Better admin management…
√ More responsive actions to local business conditions.
Yes, you have thousands of choices — some good — some bad — some just ineffective — so you must choose wisely! Which is what strategy is all about.
To join the ranks of long-term successes like Apple, Amazon, Dell, Whole Foods, and a million small business who play the game of business to WIN, you must reenergize, reorganize, and reinvent your business — continuously.
It means thinking strategically and acting tactically.
√ Chaos will reign this year — get used to it…
√ Volatility is the new norm — complaining about it is counterproductive…
√ Business conditions will be good and bad… sometimes in the same month…
It is up to you to navigate these conditions and WIN. Proof?
This Gallery depicts businesses that all started with no more than an idea, little cash, but still turned into a Goldmine… after facing more than their fair share of heartbreaks and tough times.
There will be more Millionaires and Billionaires created
this year than at any time in history.
Why not you?
Check out our Midas touch Bundle.
This is a lot like gaining a Harvard MBA for only $97 Bucks!
Category: Business Growth, Featured
