Calculated Risks to Achieve Results

You cannot manage the future by looking forward. Businesses have to believe that they can manage the future by understanding the past. Most, if not all of our management reports, report the past; financials, sales, and market research. Businesses use this information to anticipate, forecast, and make decisions about future results. Running a small business requires an amount of experience, gut intuition, and a belief that they can do something different; something better.

Businesses will have some ups and some downs. Anyone can feel good about running a business when the company is doing well. It is easier to have a larger vision under these circumstances. The real challenge comes when we acknowledge we want to grow and scale the business and need to implement. It takes courage to act and implement based on the future goals and visions.

This challenge can destroy future goals and visions. It takes discipline, awareness, and ability to implement and take action. It is not easy to take the risks. If it was, everyone would be a business owner. But business owners take risks to achieve results.

Boredom is the Result of Ineffective Processes

There is no question that doing business can be more complicated than ever. But many owners and managers operate in a process vacuum. There's nothing more worthless than a perfunctory executive meeting where everyone just goes through the motions and no strategic decisions are made. Over the years, how often were there times when sheer boredom was the only item accomplished on the agenda?

Every business has their own style and culture, but some patterns of behavior inspire people to perform. Here are five real-world lessons to avoid the process vacuum.

1) Remove the blinders and see where you are. The most important part of a process is articulating the vision; where you are and where you need to be. In an effective business process, managers rise above the paperwork to have clarity of the process and navigate through the activities that lead to a specific result. 

2) Don't lose your sense of humor. There’s a huge difference between serious business decisions with big implications and taking yourself too seriously. People and teams are more effective and make better decisions when the mood is lightened.

3) Hard work is the best inspiration. Objects in motion are more likely to stay in motion. Nothing inspires great work more than working hard, accomplishing goals, achieving milestones, and winning business. Absolutely nothing.

4) Challenge people to excellence.  The best and most successful CEOs expect their people to be the best at what they do. Hold people accountable for their responsibilities, provide necessary resources and training, support decisions, and acknowledge efforts.

5) Measure and track results. Focus on measurable goals to track the impact of your work. Establish a continual process of asking questions so results are relevant and perceptive.

Effective business processes focuses on meeting the needs of the customer and delivering a good or service that will fulfill that need. 

Resources for Those Beyond Start Up

I hear from business owners that there is a lack of resources and support for small to medium size companies that are beyond the start up but do not have the budget or time to attend national training and seminars. There is a real need for companies with 10-75 employees to find resources that not only provide knowledge but also focus and support growth strategies. Designed exclusively for results-driven small to medium businesses, Purpose Boards provides business owners with the specific insights, strategies and leadership development to achieve results.

Surviving Year End

The average person has so many competing priorities this time of year it can be difficult to juggle all of the things that are competing for your time. Here are FIVE things to remember to help you survive the year end.

1. Stay Organized

Most of us know that being organized offers a slew of benefits. It helps you feel more confident and

capable, it helps you stay connected to the things and people that are important to you, and it saves you time. According to Jamie Novak, author of The Get Organized Answer Book, "the average person wastes almost an hour a day searching for misplaced items like house keys, reading glasses and important pieces of paper”. Remember that how each of us defines organized and what it may look like may be different for each of us.

How Do You Measure Up?

As we approach the end of the year most of us formally or informally, take some time to review current year and look towards the next. By now most large companies have completed next year's budgets and established sales goals, and are probably are almost finished with updating their dashboards and report templates to be able to measure next year's sales. Its good business and most would agree that drives achievement.


Then why, according to the 4th Annual Staples National Business Survey, did more than 80% of the 300 small business owners surveyed say they don't keep track of their business goals, and 77% have yet to achieve their vision for their company?

With that statistic, it should be no real surprise that individuals have similar statistics. According to Dave Kohl, professor emeritus at Virginia Tech, 80% of Americans say they don't have goals, 16% do have goals but don't write them down, and fewer than 1% review them on an ongoing basis.