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As a business owner, you know what it’s like to lie awake at 2 a.m. Maybe it has happened when you are excited and full of new ideas for your business. More often, it’s because you are worried about issues you will face the next day. Sometimes, it’s because you just woke up with the solution to a problem. I’ve experienced all those emotions about my businesses over the years. Awake at 2 o’clock? is where I share them with you, and hopefully help with answers that will let you sleep.
John F. Dini, CExP, CEPA
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Small business owners are the Hunters of the 21st century. We are 3% of the US population, and yet we create over half of all American jobs. As Hunters, we may not be inclined to manage by the numbers or stick to systems. Are you a Hunter or a Farmer?
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How prepared are you to exit your company?
The Assessment breaks down the four major categories of exit readiness; Finance, Planning, Operations and Revenue/Profit.
Tag Archives: entrepreneurship
“We’ll Just Agree to Disagree”
A CEO was having a discussion with one of his top executives a few weeks ago. He felt strongly that the executive needed to take a certain course of action as soon as possible. The Vice President explained that the … Continue reading
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What is Mentoring?
In a recent meeting of one of our groups in The Alternative Board®, the business owners discussed mentoring. One member, a partner in a large professional firm, has been tasked with mentoring a partner in training. He asked what the … Continue reading
4 Responses to What is Mentoring?
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Can You Outgrow Customers?
When you start a company, it’s like shopping at the supermarket when you are very hungry. Everything looks good. Any suspect might be a prospect. Any prospect is worth pursuing, and your ideal customer is anyone who is willing to pay you for … Continue reading
One Response to Can You Outgrow Customers?
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Great article on growth and customer “FIT”. Your reference to going to the supermarket when you are hungry is dead on when starting a business from scratch. Anything and everything is a good opportunity and job. As we have grown, we have been fortunate enough to improve the quality of our customers, replacing some of our original customers for many for the reasons you mentioned. As we have grown, we have also made changes for one other important reason.
As our business has matured, we have a much clearer Vision, Mission and Strategic Plan and unfortunately, some of the customers that helped us start our business no longer align with our current and future plans. While many of us strive to support them for too long, when a customer no longer fits, it’s typically not a fit from either side and prolonging the inevitable isn’t in anyone’s best interest. It’s just a tough decision to let go of good customers that no longer fit your business!
I totally agree with trying to match the good customers with another provider, one that better fits their needs and whom they better align with.
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Wrestling with Ethics
The head of a rep firm approaches the owner of a small manufacturing company for whom they sell. One of his salespeople has an opportunity for a huge order with a multinational company, but the purchasing manager has indicated that the … Continue reading
2 Responses to Wrestling with Ethics
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I own my company so I am in a position to decide better than some other may be , however my standard in life has always been honesty, expected of myself , my kids and my employees. It has worked for me , yes it has been a difficult choice at times but I sleep well and have never had to be looking over my shoulder. Its choice I do not regret and the great kids I have and long term employees, some for over 20 years , I think is a tribute to that as I am now appraching retirement. Integrity is everything as trust is wjhat business is and should be built on.
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I am a recently promoted SVP at a company that still does business with a handshake. Of course we do the requisite paperwork but if we say we have a deal and shake we won’t later accept a “better deal” because no paperwork was done upfront. I also served 26 years in the military and the one phrase that sticks in mind from day one until my retirement is ” Do the right thing even if no one is looking.” Being ethical in today’s business climate can be challenging but the cost of losing your integrity can be very high.
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Ready…Set…Exit! Part II
Last week we discussed the tsunami of Baby Boomer retirement, and how we will reach a peak of nearly 500 unsold businesses a day within the next 5 years. The statistics are immutable. The birthrates of the last century are … Continue reading
I would argue that coaching and teaching are part of mentoring when there is a strategic goal of developing an employee. We have a small software company. Since not long after PEI was founded in 1996, we have had a Service Item set up in QuickBooks called “Mentoring”. It is used in many contexts.
When an employee is assigned a project that requires new skills and I assist, my time is marked as Mentoring / Non-billable and their time is booked to the client project (billable or not). When I have to coach or teach a new skill that is booked to Mentoring. If I review internal work that an employee did (company website or whatever) and then discuss different techniques or strategy than they applied, that is Mentoring. However, the review process or asking them to fix something goes to Administration or Marketing or whatever normal business process is involved.
It may be correct that if an employee is simply shown who to complete a specific task so that they can perform that duty, you might call that “merely” teaching. When efforts are part of a long-term strategic goal to develop an employee into something more than a cog in the machine, then the deliberate work to accomplish the goal is legitimately mentoring.
David Basri
Point Enterprises, Inc.
http://www.pointent.com
David, the idea to capture a mentoring role as a ‘job cost’ data point is an interesting one. We capture management consulting with our clients, which falls under mentoring with the teaching and coaching dynamic as discussed. With my own company staff I have not captured that in any way. Thanks for the eye opener!
I have experienced all the three levels of “learning” with a person: I am mentored in a public speaking club. I have a direct and personal relationship with my mentor. She was my choice from the start. I felt that we clicked and I feel comfortable with her. She teaches me things in a focused and condensed way: all about public speaking and how to convey my message to an audience. My lessons are small assignments in the form of a speech formed in such a way for me to learn important elements of a successful speech but one at a time.
However, I think a trainer is teaching you something much more specific rather than a mentor which connects elements from different lessons and goes a second level. The sessions can be more relaxed and a bit generalized though having one special assignment due to the varied topic of the speech and the many objectives that need to be met.
Off-topic: I have just noticed the name of the blog is awake at two o’clock. It is 2.15 AM.