One of the biggest challenges and common frustrations of any leader is to get everyone on your team on the same page. Use whatever metaphor you want. Things like “all rowing in the same direction” or “everyone reading from the same hymnal” and hundreds of other cliches. At the end of the day, it comes down to what you focus on as a Leader. Because whatever you focus on is what your team will focus on.
One of the biggest challenges for a business owner looking to transition their business to the next generation is figuring out who to transition the business to and how to know when that next generation is ready to take over. What does it look like when someone is ready to take over the company? Will you just know it when you see it? Should you have the next generation just follow you around for six months or a couple of years to learn by osmosis?
One of the things we help our clients do is buy companies. We usually start the process off by having our clients “turning over rocks.” Those “rocks” can include everything from talking to business brokers to responding to online listings or ones in the newspaper to sending out unsolicited letters to a target group.
One of the annual traditions of business ownership is making some tax planning decisions, usually late in the year. It includes things like buying equipment or vehicles to take advantage of accelerated depreciation through a Section 179 tax deduction or some other accounting jargon. But those aren’t really the surprises we’re talking about. We’re talking about those surprise tax bills you get from your CPA where you have less than a couple of weeks to come up with significant cash to pay your bill.
We all have doubts. It’s only human. Some of us are just better at hiding those doubts than others. One phrase that is often difficult for business owners to utter is “I don’t know.” There can be a pressure as an owner to know all the answers. Whether that pressure is real or perceived doesn’t matter because you still feel it. It doesn’t matter if you’ve been in business for a few weeks or several decades, chances are there are times when you feel like you’re in over your head. So what’s a business owner to do about it?
Well, it’s almost here. 2020 is nearly finished. And there’s promising news on the vaccine front with COVID so things are looking up heading into 2021. But there are several changes we’ve all had to make in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. As we head fully into the planning season, the question becomes what changes do you keep from this year going into next year? What changes are happening worldwide that are going to impact you and your business?
We all have lots of things to be thankful for, even in this crazy pandemic COVID year of 2020! Part of the beauty about this time of year is we get the chance to reflect on the year that was as we pull together our plans for the year to come. So our question tonight has to do with how you show your thankfulness to people. Because it’s good to be thankful, but it’s even better to show your thankfulness.
Nothing like burying the answer in the headline! Yes, keep it simple. The best way to get things done is to get started! Get started in pulling together your plan. We have found too many people who are stuck in neutral. This has been exacerbated during this year of the COVID pandemic.
Are you more comfortable asking for permission or forgiveness? Not sure? Do you tend to just do what you think is right and deal with the consequences or do you try to get everyone else on board before doing stuff?
We have been blessed to not only achieve success in our own personal lives and careers, but we’ve also had the benefit of working closely with many other successful people in all walks of life. This includes people in everything from business to politics to non-profits.