Mike Michalowicz's Blog, page 66
May 17, 2016
It Doesn’t Have To Be A Difficult Decision
Obviously, there seems to be a tendency among doctors for life-or-death decisions to be the hardest decisions. The best decision, in fact, seems to be in simply buying more time; In delaying the decision. Rarely is that best for the patient.
Entrepreneurs seem to face the most dire business moments with the most pondering. The enormity of the consequences seem to require the most consideration. But ironically, its the elongated pauses that causes the most damage. Dire situations are often best served with rapid and deliberate decisions. Pick the way to go, and then go. Time is a-tickin’.
May 16, 2016
Episode 88: Profitability and Spiritual Abundance with Edwene Gaines
Show Summary
Welcome to Episode 88 of the Profit First Podcast! WARNING: this episode contains references to spiritual and biblical beliefs… and if that scares you off it’s unfortunate. Today we have the privilege of speaking to famed author Edwene Gaines about the concepts of her book, The Four Spiritual Laws of Prosperity: A Simple Guide to Unlimited Abundance. Whether you share these beliefs or not, the rules and guidance you will gain in the next 38 minutes are irreplaceable; Listen in, enjoy, and be prepared to awaken the knowledge you already have inside you to achieve another level of profitability!
Our Guest
Edwene Gaines, author of the book The Four Spiritual Laws of Prosperity, A Simple Guide to Unlimited Abundance*, is owner-director of Rock Ridge Retreat Center in Valley Head, Alabama. She has made a 100% commitment to the transformation of the abundance consciousness of the world.
An ordained Unity minister since 1979, she is also president of The Masters’ School. She has trained approximately 500 Master Prosperity Teachers. She travels about extensively presenting Prosperity Workshops. She has created and markets CD’s and affirmation cards through her company Prosperity Products. Her book is now available in Spanish as Las Cuatro Leyes de la Prosperidad.* published by Edicion Lectorum in Mexico City.
A Certified Firewalking Instructor, she facilitates the Firewalking Ceremony several times each year. Edwene has served as a member of the International New Thought Alliance Executive Board. In 2006 she was honored by the International New Thought Alliance with the Torchbearer for New Thought Award. That same year she was honored by Unity Worldwide Ministries with the Light of God Expressing Award at their annual conference. In 2014, she was honored by Emerson Theological Seminary with an honorary doctor of divinity degree.
In 2016 Edwene was awarded an honorary doctorate in humane letters be the Centers for Spiritual Living Holmes Institute.
She is committed to power, passion, prosperity, and performance.
Show Links
Website: www.prosperityproducts.com
Facebook: Edwene Gaines and Edwene Gaines Seminars
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Mike Michalowicz will be speaking at Scaling New Heights 2016 ( #SNH16 ) at the BEAUTIFUL Atlantis on Paradise Island in the Bahamas!
May 22-25, 3016
For more information on this conference and to register, click here!
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Corporate Partners
Receipt-Bank – Software and service to make the gathering, storage & processing of bills, receipts and invoices as easy and as cost effective as possible for businesses.
Nextiva – VOIP phone providers for small businesses.
Fundera – Single source online funding for entrepreneurs. Also offers an adviser program for CPAs, bookkeepers and business coaches.
TSheets – The #1 customer rated time tracking solution!
Fundbox – The simplest and fastest way to fix your cash flow by advancing payments for your outstanding invoices.
May 13, 2016
Fix Problems When They Are Small
In 1982, George Kelling and James Wilson published an article entitled Broken Windows. The article argued that a crucial and necessary step to keep order in a dangerous neighborhood, was to fix broken and unrepaired windows. Kelling and Wilson state that if people in these neglected neighborhoods see a building with broken windows, that they will be tempted to break more windows (I suspect you may have even felt an inkling of desire to throw a rock at a building with broken windows yourself). And as more windows get broken, the temptation grows in the community to commit riskier and more damaging acts. It’s the snowball effect of neglect.
If your business is a sloppy space, it will promote more sloppiness in work. If your nature is to be confrontational with your employees, it will promote them to confront clients. What happens in one instance, will start to happen in all. Start fixing your businesses “broken windows.” And, for God’s sake, if you have an actual broken window… fix that first.
May 12, 2016
Five Frogs Sit On A Log
The riddle has been around for ages:
“Five frogs sit on a log. Four decide to jump in. How many are left?”
If you respond the same way I did, the first time I heard this riddle, you would say “one.”
But the correct answer is “five.” There is a big difference between deciding and doing. A big difference.
Do you make big decisions in your business? It doesn’t mean it is getting done. In fact, making a continuous stream of big decisions is the easiest way to do nothing at all. Just make a decision and when the pressure surmounts to take action, make a new decision.
Are you a decider or a doer? You decide – scratch that, you do.
May 11, 2016
Episode 87: Profit First in Style with Caitlin Podaras
Show Summary
Business owner, Caitlin Podaras implemented Profit First and found that her business was not going the way that she anticipated… so she shut it down and decided to start up a brand new business. On this episode we coach Caitlin through a proper and quick shutdown of what’s not working, and explain how to ramp up a new business – and do it in a very successful way even you don’t have a penny to spend. Welcome to Episode 87 of the Profit First Podcast!
Our Guest
Caitlin Podaras is the owner and founder of Style For Today, an online personal styling service for women. She started the company in 2014 when she realized that not everyone loves shopping as much as she does, and that she could turn her pastime into something bigger to help women feel more confident in their own personal style.
She is a firm believer that the right outfit can change your entire day (and maybe even your life) and that’s why she makes it her mission to help her clients feel great about themselves in whatever they’re wearing. Caitlin recently updated the services of her company to include online wardrobe editing, capsule collection styling, virtual styling and more.
In her free time she enjoys hanging out with her fiancé, her friends and her 10 pound chiweenie dog named Peyton, who is also the Chief Companion Officer of Style For Today.
Show Links
Website: www.stylefortoday.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/shopstylefortoday
Instagram: www.instagram.com/style_for_today
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Mike Michalowicz will be speaking at Scaling New Heights 2016 ( #SNH16 ) at the BEAUTIFUL Atlantis on Paradise Island in the Bahamas!
May 22-25, 3016
For more information on this conference and to register, click here!
.
Corporate Partners
Receipt-Bank – Software and service to make the gathering, storage & processing of bills, receipts and invoices as easy and as cost effective as possible for businesses.
Nextiva – VOIP phone providers for small businesses.
Fundera – Single source online funding for entrepreneurs. Also offers an adviser program for CPAs, bookkeepers and business coaches.
TSheets – The #1 customer rated time tracking solution!
Fundbox – The simplest and fastest way to fix your cash flow by advancing payments for your outstanding invoices.
May 10, 2016
How To Turn A Miracle Into Routine
Getting a business off the ground is nothing short of a miracle. People who you never knew before are now clients (and they trust you with their business). People who you have never met before now work for you (and trust you with their livelihood). You’re doing work you never knew you would do (or be able to do).
Entrepreneurs pull off miracle after miracle. But now it’s time for that to stop. It’s time to turn those miracles into routine.
Stop flying in and fixing things. Stop making miracle sales. Stop talking down clients, employees (and yourself) from the ledge.
Start building systems. Start making those miracles that you do every day, become a process so that someone else at your business can make those miracles happen. Automatically.
Don’t Change; Leverage.
I was contacted by a business that’s struggling. Atypically, the concern was not financial. The founder was struggling with his own micromanagement. He can’t help but insert himself into every part of the business, unintentionally stunting the growth of his employees and his company.
It is a surprisingly common dilemma. Micromanagement was necessary in the early days. The entrepreneur needs to do it all, and manage a few people. There is no time devoted to systems and process, so everything just sits in the founders head and the “system” is micro-managing. But what got him here, won’t get him there. The fix?
Simple! Don’t fix it.
Let me explain. If the owner tried to defeat his micromanaging behavior, it would be a battle of willpower. It was a behavior that served him well. It was a habit that was chock full of successes and emotional rewards. His brain is literally wired to micromanage. And willpower won’t fix it.
He may be able to pull it off for a week or two. He may be able to loosen the reigns, briefly. But the moment something falls short of his expectations he will jump in again to micromanage. In fact, he is wired (like we all are) to keep our habits intact. So if he believes micro-managing is necessary, when he removes himself from doing it, he will unconsciously look for failures so he can return to micro-managing. He will look for any reason to sustain his established, old habit.
The solution isn’t to fix a habit, it’s to redirect it. Since his tendency is to constantly check-in and give input, we simply give him the “check-ins” before he seeks it out. Instead of him asking how things are going, triggering fear and inserting himself, he now gets reports that give him the status before he asks.
Studying his micromanaging ways, we found that he has “ten areas of concern.” Each employee now knows the ten situations that will trigger his micromanagement and always report the problem with a solution already in place.
Since the fear triggers have been removed, he no longer feels compelled to micromanage. He is using all this spare energy to sell the big deals. They didn’t have a financial problem before, just a management problem. Now they don’t have a management problem, and sales are on course to double.
Don’t try to willpower your way through habits; Understand their triggers and redirect the energy.
May 9, 2016
Episode 86: Profitability and Physical Health with Denny Krahe
Show Summary
Denny Krahe joins us to talk about the importance of fitness when it comes to the profitability of your business. We explore how you can implement fitness regardless of what your work schedule is… and the reason why you have no excuse! Plus Denny shares some cool tips and tools you can use to get healthy – at the end of the day it’s very clear that the more fit you are, the higher your energy is and the more profitable your business will be. Welcome to Episode 86 of the Profit First Podcast!
Our Guest
Denny Krahe is a running junkie! In addition to running 5-6 days a week, he is building his business around helping runners avoid and prevent several of the most common running related injuries. After 10+ years working in various settings as a Certified Athletic Trainer, he started his own personal training business. While Denny enjoys that line of work, running is his true passion. He has since shifted the focus of his business to align with his passion for running, and now provides coaching services for runners with a focus on injury prevention and improving over time. He also hosts the “Diz Runs With…” podcast, where he talks with runners about “Running, Life, and Everything In Between” and will be delivering his first keynote at a race event in August 2016.
Show Links
Facebook: dizruns.com/facebook
Twitter: twitter.com/dizruns
Instagram: instagram.com/dizruns
Pinterest: pinterest.com/dizruns
YouTube: dizruns.com/youtube
er.
Mike Michalowicz will be speaking at Scaling New Heights 2016 ( #SNH16 ) at the BEAUTIFUL Atlantis on Paradise Island in the Bahamas!
May 22-25, 3016
For more information on this conference and to register, click here!
.
Corporate Partners
Receipt-Bank – Software and service to make the gathering, storage & processing of bills, receipts and invoices as easy and as cost effective as possible for businesses.
Nextiva – VOIP phone providers for small businesses.
Fundera – Single source online funding for entrepreneurs. Also offers an adviser program for CPAs, bookkeepers and business coaches.
TSheets – The #1 customer rated time tracking solution!
Fundbox – The simplest and fastest way to fix your cash flow by advancing payments for your outstanding invoices.
May 6, 2016
Improve Your Business By Traveling More
When Phil Romano founded Macaroni Grill, he traveled throughout Italy to determine what made restaurants so popular. Among other things, he found that in Italy a jug of wine is simply placed on the table when the customer arrives. When they are ready to pay the bill, the waiter simply asks how many glasses of wine they drank. That’s how Macaroni Grill got off to such a successful start. Open jugs of wine. A little touch of Italian culture.
For your business to stand out, it too needs to be different. It is hard to discover different things (and have confidence that they’ll work) if you constantly stay in the same circles. It’s time for you to get out. So, I am giving you that excuse you’ve been waiting for: You need to travel more. Your business needs it.
May 5, 2016
Bank Balance Accounting
I am sure you are familiar with the terms for your business’s financial reports including the Profit & Loss Statement (also known as the Income Statement), the Balance Sheet and the Cash Flow Statement. The question is, do you know how to read them? I bet you don’t. Not really.
If you talk with your accountant, she will explain to get a real sense of your company’s financial health you need to read all three of these statements, and calculate specific metrics like your Operating Cash Ratio and your Quick Ratio. Additionally, to make sure your numbers are current, she will tell you to do this weekly. It sounds great, but it is too much to learn and way too much to do (even if it was only monthly). So what do we entrepreneurs do? We look at our bank accounts.
I am not sure when traditional accountants will figure this out, but few entrepreneurs have the time to learn and leverage these financial tools, let alone do it weekly. In fact, the whole reason we hired that accountant in the first place is so they can do all that stuff for us. We don’t have the time to do the complex stuff, so we revert to Bank Balance Accounting.
How Bank Balance Accounting works is this: We log into our bank accounts, see what the balances are and then, based upon what we see, make decisions on how to proceed. We make collection calls and sell hard when our balance is low. We invest in equipment and expansion when the balance if high. It works. Kinda.
It works, because it is how we are wired to look at quick indicators (e.g. Does my bank account have enough money or not), trust our gut and then take an action. It doesn’t work perfectly though, because it seems that we never have enough money left to pay ourselves. That’s why I created Profit First.
Profit First
is designed so that you can (and should) continue doing Bank Balance Accounting. With Profit First
you pre-allocate money into specific bank account (e.g. A Profit account, an Owner’s Compensation account, a Product Purchasing account, an Operating Expense account, etc.) in advance, so the next time (and every time) you log into your bank, you know exactly what the money is there for.
But it gets better. When you login and see that you don’t have enough money in an account, you will immediately be aware of the problem. That’s when you call your accountant and have her go through those statements and ratios with you. That’s why you hired her in the first place. If you accountant doesn’t get that, maybe it is time to find a new accountant.
