Business Pivot Triggers Practical Approaches to Pivots What's Next for Up and to the Right? Contact Beyond 50 Percent https://beyond50percent.com stephen.krausse@b50p.com IG & TW @beyond50percent
In this episode of Up and to the Right I'm excited to have Kari & George Grossman owners of Happy Lucky's Teahouse. We'll talk about getting started in 2009 and adapting to a wildly changing business environment in 2020. About Happy Lucky's With a commitment to quality, selection, and community, Happy Lucky’s creates a highly interactive, informative, and immersive tea experience. Whether you are already a tea lover or new to the brew, you’ll find the flavor, aroma, and feeling that speaks t...
Is it click bait? To be fair, click bait isn't my plan. In fact, I think it's important that we separate the small business trends for 2021 that matter to us as owners from the 'trends' over which we have no agency, no resources to follow or that simply don't apply. Let's figure out which windmill to chase! See the full show notes: https://b50p.info/uattr060
Best Book for Small Business Show Contents 00:00 Pre Show 00:16 Program Start 01:20 Introduction 01:41 News & Updates 04:40 Let's talk about reading! 16:43 Let's get practical! 17:35 Sidebar on book length... 19:30 Working a Book 24:48 My New Reading Experiment 30:07 Show Close & Contact Info I asked the internet... "What book was the most effective in helping you make REAL CHANGES to your small business?" In this episode I'm going to share how the internet replied! Let's get... well rea...
Full Show Notes: https://b50p.info/uattr058 Small Business Priority | 4Get 2020 Time to Move On 2020 is finally over. There will be plenty of blogs, podcasts, articles and videos reviewing 2020 and predicting 2021. Not here... not today. As small business owners, we need to focus on what IS... NOW and figure out what needs to be done at this moment in time to move our business forward. Your time is a limited resource. How do you know what to work on? I'm going to throw out a quick way to think a...
Show Notes: https://b50p.info/uattr057 What is a Small Business? Over the years I've come across a lot of misinformation about what it means to be a small business. Sometimes people think it's determined by the number of employees, sometimes by revenue, even by the corporate structure. As we'll see below it's actually easy to understand why there is confusion identifying what is a small business. Defining Small Business So, if there's so much confusion around how to define a business as small th...
Full Show Notes: https://b50p.info/uattr056 You've come up with a great business idea. You've started your business and things are going great when out of the blue a great potential customer asks: "What's your export control code?" Don't know? You're not alone and export control is just one of the seemingly endless regulations that may (or may not) apply to your small business. Let’s get… regulated! In short, small businesses are regulated by largely the same laws that regulate larger organizati...
Show Notes | https://b50p.info/uattr055 It's time to roll up our sleeves and get to work! Physics in Business. At first, it might not seem like the two are closely connected. I've found that the principles we use to describe our physical universe often have parallels in the business world. The power of leverage in business is often thought of as a negative. Something used to push someone else down in a negotiation or to artificially inflate value. These are the uses of leverage that we won't be ...
Get the show notes: https://b50p.info/uattr054 I put a lot of effort into running and growing my business. I'm sure you do too! What do we get for that effort? I'm not talking about. the long-term effects of our actions resulting in new revenue or market growth. What reaction do we expect from this particular action? Let’s get… mechanical!
Get the Show Notes: https://b50p.info/uattr053 If you picked two words to describe entrepreneurship they would very likely be longly and busy. Really... REALLY busy! I can speak from personal experience that being a small business owner can leave you feeling alone as well as fill your time with a stream of seemingly critical tasks. How can entrepreneurs like you find kindred spirits that share common experience AND get the opportunity to work ON your business by accomplishing focused work? Let’s...
See the full Show Notes: https://b50p.info/uattr052 What did Newton Know about Creating Impact as a Small Business? Everything we need to know about making an impact as a small business... Newton knew in 1686!? Really? Newton’s 2nd Law states that Force = Mass * Acceleration. How can understanding one of the fundamental laws of physics help us make an impact as a small business? Is changing the world as easy as Force = Mass * Acceleration? Well yes... and no. Let's rewrite that a bit. Mass = Res...
Everything we need to know about small business communication... Newton knew in 1686!? Really? An object at rest tends to stay at rest unless acted upon by an outside force. An object in motion tends to stay in motion in the same direction unless acted on by an outside force. If these trends sound familiar ... A customer who is happy tends to stay a customer unless there's a sale at a competitor. A rock star employee tends to stay a rock star unless we eliminate performance bonuses. You get the ...
Show Notes: https://b50p.info/uattr050 Consuming content has become a byword. We all want to learn and grow personally and professionally. To that end, we read or listen to books, watch videos, take online courses, and consume any number of other types of content. Have you ever stopped to consider whether or not the content you’ve consumed has actually generated a beneficial transformation in your business? How do we get the most benefit from the information we read, watch, or listen to? How do ...
Show Notes: https://b50p.info/uattr049 A small business startup can be overwhelming. So much so that many people choose not to and many of us who do start small businesses often miss a piece of the small business puzzle. In this episode, I’m going to share three things you need to do when you’re starting your business that might not be on your list… yet! Let’s get… started!
Full Show Notes: https://b50p.info/uattr048 When Should I Hire a Consultant? Hiring a consultant is bringing an ‘outsider’ into your business and can be an intensely personal experience. What’s in this episode for you?! When should you hire a consultant? We’ll talk about hiring consultants in small businesses and my own 2020 adventure in bringing help into my own business. There are 3 consultants every business owner should have… what are they? You’ll find highlights below. Watch the livestream ...
Jeff Allen, Allen Service, Plumbing, Heating, and Air Jeff, his brother Mike, and the team at Allen Service, Plumbing, Heating, and Air, have been operating as an ‘essential business’ through the current crisis. A small business succeeding during the COVID-19 pandemic, Jeff and his team prioritize employee and customer safety while still providing quality services. I’ve always thought that heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems in our homes were for comfort and convenience. I ...
Full Show Notes & Resources: https://b50p.info/p2p001 Being a small business owner is challenging in the best of times. During periods of economic uncertainty that challenge becomes more difficult. In 2020 we're faced with those economic concerns but they are combined with a serious global pandemic and the groundswell of difficult but necessary social and cultural shifts. Any one of these would be stressful enough on its own but combined it is understandable that many of us are under a great...
Reminder: What is a Business Principle? When I talked about what made a business principle I ended up here: A business principle is a concept that is both foundational and relevant to all businesses. This set a pretty high bar when it came to identifying what were business principles and what were strategies, missions and tactics. Profit made the cut and that’s what I want to cover today. Why Profit? Profit is the standard measure by which companies large and small are evaluated. While profit al...
Reminder: What is a Business Principle? When I talked about what made a business principle I ended up here: A business principle is a concept that is both foundational and relevant to all businesses. This set a pretty high bar when it came to identifying what were business principles and what were strategies, missions and tactics. Cash management made the cut and that’s what I want to cover today. Why Cash? Using cash instead of a form of barter system allows us the flexibility to delay purchase...
Reminder: What is a Business Principle? When I talked about what made a business principle I ended up here: A business principle is a concept that is both foundational and relevant to all businesses. This set a pretty high bar when it came to identifying what were business principles and what were strategies, missions and tactics. Communication made the cut and that’s what I want to cover today. What is Value? According to Merriam-Webster the definition of “value-added” is: “a product whose valu...
Reminder: What is a Business Principle? When I talked about what made a business principle I ended up here: A business principle is a concept that is both foundational and relevant to all businesses. This set a pretty high bar when it came to identifying what were business principles and what were strategies, missions and tactics. Communication made the cut and that’s what I want to cover today. What is Communication? At its core, the concept of communication is straightforward. Communication is...
Does Planning Matter to Small Business? The first thing we need to establish is whether or not planning matters to small businesses. At first, you might be thinking to yourself ‘Well of course planning matters!” but let’s be real here… as small business owners we have a tendency to fly by the seat of our pants more than we might like to admit. A lack of planning and over-planning can both have a negative impact on small business performance. So for us, planning has to be done in such a way that ...
Does Vision Matter to Small Business? Do we really need to write down our “Vision” as small business owners? Isn’t that just a Wall Street thing? Being clear about your vision is about more than wall hangings or motivational posters. It’s about more than a twitter post or an infographic. It’s about more than customer relationships or product development. Do a search on the web or your favorite book vendor for business vision and you’ll have mountains of material. I’ve read my share and while the...
When I started Beyond 50 Percent my aspiration was to connect business owners with ‘proven principles and practical action’. It made then, and still makes, perfect sense in my head but I’ve found that when someone asks for an example of a proven business principle I was suddenly less clear on what it meant in practical terms and left with something banal like ‘buy low sell high’. Since ‘practical’ and ‘actionable’ are features that I feel strongly about I felt compelled to arrive at some clarity...
If you’re running a business or thinking about it you would be forgiven for feeling completely overwhelmed. It’s true, there is a lot to do and never enough time to do it. What is a business owner to do? Read, learn, get a consultant or coach? Yes… those are all good things but at the end of the day when you’ve read “Eat that Frog” and you’re ready to hunker down how do you know which frog is the biggest, ugliest and least appealing? Which frog do you eat? How do we decide what’s important when?...
Full show notes: https://b50p.info/uattr039 (link will be live a few hours after the show!) We have an interesting relationship with luck. When something goes well we use it in a self effacing way like 'lucky break'. When things go badly we use it to distance ourselves from the event 'just bad luck'. When we're breaking outside norms… we're pushing our luck. According to https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/luck luck is a force that brings good fortune or adversity So how do we deal with t...
Full show notes: https://b50p.info/uattr038 (link will be live a few hours after the show!) Have you ever read a business, leadership or self improvement book... or really any book... and thought "Wow that's really smart, insightful and helpful!" only to read another book two weeks later that recommends the polar opposite? Yeah... me too! This week I'm going to help you figure out how to parse out what really matters for your small business or startup when the gurus don't seem to agree. Let's ge...
Full show notes: https://b50p.info/uattr037 Video was here to stay before COVID-19 but with the increased pressure of social distancing we're now seeing more businesses adopting video. Video can add value by allowing us to have a more effective conversation than a phone call alone (most communication is non-verbal and totally lost on the phone); it can provide new revenue streams and can reduce travel which, in turn, reduces costs and environmental impact. Video is good. How can you put your bes...
If you haven't heard of Zoom, you probably will. Zoom is a video and teleconferencing platform that has seen a large increase in use as businesses change the way they communicate. They've been in the press for two major reasons lately. One - the explosive growth during social distancing. 2nd they have been faulted for security concerns. There is a great opportunity here for us to lean in to a new tool that can help us add value to our business but how do we get real value out of Zoom and other v...
Full show notes: https://b50p.info/uattr035 Any change in the economic environment will show us vulnerabilities in our business. A major disruption or crisis will drive the point home by showing us weakness in our business whether it's an unsustainable expense structure or too few revenue streams & narrow sales channels. Let's build a revenue stream!
