What is your business worth? Do you know? Most of us who own and run our own businesses think we know what our enterprise is worth. Many business owners probably have an inflated valuation of their company. If you’re self-employed, your enterprise might not be worth much of anything beyond your tools and supplies. Jennifer Peek of Peek Advisory Group tells us how to value our business and how to make our businesses more valuable. She tells us what mistakes business owners make that devalue their...
Sep 26, 2019•23 min
Mark Stoner started a chimney cleaning business at age 18. He was a factory worker and studying marketing in college. For years he toiled and succeeded as a self-employed business operator. Then he fell off a roof and couldn’t work. While attempting to sell his business, he learned he’d created a prosperous job, but hadn’t built a business. So he went full-tilt hiring employees and expanding his business only to go broke. Ever the entrepreneur, he adjusted, learned from his mistakes, and rebuilt...
Sep 19, 2019•26 min
If your vision of a hemp business is a stoner standing behind the counter at a head shop, your vision is wrong. First off, there’s a difference between hemp and marijuana. Secondly, the industry is fast becoming big business. My guest, David Hasenauer is a 32 year old army veteran with a law degree, turned hemp entrepreneur. He originally looked at the marijuana industry because states were beginning to legalize weed. More importantly, he saw his fellow military veterans getting hooked on opioid...
Sep 16, 2019•26 min
Like everyone, I vividly recall the events of 9/11. The tragedy and the ensuing years of setbacks to my business taught me a lot. With the benefit of 18 years of reflection, here are 5 Lessons of 9/11 to improve your life and business.
Sep 12, 2019•18 min
Scott Rysdon joined the family business almost 30 years ago; now he runs it. He’s the president of Sioux Steel, a diversified company with 275 employees. Scott shares awesome lessons about what it takes to keep a century old company fresh (craziness and creativity), and how to avoid commodity mindset (implement customer ideas). Mr. Rysdon talks about the need to remain scrappy and nimble when competing with bigger, more capitalized competition. If you have a family business, or if your goal is l...
Sep 05, 2019•24 min
A critical element of success both personally and professionally, is cultivating the right support system. But support often isn’t what some of us think it is. In this episode I explain the three types of support and why you need each: truth & critical feedback, accountability, and backing when your back's against the wall. We also cover the difference between support and enabling and coddling behavior. None of us are an island — we work with and for other people in a society made up of peop...
Sep 03, 2019•14 min
Katherine Liola is a Washington D.C. area financial advisor. She’s owned her own firm for seven years. She joins me to discuss money, financial habits, and the bigger picture of why we do what we do. Our relationship with money has a lot to do with the joy we have in life and in our work, Katherine points out. She’s a certified financial planner but in some ways she’s a counselor, delivering what she terms Behavioral Financial Advice. You’ll get some perspective on your life and business in this...
Aug 30, 2019•27 min
Indianapolis Colts star quarterback Andrew Luck shook the sporting world recently by announcing his retirement from football at age 29. Reactions varied from shock to anger. My reaction, however, was to think about the decision we all must make about when and how to walk away from the game. In this short episode, we outline three takeaways each of us can apply to our own life and career. We’ll cover the difference between money and lifestyle, the courage needed to make unforced decisions, and wh...
Aug 27, 2019•11 min
If you’re in business, you undoubtedly deal with a bank. What does your relationship with your bank look like? Have you ever thought about your business from your banker’s perspective? In this episode I sit down with my banker to discuss what businesses get right and wrong when it comes to money and banking. You’ll enjoy this candid conversation with Michael Zahn, CEO and president of First Federal Savings Bank. He explains how to use your bank as a business partner, and how to prosper for the l...
Aug 23, 2019•22 min
Like it or not, you’re involved in the media. If it’s your objective to do business better, you should learn to use the media to your advantage. This applies to all of us, regardless of industry. And, the media is everything from social media to print to radio to TV and various online formats. There are several media scenarios a business owner could face. You may be contacted by your local news outlet with questions like this: "The company just like yours in Toledo had this problem, what are you...
Aug 20, 2019•26 min
While on a hike a couple months ago it hit me: we’re all guilty of saying we “do” what we more accurately “did.” We say we “go” to the gym when the truth is we haven’t exercised since the New Years resolution wore off around Groundhog Day. “Went” to the gym would be more accurate. We say we “do” things that are personally and professionally positive not because we’re liars, but because we get distracted. The degree to which you give yourself credit for doing what you more realistically did has a...
Aug 15, 2019•15 min
Lisa Hudson, co-owner of Fitness By Design, an Indianapolis-based personal training business joins me for an encore. She was my guest in episode 3, celebrating her company’s 30th year in business. In this sit down, Lisa and I discuss what businesses get wrong, and how to avoid those mistakes yourself. We talk about the value of creativity, lessons on working smarter, and how to successfully work alongside your spouse for three decades. If your business sells a product or service that isn’t an ab...
Aug 09, 2019•21 min
Joe Calloway is the author of over a half dozen books. His latest work, The Leadership Mindset discusses the habits of those who are successfully in charge. Joe knows because he works as a consultant to the leadership of companies. His clients are already successful but want to be even more so. If you run your own business or aspire to someday, you’re going to be or behave like a leader. Some of the recommendations and anecdotes Mr. Calloway shares with us in this episode might surprise you. Thi...
Aug 05, 2019•29 min
Howard Berg is the World’s Fastest Reader according to the Guinness Book of World Records. He joins us to teach us how to read faster and comprehend more of what we read. Maybe you’re a fast reader, maybe you’re a slow reader (like me), the main thing is that you keep reading. Because in business and in life, knowledge is power. Most non-readers say it’s a lack of time that prevents them from reading. If that’s the case—although it’s generally just a flimsy excuse—this episode teaches some techn...
Aug 01, 2019•27 min
This month marks two milestones: I turned 50 and completed 25 years running my own business. Depending on your age, 1994 may or may not seem like such a long time ago. It was July of ’94 when I handed my resignation letter in to Cooper Industries. A lot’s changed since then. The lessons keep on coming — running your own enterprise is a learning experience! In this episode I share 5 Lessons you can apply to your own life and business to make them both prosper!
Jul 23, 2019•13 min
Bill Zimmer started selling siding as a 17 year old high school student. At age 23 he opened up shop as a home improvement company, mostly selling aluminum siding. His company morphed into replacement windows and eventually sunroom and patio enclosures. If you don’t live in the Midwest, you might wonder why anyone would enclose their patio. Hint: it’s because of winter. Now at age 66 Mr. Zimmer is still going strong and on pace for a record year. He shares his story, lessons learned, ideas on ho...
Jul 18, 2019•24 min
In business we’re constantly seduced by what is flashy, new, and different. While marketplaces change, and we certainly must adapt, certain fundamentals of success never go out of style. In this episode we discuss the allure of chasing four hour work weeks and promises to “10X” your enterprise. Unfortunately, we sometimes abandon the fundamentals of success because we’re seduced by these flashy concepts promising the easy way to riches. But business basics work for the long haul. And isn’t that ...
Jul 15, 2019•12 min
We’ve all heard the old saying, “The only thing constant is change.” If that’s so (and it is), why are humans so reluctant to embrace change? Is it laziness, fear, lack of resources? Randy Pennington is a business consultant who helps individuals and organizations navigate change. He joins me to discuss strategies you can use to prosper through adaptation. Randy poses two important questions: What else and what next? (We expand on that and then some!). In this episode you’ll glean tactics for re...
Jul 11, 2019•25 min
Kenny Chapman was working at a lumberyard when he bought his first business. He’d been to college for one semester, where he learned college wasn’t for him. He then served in the military, where he learned discipline and a few things about himself and his business personality. The 23-year-old lumberyard attendant knew he wanted to be a business owner. So, he bought a drain cleaning business off one of his customers. At the three year mark, Kenny almost threw in the towel, but he got some frank f...
Jul 08, 2019•22 min
Joe Santa quit his high school athletic director job at age 49 to get into the awards business. This business would be easy, right? After all, we live in the “every kid gets a trophy” culture. Each season Joe saw a truckload of awards handed out to student athletes. Plus, he knew the decision makers who purchased recognition items. Easy business! A year or two in, the reality of running one’s own enterprise set in for Joe. Turns out, it was more difficult than he’d envisioned. His contacts didn’...
Jul 02, 2019•22 min
In August 2018, a Gallup Poll found that 36% of America works in the Gig Economy. That's the new term for self-employed freelancing and it applies to 57 million American workers. So what does it take to succeed in self employment? Damian Mason shows you how — he was successfully navigating the Gig Economy before there was one!
Jun 27, 2019•18 min
Michelle Klieger didn’t think she’d be running her own consulting business five years ago, but those who knew her did. Michelle is a well educated (BS, MS & MBA) young woman who was traditionally employed until a year ago. What has she learned about running one’s own enterprise in her first twelve months? She’s here to share! From marketing methods that worked, to social media successes, to setbacks on her revenue goals, Michelle paints a picture of life in your first year as an independent ...
Jun 24, 2019•23 min
Scott Massey was a student in Mechanical Engineering Technology when he had an idea to help people more efficiently grow their own vegetables. His internships working with NASA and building low income housing had taught him about hydroponic food production and the need for healthy vegetables when they’re otherwise unavailable. So he and another student started their company - Heliponix - while they were still in college. Today the company has 5 employees, some outside investors, and big vision. ...
Jun 17, 2019•25 min
If you own and run your own business, you’d like to think there are differences between you and your competition. What are they? If you tell me service, I’ll promptly call B.S. Every business believes they deliver above-average service. So what is it that truly sets you apart from others in the marketplace? Are you set apart from others in the marketplace? Because if you’re not, you’re very easily commoditized by your customer base. When that happens, price is the only determining factor — and y...
Jun 10, 2019•22 min
You’ve probably been told a lot of things in your life and career that are inaccurate. Stuff like “Build a better mousetrap and the world will beat a path to your door.” That’s not true. Because the world may never hear about your mousetrap, because you have no marketing concept. Or maybe you lack financial discipline to promote your mousetrap, or you haven’t the business savvy to ramp up production of the mousetrap. While I commonly say success is simple (but not easy), I’ve never said it is as...
Jun 06, 2019•28 min
Ford Motor Company recently announced their intention to eliminate 7,000 salaried white collar employees. The next week’s news featured multiple stories about the steady decline in “first jobs” as they’re being replaced with technology. This is the march of the marketplace, and you’re not going to change it. What you can do: adjust to the changes to prosper in the Gig Economy. A 2018 survey predicted self-employment would triple by the year 2020. Even if they’re only half right, we’ll still doub...
Jun 03, 2019•19 min
Chuck Homier chucked his accounting job within about six months of graduating from college. Then he rejoined the family auction business and took off on his own entrepreneurial trail with truckload sales. Though the 1980s, 90s, and early 2000s, the business flourished. At one point Mr. Homier’s enterprise employed 450 people. Then things changed with what he calls “The Millennial Depression.” For several years beginning in about 2005, his enterprises struggled, and he "bled money like a stuck pi...
May 28, 2019•22 min
Barry Aycock started a cotton scouting business at age 18, walking fields for farmers to make recommendations on crop treatment. In 1999, Barry started AgXplore, a crop inputs business, now doing $50 million in sales. Barry stepped away from day to day operations of that business this year to free up time for his other entrepreneurial ventures. They include: two nursing homes, two restaurants, two cotton gins, two meat shops, 15,000 acres of farmland, and a partial interest in the “G” League tea...
May 23, 2019•26 min
Most of us - even entrepreneurial types - have a tendency to get comfortable. The problem: comfortable becomes complacent and complacent becomes outdated and outdated becomes out of business. Thom Singer joins me to talk about knowing when to pivot your business and your product offering (hint: it’s usually before it’s apparent). We talk about the paradox of potential and how too many people never tap into their talent, usually because they’re comfortable. You’ll like the conversation with Thom,...
May 21, 2019•25 min
Clare Hunckler learned how to sew out of necessity — she grew up in a family of 14 children. In 2008 she operated a small (verging on hobby) sewing and drapery business along with her sister. Then everything changed. Clare's husband, Roger, was in the business of selling RVs. The expensive, high end sort of RVs. The sort of RVs that no one bought when the Great Recession hit. Necessity strikes again. Roger approached Clare with an idea for an improved sun shade for recreational vehicles. A shade...
May 17, 2019•24 min
