Since the material in Greg Crabtree’s book “Simple Numbers, Straight Talk, Big Profits” has been so enlightening, I want to share more from his book to help us all out in the financial arena. This is not the stuff they teach you in school. It has real world understanding of how to look at your business financials from an entrepreneurial perspective.
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Are Your Net Profit Numbers Distorted?
p>I caught up with one of my long-time EO friends, Greg Crabtree, at the EO Nerve Conference in Atlanta. We have hung out and experienced EO events around the world, and we are both passionate about EO and the people there that we learn from and grow with. Greg served on the EO Board as the Finance Chair, which was a perfect fit since his unique perspective allows him to explain numbers in a more entrepreneur-focused way rather than typical accountant speak.
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Is Your Sandbox Big Enough?
In business we refer to a sandbox as the area in which you play or conduct business. It consists of three things: your geographical boundaries, your products or services, and either your client description if you sell direct or your distribution channel if you sell there.
When determining your sandbox, one area of thought is to make sure that the sandbox you are playing in is capable of getting you to the goals you have created for yourself. Problems could include not having enough customers or not having the right customers in your geographical boundaries. The product or service may have saturated the market you’re in, and the client description could have changed or expanded.
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Making Tough Decisions
On my entrepreneurial path, I have realized many things come down to a few key decisions. Sometimes they are very tough decisions that can have a significant impact on people’s lives. This is what being an entrepreneur and leader of a company is all about. It is about making the big decisions that will either lead you to your success or demise. The demise part comes by not acting and putting off these tough decisions that need to be made.
These decisions can come in the form of people that should or shouldn’t be with your company, products or services that you should or shouldn’t have, or in the strategic direction of your company.
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Can the Entrepreneur Optimism Be Risky?
As an entrepreneur, I consider myself a pretty optimistic person. I look to the future and see a rosy picture filled with visions of a lifestyle that incorporates my dreams. I will sacrifice now acknowledging that I will see better times ahead. Knowing that the little steps of progress I see in my company is leading to something better really gets me excited, and the optimism overflows even more! Have you ever thought this could be a little risky? I didn’t, but let’s explore this some more.
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STOP Doing It!
So much of what we do in business is about the things we need to get done. I need to write a report. I need to send e-mails to my clients. I need to create a budget. I need to put a plan together for the next quarterly meeting. On and on it goes with stuff we need to do in order to make progress in our business. Nothing is wrong with this, especially when it creates progress. Progress has been determined to be the number one motivator of both business owners and employees.
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How Clear Are Your Decisions?
I have tried many times to write a blog on bias in the decision making process, but other current events pushed the issue to the back burner. How we see the world is crucial to how and why we make decisions. Ultimately, our success in business and in everyday life is guided by how we perceive the world and how that affects our decisions.
Back in my investment days, I discovered a CIA report called the “Psychology of Intelligence Analysis.
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5 Steps to Recession Proof Your Business
One of my favorite authors, Robin Sharma, also coaches clients like GE, IBM, FedEx, and Coke. He recently released a video called “The 5 Fastest Ways to Recession-Proof your Business.” Click here to watch the video. It is over 10 minutes long, so I will summarize for my blog.
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How Do You Get Great Ideas?
Many of us out there hold a strong aversion and distaste for meetings. You have heard it before, or possibly even said it yourself: “We do nothing but have meetings around here, so how am I to get any work done?” Why do we have such negative feelings in regards to getting a group of people together to discuss issues and create solutions to move forward?
I believe strongly in the power of the group and think it is vital to bring people together to create the best ideas. If you have read this blog for any amount of time, you have seen me discuss my belief in collective intelligence, an ideal I trust in so much that I even started a mutual fund managed around the philosophy.
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Three Things Scrooge Would Say About Our Business
As we approach Christmas and get to spend more time with our family and friends in a spirited, colorful environment full of lights, we open our hearts and our pocket books to give and share what we have with others. While I cannot speak for you, it makes me feel good to give to others. When it is done with sincerity, I feel it has that effect similar to when the Grinch’s heart grows three sizes. It changed him. I look to the holidays to have that growing heart experience and hope the holidays have the same effect on you.
