- The Small Business Mentor
- Posts
- 8 Rules for Running a Successful SMB
Welcome back to The Small Business Mentor!
A quick message before we jump in:
If you haven’t already, be sure to check out the Small Business Mentor Podcast wherever you listen to your podcasts
If you’re reading this online, subscribe HERE and join thousands of business owners and professionals receiving these emails every week.
Let’s dive in…
8 rules that every business owner needs to hear:
Your business is an asset (not your life, not your family, etc.) You make sub-optimal decisions when you can’t see your company as one among many in the market.
As owner, the success of the company will rise and fall upon your decision-making. It’s all about you. You either did it, hired it, tolerated it, or created it. Don’t try to blame others.
Hire slower, fire faster. People tend to show you who they are pretty quickly. The, “I’m going to work on this person,” mindset works about 5% of the time. If someone has been given clear feedback and can get with the program quickly, it’s time to move on.
The only way to scale a business is to hire more A-players. Better people = better outcomes.
Inaction is a death-sentence — one of the riskiest choices possible. When there is a problem start doing things to fix it. You can always shut them down but do something.
Every time you 2-3x the revenue of your business, 50-75% of leadership will need to be replaced/changed. This is probably the toughest lesson. Companies can grow faster than people.
If the owner can’t sell it, no one can. Up until a point, the owner is almost always the best sales person. They are usually highly qualified and working for a reduce price subsidized by their equity in the business. No one else that qualified is going to work for you until you are bigger and can pay a lot more.
The top-priority investment is your own learning and skillset. If your decisions and actions are what make or break the company, you should get better at making them.
Keep growing,
Alan
P.S.
P.P.S.
Reply