30 Sep 2010

Business Owners, Think Big, Dream Big, Growth Coach
Lately, in louder and greater numbers, I have heard small business owners talking about the "good old days". It's not surprising.  In these challenging times, many entrepreneurs feel like they are "swimming upstream and against the current."  They long for the simpler, easier, better days.  Unfortunately, many owners right now think their glory days are behind them. That's very sad.  Don...

23 Sep 2010

5
Small businesses are definitely the growth engine for the United States. What will help us escape the lingering effects of the recession will be fast-growing businesses that need to hire new employees.   While most small businesses are still struggling to get back to pre-recession levels, there are certain service businesses beating the odds and starting to heat up and hire more.  CNNMon...

16 Sep 2010

Growth Coach Coaching Moment
I received the below e-mail the other day from a loved one.  I seldom ever read a chain e-mail past the first sentence.  This one caught my attention, and I felt it could be a good reminder and “coaching moment” for others as well. I’m not sure the source of this message but I have heard professional speakers as well as Growth Coach franchise owners share this powerful coaching message w...

09 Sep 2010

Game Day for Business Owners
I’m a college sports fanatic but, I also enjoy pro baseball and football but simply to a lesser degree.  Recently, I was watching the final pre-season football game for the Cincinnati Bengals and while I know that professional athletes earn millions of dollars, I was struck by something deeper.  My business coaching and Growth Coach antennae went up.  Not only do these athletes earn mill...

02 Sep 2010

5
To run a successful business, there are dozens and dozens of skillsets that are necessary.  Sadly, many business owners mistakenly believe they need to be the sole person to possess all the requisite skillsets. That they must be fully competent in all business-related skillsets and all operational facets of a business: bookkeeping, accounting, collections, marketing, sales, operations, c...

26 Aug 2010

5
Today's Growth Coach Blog is dedicated to the dreadful disease of micro-management ... that all too common condition where a business owner mistakenly thinks he/she needs to do everything in a business. Where they incorrectly assume they need to be the Chief Everything Officer instead of the Chief Executive Officer.  While micro-management may not kill you, it will surely exhaust you on...

19 Aug 2010

5
Small business owners and entrepreneurs continually have to battle against the economy, competition, government interference, employee issues, cash flow, changing technologies, surprises, busyness, denial, distractions, and a host of other challenges.  Such COMPLEXITY is simply the "price of admission" for being a successful entrepreneur. While business ownership and management, done rig...

12 Aug 2010

5
As a business coach for over eighteen years, I can declare with the utmost confidence that one of the greatest enemies of small business owners is BUSYNESS.  As such, owners can be their own worst enemy.  They are so busy scrambling, putting out fires, chasing distractions, getting interrupted, and getting lost in unimportant details that they don’t see the big picture and don’t spend th...

05 Aug 2010

5
Because I am both a business owner and business coach (I know, a strange combination), I was asked to submit a sample overview of a “Key Lesson Learned as a Business Owner” to a national business magazine.  I’m pretty sure I got it there on time … reporter’s can be quite demanding.  That was over a month ago and I never heard anything back.  Such rejection brings back all kinds of feelin...

29 Jul 2010

5
Let me guess, at times you feel overworked, overwhelmed and like a prisoner to your business. Any more, your frustrations often outweigh your fun.  And lastly, you are wearing multiple hats and functioning in multiple roles for your company.  How did I do?  Did this Growth Coach describe you accurately... at least some of the time?  If so, you need to QUIT! Yes, quit. No, not quit bei...