We all manage other people in the act of piloting our business. Some of us manage dozens of employees, while others of us manage relationships with contractors, freelancers, and even family members. So what are we doing wrong and how can we improve our management skills? Face it, you can’t grow and be successful without a certain degree of human management proficiency. Do you know that two thirds of those promoted to management positions fail within 90 days? Ralph Peterson shares the five rules ...
Nov 03, 2020•35 min
You’ve heard that half of businesses fail within the first five years. Truth is, many don’t fail, the owners just give up. Piloting a business can be exhausting and stressful. But let’s say you’re past the 5 year window and operating your business like a smooth routine. Watch out! While it’s natural to get comfortable, it’s dangerous to do so. Angie Carel joins me from her new venture — The Upstairs — to explain how she keeps it fresh after fourteen years in business. She shares methods to keep ...
Oct 20, 2020•30 min
Kevin Smith’s first business venture was a chicken barn he bought off his parents as a teenager. He then started Builder’s Gallery — an architectural mill work company — at age 18. Last year, the 56 year old entrepreneur began his latest project: Reinventing the town of Mt. Etna, Indiana. We recorded this episode from Rustic River Outfitters — a former saw mill he retrofitted into a wine and beer tasting room, events center, and kayaking outfitter. Rustic River is just the beginning of Kevin’s v...
Oct 06, 2020•31 min
Excuses are little fibs we tell ourselves and others. We make excuses because we don’t like to admit the truth or we fear honesty will harm our relationship with friends and clients. Fighting through the excuse option is difficult enough under normal circumstances, but now the pandemic provides endless opportunities for excuse making. Are you using Covid to dodge responsibility or underperform? Are you allowing those you do business with to use the Corona excuse? Listen to this for tips on getti...
Sep 22, 2020•13 min
To evolve and succeed in an ever-changing marketplace, you will need to change up your offering occasionally. But how do you know what product or service to offer? Launching something new is always a bit scary, which is why many businesses and individuals start by surveying clients. The problem with this: people say they want lots of things, but their actions don’t match their verbal intentions. I’ll tell you how to get past that.
Sep 08, 2020•10 min
College is a business. The tweed-jacketed faculty may not like to admit it, but it is. And it’s outdated. Bloated employee counts, endless facility expansion, and a cost structure that keeps climbing have been financed by government-backed student debt. But that’s all changing and Covid-19 hastened the pace. As higher learning moves online, the price — and prestige — of college comes down. Add in the reality of decreasing demand due to demographics and the struggle to differentiate and you have ...
Aug 25, 2020•34 min
I’m a huge fan of the Indianapolis 500 but that’s not what this episode is about. It’s about communicating — even when the news is bad — with those you serve. Roger Penske, new owner of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, sent out a letter that is communication brilliance. It’s personal, emotionally evoking, apologetic, inclusive and hopeful. The best part: it creates a vision that makes race fans eager for the future while also nostalgic for the past. You don’t need to be an IndyCar fan to appreci...
Aug 21, 2020•6 min
One rule of business I live by is: Don’t make it difficult for your customers to do business with you. Case in point are service providers who require you — the paying client — to go on their website, fill out forms, jump through hoops, navigate burdensome regulations and criteria, and other tedious chores in order to give you their money. In this episode, I give you examples of small practices you’ve seen from the customer’s perspective and you’re possibly doing yourself as a business owner. St...
Aug 18, 2020•13 min
We all work for other people’s money (as you’ve likely heard me say before). Sometimes the client expects you to care more about their problem than they do. Bruce Turkel, branding and business consultant, joins me to discuss the phenomenon of client-induced crisis, understanding client expectations, and getting to “success” by defining what “success” is for both client and service provider. Clients are people and people are pretty good at telling you what they really value — they do so with thei...
Aug 11, 2020•23 min
We all lose clients over time. Some grow out of us while we grow out of others. Some seek cheaper pricing, some seek what we simply can’t provide. And some simply die. This is why I constantly preach the value of sales effort and a reinvention mindset. But what about losing customers because we forgot why those customers came to us and we stopped providing what they sought? That’s what’s currently happening in professional sports, which in attempting to promote social awareness might very well b...
Aug 04, 2020•16 min
Joel Buzzard grew up around the bar and real estate business. As a young man in his mid 20's, he pursued real estate as a career. Today his three small companies sell, teach, and appraise real estate. Joel and I discuss lessons learned from working in the bar business, the smart use of debt, the ACR's of wealth building, and how managing one’s anger is a key component in business development. And of course, we talk about the reality of problems and change that constantly arise.
Jul 28, 2020•25 min
People pay a premium for convenience. We know this by simply looking at the convenience store where every item besides lottery tickets is priced at a premium to your average grocery store. Yet, why do customers shop there? Because it’s convenient. Staples advertised the “easy button” because ease and simplification (versus touting the quality of their paper clips) appealed to their small biz person core customer. We’ve been told to "sell the sizzle not the steak." But oftentimes when you get to ...
Jul 22, 2020•18 min
A year ago (in episode 25) I visited with Clare Hunkler who co-founded Magneshade in 2008 with her husband Roger. In this episode I sit down with Roger to discuss growth (the RV shade maker is up 45% in sales this year!), adaptation, defending your patents, managing family employees, and the need to stay focused with your horns down in your formative years. Roger’s company has grown every of its 12 years in business with almost no debt. There are a lot of lessons in this episode. Enjoy!
Jul 14, 2020•28 min
Everyone who plans to start a business believes they’re prepared to do so. Here’s the reality: Even if they are prepared, there are dozens if not hundreds of lessons about to be learned. Joe Santa rejoins me for the Do Business Better podcast (he was on episode 35) to discuss lessons learned after ten years of piloting his own enterprise. We discuss business plans, the need to pay yourself first, when and why to hire people, and the need to protect what you have built. We also talk money and evo...
Jul 07, 2020•33 min
A mistake almost all of us make when it comes to selling our product or service: confusing our customers. We do this by providing lengthy explanations, too much industry vernacular, peripheral details that drone on, or simply talking too much about our offering when we should be listening to the client. But the customer asked for choices,” you say. “My clients demand to know the details of what they’re getting,” you lament. Yes, you’re right about all that — customers want details and choices. H...
Jul 01, 2020•21 min
Most people who work in professional sales positions, as well as most small business people, have never been trained in how to sell. If you’re one of those people who hasn’t taken a sales class, I encourage you to read a sales book. In the meantime, listen to this episode of the Do Business Better Podcast where we discuss what sales is and why it matters. Sales in a nutshell is this: Revenue, The Basis of All Business, and the Simple Act of Understanding a Person’s Pain Then Being the Solution. ...
Jun 23, 2020•24 min
As I point out in my book, Do Business Better, unsuccessful people view jobs as a means to make a buck. But successful entrepreneurs look at every job as an income AND learning experience. With that in mind, we’re going back to my days of Cutco sales to share a lesson about appealing to customer feeling the right way as well as understanding customer motivation. Hint: the client likely doesn’t care all that much about your dreams and aspirations — they care about themselves.
Jun 16, 2020•17 min
Lance Graulich left Wall Street to become a host at TGI Fridays. From there he went on to become a multi-state franchise owner of Wingstop and Krispy Kreme Doughnuts. Lance joins me to discuss the business option of franchising. He explains how to look at buying into franchising, the advantages, of doing so, and the reasons franchise owners fail. He also discusses the option of turning your business into a franchise and how to make that happen.
Jun 09, 2020•29 min
Jay Hill’s first entrepreneurial venture was growing onions on a small patch of ground behind his parent’s house. He was 16 years old. Since then he’s grown his enterprise significantly. Today, Jay operates three different farming operations, a packaged hay feed company, and a vineyard. Between his own ventures and joint ventures, these companies employ 130 people. Jay shares his approach to planning and growing his business. He also explains his management philosophy — never have more than six ...
Jun 02, 2020•20 min
Too many of us quit learning new moves out of comfort or laziness. But the marketplace continues to evolve whether we stay current or not. Worse yet, competitors adapt to our moves and methods and pass us by. Point: keep learning new moves and adding new weapons to your arsenal.
May 27, 2020•19 min
Louis “Mike” Stoffel picked me to help him hand out cookies to our kindergarten class. We’ve been buddies ever since. He and I have a lot in common: we’re both farm boys from big families who struck out on our own to start businesses in 1994. His endeavor was a landscaping company. He’s been running it ever since. Lou joins me to discuss the lessons from his early years. He discovered getting customers wasn’t the problem but getting the right customers — and more importantly the right employees ...
May 19, 2020•28 min
A couple weeks ago, and a full month and a half into coronavirus-induced stay at home orders, my friend declared every day “Blursday.” He, like all of us, is having a hard time keeping the days straight. The past two months have been a struggle for all of us. I know now why Grandpa Mason had to look at the newspaper to verify the current day, date, and year! But it’s time to regain your focus and brace for the relaunch. In this episode, we layout 5 areas to apply your focus to successfully rebou...
May 12, 2020•16 min
If you operate your own enterprise, you’re a leader. Whether you have one employee or a hundred, you can learn how to be a better boss and a more effective leader from this episode. Likewise, we all deal with self doubt as we pilot our own enterprise. The important less is to not allow your self talk to hold you back. That’s where your network can help you weather storms and celebrate successes. Michael O’Brien is an executive coach, author, and speaker. He joins me to discuss what terrible boss...
May 05, 2020•29 min
Economics, at its very basics, is about human decision making. Our choices are almost always based on seeking benefit or avoiding pain. In other words, humans do what they’re incentivized to do, whether the incentive is a carrot (benefit) or a stick (pain). So it goes with opinions on reopening the economy — your support for, or opposition to, reopening depends entirely on your incentive. Small businesspeople are more incentivized to get back to work. Whereas those with secure jobs and incomes h...
Apr 28, 2020•16 min
Angie Carel is the founder, president, and creative director of IBA Marketing and Design. She joins me to discuss the biggest mistakes businesses make when it comes to their branding and outreach efforts. She knows because she’s been working with companies — big, small, and start ups — for over 13 years. Regardless of your businesses size or success, you’ll get value from this episode. Angie offers real life examples and solutions you can use.
Apr 21, 2020•29 min
One of many things a career in comedy taught me is the value of what I call “crowd feel.” With the world careening into a COVID-19 caused crisis, your comprehension of crowd feel is more important than ever. Your audience isn’t ready just yet to receive your message. But they will be soon. If you mis-time your approach, you’ll die on stage like a bad comedy act. In this episode I define crowd feel, tell you why it matters, and give you my three tips to properly gauging the mood of the marketplac...
Apr 17, 2020•18 min
Rubber Products Distributors is an Indianapolis-based company that does pretty much what you’d expect a company named Rubber Products Distributors to do. Their manufacturing customers depend on them for rubber and plastic fittings, grommets, gaskets, tips, and other items found in everyday items like cars, hospital equipment, and semi-trailers. But what do you do when the factories are closed due to a government-imposed economic shutdown? You get innovative, that’s what. Brock James and Matt Cam...
Apr 14, 2020•28 min
Brad McDonald is the owner and president of FreightCo, a trucking, transport, and logistics company. He joins me to discuss the coronavirus shutdown’s impact on his business and the economy at large. He explains what the recovery might look like from a supply standpoint. Brad talks about the ramp up and distribution of goods and what to watch for as our economy continues to spiral downward and (hopefully) rebounds. Most of us never thought we’d see barren shelves on America’s store shelves. Then...
Apr 10, 2020•31 min
Why Main Street will look like a ghost town and other devastating outcomes of the government's shutdown and "help" of small business. I explain why small businesses matter (they employ half the private sector in America) and why the SBA's Paycheck Protection Program is a failure. It's grossly underfunded, favors large businesses, and shows a complete misunderstanding of how small businesses work and the money they spin off for the good of the economy. And don't tell me about the unemployment opt...
Apr 07, 2020•15 min
Businesses large and small find themselves suddenly dislocated due to coronavirus. Employees are working from home (well, sort of!). Vendors can’t make personal sales calls. The office is shuttered. And the manager trying to keep the business running amidst “corona chaos,” is losing her mind! Business as usual is not an option. Business failure isn’t either. That’s why you must streamline your methods to manage remotely. Here then are my rules for results when nobody’s in the same room.
Mar 31, 2020•21 min
