Do You Own Your Business? Does your Business Own You?

04/07/2017 By Leave a Comment

Welcome to the Streetsmart CEO Blog!

 This series of blogs shows how to operate a business with streetsmart,

pragmatic processes, so that you, the owner or manager will have more success and…

   less stress, so that you regain the perspective that…

you own the business…the business doesn’t own you!

This series of blogs is about the following:

  • How to setup the streetsmart processes in your business so that the business can run on its own, most of the time
  • What you can delegate, and what you should not
  • How to make sure you are getting proper and timely feedback to make sure your processes are performing properly
  • How to manage the exceptions when your processes are not performing properly.
  • The streetsmart process for hiring
  • And more…

You will not find such topics as “basics of marketing”, “basics of accounting”, etc. in this series.

     There is plenty of information available on these topics.

What you will find addressed are topics like:

” How do I create demand for my products and services”,

“How much marketing should I do?”, “Who should do this marketing?”, “Should I outsource or do it in-house (or both)?”,

“How much involvement is required by me?”,

“What should I know about accounting and finance?”,

“What can I delegate and what degree of involvement is required by me?”,

“How can I use my time in the most efficient manner?”

As I said earlier, this series is written from the Owner/CEO/President perspective.

I will walk with you, looking through “your” eyes, to analyze strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities that exist in your business.

Then we will look at strategies as how to maximize the strengths, take advantage of the opportunities, and minimize the weaknesses.

This is not an academic approach.

This series is designed to give you street smart, time tested processes with which you can run your business more efficiently and successfully,

…and with less stress.

Next post: How To Be A Streetsmart CEO

How To Be A Streetsmart CEO

04/02/2017 By Leave a Comment

Why do 80% of businesses fail?    One of the main reasons is that many owners are naive.

   They don’t have  streetsmarts

This lack of knowledge makes their businesses a candidate for the 80% failure rate rather than 20% smbs that succeed.

What is my definition of streetsmarts?

It’s having enough experience to have situational awareness to know when something needs to be addressed and how to address it.

It is the ability and experience to discern what is the common sense way of addressing a situation.

It is learning to gather all pertinent information and advice, then having the confidence in your own common sense (judgement) to adapt this information and advice to deal with the situation you have before you.

The opposite of streetsmart is following information or advice as presented, literally, without situational awareness.

Book learning. Advice from the inexperienced .

It is not having the confidence in one’s own judgement to adapt the information/advice, pragmatically, to the situation at hand.

Examples would be:

the new lieutenant just posted the war zone “following the book”, and not heeding the experienced Master Sargent’s advice and disaster occurs.,

General Custer not listening to his scouts.

Streetsmart advice to smbs (small or medium-sized business) might be thought of as advice from one “who has been through it”.

That is, one who faced many situations that commonly occur in a small or medium sized business, took information and advice based on experience, adapted it to the situation at hand, successfully.

However, it one thing to receive information based on experience as to “what to do”, and another thing to be shown the processes as to ” how to do it”

That’s what  am going to offer you…free!

I’m a previous business owner who “sat” in your chair, felt what you are feeling, experienced what you are experiencing.

I’m a guy who who started or bought many small, medium sized businesses  had success, made his money, sold the businesses, and then consulted over 100 small or medium sized businesses during a twelve year consulting career.

I have faced almost every business situation an smb owner can experience, or have seen it in my consulting practice.

I hope that sharing my experiences and knowledge online might be helpful to some small to medium sized business owners so that,

with streetsmart best practices and processes,

they can build and operate their businesses with more success and less stress.

Check out my credentials on the “about me”, and if all of this resonates with you,

read on,

…and become a Streetsmart CEO!

Next post: Is This Business Owner You?

 

 

Is This business Owner You? Be A Streetsmart CEO

03/27/2017 By Leave a Comment

Introduction

It’s Friday night, around 7 PM. I’m still at the office. Everyone else has left for the weekend.

The “in” basket is full.

I have to get something together by Monday for the bank if I am going to have a shot at a new line of credit.

My son’s basketball game has just started.

I look up and see the framed dollar bill that was the first money I received when the business was started three  years ago.

I think, “That was a special moment!”

Then I think, “What happened?”  “Why does running this business seem to have turned into a grind?”

The good news is that I have a proven market for my products.  Internet sales are growing, local stores keep ordering and finally…a regional chain has placed a substantial order!

The bad news is that Mary, Rhonda, Jim, Bill, Eddy, plus my wife and I can no longer keep up with the demands of the business. 

I no longer have any free time, I’m missing my son’s ball game and I am getting home later and later. 

This is not the fun and rewarding time I had envisioned.

I think my business is owning me instead of me owning it. 

Now what do I do?

Does this feel familiar?

Could This be you?

Well, it was me.

Okay, you may be further along in developing your business than Ray but somewhere between eight and fifteen employees, $500,000 and two million in sales, every owner reaches this tipping point.

Depending on your experience and training, the degree of bewilderment and pain felt will vary.

Or you may be in that minority that sails right through this shift in your business.

If so, may you have a wonderful, rewarding life.

If not, this series is for you.

Even if you have found your way through this often difficult period, this book will give you a way to analyze your business to see how well you have done and how well you are doing.

This series will be a road map for the journey that you, the Owner/CEO/President, must take to move your company from the entrepreneurial stage to the day that you “cash out”.

It will give you processes to analyze your company, take it apart and put it back together again so that you can be more successful and enjoy the journey. 

This book will look at your business through Owner/CEO/President eyes ….. your eyes ….  if you decide to implement the processes that are in it.

Therefore, you will not find such topics as “basics of marketing”, “basics of accounting”, etc. in this series. There are plenty of books on these topics. 

What you will find addressed are topics like:

” How do I create demand for my products and services”, “How much marketing should I do?”, “Who should do this marketing?”,

“Should I outsource or do it in-house (or both)?”,

“How much involvement is required by me?”, 

“What should I know about accounting and finance?”,

“How do I keep up with laws, rules and regulations that affect my business?”,

How can I use my time in the most efficient manner? 

As I said earlier, this series is written from the Owner/CEO/President perspective.

As I said in a previous post, I did “sit” in your chair for many years, experiencing what you are experiencing, feeling what you are feeling.

I will walk through your company looking through “your” eyes.

This is not an academic approach. 

This series is designed to give you street-smart, time-tested processes with which you can semi-automate your business so you can operate more efficiently and successfully…and with less stress.

Are you still with me? Is this what you are looking for?

If so, let’s get started. It’s free.

Go to “visit street smart ceo” (link top of this page)

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