29 Apr 2019

Accountable
It’s hard to hear, but… any time something goes wrong in a business, the business owner is to blame. If you’re the owner of the company (or even the president of the organization) and customer has a terrible experience, it eventually comes back to you. For example, if a customer at a restaurant has a bad experience, it’s easy to blame the server or the chef, but your managers hired and t...

15 Apr 2019

FamilyBiz
Running any business is hard, but when you’re running a family business, you face a unique set of challenges – it’s hard to leave work at work, it’s hard to manage the emotional entanglement of family and there’s more at stake than money when something goes awry. So how do you manage and grow your family business without fraying the relationship you’ve built with your loved ones? It come...

25 Feb 2019

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Networking takes time and, even for extroverts, it can be uncomfortable to talk about yourself and your business or career. But we have good news! Making a great first impression at a networking event actually requires a lot less talking and a lot more listening.When You Meet Someone NewIf you’re new to a networking group or you meet someone new, making a good impression starts like any ...

12 Feb 2019

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Company culture – and the importance of having great culture – has been making the news for a few years now. Great company culture can help you attract and retain top-notch employees and, as you look for the next batch of leaders, it’s important to note that the Association for Talent Development recently found that millennials desire a strong company culture more than anything else when...

25 Jan 2019

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At The Growth Coach, our coaches have worked with thousands of small business owners over the years. One of the most common challenges those business owners face is that, in addition to being the business owner, they are the lead technician. For example, if they own a cookies and cake shop, they are the one in the back icing cupcakes (sometimes in addition to everything else). They might...

27 Nov 2018

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At the beginning of the year, you set goals, you built strategic plans and you worked with your team to put those plans into place. Your team worked extremely hard, your business grew and you found ways to work ON the business instead of IN the business – but you didn’t meet all of your goals. As the end of the year approaches, it’s easy to be bummed about the progress that fell short of...

24 Oct 2018

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Have you ever gone into a haunted house and then spent the whole time with your eyes half-covered, pretending you weren’t seeing everything around you? You paid money to be there, you waited in line, you knew there would be frights, and yet you walked through the whole place half-blind, just looking for the exit.That might be one way to get through a haunted house, but it’s no way to wal...

18 Aug 2018

work-life-balance
Small business owners and company presidents have a lot in common – starting with how busy they can be. Being in charge of everything has benefits, but it also has major drawbacks, especially when it comes to work life balance. You should be able to work to live, not live to work, no matter how much you love your business or your career. If you’ve spent your whole summer at the office, i...

24 Jul 2018

social learning
In late 2017, when Forbes outlined the Top 10 growing business trends that will drive success in 2018, there was one we weren’t surprised to see – Social Learning. In a way, The Growth Coach has been doing that for more than 20 years. With our Strategic Business Owner group workshops and Strategic Manager Coaching specifically, we’ve put a lot of energy into making sure our clients acros...

14 May 2018

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At a time when people are opening their windows, taking a deep breath and getting their homes ready for spring and summer, it is business as usual for many business owners. At The Growth Coach, we often talk to our clients about getting out of the day-to-day operations of the business so they get out of the weeds and focus on business and revenue growth rather than the specifics. So, if ...