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Process

How to Stop Drowning and Start Systematizing

I couldn’t breathe.

Every time I kicked hard to get a gulp of air, I lost a little strength. The riptide pulled me out further. I sunk below the waves.

I was pulled out of the ocean in Hawaii, glad to be alive.

But then I returned home – to the office – and felt the same feeling.

Drowning. Firefighting. I couldn’t get ahead.

But this time, no lifeguard on a jet ski to pull me out of the riptide.

There was one big difference though. And that is that I had created the ocean of work that was drowning me. After all, I was the CEO. The choppy waters, the endless riptide pulling me was my own doing.

Since then I’ve talked to hundreds of entrepreneurs, and most feel the same.

Here’s how I work with clients and portfolio companies to build a raft, then a rowboat … and then, a battleship.

Step 1: Map The Business Functions

First, I zoom out and look at the business from a high level. Break it down into core functional areas like sales, fulfillment, marketing, HR, accounting … Make a comprehensive list of every function the your company, even if some of those roles are currently being done by the same person (i.e. the founder).

This exercise exposes just how intricate the business is and how vital it is to have standardized systems across each area. Like a clock, if one gear is off, the whole mechanism grinds to a halt.

Step 2: Define All The Tasks

Now I drill down into each function. Identify every repeatable task that role performs, whether it’s sending invoices, onboarding new hires, or creating social media content. Get granular. The more tactical we can be in defining each discrete step, the better the documentation will be.

Note how frequently each task recurs. Is it a daily task like customer service? Weekly? Monthly? This will help you prioritize which tasks are ripe for systemization first.

Step 3: Assign Owners

Next, I designate who is responsible for managing each task. Tasks can’t fall through the cracks if someone’s name is next to it.

This owner may be the entrepreneur initially, but the goal is to eventually delegate tasks so he’s not the bottleneck. As you systemize and document how each one is done, they get delegated.

Step 4: Document Processes

Now comes the documentation piece. For each task, I have the task owner map out how it’s done from start to finish. What are the exact steps? What inputs do they need to complete it? This is writing the owner’s manual for each task.

I like having them record themselves doing it and create a checklist from that.

Step 5: Streamline with Technology

Once everything is documented, I take a second pass to identify opportunities to leverage technology. Could any manual tasks be automated with software or AI?

Even simple changes like using templates or project management tools can be big levers.

Step 6: Centralize Knowledge

Finally, I collect everything in a master playbook that’s accessible to everyone. This living document becomes the single source of truth for how everything gets done in the business.

As we refine processes, swap owners, or incorporate new tech, the playbook evolves. But everyone is always working off the same updated protocols. No more misalignment.

Building your life raft is a process. You just need to stop thrashing for long enough to realize your predicament … And swim out of the riptide.

Want a cheat sheet to growing a thriving business? Get business training for free at the CEO Workbench.

October 4, 2023

Relentless: Accountability for Massive Business Gains

It was March, and I realized I couldn’t even remember what my annual goals were. Not good.

I’d set them at the beginning of that year. Such conviction and enthusiasm. I even printed them out and taped them to the wall so I’d see them every morning.

I was so sure my business would crush it that year.

But there I was, not three months in – and not only had I forgotten about them, I hadn’t made any real progress.

What happened?

I realized goals alone weren’t enough.

Here’s how I turned it all around (and even got to sell that business & cash out)

From Flabby to Fit in Business and Life

The same habits that get you ripped get your business ripped. A story-

At the beginning of last summer, after my dad had been hospitalized and bedridden for two months, I looked in the mirror and didn’t like what I saw. At all.

I’d let myself go from at least respectably in shape to … a shape that was getting closer to circle.

Why? After years of staying in shape – I’d let my habit slip. For good reason, mind you. But as soon as the habit slipped, my physique did too.

I re-started with my trainer who held me accountable. And frankly just paying to have someone waiting for me twice a week was enough to put this front and center.

Taping goals to the mirror doesn’t do that.

Paying did that.

From Mediocre to Massive: Applying Accountability to Business

The same principle applies to business goals. Fortunately I realized this (perhaps while you were still in elementary school) so I had some practice:

Accountability in business is as effective as accountability for fitness.

That is:

It takes a process
It takes accountability
If you pay, you pay attention and get results

With the lessons from my fitness journey in mind, here’s how I coach founders to start:

1. Daily Tracking

First, start tracking Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) on a DAILY basis.

For example, each day I now look at:

Bank Balance
Leads generated
Expenses

Yes, I said daily. Why? Because we’re building a habit. And if you’re only checking weekly – it’ll just become another thing that you only sort of pay attention to.

Even if the information isn’t updating daily, look at it daily. We’re training our brains what’s important.

2. Weekly Reviews

Second, add weekly reviews with myself and with my team.

Each week pull up the previous week’s metrics and see if we hit our targets.

I do this for my personal metrics and the business metrics, we do it as a team with the team metrics.

If we didn’t hit a number, we do an After Action Review to understand why (if you don’t know what that is, there’s a free training and template on CEOworkbench.com).

This keeps us learning, accountable, and focused on making progress.

3. Coaching

Finally, I always recommend a business coach or a mentor. There’s a reason why people get results when they hire a trainer. Why anyone serious about sports has a coach.

And all of a sudden, you think that being an entrepreneur you don’t need someone who does this for you? Hubris.

Like a fitness trainer, the coach makes sure you’re sticking to a business growth plan. He holds you accountable if you’ve gotten off track and helps course correct.

Here’s the thing you’re not going to like. You should pay for a coach or mentor. When you pay for a trainer, you show up. When you pay for a business coach or mentor, you show up. Just pay. Your brain will then start to take it seriously. Trust me, your results will be better (as long as it’s someone who has done what you want to do – not some BS coach who’s only coached).

He has frameworks that you’ve never even thought of. Helps you play better – and play to win.

Massive Results in Minimal Time

With these accountability practices implemented, I’ve seen huge business growth over multiple businesses and multiple decades. I’ve been able to sell three businesses I founded.

And I’ve been able to help other businesses do the same.

Creating habits, and relentless accountability is the real key to hitting your goals quickly.

Wishful thinking and sporadic reviews will only get you so far.

Taping your goals to the mirror won’t really get you anywhere.

You need someone watching and prodding you to stick to the plan every step of the way.

So take it from me – be relentless.

If fitness taught me anything, it’s that accountability leads to results. Apply that lesson to hit your business goals faster than ever before.

Want a free worksheet to kick start your accountability? Download it now at CEOworkbench.com

August 30, 2023

Entrepreneurs: 8 Keys to Scale Your Business Quickly

I’ve created over 753 strategic plans for entrepreneurs. At the core of each one are two things: Simplicity and Scale.

Here are eight things to cover in your strategic plan to grow with less complexity.

Before we jump in – it’s important to realize that the same things that make your business fun (and profitable) to run are the things that make it irresistible to buyers when you want to exit. So you’re getting a double benefit focusing on these 8 keys.

Here are the keys:

1. Margin

Make sure you know your margins and they’re healthy for your industry. Too many entrepreneurs put their head in the sand because numbers are scary. Here’s the hack: just ask your bookkeeper for a report. And read it. Seriously, the numbers are already done for you.

2. LTV

Know the lifetime value of a customer. If you don’t know what a customer is worth you’re flying blind. You can’t plan marketing, staffing, or growth. Know and grow this number.

3. Systems

All wealth comes from systems. A company is a machine that takes in capital, people, and resources and produces customers and profit. Without defined systems you don’t have a machine. You have a medieval workshop. Those suck to work in.

4. Optimization

Optimize your processes to deliver higher quality for less time and expense. Many businesses can increase profits significantly by just fixing poorly run processes – and use that cash to scale. You’ll need to – scaling with bad processes is a recipe for failure.

5. Delegation

Learn to delegate the right way. A company where the owner is necessary isn’t a business, it’s a job. Learning how to delegate in a way that’s a win for both you and your team is an invaluable skill.

6. Management

Manage your team with clear goals and accountability. That starts at the top. For consistent results make sure to use business scorecards to manage by numbers, not by emotion.

7. Hiring

Compromising on hiring because you just “need a body” will cost you in the long run. Hiring an A-Player will multiply your business. The wrong hire can set you back years (it happened to me).

8. Retention

A company scales by upgrading product, team, and customers. Keep the right people, and shed the rest.

The Scale Cycle

These eight factors are part of my Scale Cycle that helps entrepreneurs how to scale their business with simplicity. Start by picking the one that will have the biggest effect on your company, tackle it, then move on to the next. Then… Repeat. It seems simple, because it is.

Get a weekly list of short, actionable steps to scale your company with simplicity in the Boardroom Bulletin™.

December 27, 2022

A New Year: How To Always Nail Your Strategic Business Plan

The year is almost over, and you’re probably going to miss the goals you set in January. Most business owners are in the same boat – BUT a few crush their goals every year.

Here’s why your business goals aren’t working, and what you can do to fix them.

Ever make a New Year’s resolution that went nowhere? Afraid you’re about to do it again in a few days? Annual plans for most businesses are like those. A burst of high hopes and effort, fizzling by February, because – Life gets in the way.

You’re putting out fires, and back in your old habits. What happened? You’re back at work and at the end of each day you can barely remember what you got done.

You go home and your spouse asks how your day was- and you kind of don’t want to tell the truth. You’re sensing your team is thinking you don’t really have a plan, only ideas…

The Secret to Hitting Business Goals

It’s fun to set big goals for your business – but why can’t you actually hit them? Here are three key things from entrepreneurs who nail their goals:

1) A goal without a plan is a wish

2) It isn’t about the goal, it’s about the habits

3) Be accountable or fail

How Do You Do It?

Let’s break these down:

1) A goal without a plan is a wish: If you just set a goal (“$X in revenue by December”), you haven’t gone deep enough. You need to specify the – People you need – Processes to build – Dependencies – Timeline Until you do that, you don’t have a plan. You have a wish.

2) It isn’t about the goal, it’s about the habits: A plan isn’t enough to hit your goals, you need to implement. Don’t treat a plan as the exception – make it the rule (or fires will consume your day). Ask: – What routines must I do every week? – What time do I need calendared?

3) Be accountable or fail You’re almost there. But not quite. There’s a reason why a New Year’s resolution to lose weight works if you get a trainer, otherwise not. Accountability. Ask: – Who is going to hold me accountable to the habits?

What’s Next

So now you see how to nail your goals: Goal -> Plan -> Habits -> Accountability Without ALL of these, you’ll whiff your plans in 2023. Or worse, just not bother having a plan and just show up to a dumpster fire in your business every day.

It doesn’t have to be this way. You can absolutely make a change. Just answer these questions:

Have I specified my goals enough?
Do I have the habits to get me there, or do I need to get help installing them?
Who is going to keep me accountable every week?

I’ve been working with entrepreneurs for over 20 years – and the ones that I see make the most progress have found answers to those questions first.

Find out how to be held accountable – and get a weekly list of short, actionable steps to scale your company with simplicity in the Boardroom Bulletin™.

December 20, 2022

How To Get More Done This Week than Last Month

The way most entrepreneurs work gets them no closer to their goals. They’re just running on a hamster wheel.

Here’s the process I’ve used for over 7,431 hours for myself and clients that guarantees you’ll beat procrastination make more progress this week than you did in the last month.

The key ISN’T something you don’t know. You know more than enough. You’re just not executing on the things that actually move the needle.

Here’s the process to be repeated every week:

1. If you have a quarterly plan, pull that out now. This ensures your work THIS week is advancing the plan. (If you don’t have a plan, keep reading and at the end of this thread you can click to find more on creating one)

2. Review what worked, and what didn’t work, in advancing your key projects last week. What blocked you? Why? What worked? Write it down This gets you in the habit of pattern recognition, so you know when you’re getting off track and what keeps you on track.

3. Prioritize your tasks by leverage. What will have the biggest impact on the company? On you? Often it will be sales and marketing. But sometimes it will be delegating – freeing more time for yourself. You need to do this every week, because things are changing.

4. Book Focus Hours in your calendar to get them done. Minimum, 5 hours/week. Focus times are sacred. Nothing can move them, and they come FIRST. Progress isn’t something that’s made by fitting it in between the crisis of the day. Progress is made by strategic things first.

Tip: if you’ve let focus times slip in the past, schedule a LIVE working session with someone who will hold you accountable. Just like a gym trainer, someone waiting for you will make a HUGE difference. (I built an app to for this, but that’s a thread for a different day).

5. At the beginning of each session, specifically declare what you’ll be working on, and the outcome from it. This keeps you focused.

6. Turn off ALL notifications, and silence your phone.

7. Work your focus hour on that one thing. No interruptions. No multitasking.

8. At the end of the hour, recap: what did you get done?

9. Repeat.

Now this will sound like one of two things to you:

A) “Whatever. It’s too simple to make a difference”

B) “I can’t possibly block uninterrupted time”

Either way is for one reason: You haven’t done it.

Try this format, and stick to it for two weeks: You’ll get more done that ACTUALLY moves the needle in those two weeks than you did in the prior two months.

Want more (and templates on how to implement)? Get a weekly list of short, actionable steps to scale your company with simplicity in the Boardroom Bulletin™.

December 6, 2022