Innovation never seems to become a dead topic. However, lately it seemed to be less favored by business leaders. And yet, it is becoming clearer that our understanding of innovation is changing. Just yesterday, a client was emphatically telling me that he’ll know his product will be innovative when people buy it. So, maybe innovation is defined by our customers?

Is it who defines it or the process that creates innovation?

In a post from the Ivey Business Journal, Henry Chesbrough posits that how innovation will be managed is evolving as new technologies allow us to connect with one another. Think about where you work. How many innovation sites have been opened over the last few years? In the Greater Boston area, it seems like one is opening all the time.

Chesbrough’s point is that it’s the process that creates innovation but there will be several changes coming in the future.

1. Innovation will be more collaborative. Collaboration will come in many forms. Between technology advances that make it easier to collaborate virtually to including customers in the iterative process of a new product, there will be ideas and opinions exchanged making fora richer experience.

2. Business models have to be adapted. Chesbrough predicts that simply having great ideas is not going to be a sustainable model for a company. He writes, “[t]hrough devices like the business-model canvas of Alex Osterwalder, organizations are learning techniques to visualize both their current business model as well as possible alternative models.”  The effects of the global recession include a re-balancing of where economic growth will come from which will also influence how business models are designed.

3. Service economies and innovation. In his last prediction, Chesbrough notes that the majority of established economies are more geared to services than products. This means that how services are created and provided to the customer must be innovated. Some companies (e.g. Lego) are already moving in this direction. Another thing that Chesbrough notes is that service companies need people but also other options to serve their customers in the best way. He suggests that creating a platform that others can use is a viable way forward in managing innovation.

What do you think?

The way we produce actually may come from how we innovate the process of innovation. This could change the business landscape quite a lot! In the next Twitter chat, #kaizenblog, the focus will be on Chesbrough’s predictions. Some of the discussion questions will include:

• How do you define innovation?
• Assuming innovation is always about new things (e.g. the iPad), are we emphasizing innovation to the detriment of satisfying customer needs?
• How will partnering with customers make innovation more possible? What is the possible downside to this collaboration?
• What could one of these future business models look like?
• What could it mean for a business to service/support their competitors’ products?
• What changes will emerging economies introduce?

There are many more questions to pursue with this topic. I hope you’ll enjoy the lively and thought-provoking conversation on the Twitter chat, #kaizenblog on Friday, July 22nd at 12pm ET/5pm BST/9am PT.

 So…now the dust has settled. The National Hockey League has completed their draft and the owners and general managers are focusing on trades. The Bruins have brought home the Stanley Cup! Let’s see what can we learn from the Boston Bruins.

1. Knowing when to be aggressive

Anyone who has watched an ice hockey game knows that it is a fast, hard-hitting sport. While watching the series, I noticed that the Bruins would choose to play one game at a high tempo and keep pressuring their opponents. In other games, they played at a slower tempo that seemed methodical at times. Much like a hockey game, there are periods of high activity when you’re looking to grow your position in the market or go head to head with a competitor. In a recent conversation with a woman business owner, she described how fully engaged she was in producing a project proposal while knowing full well she was up against one of the biggest competitors in her industry.

Teams often change the tempo of a game to play with different strengths and to get the other team off their game plan. When you’re leading a business, it makes sense to “slow down” by emphasizing business planning, research and development or using the ebb and flow of your industry to regroup and recharge with vacations or other forms of downtime. Knowing when to take the aggressive approach has to be a fully conscious choice and not based on the conventional idea that business must always be fast-paced.

2. Keeping emotions from directing play

There is a story going around Boston that Zdeno Chara, captain of the Bruins, urged his teammates to keep their emotions in check after Nathan Horton was hit hard and injured. I couldn’t find a link corroborating this story but clearly someone said something. How do I know? It’s not unknown for a team to go after a player they think went far beyond the normal bounds of play. However, the Bruins didn’t do this. Regardless if it was Chara or someone else in the locker room, the team stayed focused on winning the Cup.

With the ragged economic recovery, it is easy for our emotions to drive our decision-making. There can even be some internal stuff like personality conflicts that affect how we interact and manage our employees. Who do you have to talk with? It’s important to have someone who can give you the pep talk or talk you down when your emotions are strong. Focus your passion on what makes your business a winner.

3. Assists and goals count

There aren’t many sports that count assists. In hockey, if you pass the puck to your teammate and your teammate scores, you get credit too. Collaboration is certainly a hot topic lately in business thought. In fact, there is a book by Adam Brandenburger and Barry Nalebuff titled Co-opetition: A Revolution Mindset That Combines Competition and Cooperation; The Game Theory That is Changing the Game of Business. In my own business, I just finished a collaboration with a colleague that combined his expertise in project team management and my expertise in leadership skills and self-management. It was affirming, enlightening and allowed us to be exposed to new groups of prospects. Who could you collaborate with? How would it change your business?

4. Teamwork

There are only two actual stars on the Bruins team. Zdeno Chara being a fabulous defenseman and Tim Thomas who is an amazing goalie. They needed the other players to do their jobs on the ice. Goals had to be scored, the puck had to be cleared and the opposing team had to be kept away from scoring opportunities. The real test of teamwork is in a loss. Typically, championship teams play until the final buzzer, no matter what the score is. Another business owner was telling me that various milestones would not have been met if it hadn’t been for her great team. She explained that they all understood their roles and were willing to take direction from her which led to success. It’s probably also true that they performed well as a team since this business owner tends to be a collaborative leader and encourages feedback and initiative from her people.

5. Bring your own ice.

One image that really stuck with me was Nathan Horton pouring a bottle of water on the ice. It turned out that he brought some melted ice from Boston Garden to bring luck and the feeling that playing in Vancouver was still playing on home ice.There is probably some kind of pychological sense that it’s “yours” and feels familiar. This can be an edge when the stakes are high. As a business leader, you can “bring your own ice” too. It could be literal like a favorite pen, coffee/tea mug or your smartphone. There could be a routine you do at the office that you can replicate when you’re out. The key thing here is to be yourself, comfortable and loose.

 Winning is a collection of intentional choices and habits.

The Bruins, including their coach, thought about how they wanted to approach each series as they progressed towards the Stanley Cup Finals. While doing the same doesn’t guarantee winning every time, it does mean that you will always be ready to play and trust yourself.

Usually I avoid writing a post that refers to a holiday here in the US. Lots of readers of this blog come from all over the world so keeping themes focused on business is about inclusivity. But for this holiday, I’m making an exception.

It’s Independence Day in the US. It began with an amazing document, the Declaration of Independence, which has inspired parts of the French Declaration of Rights of Man and Citizens of 1789 as well as parts of  the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of the United Nations. If you’re into history, the ways this document has shaped America and how we think about equality is also pretty fascinating but that’s a post for someone else.

Pursuing happiness is an inalienable right.

It may be a right but why are we pursuing it?  What does that really mean? If you follow some of the recent research about entrepreneurship, it appears that 80% of startups are being founded by people over 35. After the Great Recession, there are lots of people who are in position to follow their dreams. And maybe that is what pursuing happiness is about. Take a look at your business…what is it that draws you back again and again?

Maybe I should back up a little. How do you define happiness anyway? Like a lot of emotions, it really is on a spectrum and ranges from pleasure, enjoyment, contentment, joy to ecstasy. But what fuels our happiness often is something brings meaning or an aesthetic. For example, many people find a massage makes them happy. The meaning here is one of self-care and human touch. Others feel happy when they hit a sales goal. The thrill of seeing one’s skills in action and getting the win feels good! I have a friend who celebrated a successful moment in her business by buying herself a cocktail ring. This combined her pleasure in her good performance as well as wearing a beautiful piece of jewelry.

If we parse apart the pursuit  of happiness, it seems that engaging in the process is a basic human right.

It certainly is a hunger that we all experience. Think back to your Intro to Psychology class and Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.  In his Safety Needs, Maslow noted that people need health and well-being. While we can argue whether it is truly a hierarchy or not, the point is that we need to feel positively. Within the human experience, we seek a positive way of being. Notice all of the gurus, religious/spiritual authorities and other people who are encouraging us to think  positively. (Okay, I’m in there too since healthy thinking is one of my passions.)

More and more, work has to be more than just a place you show up and complete tasks that earn us money. Having the opportunity to gain our happiness is something all people not only hunger for but are endowed with automatically. Leading your business is how you’ve created an avenue to fulfill your own desire for happiness.

Leading a business feels good.

Yeah…sure, there are days when you would really like to be doing something else. There is a problem with meeting a deadline, a customer is unhappy or there are economic pressures that are difficult to manage. On the other hand, we have the joy of making the decisions, creating the vision of where the business goes next and even encouraging what new products or services are created and sold. But underlying all of this is that sense of creating meaning and purpose. If your business is big enough, you are in a position to invite your employees to experience meaning and purpose. The combination of our aspirations and skills is a potent mix!  

How are you exercising your right to pursue happiness?

What does it mean to you?

Look, I don’t know how to say this but…it’s really a mess out there in the economy. I suppose that sounds very un-coachy of me but I just don’t adhere to the all-positive-all-the-time mentality. Paradoxical thinking is much more interesting…and challenging. Paradoxical thinking is the ability to hold opposite ideas about something and still behave in a healthy manner.

“To emphasize only the beautiful seems to be like a mathematical system that only concerns itself with positive numbers.” -Paul Klee

Going to extremes is something humans do often. Take failure for example. As you think about it, what’s your reaction? Now, some of you will notice that failure feels like some kind of vortex that sucks you in and annihilates you. For others, it is a learning experience. Are either of these perspectives really true?

Emphasizing only the beautiful or only the ugly denies us the fullness of life.

Maybe it’s a human thing. Like any organism, we prefer to avoid pain. Maybe I’m oversimplifying here (a risk one takes in any blog post) but there seems to be an extraordinary amount of energy spent in ignoring our feelings of resentment, anger, fear, doubt and disappointment. In business, it is a mantra to stay positive and not acknowledge our own negativity. However, this sucks up energy and self-discipline that could be better used for accomplishing your business goals. Simply put, just because you’re in your office doesn’t  mean you’re really at work.

This is a mistake.

Hope and optimism are certainly necessary. Why else get out of bed? We need to believe that there is something to look forward to. New clients, new product launches or simple adaptations in our business plans that spark the next growth cycle are fuel for our hope and optimism. We need to dream of better days and more fulfillment of our own selves.

Dreams are born of our purpose.

Daniel Pink has spoken and written extensively about the importance of purpose in our lives. Purpose is really about the potent combination of desires and values. Sure you know that you should be doing something that will raise your revenues. Maybe it’s something to do with marketing, redesigning what you offer or what have you. I’ve written before about how business owners are seeking to change the world in some way. One of my clients desires to help non-American professionals and their families acclimate to the US more smoothly. Her purpose is to help make the US culture more understandable and accessible. What is your purpose?

We act out our purpose when we feel our passion.

Last night, a friend asked me what I truly wanted to do in my work. As I was explaining how much I enjoy working with people and encouraging them to perform better, I became aware of my heightened energy and desire that she should fully understand how crucial this work is to me. Passion feeds the momentum when we have things we must do. Completing paperwork, reviewing our financials or whatever it is that makes your eyes glaze over is much more palatable. Passion also enables us to just see our venture through when it is actually a huge undertaking. For a great example, read this interview with Peter Thiel. He would never have started PayPal?

The paradox of passion is it can blind us to potential and actual consequences. It can morph into a sense of desperation that “I must make my business work.” In this uncertain economic climate, doubt can eat away at your passion and turn your business into a job. What refreshes you? What keeps you engaged with your business?

Navigating the uncertainty

At the end of the day, paradoxical thinking is key. There is a balance between acknowledging both the negative and positive. Some days are more down days and, conversely, some are more up. To just say, “everything is all right and I’m learning” is denying the opportunity to embrace the complicated economic environment we are all working in. Let’s be clear, it’s not all bad and it’s not all good. Our purpose sustains us on the bad days. Our passion is the completely unreasonable experience of wanting our businesses to make a difference. We need both of these! Optimism and hope are like the early shoots of green peeking through in early spring. Go beyond the beautiful. There will always be uncertainty. Embrace the uneveness and wisdom of paradoxical thinking.

 Please share your thoughts here or on the Twitter chat, #kaizenblog (Friday, June 24th at 12pm ET) about this topic. I’d like to hear what you have to say.

grey, hue, warmth-

Recent #kaizenblog chats got me thinking about how easy it is to go along with the fast pace of business. This fast pace seems to evoke a sense that we are machines placed in our workplaces to keep things functional. There are more and more words in our vocabulary that speak to machines and technology. We get amped up about new initiatives and ideas. How do you unplug? People tell me they just don’t have the bandwidth to take on new projects. We can dial-in people for meetings and be undertooled when we lack skills or resources. But what happens to work-life balance if we allow ourselves to be seen as machines?

Are we trying to be machines?

In a recent post on Small Business Trends, Susan Payton reported that the number of small business owners planning to take a vacation was a little under 50%. These are the ones who are planning to go on vacation. These leaves about 54% who are not taking time away from their business. While it isn’t clear that these business owners are truly going to work every day from now until the beginning of September, it is clear that a great  many feel apprehensive about leaving their businesses.

Does this 54% expect that they can act like machines and sustain their performance with no ill effects? Machines are designed to work nonstop. They don’t lose problem-solving skills to fatigue and anxiety. They also don’t feel resentful when other machines are shut off until needed again. People do suffer consequences when fatigued and do feel resentful when they perceive they are stuck. But we still expect ourselves to perform like robots in a perfect, predictable and uninterrupted way.

Do robots have a work-life balance?

There is always talk about work-life balance. Is it supposed to be 50/50, 60/ 40 or some other split? Is it supposed to favor the off time or the work time? One of my favorite ways to explaining work-life balance is a simple exercise.

Try this for a  moment…Stand on one foot for 1 minute and notice the adjustments your body makes as you stand there. Now, if you were a robot, you would have been programmed to stand perfectly balanced throughout the exercise. And how often is preventive maintenance performed on a robot or machine? Yes, even machines get downtime.

So what gives?

Well, you do for starters. Research has demonstrated that chronic stress is a great trigger for serious health problems such as cardiovascular disease and depression as well as links to cancer. Sounds pretty nasty, right? You may have good reasons for eliminating your vacation this summer. There may be good economic reasons why you can’t get away for an extended period of time. Just this week, one of my clients was expressing worry that taking even a week off could cause a major project deadline to be missed. Sure, these are real issues but…

The challenge is identifying how you are getting sucked into trying to be a machine and not a person.

Rather than getting all worked up that your work-life balance is out of whack, ask yourself about the words you use. Do they include references to machines? Are you feeling pressured to stay on the job because something might happen? Some people find out to their dismay that no one missed them while they took a long weekend. Sounds backwards, right? However, when you start believing that you must be present continuously for your business, you are allowing yourself to become robotic. The work gets done but that’s all. Innovation is hard to create with a tired mind. It’s easier to get aggravated or despondent. How does this serve your business or you?

Do you need to be always on?

Even in the darkest moments, it is important to give yourself some human time. What would happen if you decided to end every Friday at 3pm, no matter what? Imagine the experience of shutting your smartphone off for your lunchtime. Work-life balance isn’t easy and, frankly, it can change depending on where you are in your business cycle. It’s certainly tempting to give you suggestions on how to adapt your work-life balance so it is healthier. But that would be wrong. it’ s more important for you to take the time and ask yourself some questions. Such as, if you, the business owner, work like a machine, what message are you sending to your peers and your staff? Is this really what you want to say?

What is  your definition of work-life balance?

How does using words that evoke machinery or technology affect how we think about ourselves at work?

From emerging markets to established markets, there are a lot of challenges impacting our businesses. If you read The Economist, their outlook is definitely not rosy. Natural disasters, scarce jobs and rising costs are in the news.  In the recent March Discover Small Business Watch, it was reported that 14% of small businesses “may not recover”. If that isn’t enough, there could be internal challenges that could also impact your business. 

How do you know when it’s time to go?

In our next #kaizenblog chat, we are talking about when to close the doors on your business. To start the conversation, Fox Business Small Business Center had an interesting list of reasons that it may be time to close your business.

1. Loss of passion

2. Call it quits when the potential reward is no longer worth the risk

3. You’re taking the skeptical view of everything

4. No repeat customers=no new customers

5. Read the signs

6. Is your pride or optimism steering you wrong?

7. Are you all in?

8. Feedback is everything

9. Believing that quitting is an option

10. Be careful of demand

Could you throw the towel in too soon?

Turnarounds are hard work. Each of the reasons listed in the Fox Business Small Business Center aren’t necessarily death knells on their own. It is our choices that make thing permanent. We have to take stock and tell ourselves the truth of what is happening to us on a personal level. We may be experiencing personal crises involving our health or members of our families. Sometimes we reach a milestone that makes us take a look at where we are in our lives. Maybe we need to hire someone who has certain skills that will complement our own. Maybe we need to fire someone who is not performing according to our expectations. The interesting thing about this list is how many of the items actually lead back to the leader’s thinking.

So how do you know if it’s time to quit and move on or get cracking on a turnaround?

What does quitting really mean?

*Join us to discuss when quitting makes the most sense on the Twitter chat, #kaizenblog on Friday, May 6th at 12pm ET/5 pm BST/9am PT.

It’s been awhile since I’ve written about living business plans. (This post might be a good place to start if you’re not familiar with this type of business plan). While my mantra is “Make your business plan usable for you”, it’s not always clear how to design this plan so to fits you. I remember being interviewed by an interested small business owner who wanted to know if she had to use an outline form. The short answer was, and is, no. So what can you use instead?

There certain parts that are necessary so that this document actually reflects that you are running a business.

No matter how visual, linear or whatever ways you write out your business plan, you still have to include:

1. Executive Summary

2. Services and products offered

3. Marketing strategies

4. Desired client profile

5. Financials

6. Company goals and objectives

This is entirely about how you work.

Keep in mind that this is not the business plan you’re showing to the bank or investors. It exists so you can keep focused as you lead and manage your business. It’s way too easy to get sidetracked by the day to day work, exciting opportunities or negative events. There’s a host of stuff out there that can get you off your game.  Couple this with your thinking and learning styles and it makes sense to write or draw your business plan your way.  And, of course, any goals that you include will include specifics, measurements and deadlines 

So, what are my choices?

Style 1:  Outline form- This is probably the most traditional.  With an outline format, list each category and use bullet points to specify the details. 

Style 2:  Fish Diagram-This style reads left to right with each category branching out into the specific components.   The Executive Summary is the “head” of the fish and the other parts of your business plan make up the body of the fish.  This diagram creates a visual image of what you desire for your small business.  The lines coming off the “body” of the fish are the details that you want to remember and/or implement as actions steps.

 Style 3:  Bubble Chart- This method is well suited for people who like to take a creative and/or visual approach to goal setting.  Write your executive summary in the center bubble and in the radiating bubbles, write the other sections of your business plan.  Each radiating bubble contains important details or the goals you wish to execute. The bubble chart allows you to keep track of  each section while having fun with your strategic and operational planning. 

Try out the different styles suggested here to see what works best for you. 

Your business plan is supposed to be a guide and a reference. It’s a live document that you can review, writing comments in the margins, scratch out what you don’t want, add on new ideas and use continuously. Consider how you learn.  Do outlines make things sensible to you or do you prefer pictures?  Do you tend to think in a step-wise way or in “stream of consciousness”?  These important details will aid you in designing how you think about and plan the actions in your business plan.  The cliché, “Keep it simple” also applies here because simplicity will prevent or manage feelings of overwhelm or distractibility.  It makes no sense for your business plan to become forgotten in a desk drawer or a computer file that it never opened. It’s a tool to keep you focused and motivated as you lead and manage your small business to successful outcomes. Make your business plan a living business plan!

What style makes sense to you?

What suggestions do you have that would help other small business owners create a written business plan?

The beauty of #kaizenblog is how people engage with ideas. Sometimes an idea bubbles up during the conversation and a topic becomes identified. This past week, the topic of “creating demand” was suggested. It came out of a side conversation about the perception of being “sales-y” or pushy. Interestingly, there was a post by Mairead Kelly on Bloggertone along this same theme.

Creating Demand=Smarmy, pushy sales style?

I hear this dilemma from the micro-small businesses. They worry that they are lacking integrity if they ask someone for their business. One of the questions that really muddies the sales message is the offer to “help.” Okay, maybe it’s me and I’m supposed to assume that the help being offered has a price tag. However, it just feels like a mixed message. Are you offering your help or are you selling to me?

Creating demand is about creating want?

Apple has a way of making people want their gadgets. How many iPhones, iPads and iPods do you see in a given day? Do we need these things? Nope but we want them. Without the resources and mythology of Apple, sole proprietors and other small business owners have to discover other ways to get people curious and wanting what they offer. Some people will tell you that you have to develop a freemium (a product that has no cost like a white  paper, podcast or video that you give away). Other advice will tell you that you have to engage in social media or use public speaking to communicate with your customer. Other people will recommend that you research a market and develop a product or service that acts as an aspirin. Then there is always ploys like “limited time offer” or “only X allowed per customer”. Do you follow this person’s advice?

Swirling emotions, whirling thoughts

Between the distaste and worry that you might sound like a cheesy, stereotypical salesperson and which tools to choose from, it is easy to wonder about the process of creating demand. Clearly, you need customers or you don’t have a business. You’ve put a lot of thought into what you offer and it does provide a valuable solution.

But is creating demand really a cynical exercise that business owners must do? Or is it something else entirely?

*Join us for the Twitter chat, #kaizenblog, as we discuss “Creating Demand: Selling To People or Cynical Exercise?” this Friday at 12pm ET/5pm GMT/9am PT

We’re all looking for the magic bullet of business success. If I do X, then my business will hit the big time. Or if I do Y, my business will never have a worry again. It was my pleasure to invite my friend, Les to be our guest host on #kaizenblog when we took on the idea that there is one must-have for business success. Les McKeown is the President & CEO of Predictable Success, the leading advisor on accelerated business growth. He has has started over 40 companies in his own right, and was the founding partner of an incubation consulting company that advised on the creation and growth of hundreds more organizations worldwide.He is also is the author of the WSJ and USA Today Best-seller, “Predictable Success: Getting Your Organization On the Growth Track – and Keeping It There”

So we jumped into this conversation with a framing post by Les, “The First Lego Piece” . The actual conversation started with How do you describe a great business? Les described “a great business is one that it truly sustainable – by which I  mean specifically it has 3 things: 1. consistently profitable; 2. mostly fun to work in, and…most importantly, 3. Not dependent soley on the founder/owners for its existence.”

• Parissa Behnia: “a1 beyond profitable, ‘m not sure it can be described..but sometimes it can be felt…profitable but awful environment is not sustainable long term. there are human needs that are abstract”
• Amber Cleveland: “A1 Great biz knows their Mission, Values,  -everything they do is in line w/ -they live their brand.”
• Richard Winter : “A1 A great business to me is where vision leads to efficient execution resulting in profits”
• Caroline Di Diego: “Profitable +++ with great group of people ~ the people make you profitable”

Since sustainability seemed to resonate with many of the chat participants, we wondered, What are the fundamentals of growing a sustainable business? Les identified, “focus, discipline, consistency, and perseverance. The underlying product or service & even the funding don’t  matter in the end.”

• Richard Winter “A2 Scalable infrastructure, desirable product or service and a commitment to customer service”
• Rayna Fagen: “might be 3 perspectives to this–what company mgmt views, what the customer views, & the employees”
• Stephen Denny: A2 I think fundamental element of sustainable biz is “grow slow” – counterintuitive, but seems to be predictor”
• Judy Gombita: “A2. Knowing the market before the (potential) customers/clients know it! (Boom, Bust, and Echo)”
• Frederique Murphy: ”A2 Passion, Loving your niche and knowing your why; your why is powerful driver, the fuel for a sustainable journey”
• Linda Naiman : “A2 A great biz is also well designed: products, services, processes, biz mode, policies”
• Cathy Larkin: “Q2 sustainable biz pillars? Great product,  a biz that knows its market/customers & adapts when needed”

During this question, there was an active conversation about passion and if it can be hindrance or help. Well worth checking out the transcript (Transcript for #kaizenblog – Whats1MustHaveForSuccessfulBiz) around the 5:30 mark to see the details.

Given the back and forth about passion and financials, What is the most essential building block of a great business? Les explained, “For me, it is incredibly mundane, It’s what I call…your ‘personal processing ecosystem’. In other words, the ability to handle 3 things: 1. Time management 2. Priority management and 3. Crisis management. Without those, you can’t grow a sustainable business, because you’ll be constantly derailed by the mundane.”

• Stephen Denny: “Greatest building block is having the right people. The 20x developers, the core team”
• Parissa Behnia “Q3 knowing you don’t know something and need help, seek answers”
• Amber Cleveland: “A3 Most essential building block – MVV (Mission, Vision, Values) build your foundation from this”
• Cathy Larkin: “A3 I think one over looked piece of yr 3 points is Attitude. not polyanna but positive I can SOLVE this…”
• Richard Winter: “A3 A truly scalable infrastructure that doesn’t require significant hires in non-customer facing disciplines”
• Elaine Rogers: “A3 trust in self as a builder of business is so important before all else (I believe)”

It was great seeing everyone really engage with the ideas being shared and exploring Les’ advice on developing a successful business. We moved a little deeper into the conversation by asking, How does the fundamental building block become the foundation of a sustainable business? Les described, “Time, priority and crisis mgt produce the right environment for growing your sustainable business. In business, challenges should be challengs. Without a personal processing ecosystem, *everything* is a challenge.” This response seem to resonate with everyone in the chat. The focus on implementation (or execution) really brought home how the ingredients of vision, passion, planning and the other business tools combine to create a sustainable business.

How would you answer the discussion questions?

What do you have in place that will lead to a sustainable business?

When you’ve been in business for a while, you look back at the early days and remember what you did. Have you ever wondered what you were thinking? Maybe even had a rueful chuckle at your own expense about what you didn’t know? I think a lot of us have done that.

All kinds of people start businesses. Some are excited about their idea and figure they’ll learn as they go. Others do a lot of research before they even start. While these are extremes on both ends, where did you fall? I can’t tell you how many people have told me about wanting to have their fantasy lives made real. This is not to say that this can’t happen. Frankly, it’s embedded in my work with small business owners that everyone finds a way to have their dreams and aspirations become everyday reality.

But sometimes getting there has a few potholes:

• You need money to start a business. The amount needed can depend on what industry you’re in. Some businesses are virtual so you might need enough to pay for the initial founding costs and emergency funds. Franchises, affiliates and even stand-alone businesses have startup costs that can be overlooked when it seems like your chosen business is your golden ticket.
• It is hard work to build up your first client base. One of my early clients experienced this one. She wanted to be a personal chef but discovered that she would have to do a lot of networking to get her name out there. This became disheartening for her and closed down her business even before she really did anything.
• To get VC funding, you have to bootstrap, bring your idea to market and put in a great deal of work before they invest. It can be a long slog for some. The magic idea that you just have to pitch and people throw money at you is just that, magic. I know this one entrepreneur in bio-energy started off with one idea and discovered he had to revamp his technology to make it easier to sell and prove that it is viable. The great part of this story is that he won a business plan contest and A round funding. When we last spoke, he was just about to receive his next round of funding.
• You’re going to work more hours than you expected. It’s not that you won’t have flexible hours. It’s just that the hours may amount to more than you imagined.
• There are behaviors and expectations that you’re supposed to know already. Little things like how to arrange a mutually satisfying alliance with someone, how to combine business and a recreational activity (golf, tennis, boating, etc.) or asking someone to hire you.

There are definitely more potholes that we encounter as we work for ourselves. If you haven’t experienced some of the potholes I mentioned above, think of what tripped you up along the way.

If we knew then what we know now, what would we do differently?

Are there any “dirty little secrets” that you wish you knew from the beginning about owning your own business?

*Join us for the Twitter chat, #kaizenblog on this Friday at 12pm ET/5pm GMT/9am PT for our topic.”The Dirty Little Biz Secrets You Wish You Knew From the Start”. We’d love to hear what you’ve observed, experienced and learned since you started in business.