One my businesses sells chicken coops. You can design and order a walk-in chicken coop from four to sixty feet long, and it gets delivered directly to you. Yep, they’re pretty awesome #humblebrag Due to the built-to-order nature of the product, my processes used to be extremely manual, very clunky, and had lots of opportunities…
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Change is hard. It’s easy to stay on the same track. That’s why race horses wear blinders – so they don’t get distracted by competition, but focus on the race that’s right in front of them. That’s really helpful when the path to victory and accomplishment is clear… but that’s almost never the case in business…
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A system for everything, and everything in its system. A system is anything that creates repeatable improvement. Goal Guru Jon Acuff calls a system a “win repeater”. I like the term “win machine”. Systems don’t have to be complicated. Packing your lunch so you don’t eat junk food is a system. Setting your clothes out the night…
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It’s easy to fall into a routine. Over time, what you do can become who you think you are. Being stuck in a rut isn’t necessarily a bad thing, in fact it often means that you’re on a well-worn path and you’re heading places. But it just might be the same path that everyone else is taking as…
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It’s almost too simple. If you want a healthy marriage, first, you need to treat your spouse well. Put their needs first, check in on them often, make sure you’re going out on regular dates, and always be thinking how you can make their life better. By putting your spouse first, you create attraction. Selflessness…
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You have to find out. “How much should I be charging?” I couldn’t tell you how many times I have been asked that from small business owners. My answer is typically: “that’s complicated”. There are a lot of factors that go into what you can charge: what are people expecting, what can they afford, what’s…
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It takes two, babe. When two small business owners come together (often over beverages), we talk about either of these topics (or both): Common challenges New ways to grow I have been a part of too many of these conversations to count. The heart of most small business owners is to create a healthy business for themselves,…
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A single ounce. In 2018, Delta Airlines made one simple change to their business that saved millions of dollars per year. As you can imagine, the cost of jet fuel is one of the biggest drivers in an airline’s ability to make money. Someone in the organization took a creative approach to reducing costs by…
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Be masterful. Acquiring a competitor is a master chess move. It’s like adding an entire chapter to your business story in a single stroke of the pen. It allows you to quickly increase market share, gain access to an established customer base, and streamline overlapping operations for better efficiency. Plus, the knowledge and resources of your…
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It’s the Chick-fil-A way. A very common way for a brick-and-mortar business to mature is to own the land it sits on. When a business is well rooted, you can really control your destiny (and save $$$) by buying real estate. It’s also a great way to retire, when the time is right: sell the…
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