Operations
How Can You Get Your Life Back?
How is your workload these days? If the pandemic forced you back into the weeds of your business, you are not alone. Many owners have found themselves doing tasks they haven’t done in years. Being back in the middle of things isn’t healthy for you nor your business long term. Personally, it’s a recipe for…
Read MoreThis 5-minute Task Can Help You Achieve Your 2022 Goals
As we roll into the fourth quarter of the year, you may be starting to consider your business goals for next year. Given how 2020 went, maybe your primary ambition was to survive in 2021. But now that things have somewhat calmed down, perhaps you’re ready to create a recurring revenue stream or finally hire…
Read MoreThe Anxious Era
Back in January-February 2020, businesses were cruising along, most with updated strategic plans for the new year, excited to move forward. Then with a blink of an eye, we fell into the shock of a lifetime causing wide-spread disruption. The Anxious Era began. This last year has been an exercise in change management. So how…
Read More4 Steps Towards Building Great Processes
One of my all-time favorite mentors, Lindsay, was an organizational development academic as well as an experienced operator of small and medium-sized businesses. He was passionate about how critical systems and processes were to the long-term health, growth, and value of a company. On more than one occasion, Lindsay would raise his voice, pound the…
Read More3 Invisible Gates that Stop Most Companies Flat
How many people can one person manage? Harvard Business Review estimates the ideal range for an experienced manager is between five and nine direct reports. Inc. pegs the sweet spot at seven. The ratio of managers to direct reports matters because it explains why some companies grow and others plateau. Every business is different, but…
Read MoreTaking My Own Medicine
I’ve always been skeptical of new business operating philosophies. This skepticism was developed over time – through system implementations dating back to the late 1980’s. First it was W. E. Deming’s Total Quality Management (TQM), then came Lean Manufacturing, Six Sigma and so on. ISO-9000 was the first international standard I was a student of…
Read MoreProcesses: Why Are They Important and Why Should I Care?
As I sat down in front of this blank digital page with a completion deadline looming over me, I had no idea where to start. So I typed a title. Great, now I just knew the subject was something about the importance of processes. After a few minutes, a light bulb went off! I realized…
Read MoreWhat to Do When You’ve Hit the Ceiling
We all have or will hit the ceiling at some point when we are not sure how to grow ourselves or our business. We just seem to lose momentum. This can make us feel frustrated and in some cases, ill-equipped to lead or push through. However, “maxing out” is a normal part of growth. It…
Read MoreKeeping Teams Engaged in a Virtual Setting
Virtual meetings are nothing new. In fact, they’ve been around for some time. Do you remember the start of teleconference calls? It wasn’t that long ago! At the time, it seemed a novel concept to connect people without travel barriers. However, many of the same issues that arise during in-person meetings such as no clear…
Read MoreSetting Successful Goals
“Oh well, I’ll just set the goals again for next year”, I said to myself. It was December and while reviewing my goals for the last year, I realized I had only achieved 3 of the 15 I had set. Yikes. That was definitely disappointing. At least I was in good company. According to the…
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