If you are like most business owners…
If you are like most business owners, you launched your business because you are really good at the thing you do. And maybe it was also because you got fed up with some aspect of where you worked before.
If you have read The E-Myth, you know that Michael Gerber says that at least 90% of entrepreneurs are just regular people. They are not born entrepreneurs, but they are good at the thing that they do, get fed up or decide they can do it better, and launch out into the world of business on their own.
Gerber calls this launch the “entrepreneurial seizure”. And while these entrepreneurs are driven by their passion, the 90% never learned about running and growing a business. They end up, like I did, having to learn and figure it out along the way. Maybe that’s you too?
Since you are still reading this, you are almost certainly an expert at what Gerber calls the technical or tactical work in your business. And if you are like most business owners you could use some help with the managerial and strategic work that also needs to get done. This described me really well, 20 years ago.
Luckily, I figured out early on that I did not know much about the managerial and strategic work that needed to get done in my business. A friend recommended The E-Myth. So, I got a summary online that afternoon and read that. It laid out these principles.
- Most entrepreneurs (business owners) are not born knowing all about business.
- Most entrepreneurs start their business after having an “entrepreneurial seizure”.
- There are 3 types of work:
- Technical or Tactical – the stuff that needs to get done.
- Managerial – ensuring that the stuff gets done.
- Strategic or Entrepreneurial – deciding what needs to get done.
- Technical and Managerial work are the work done IN your business.
- Strategic or Entrepreneurial work is the work done ON your business.
- As an entrepreneur you need to spend ~2 hours/week working ON your business.
An Entrepreneurial “Re-Beginning”
This was my entrepreneurial beginning. Well, maybe re-beginning. From this re-beginning I went on to use my physical therapist private practice to learn more about business. I took courses. I hired coaches. And I joined groups like the Entrepreneurs’ Organization (EO) where I could learn from peers and experts. I even hired an E-Myth Mastery Impact coach to go into a deep, 16-month long dive into the three types of work and build a systems-driven business.
Later I worked with my coach Stephen Lynch, author of Business Execution for Results, and then COO at Results.com for nearly a year further dialing in our Vision, communications, processes, personnel, and operations as we grew to 45 employees in 6 locations. I got to work with coach Matt Fitzsimmons, now the Café Doctor, on our Core Values, hiring and induction processes, marketing, and strategic development. I saw and brought in speakers to EO San Francisco like Jeffrey Hayzlett after he left Kodak as their CMO, and Chris Waddell after he climbed Kilimanjaro… in his wheelchair.
I learned from all these people and more, slowly becoming more and more of a specialist in starting and growing a bootstrapped business.
And along the way I got involved in mentorship and found that I loved it. I loved sharing the things that I had learned to help people avoid the mistakes I made and witnessed, and more quickly overcome the challenges they were facing. And I found that it was valuable to those entrepreneurs.
A Revelation
I learned that there were answers to almost every challenge. People had been down these paths before. Many had figured it out. The problems and challenges that entrepreneurs encounter, the ones where they feel all alone, those paths have been travelled. The trails had been blazed. It was just hard to find that information.
This inspired me to help entrepreneurs follow their paths.
The Big Lesson
The big lesson I learned in becoming more of a business specialist is that you do not need to become a business specialist. I got caught up in it and loved it. But that is not everyone’s path. Indeed, it is not most.
Most entrepreneurs love their thing and want to follow their passion. Business is a path to pursue their passion. They simply need to learn enough about running a business to enable them to pursue their passion.
By helping entrepreneurs run and grow their businesses I was able to positively impact more people from the entrepreneurs themselves, to their teams, to their customers and patients, more people than I ever would by growing my own business. I found this potential reach inspiring.
And that turned into a new career helping entrepreneurs through sharing those lessons via online courses, consulting, and coaching.
What’s Next?
What’s next for you?
Schedule at least one hour each week to work ON your business. Even if you aren’t sure what that means, put it on your schedule and protect it.
Then start with the following items during your scheduled time.
- Read the E-Myth Revisited summaries. There are a bunch of them out there. Here’s one to get you started.
- Learn to and practice prioritizing your tasks. Use this as a starting point for prioritizing the most important and impactful things you do each day.
- Start documenting your Systems. Deciding what gets done is entrepreneurial work. Here’s a primer to get you started.
Everything Changed in March 2020
When Covid hit and closures began, everything changed. Everything changed for my clients, and for me.
I went back to the beginning and re-assessed what I was doing. All along the way I had been building tools and processes for my own businesses and for my clients. Structure for entrepreneurs is useful and valuable.
As I hit the reset on my coaching business, I decided to take these tools and processes that I had worked on for twenty years, and boil them down to a manageable, learnable form and make them as simple and straightforward as possible.
Like you, entrepreneurs have a business to run! Like you, they have too many things to do already. Adding more complexity was and is not an option.
The 12 Focus Forward Pillars Online Course for Business Owners is the course designed to help you create structure and order in your business so that you can develop your Vision and pursue your dreams and passion.
In the course I have sequenced the lessons and tools to build one upon the other. To provide direction. And to be doable in one to two hours per week.
The course is your business generalist training to give you the skills you need to do the managerial and entrepreneurial work so that you can follow your passion and more effectively serve the people you love to serve.
The 12 Focus Forward Pillars Online Course is curated from over twenty years of running and growing my own businesses and studying the tools of business, as well as advising, teaching, and coaching other entrepreneurs to achieve their dreams.
The 12 Focus Forward Pillars are:
- Your Playbook!
- Your Vision of Meaning
- Your Profit-First Budget!
- Your Target Customer
- Don’t Be a Penguin – Standing APART From the Crowd
- Reimagining Your Business for the Future
- Managing the Right Things
- Tracking the Right Things
- Your Sales & Marketing Processes
- Strategy & Alignment
- Building a Championship Team
- Recruiting and Hiring Championship Players
I have worked hard to keep it all simple and straightforward. You have enough complexity in your life! You don’t need to add more. The simple and direct structure frees up your time by focusing on the few things that will give you the biggest payoff.
You will find huge value in The 12 Focus Forward Pillars. Whether you are just starting out and want to do it right from the beginning or you have twenty-plus years of experience in running your business, there will be useful and valuable lessons and processes in there for you. This is not just stuff I invented, but lessons from all of those experts and resources are incorporated into the program.
I have tried to create the program that I wish I had access to twenty years ago.
The price is accessible to everyone. There is a seven-day trial to test it out. And if you do not get value from it after the first month, I will refund your money.
I simply want to help as many entrepreneurs as I can.
If you are ready to work ON your business, you have nothing to lose and everything to gain. Enroll now.