A Stage 1 business has between 1-10 employees. One of the top five challenges businesses of this size face is destabilization stemming from chaos. As a business owner, you don’t want your employees to be overly stressed or unsure how to go about doing their work. Nor do you want the burden of unclear processes slowing everyone down.

Transition zones are periods of change a business goes through as it exits one Stage of Growth and enters the next. Transition Zones happen to every business as they move from one Stage into another.

During this period of change, businesses commonly experience a period of chaos where things feel disconcerting and overwhelming. Transition Zone are like rough waters. These periods can be especially perplexing because the organization is often experiencing positive advancement and growth right up to the point the transition begins.

A Key Performance Indicator, or KPI, as it is commonly referred to, is a measurement that helps gauge the success of a business, department, or team. By tracking the outcomes that are being achieved, a company gets insight into what is and what is not working.  

Although a commonly used term, business development can be defined and understood in different ways. In fact, the terms business development, marketing, and sales are often used interchangeably, making the delineation between these functions blurry.

In our last article, we defined Brand Values and explained the benefits that they bring to a business. Today we’re going to look at Core Values.

Core Values are three to six words or short phrases that paint a picture of how the team is to interact with each other. As a promise to the team, Core Values are the basis upon which members of a company plan, make decisions, and interact with each other.

But why does your business need them?

Brand Values are three to six words or short phrases that paint a picture of what a business sees as the ideal customer experience. They serve as a promise to the market—not only what the company strives to be in theory but considers on a practical level when making day-to-day decisions about priorities and initiatives.

But why does your business need them?

Is it better for your business to be Standard? Custom? Or someplace in-between?

The answer depends in part on your business—the industry and services you provide both play a part in determining what’s best. However, there is a tendency across all industries for businesses owners to have a bias towards the Custom side of the continuum. Their mindset is that their business is unique or special, so it must be Custom.

This article, based on concepts from the book Business Model, explains the concept of the Standard-Custom Continuum. Keep reading to learn what it is and how using it can make your business more scalable.

The Vision and Mission are foundational statements about why an organization exists. When given proper emphasis, they can act as a north star, guiding the company through whatever happens in the future. Although they are often grouped together, a company’s Vision and Mission are distinct statements.

There will always be urgent issues that require your attention. But without a set of focused goals, those issues can easily take over your entire business.

Establishing Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) is an effective way to focus your time and energy. When used correctly, KPIs serve to keep the important metrics of your business at the forefront, where you can periodically review and assess them.

Oftentimes, businesses struggle with knowing whether their marketing efforts are working. Are potential customers getting the message? Are there more effective ways to advertise? What will boost sales?

While there is a lot that can be said about crafting a message to have the biggest impact, the focus of this article is not on the message itself, but rather on who the message is for. It’s a crucial first step that many businesses skip. You can have a finely crafted message with gorgeous visuals, but if it’s not reaching your intended audience, you may as well be shouting in the dark. No one will respond.

It can be difficult to draw boundaries between your personal life and your work life—especially if you own a small business. Despite your best intentions, it may feel as though you’re never giving enough effort to one or the other. The elusive work-life balance can feel impossible to attain.

While we don’t have a magic wand that can stretch time (still working on that!), we do have some advice for managing work-life balance based on the experiences of small business owners.

Your cell phone is ringing. It’s also beeping, letting you know that a text message has come through. The afternoon is full of back-to-back meetings. You’re sitting at your desk, wondering how the day could already be half over when it feels like you just got started. Looks like it will be another late night …

Sound familiar? If you’re a small business owner, we’re writing with you in mind. We understand all too well the way a person can get swept up in the day-to-day details of running a business, making it difficult to keep your head above water. We also recognize that burnout is a very real issue for small business owners. Whether it’s after one year or ten, everyone finds their breaking point if they are constantly under the gun.

One of the most frequent challenges we hear from small business owners and leaders relates to time management. Many tell us that that part of the reason they wanted to own their business was to have more control over their schedules, but in reality, the opposite is true. They feel like their business owns them, not the other way around. Despite working long hours and most weekends, they can’t get ahead.

Following are the three most common barriers we see keeping business leaders from effectively managing their time.

For most CEOs, their jobs have been evolving since they first started the company. Many were experts in a trade or a skill and were able to build a successful business on that expertise. As their business grew, however, they found themselves faced with new types of challenges, such as learning how to manage managers, how to delegate effectively, and how to communicate the vision and mission of the organization.

CEO peer groups provide a way for leaders to get outside perspective on their businesses. While they carry certain advantages, there are also some disadvantages. In this article, we consider both the advantages and disadvantages of CEO peer groups, closing with an alternative.

Many small business owners struggle with knowing where to allocate their time and resources. One issue we hear about a lot has to do with sales and marketing—which is more important?

The short answer is that both are important, but what we’ll look at today is the relationship between the two and how the industry your business is in has a lot to do with knowing which one deserves more of your time.

Many small business owners are caught in a trap of reaction: they spend nearly all their energy reacting to requests and urgent demands. No one sets out to start a business with the goal of it consuming 24 hours a day, seven days a week. On the contrary, most small business owners are looking for independence. Unfortunately, the demands of a business are often urgent and can easily become overwhelming.

The Thinking-Doing Sequence is a structure that helps shine light on what it is that business owners are doing with their time and why adjustments may be necessary.

It’s likely that you have an idea in your mind of “The Salesperson.” This is the smooth talker, the rainmaker, the person who’s never at a loss for words and somehow manages to turn the most aggressively uninterested prospect into an eager buyer. While this persona exists for a reason, it’s not a good way to build a sales team. As a business owner, you can’t rely on finding that one extraordinary salesperson in order for your company to function.

Running a profitable business is a big challenge. Fifty percent of businesses started in the U.S. fail within the first 5 years. Why? Because they are unable to create a profitable business model.

While there are many different factors that play into running a profitable business, in this article, we’re going to focus on just one simple fact: the difference between revenue and profit. The distinction matters, and it helps immensely if the entire team has the same understanding of what profit is.

If you’re like most small business owners, you’re feeling the pinch of today’s economy. As you look for ways to increase revenue, it’s important not to overlook all of your options. The good news is that there are probably more ways to grow revenue than you might think.

We’ve found it’s common for businesses to focus on just one way to increase revenue, which is by getting new customers. While that’s a viable option, it also tends to be the most expensive one and can take the longest to pay a return. In fact, there are three simple ways to increase revenue that apply to almost every business. In this article, we expand on the three ways to increase revenue to give you more options for your business.

When you bring on a new employee to your team, the first few weeks are extremely important. Those initial impressions and moments can shape the entire trajectory of that person’s tenure with the company—whether it’s brief or lengthy, good or bad, mutually beneficial or filled with conflict.

Employers aren’t likely to skip foundational things with a new employee, like setting up their computer or giving them a copy of the employee handbook. There are other steps, though—steps often overlooked—that are just as critical to setting the stage for an employee’s success.