Create a business model that turns your company into a valuable asset.

The definition of an asset: property owned by a person or company, regarded as having value and available to meet debts, commitments, or legacies.

Research shows that the number of employer businesses with 1-99 employees accounts for 97% of businesses in Canada (source: GOC: Key Small Business Statistics 2021).

And 67.6% of all employees work for small businesses.

As employers and businesses that often bring innovation and social impact through their products and services, what would it look like if more of these companies survived into the next generation? What if many could sustain and continue to bring their innovation, social impact, and dependable products and services to future generations?

The number of decisions you make in a day can be astronomical.

And this can cause decision fatigue.

Decision fatigue can make us second guess our business decisions, slow us down, and make us feel like we’re missing out on opportunities.

We should have started that project by now…

My best employee has just resigned…

We need more clients but I feel like we can barely manage the ones we have…

This doesn’t make you a bad or unsuccessful business owner.

In fact, the more your business grows and expands, often the more situations you are faced with that require your input.

But if you ever wonder which direction to take, struggle with employee performance, or wonder how you’re going to continue to manage it all, then read on.

Have you ever felt the weight of running your business?

Wouldn’t it be nice not to have everything resting on your shoulders?

Wouldn’t it be nice to feel supported and know that certain things are ‘handled’, and you aren’t solely responsible to make key things happen in your business?

I’m not a car person by any means, but this analogy popped into my mind as I was thinking about how I often hear (and experience) the challenge of feeling like you’re alone in your business.

As some of you are considering and refining your goals for this year, I want to ask you…do you have a goal to grow your business?

As business owners, ‘growth’ can be a loaded word.

I hear some saying - yes, they’re all about the growth and that’s their focus.

I hear others saying - no, I like my business the way it is, I’m not looking to grow at all.

And also saying - growth means more work from me and I just don’t have more to give.

Maybe there’s even another camp here that isn’t reflected. In spite of what you may think about growth in your own business I think it’s worth deconstructing what growth means.

Happy New Year!

I hope this email reaches you healthy, happy and ready for what’s coming this year.

I’m hearing from some of you that you are cautiously optimistic but approaching the start of the year slowly.

And I’ve heard from others that you are ready and putting your head down with clear intentions, and you’re moving ahead with your plans, regardless of what else is going on (Omicron be damned!).

Whatever your thoughts are on beginning your year, I want to ask you about goal setting.

Do you set goals?

And if you do…?

Do your goals light a fire within and get you excited to hit the ground running?

If your goals aren’t generating that kind of excitement, I encourage you to take a look and see how you can write or re-articulate your goals so that they do.

Because, if you aren’t excited by the prospect of moving ahead with your goals, then why do them? AND, you lower your chances of hitting them in the first place…

Have you ever wondered if business could be done another way?

If your business, and your relationship to it, has to be the way it is?

If you’re in the camp that’s thrilled and love your relationship to your business, then keep doing what you’re doing!

However, if you’re in the camp where you’ve had successes but are thinking: How much longer can I continue with this? Then this is for you.

What if you could re-write some of the rules?

What if there was another way that didn’t require such a drain and strain for you, and you didn’t have to sacrifice growth and profits to do it? What if your business model supported and created the environment where the business supported itself versus feeling like it’s all resting on your shoulders?

I know so many of you are planning on taking time away this month to spend time with family or for personal reasons.

As you prepare to be away what are your intentions?

What relationship do you want to have with work while you’re away? Are you looking to be completely disconnected, occasionally checking in, available when needed, or do you plan to be full on working but just away from the office?

Consider this:

1) There’s what you want

2) And, there’s what your systems and structures will support…

As we enter into the festive season and we begin to think about winding down for the year, I wanted to ask you: Do you perform an end of year review?

This is an opportunity to take stock, reflect and take a look at the bigger picture.

It’s been another tumultuous year and depending on where you live, perhaps a return to more things that are ‘normal’ for you.

Whether this is a practice you do each year or if you’re new to it, I wanted to share my process for my business review…

I was speaking recently with someone who had sold not one, but two businesses in the past several years.

I asked her what she found was the more challenging aspects of selling. She said that one of the biggest challenges was getting her processes in order. She didn’t build it with selling it in mind and certainly didn’t think about capturing her processes as they operated.

So, preparing to sell her business the first time was quite onerous because it’s something she had to start from scratch.

It wasn’t until this was in place that her business could be properly evaluated (along with other metrics).

Standard operating procedures are not only valuable when you’re trying to sell your business, they are actually very powerful to…

You've likely heard the adage that it’s far easier to cross-sell an existing customer a new product than it is to find a new customer. And if your goal is to grow at all costs, then cross-selling makes sense.

However, all of that sales growth may not do much for the value of your company. If you cross-sell your existing customers too much, it could make your business far less valuable.

When you cross-sell a customer so many products and services that they begin to account for more than 15–30% of your revenue, expect your value to drop. If a single customer represents more than 30% of your sales, expect an even deeper discount.

Customer concentration is one factor that makes up your score on the ValueBuilder assessment — it’s one of eight drivers that’s behind the research determining your business's value in an acquirer's eyes…

If you’re a business owner and you think building a strong foundation that leads to a valuable business isn’t for you - then I encourage you to continue to read.

You see - there’s a strong link between the value of the business and the freedom you, as the business owner, experience in your business.

I hear from so many owners that the reasons they started their businesses were to experience some sort of freedom - freedom to do work they want, freedom to create their own schedules, freedom to work when they want, and to create financial freedom. Yet, many don’t achieve these things.

Freedom = Value.

Why?

I just had the pleasure of taking the weekend to do some hiking in the Cape Breton Highlands and let me tell you: If you’ve never been to Eastern Canada in the Fall, you’re missing out.

The leaves were stunning. Absolutely breathtaking.

It was walking through the woods, experiencing the quiet beauty and perfectly imperfect landscape of rivers and mountains that filled me with a peace that was so wonderful to experience.

It was there that I was able to be reminded of me; and what I’m wanting to accomplish. And how fortunate I was to be able to take these moments in a busy life to reconnect to that.

I’ve been working to create opportunities for more space in my work and calendar. Not only to work on projects that are important to me but to think more deeply about my work and how to improve on certain areas of my business. Particularly HOW I work.

What I’ve learned is space in my workweek leads to business growth…

I always loved the message from Michael Gerber’s E-Myth that says:

“Once you recognize that the purpose of your life is not to serve your business, but that the primary purpose of your business is to serve your life, you can then go to work ON your business, rather than in it with a full understanding of why it is absolutely necessary for you to do so.”

He makes the point that your business is not your life.

Your business and your life are two separate things.

Your business has its own set of rules, its own purpose apart from yours.

Realizing this concept can support that separation and objective perspective where you fit, in relation business.

Does this sound familiar:

You don’t feel like your time is your own, you feel pulled in different directions and there’s never enough time to do all the things you need to do?

And, this impacts more than you; it impacts your family, how much energy you have for other things in your life. You love your business, and want it to succeed, but sacrificing your health, your family, and relationships is not worth the price.

The reality is this: If you don’t take the time to decide what’s important to you, others will…

WOW - can you believe it’s the beginning of October already?

I can’t believe how quickly the year is going already.

The Fall is my favourite time of year with the changing of temperatures, the beautiful colours of the leaves and forests, and cooler sweater-weather (I love wearing sweaters!). And the food I associate with the fall are apples and apple pie, pumpkins and pumpkin pie and warms soups and stews with newly harvested veggies.

Thinking about the next few months also brings up thoughts about how I want to finish the year in my business and I know my clients think about this as well.

So what’s your goal for the remainder of the year?

One of the most common topics that comes up in my coaching is a desire for better work-life balance/integration.

There are many reasons that someone might be trying to achieve a better balance for themselves and any number of reasons that might be getting in the way.

And, each person’s IDEA of work-life balance/integration is different.

Here’s one common trend I do see:

Our current habits play a role in feeling that out-of-balance feeling.

There’s a relationship between the value of your business and the time you spend IN your business.

First - what is value to you?

What I hear from my clients is that value means you get to meet your financial expectations through your business.

Value also means that it supports their lifestyle expectations.

And, it fulfills them at a deeper level

When it comes to your business, value also means how it can be viewed from an outside perspective. Is it valuable to someone else who might purchase your business one day?

Consider this…

Are you making decisions aligned with your Mission?

First off, do you have a clear sense of your mission now? If you’re a business owner, what is your business’ mission?

If you’re a leader, what is your personal mission for leadership? What are you trying to accomplish in your organization? Is it aligned to your company’s mission?

If you are clear on your mission, then that’s the first step to ensuring that your decision-making is aligned and you move each day to fulfill your mission.

Ah the zen vacation, the year long sabbatical, the parental leave, the short mini-break where you immersed yourself in 4 days at the beach or hiking in the back woods somewhere.

And, now it’s time to head back to work.

Heading back to work can sometimes feel like a mixed bag of emotions no matter if you run your own business or are an employee.

There have been years where I’ve reluctantly gone back (almost in tears), some years when I’ve been indifferent and years where I genuinely looked forward to starting back on Monday morning. Luckily, the latter has been much more often.

Where ever you are…the feelings you have when you’re ’heading back in’ can be telling. We often want to push them aside and get on with it, but did you know that those emotions and feelings hold incredible amounts of information for you?

If you’re feeling reluctant, anxious, dread, uncertainty, sadness, joy, or excitement, there’s information in here not to be shoved aside, but to be experienced and listened to. And then, what to do about that information?

In a world consistent overworking and putting off personal plans to ‘get ahead at work’ is still a badge of honour for some (things are are changing but not fast enough in my opinion), sometimes the idea of taking vacation gets shoved aside.

But the research and benefits of taking time away are quite compelling: