Please ensure Javascript is enabled for purposes of website accessibility

Tag: business advice

A New Year’s resolution for your business

It started before Thanksgiving this year, the relentless pounding of the self-improvement drums. 

Subscribe to this delivery service for fresh healthy food! Buy this exercise bike to get in shape! Use this gum to quit smoking!

New Year’s resolutions are creeping closer to becoming Halloween resolutions with every passing year, and for good reason.

The new year brings the promise of change and the hope for a better year. Making a commitment to focus that hope and promise into an achievable goal is a worthwhile exercise. 

But are you giving the same attention to your business?  

After all, there’s no relentless message of business improvement like there is for personal improvement. TV commercial breaks and full magazine spreads aren’t hammering you with the need to improve your business processes and production pipeline. 

Frankly, that’s a shame. Because if there’s a universal truth for business owners, it’s that if you’re not growing, you’re failing. And while we pour all this focus and money into our personal lives to reach for personal improvement, our businesses need just as much attention. 

So, This year, make one more resolution. In addition to the personal growth and change you’re committing to, make this year the one when you finally get the consistent results from your marketing that you deserve

Optimize Marketing Success 

This exercise is tailor-made for the beginning of the year. What do your seasonal sales look like for the past few years? Do they follow the same pattern each year, with similar peaks and valleys? 

Now a follow up question: does your marketing plan for 2022 account for those peaks and valleys?  

After all, marketing isn’t a light switch. If you wait until the business is slow and then try to find the least expensive way to quickly drive new customers, only two outcomes are likely: either the marketing doesn’t work quickly enough to keep you busy during that slow period…or more likely, it keeps you busy and bogged down with low-value, discount-seeking customers.  

Of course, if you have a plan to send coordinated messages to the right kind of customer before you hit your slow period, you can ensure you have a steady stream of customers all year long. More importantly, you break out of the same seasonal ruts that take the steam out of your sales every year. 

The word “coordinated” is doing a lot of heavy lifting in that last paragraph, though. Because a stark reality for many small businesses is that marketing is usually so scattershot that coordinating budgets and messages and plans across multiple companies is only possible with a herculean effort by the business owner.  

When one company handles direct mail, another social media, another your website, and another your pay-per-click – all chosen because of price instead of effectiveness – then getting each on the same page, with the same messages and goals, is…difficult. 

It doesn’t have to be that way. 

Make 2022 Your Year 

Right now, the whole year is in front of you. 2022 is full of promise and hope. But whether this year goes any differently from years past depends entirely on whether you will commit to turning that hope and promise into reality. 

Will this be the year you finally make and execute a plan to grow? Or will this be another year of scattershot marketing and inconsistent results? 

If you’re ready to finally take control and make 2022 your best year ever, the only thing left to do is find a marketing agency to help you achieve your goals. Look for an agency who can help you attack your seasonal lulls with data-driven results, the kind who seeks to understand your business and customers before helping you create a plan for success. 

More importantly, look for an agency who produces consistent results. Marketing should be about long-term success, and if you can find an agency with a long track record of getting results, you’re far more likely to have found a partner for taking your business to the next level. 

And when you find that company? Make sure you ask for case studies–learn about their long-term clients and why those clients have been with them year after year. 

No matter what, though, use this opportunity to reflect on your victories from 2021 and your hopes and goals for 2022. Head into the new year with a renewed purpose – 2022 will be your best year ever! 

David Rogers is president of Automated Marketing Group (AMG), the recipient of 10 “Best of Colorado” awards from ColoradoBiz in the past seven years. Clients using AMG – including some from the beginning, more than two decades ago – keep choosing AMG because they get consistently excellent results. Year after year, decade after decade, AMG has used data-driven analytics to target high quality customers with laser-focused messages to drive customers who are ready to buy. Learn more and register for a free marketing assessment at https://automatedmarketinggroup.com/cobiz.  

You’re not building a company; you’re building a community

Communities–whether families, clubs, churches, neighborhoods, or towns–form around relationship, trust, common values, and shared interests or experience.

Great companies are built on the same characteristics, with the addition of common purpose: to serve clients.

If you are a leader, you’re building more than a company; you are building a community.  

Just as your company is unique, so is the community you develop. More than the products or services you provide, it’s the sense of community you create that attracts and retains top talent.

The best business leaders put a lot of thought and effort into building communities that work for members, in this case employees. They treat their employees with the same care they treat customers. 

Employees are your internal customers. You want customers to return again and again to buy your products/services—and you want your employees to show up at work, day after day.

When both customers and employees are eager, that’s when you create business success. Like customers, employees are unique individuals. They experience your community differently and have different needs that should be catered to. 

When you take good care of your employees, they will take good care of your customers. And success follows.  

You create the best experiences for employees and customers alike when listening and communication serve as the pillars of your community. 

Today’s employees want leaders who not only listen, but hear, and they expect leaders to communicate with honesty and transparency. They want communities where respect, fairness, inclusiveness, flexibility, and celebration are shared values. 

Building the kind of workplace people want today requires leaders to switch their thinking from “culture” and “engagement” to a focus on employee experience and community. Everyone knows what a community is and how it feels to be in one.  

In the past, we haven’t thought of work as being personal, but it is, as is everything about our lives.

The best leaders realize they need to think about their employees holistically, recognizing the reality that people bring their whole selves to work every day.

They arrive with their needs, tragedies, health issues, family problems, lengthy commutes, and other stresses on their minds—as well as the desire to share their achievements and good news in their hearts.

What’s going on inside isn’t always evident on the outside and that’s why leaders need to create environments where everyone feels safe and comfortable being themselves.  

 Added to this complexity is that everyone isn’t working in the same place anymore. Many leaders wonder whether it’s still possible to build community in our new world of remote and hybrid environments. It is. Flexibility is the key, and technology tools help achieve a positive experience in every kind of circumstance.

Let employees discover for themselves how they work best. Listen to what they need and what they want, communicate clear expectations and guidelines, and then trust them to be productive in the way they are most comfortable working.

Working remotely can eliminate many of the personal issues employees have to deal with when being onsite, for example the high cost of childcare and caring for elderly or disabled relatives. Without those stresses, people are free to focus on getting the job done.  

After the past two years, people are exhausted, burned out, and waiting for the next shoe to drop. A sense of being out of control is shared by everyone in your company’s community.

You can help them get through this period by creating an employee experience where people come first. Continuously model the values and behaviors you want to see and show genuine interest in your people. 

When you dare to care for employees, you’re creating a resilient community that attracts top talent and retains them through current challenges and thrives on the other side of them.  

Kathleen Quinn Votaw Kathleen Quinn Votaw is CEO of TalenTrust. Her first book, Solve the People Puzzle; How High-Growth Companies Attract and Retain Top Talent, debuted in February 2016. Her firm has achieved several awards, including recognition from Inc.5000 in 2015 and 2016. She speaks frequently and advises CEOs on trends in talent and how to be strategic in developing a people strategy. Kathleen has served on several nonprofit boards including Colorado Companies to Watch and ACG-Denver. Reach Kathleen at [email protected] or 303-838-3334.

5 ways to simplify your life

Shutterstock 1904263219

The hustle and bustle of this holiday season can wreak havoc on your stress levels. Stress is the power you give to outside circumstance to define what you believe you are capable of handling successfully.

 According to Harvard Medical, 80% of disease or more is stress related. Yet, our society rewards the hustle which is ignited by drive and determination to succeed.

This is all fine and well until that drive and determination start to rob you of healthy habits that allow you to thrive and survive: breathe, laugh, connect to the present moment and the people you love, healthy sleep patterns, food, exercise, and meditation.  

Drive and determination demand a certain level of speed at which you are able to accomplish what you want to achieve. When you drop in the extra components connected to the holiday season, distraction slithers into the picture and discernment around what is essential and what is non-essential diminishes.

As distraction increases, discernment decreases and along with it so does productivity as you flit from one shiny object to the next. The solution? Get back to the basic behaviors that align with what you value most. How? Make a conscious effort to create simplicity in your life.  

An example of simplicity comes from a childhood memory. When I was five years old, I noticed one acorn on the ground, it captivated my attention so much so that I picked it up and put it in my big red wagon. I saw another one, and another one and with each acorn that I found I added it to my collection of acorns in my red wagon. I was determined to fill the wagon all the way to the top with acorns. At first I was distracted by the daunting task in front of me; however, as I focused on picking up the next acorn, I lost track of time. After two hours, I looked at my red wagon and it was completely full of acorns.

Fast forward 31 years later I found myself walking through the experience of advanced cancer. As the doctor described the next few years of treatment, which included a double mastectomy, 2 years of chemotherapy, 14 surgeries, 6 weeks of radiation and experimental treatments I found myself completely distracted and overwhelmed by all of it.

 I was reminded of the simplicity of my red wagon memory when a colleague of mine sent me a card that said: “A journey of a thousand miles begins with one step.” _______________. It’s true, I have evidence that demands the verdict: when you focus on the simplicity of your next step, distraction decreases and discernment increases. 

As I focused on the next step (the next acorn to pick up) without giving free rent between my two ears to the distraction of the past and fears around the future, my ability to productively move through the challenging season increased substantially.  

So, what does that mean for you? Are you focusing on all of the acorns you want to pick up and your huge empty red wagon? OR are you focusing on the one acorn that’s effortlessly in your reach to pick up and put in your wagon? Your choice of focus on the simplicity of your next action step will decrease the distraction that fuels overwhelm and stress, and increase productivity. As much as we think that multi-tasking is a badge of honor, it’s not. In fact, when we try to do more than one activity at a time, our brains get fatigued and stress increases.  

What’s the upside for you when it comes to the hustle in life? What do you get from that? A sense of purpose? Significance? “When I’m hustling about, I feel important, I’m busy getting things done” …so that? “So that I’ll be able to do I really want to do: exercise, meditate, get a good night of sleep, read a book, spend time with the people I love and care about, get outside, enjoy the moments.” The problem with connecting your hustle to your desire to do what you really want to do is that too often than not, you never get there. Hustle gets replaced with more hustle. Your identity gets hijacked by your to-do list. 

“When I am what I do, when I don’t, I’m not.”
– Wayne Dyer

You are the only one to who can stop the madness and get back to picking up one acorn at a time and before you know it, your red wagon will be full. You are the gatekeeper when it comes to halting the hustle behaviors that are robbing you of simplicity which gives room for authentic joy and refreshment. Stop it.

When the doctors told me they were trying to get me 5 more years of life at 38 years old with 3 young children, the hustle was halted for me, my business, my life being important, my full calendar of essential to do items and meeting…all of it came to a screeching halt. I was forced to stop and in the midst of it all, something magical started to happen, the wonderment of life started to sprout through the concrete of what I thought was essential and important in life.  

Don’t wait until your life is halted for you before you choose to step in and resurrect the simplicity of enjoying the moment of life in front of your face. 

As Eckart Tolle wisely declared in his work The Power of Now: “There is no moment of life that occurs outside the present moment.” As soon as we start to think outside of the moment at hand, we lose something very essential to our sense of wonderment: the sweet spot of our next breath which activates the part of our brain that triggers creative solutions. Stress goes down quickly when the mind is fully present to the task at hand.  

Below are five ways to expand simplicity this holiday season: 

  1. Stop and intentionally make time for the people you care about in life. Simplify it: text or email one co-worker a day a few words of appreciation. Your greatest sense of purpose is in direct proportion to your ability to show up and encourage people around you.
  2. Rather than using social media to post what you think about this or that situation, use it to send simple messages of encouragement and inspiration. Reduce the time spent on those platforms in order to recover time to spend appreciating the life in front of your face.
     
  3. Intentionally look for the beauty in life: people laughing, children playing, sunsets, random acts of kindness. Be the one who intentionally creates beauty: laugh more, hum, whistle, sing. Each of those activities actually reduces the stress hormone in your body. 
  4. As you are creating your to-do list for the week. Inject time for personal refreshment. Simplify it: 3 times during the day I will get up and go outside, declare 3 things I am grateful for and breathe deeply for 1-3 minutes. Be creative. 
  5. Simplify your mind by intentionally participating in a negativity fast. It takes 3 positive thoughts to override the damage in our minds from 1 negative thought. Stop complaining. Complaining actually shrinks your brain, whether you are the one complaining or you hang out with people who complain. Simplify your life and surround yourself with people who speak into the possible and who practice grateful living.  

Be very careful what you think because your body is listening. As you Intentionally seek to create moments of simplicity, calm and presence will result in inner peace along with an ability to discern what is essential and what is non-essential. Meditate on what is good, true, beautiful, excellent and praiseworthy more today than yesterday.

Enjoy your holiday season.  

 Lauren E Miller, has a Masters in Adult Education with a Certification in Human Resources Development. She has personally conquered two of life’s top stressors at the same time, advanced cancer and divorce. Now a Stress Relief Expert, Award Winning Author, HRD Trainer and Certified Sherpa Executive Coach, Lauren provides process driven programs and custom trainings with structure, guidance, support and accountability designed to create positive change in behavior resulting in positive impact on business (IOB) and life purpose.  Explore more at http://LaurenEMiller.com.

What is a customer-centric business model?

Customers are the lifeblood of any organization. Without them, your business will not survive.

This is why it is so important to inject a customer-first attitude in all business planning and execution areas.

Customer-centric business models are one of the best ways to do this and create a sustainable path for the organization and its revenue streams. 

This article will discuss what a customer-centric business model is and why modern organizations should embrace them. 

What is a customer-centric business model? 

A customer-centric business model is one where the organization’s primary focus centers on its customers’ needs. This means that everything from product development to marketing campaigns is done with their target audience in mind.

As a result, the customer experience, both during and after a purchase, becomes paramount for the success of any level within an enterprise. 

So what makes up a customer-centric business model? 

Most successful companies have at least four key components that make up the foundation for any successful organization: 

  1. Having an engaging product or service. 
  1. Providing excellent customer service and support. 
  1. Building opportunities to grow its brand awareness through tiered marketing campaigns. 
  1. Efficient operating processes across multiple departments. 

The importance of empathy and trust in relationship building 

Customer behavior is evolving faster than ever, and if you want to keep up, your brand must ensure they are appealing to them in creative ways. One successful tactic for doing so is to focus on displaying empathy and building trust in customer engagement. 

Customers are becoming increasingly impatient, mobile-first, and want to feel understood by the brands they interact with. This is why you must build relationships based on mutual respect, trust, and transparency.

It begins by showing empathy towards their needs but should also be reinforced through your communication efforts. 

In most cases, consumers value honesty above all else regarding how businesses approach them about an issue or problem.

Empathy can be seen as a humanizing factor for brands that ultimately helps foster stronger customer relationships over time—something necessary if you’re looking to attain long-term success within your industry.

The process starts with understanding what drives people emotionally so you can speak to them in a way that appeals directly to their needs. 

Once you’ve established trust and rapport, it’s essential to focus on maintaining open communication with your audience. When designing a marketing strategy that helps drive conversions, keep this in mind because there is nothing worse than feeling like you’re being left in the dark by companies whose services or products you use every day. 

By understanding what drives people emotionally and establishing relationships based on mutual respect, brands can ultimately build lasting connections with their customers, leading to long-term success within an industry. 

How businesses can embrace a customer-centric approach 

There are many reasons to embrace a customer-centric approach. First, a more upfront focus on the consumer helps your business grow.

Second, it can help improve sales, build loyalty with customers, increase profits for shareholders of businesses who also impact employees’ experience in their workplace.

Below are some best practices organizations can follow when taking a customer-first approach to their business approach. 

Focus on customers, not just products 

A business focused on its customer base will be more likely to create products and services that are useful for them. You should make your audience feel like they matter—whether you’re communicating with them directly or using advertising campaigns.

Putting yourself in the shoes of consumers and focusing can help you think about how to keep up with trends and meet needs before they become widespread problems.  

However, focusing on the needs of your customers also means thinking about the broader needs of the industry you’re in and how your business can support it.

This includes creating better sustainability practices throughout the organization to reduce your carbon footprint, even in digital settings.

One way this can be achieved is by implementing better UX design principles that reduce demand on internet usage and focus on making content more discoverable for customers. 

Understand your customers’ real needs 

Customers don’t always know exactly how to solve their problems or tell businesses what products would work best for them. A business that focuses on its clients is more likely to produce quality solutions through research and development (R&D).

Companies who innovate by working closely with user groups can create new ways of satisfying consumer needs before consumers even realize that those needs exist!

This process works better than trying to guess ahead of time all possible humanities wants and desires based on surveys or questionnaires that only give a snapshot of isolated desires at one point in time instead of overall evolving trends. 

Invest in better customer service training 

When businesses invest in better customer service training, they care about their customers and want to provide the best possible experience. Customers will appreciate this investment, and companies will find their customer base growing because of it. 

Investing in better customer service training is an excellent way for any business to embrace a more consumer-centric approach while maintaining company values. 

Businesses should be investing in better ways to treat customers, such as offering sales incentives or other rewards for excellent reviews. This provides value to the customer and benefits the business by increasing recommendations from happy clients!

Of course, companies must never lose sight of their core values; however, an investment in better services can pay dividends without compromising what makes your brand unique. 

In today’s world, it can be challenging to find a company or service that you trust. Many companies leave their customers in the dark by either not communicating with them when they should or just abandoning them altogether.

By embracing a customer-centric business model and better understanding what drives customers emotionally, brands can ultimately build lasting connections that can lead to long-term business success. 

The 4-step process to selling your business

If you’ve decided it’s time to sell your business, it’s imperative that you take your time and do things right.

Skipping steps in the process or hurrying over paperwork assuming that everything will be fine could land you in legal hot water and owe you money.

Here are the four steps in the process of selling your business that you should follow for a successful transaction so that you can avoid the most common mistakes and disputes.  

Have Your Business Professionally Valued 

You want to get a fair market price for your business. You or the buyer may think you know its value, but frequently, both the buyer and the seller are a long way off.

Hiring a local business appraiser to perform a valuation of your business is essential to ensuring you are getting paid what it’s worth.

The appraiser’s job is to conduct a thorough investigation of the business’s financial assets and debts and draft a report detailing its value. This objective appraisal can help you and the buyer get on the same page about a fair price.  

It’s essential to take this step at the beginning of the process so that the parties know the baseline value of your business from the start. It also gives you time to fix any areas of concern identified by the appraiser, such as broken equipment. 

Sign a Letter of Intent 

A Letter of Intent (LOI) explains that you intend to sell your business and that the buyer intends to purchase it from you. It summarizes the terms that you and the buyer agree on before the parties spend real money and time on third party advisors, due diligence, digging into the details, and negotiating the final deal terms and agreement.

An LOI isn’t a binding contract; however, it both establishes each party’s seriousness concerning the transaction and makes sure the parties are actually on the same page about the outline of the deal. 

The LOI doesn’t guarantee a sale, but it is a significant step forward. Your LOI must be transparent and include any significant necessary terms.

Ensuring this will help focus both parties’, limit surprises and disputes that will derail the deal, and keep the parties accountable through the process, all from the beginning of the transaction. 

Enlisting the help of a seasoned business attorney can make the LOI clearer to each party. 

Focus on Due Diligence 

Next, you will be asked to, and may need to, share financial, operational, and every other kind document with the prospective buyer to prove that the business is not only in in good financial standing, but is everything it is represented to be, according to the buyer’s own independent analysis. 

In addition to interviews and tours of facilities, you will need to collect and provide many documents such as tax returns, bank statements, registrations, manuals, customer files, Operating Agreements or Bylaws, licensing and zoning information, and agreements with other parties such as vendors or employees. This complex process can sometimes take months. 

Negotiate a Purchase Agreement  

The purchase agreement should then be discussed and negotiated. This agreement is a formal legal contract that spells out the terms of the transaction. 

The agreement is the final, comprehensive, detailed form of the LOI, and even more than the LOI, the purchase agreement must be clear, explicit, and define critical terms. 

The buyer and seller can sign this agreement at closing or weeks in advance with multiple contingencies or conditions that must be done before the closing takes place.

Once the closing is complete, where the buyer transfers payment and the seller gives possession of the ownership interests or business assets, the business officially belongs to the new owner. 

Avoiding Frequent Transactional Disputes 

Unfortunately, when selling a business, some sellers encounter transactional disputes. Although this part is not an official step in the process, it’s something that sellers and buyers should be considering throughout the entire process. 

Examples of common transactional disputes when selling or buying a business are: 

  • Working capital disputes: Typically, sellers keep all cash on hand for the business’s working capital needs making it necessary to establish the target amount of money between the buyer and seller.  Practically every private company transaction should involve a specific method to develop a working capital requirement. This isn’t something that should kill a deal. Both parties should be able to reach a reasonable agreement considering all the various factors. 
  • Conflicts over earnout calculations: Earnout mechanisms are essentially agreements that are completed after closing to keep sellers engaged or to shift the risk of post-closing risks. They are often complex and can create additional disputes between business buyers and sellers. There may be conflicts over the earnout period, the control of the business post-acquisition, or how the calculations should be done.
  • Missing or vague language in purchase-and-sale agreements: As previously stated, ensuring clear language and even defining essential terms with the LOI and purchase agreement is imperative to a smooth transaction. When terms or definitions are ambiguous or missing, problems are more likely to arise.
  • The valuations of COVID-19 affected companies: These valuations can cause inherent disputes in a post-COVID-19 world. The professional business valuation should include the impacts that the pandemic has had or could have on the business, both positive and negative.  

All business sellers and buyers can significantly reduce the risk of disputes by being forthright with information and demanding that all agreements be clear and on paper.

 The best way to ensure this is to hire a well-versed business attorney who can help with every step of the sales process. 

They are familiar with all the information that must be disclosed, the issues that need to be addressed, and are experienced in drafting clear agreements that both the seller and buyer can easily understand.  

Are your filters blocking effective communication?

Red,telephone,receiver,hanging,over,gray,background,concept,for,on

Believe it or not the majority of your conversations with other people involve the filters you carry. What does that mean? Your filters are your knowledge, experience and values that directly influence how you listen, think and communicate.

In Sherpa Executive Coaching we refer to filters as the block to your ability to be centered and objective in conversations with people who have different points of view.

Believe it or not, not everyone thinks the way you think. We actually see others as we are rather than who truly are.  

“When your filters are in place, you only interpret things as if you had said them. You don’t search for what someone else means, based on their experience, knowledge and values. So, what are filters? 

  • Your personal agenda: Self-contained directions and guidelines that you follow every day. 
  • Pre-conceived notions: Views you have held in the past, with or without adequate information and evidence. 
  • Judgment: Formal decisions you have already made in advance. 
  • Experience: Answers that worked in the past, based on what you have been through in your life. 
  • Opinion: Beliefs or thoughts you have on a variety of issues. 
  • Values: Things you hold most important as you relate to your job and working with others.  

Filters fuel mind-reading, fortune telling (assumptions about how the future will be), and conclusions about why people do what they do or say what they say. Ultimately your filters block effective communication, whether that be collaborative problem solving or casual sharing of information. Pause for a minute and reread the list of filters again. For each filter ask yourself a simple question: How does this filter impact how I communicate?  

As you find yourself in situations where you feel you can positively impact other people’s perspectives, be conscious of your intonation, body language and choice of words. “Your job is to realize how often your filters influence what you think, hear and say.” (Be Don’t Do, By Brenda Corbett and Judith Colemon).  

One of the most effective ways to create safe space between two people communicating is to practice a simple tool used in the Sherpa Executive Coaching process: Listen, Think, then Communicate. It sounds like a simple enough tool to use yet because of our filters, our ability to consciously hear what another person is trying to communicate gets in our way. When we slow the dialogue down by asking questions for clarity, or asking for a pause to think about what was just communicated, and then we can formulate our response based upon the insights that often drop in the pause.  

Our world is full of offense these days which flows directly from our personal filters. Much of what spins us into an emotional fit in our daily life usually involves another human being, so it is worth our mental attention to explore what is really going on behind the annoyances. What if you made the conscious effort to see life through the lens of the person you are communicating with this week? What would you imagine you would notice to be different?  

One of the quickest ways to cut through filters is the use of well-placed questions: 

  • A question to ask yourself: Hmmm. Now that spun me. What’s that about for me? Take accountability for your emotions and get to the bottom of which filter was triggered. 
  • I notice you didn’t respond during our meeting. What was that about for you? This question allows you to step away from conclusions you might make around another person’s behavior. 
  • What do you want to do about that? What have you done in the past that worked for you in a similar situation? What do you need from me? These 3 questions give you, the receiver, the opportunity to stay in the audience (the objective observer) rather than jumping on the stage and taking a role in the sender’s drama. Clarity of focus leads to accuracy of response.  
  • That’s a lot of information. Would you please give me a few sentences to sum up what your main perspective is on this topic? This is a great question to use if the sender of the information has a pre-conceived notion from their past experiences that more detail is better.  

Just because someone has a filter does not mean you have to sit and receive the ramification of that filter. For example, you say something in a conversation and the receiver says: “that offends me.” You have the ability to crack the filter code by inserting a question that can open up effective dialogue: “That was not my intention. What specifically about what I said offended you?” 

Based on what the sender says in response to your question, you have the opportunity to stay off the stage of drama and explore your next question to create positive connection verses a dialogue where the filters are guiding the outcome, which too often end in an animal planet scene. 

When I was training up for my black belts, after each technique, we would always come back to a sparring stance. From this position we could easily execute our next move in the ring.

In Sherpa Executive Coaching, we have a similar stance for effective coaching conversations: Be centered and objective, be a good listener and be inquisitive.

These 3 “Be’s” put you in a powerful stance as a detective of what is actually being communicated rather than what the filters dictate. Take back your power to create safe space in the midst of dialogue.  

Take Action: 

  • Observe your conversations and notice where your filters may be distorting the information that you are hearing and influencing how you communicate and behave.
  • Make a conscious effort to hear what other people are trying to communicate along with understanding their side of the story.  
  • Be quick to hear and slow to speak. Think before you speak. Keep your filters in check.  
  • Ask effective questions to gain clarity around what is being said.  

 Lauren E Miller, has a Masters in Adult Education with a Certification in Human Resources Development. She has personally conquered two of life’s top stressors at the same time, advanced cancer and divorce. Now Google’s #1 Stress Relief Expert, Award Winning Author, HRD Trainer and Certified Sherpa Executive Coach, Lauren provides process driven programs and custom trainings with structure, guidance, support and accountability designed to create positive change in behavior resulting in positive impact on business (IOB) and life purpose.  Explore More: http://LaurenEMiller.com  

Costly mistakes to avoid when choosing your company structure

Business,people,meeting,design,ideas,concept

Starting a Colorado business is an exciting prospect, but it also brings many decisions.

Whether it’s the fulfillment of a lifelong dream or a recent opportunity that suddenly presented itself, you’ll want to ensure that you are setting yourself and your business up for success.

Choosing your company’s structure or type of business entity is one of the biggest and most important decisions you will make.

It’s crucial to consider more than just the short-term picture—think about your long-term business plan and what financial implications it might have for you personally and for your business.

Here are some costly mistakes all entrepreneurs should avoid when deciding on a company structure. 

Keeping Business Too Casual 

Maybe you’re going into business with your childhood friend, a best friend, or a close family member. No matter how close and casual your relationship with them might be, don’t make your business agreements relaxed. Keeping things too casual with other owners or partners can, among other things, ultimately cause the demise of your business. 

Instead, formally document any agreements so everyone is on the same page and there are no questions down the line about what was agreed upon. Whatever business structure you agree to and any other agreements you reach, be sure to have them review by a skilled attorney and put on paper.  

Failing to Form a Legal Entity  

You can start a business without forming a legal entity. However, doing so could significantly affect your business’s financial future. It’s common for sole proprietors to start a business without filing a structure, but it’s something that should be considered. Forming a legal business entity offers entrepreneurs many advantages, while forgoing a legal structure comes with many risks, including: 

Putting personal assets on the line: A legal business entity protects your assets that would otherwise be jeopardized in the case of a business financial hardship or litigation. You can protect your assets and keep things simple with a limited liability company (LLC). 

Decreased business credibility: Consumers, vendors, and investors all usually prefer to do business with reputable, established companies. However, it’s hard to prove if you haven’t set up a legal business entity. Setting up a business as an LLC or corporation makes it easier to obtain a business bank account, business credit, EIN, and more to establish that your company is trustworthy. 

Failing to Consider Tax Implications 

Business taxes can vary widely depending on the business structure. Carefully weigh your options.  Understanding precisely what you will be required to pay before determining what type of entity you want to form can help you avoid negative tax implications. Failing to plan and research tax consequences for a business entity can be a costly error. Consider the following: 

  • Sole Proprietors, Partnerships, and S Corps are allowed pass-through taxation. LLCs are not a tax type but are taxed as a Sole Proprietor or Partnership by default. As a result, LLCs aren’t liable for corporate tax; but owners will very likely need to pay self-employment taxes, typically around 15 percent of their profits. 
  • Owners of LLCs taxes as sole proprietors or partnerships can potentially decrease their self-employment tax burden by filing as an S Corp using form 2553. By paying a portion of the profits to the owners as salary/wages and withholding taxes one might be able to lower the total taxes paid.
  • Although owners are also subject to double taxation, a C-Corp may be attractive depending on the applicable tax rates and write-offs. For example, with investment heavy businesses, passthrough owners are taxed on ALL of the profits at ordinary tax rates before reinvestment. In comparison, the corporate tax rate for a C-Corp on profits could be much lower so that more profits can be reinvested. As a result, later on, the reinvested amounts not only grow the business profits, when the owner receives the funds, they are capital gains and taxed at generally lower capital gains rate instead of as ordinary income.  

Circumventing Future Growth 

You might be on your own now, but do you expect or want your business to grow, possibly taking on partners or shareholders later? If you hope to find investors to back your business goals in the future, the entity you choose could have a substantial role in the future growth of your business. It could also impact your bottom line. It’s essential to understand the following about business structure and development: 

  • S Corp ownership limitations: S-Corps aren’t allowed to have more than 100 shareholders and foreign owners aren’t permitted.  
  • Multiple LLC members: Business owners have the right to add members to their LLC. However, they need to think about their role and percentage ownership. If the company folds or disagreements about operating the business, there could be significant financial implications. 
  • C-Corp Ownership: In general, the structure of C-corps allows for more significant long-term growth. Yet, they also have more intricacies and fall under stricter regulatory and compliance standards. 

Not Enlisting the Help of a Business Attorney 

The best step a budding business owner can take is to enlist the help of an experienced business attorney. A well-versed attorney can help them understand each business structure option as well as the pros, cons, and potential long-term costs of each.  

How the best leaders win top talent

The job market is hot and highly competitive, and it’s expected to stay that way into the foreseeable future. In order to attract and retain top talent, you need to meet the expectations employees have today—many of which may be new to you if you’re stuck in the practices of the past.

It’s time to throw away “command and control,” offer individual choice and flexibility, and build equality and inclusiveness into your culture. Create the same positive experience inside your company that you undoubtedly provide on the customer level. I call this a “Camelot” culture, where leaders put their people first and “dare to care” about their employees on a holistic level.

The best leaders come closest to making Camelot a reality and establish a sustainable competitive edge in winning and keeping the great people they need to grow.  

Leading a Camelot culture  

Camelot cultures are led by people-centered leaders who share a number of important attributes—including a willingness to be both vulnerable and transparent, the building blocks of trust. These leaders connect deeply with their people and develop respectful relationships by telling the truth; showing competence and accountability; building trust through empowerment; listening deeply; encouraging innovation; and refraining from judgment while still being decisive. 

They feel genuine empathy, passion, and concern for the wellbeing of their people before anything else. They develop and convey clear guidelines for how to participate in work, expectations for each role, and how to communicate as a team. They regularly recognize effort and show people that they matter and that their thoughts, opinions, and contributions are valued. 

These are the things that create the positive and inspiring employee experience that people are looking for and that allow them to perform at their best.  

People choose to work with people, not companies 

A Camelot culture begins with how you treat candidates and extends throughout the lifecycle of every employee. You can list all of the factors that make up your Camelot culture to help persuade hesitant candidates, but that’s not enough. People need to feel what it’s like to work for you, and feeling is best explained through story. 

Tell candidates why you are in the business you are in, what your purpose is, and what Camelot means to you. They want to know in your own words. Tell an authentic, passionate story that reveals something about you as a human being and as a leader. And then listen. People are generally terrible at interviewing. Be delightfully different by making your interviews two-way conversations that are told in stories.  

Communicate frequently throughout the recruitment process. Show respect by keeping candidates informed about the process and when to expect decisions. Keep it top of mind that in our current, hot market, decision-making speed is critical. Candidates won’t wait days for you to follow up—and neither will employees. Continue to treat people in the same respectful way when you’ve successfully convinced the right candidate to join your Camelot culture by becoming an employee.   

The best leaders don’t have a retention problem. After all, when you’re working in Camelot, why would you ever want to leave? 

Kathleen Quinn Votaw Kathleen Quinn Votaw is CEO of TalenTrust. Her first book, Solve the People Puzzle; How High-Growth Companies Attract and Retain Top Talent, debuted in February 2016. Her firm has achieved several awards, including recognition from Inc.5000 in 2015 and 2016. She speaks frequently and advises CEOs on trends in talent and how to be strategic in developing a people strategy. Kathleen has served on several nonprofit boards including Colorado Companies to Watch and ACG-Denver. Reach Kathleen at [email protected] or 303-838-3334.

How to Analyze and Overcome Entrepreneurial Barriers

So you want to start a business …  

Starting your own company sounds like a great way to earn money while having the freedom to be your own boss and make your own rules. And, as a Coloradan, you’re in a great place — Colorado is the 10th best place to start a business in the country. 

However, it’s not easy. Being your own boss means facing and overcoming a lot of obstacles, many of which are internal. So what are some of the entrepreneurial barriers that you might face? Here are a few — as well as how to overcome them. 

Not Understanding Product-Market Fit 

One of the biggest reasons that businesses fail is that their product or service doesn’t match the needs or desires of the market. There are a lot of great ideas out there, and many people will say they’re willing to pay for them if you ask. 

But what will they actually pay for? That’s the true measure of product-market fit. If no one is doing what you’re planning to do, there may be no paying market for it. So don’t invest a lot of time, money, and effort until you’ve determined that there’s a strong paying market for your product or service. 

One way to test the market is to use a “minimum viable product,” or MVP. Create a stripped-down version of what you plan to do and see if customers are willing to pay for it. You’ll also learn how much people are willing to pay, which helps develop the full product. 

If you’re struggling to understand the market, some business education might help. An MBA can be a huge catalyst for those who want to start a company. Among other things, an MBA allows you to network with like-minded people. 

A Lack of Financing 

They say it takes money to make money, and often that seems like a significant barrier. However, you don’t usually need as much money as you think, especially just to get started. 

You can start by using your own money or borrowing from friends or family. Start with the basics of getting a website and building a minimum viable product to test the market. Consider working with a co-founder who has skills you don’t have and pool your resources.  

 Once you have a good idea and a bit of traction, you can start trying to raise money. This requires marketing your business idea to investors who are interested in your sector. Make sure you partner with an investor whose vision matches yours. 

Fear of Failure or Embarrassment 

One thing that stops many entrepreneurs from ever getting started is a fear of failure. They aren’t 100% sure that the venture will work, so they don’t move forward at all. If you fall victim to this barrier, you’ll stay stuck in your unfulfilling day job and won’t leap to pursue your dreams. 

 To overcome this obstacle, create a strong plan and strategy for your business. Work on your mindset and start to expect good things in your life. Think about your dreams and imagine the life you could have if you pursue them.  

 Don’t worry about failure, either — it’s rarely final. Many entrepreneurs who have a venture fail to take what they’ve learned and go on to found a successful business afterward. 

Conflicting Priorities 

Wanting to start a company and be your own boss is tempting, but it may not be the only priority in your life. Sometimes you have other goals that seem to conflict with the entrepreneurial lifestyle. 

 To overcome this barrier, just remember that entrepreneurship can take on many forms. If you have kids, for instance, you might decide to start a business that allows you to work from home and doesn’t require you to travel. Instead of inventing a product, you might choose to be a freelance service provider. 

 Starting a business doesn’t have to mean developing new technologies and moving to California. You can stay right here in Colorado and manage the other elements of your daily life while still being your own boss. 

An Uncertain Environment 

With COVID-19 and other world concerns, today’s environment might seem like a bad time to start a company. But the truth is, there’s never a perfect time to start a business. There are always political and economic challenges that you have to navigate. 

 The key is to understand the environmental challenges and find ways to overcome them. For example, starting a business during COVID-19 might help you become more resilient and have a variety of fallback mechanisms that will help your company thrive for years to come. 

 Don’t see uncertainty as a dealbreaker. Instead, take advantage of the opportunity to create a stronger, more flexible company. 

Are You Ready to Start Your Business? 

Colorado is an excellent place for budding entrepreneurs, whether you have a new technology idea or want to become a freelancer. Starting your business here will give you many opportunities to grow, expand, and overcome obstacles. 

 If you’ve been dreaming of owning a company for years, don’t wait any longer. There’s never a perfect time. Take a step forward, and then another, and then another. In the end, you’ll be amazed at how far you go! 

How to get unstuck

Did you know that feeling stuck is a ramification of thoughts that you have been camping on for a while? Good news is, you are the landlord of those thoughts and you can override them with new and improved thought patterns to help your brain get unstuck.   

Stuck: to be fixed or jammed in a particular place, unable to progress or find the solution to something. 

Sound familiar? Perhaps you are feeling stuck as you read through this article. Do you feel stuck in a position professionally? Perhaps you feel stuck when it comes to your ability to move through conflict? Asking for what you want? Setting healthy boundaries with a friend or colleague? Whatever undesirable position you are currently in, there is a way through it.  

You are not alone. In the midst of our drive to succeed, we all experience those stuck moments. Some of them catch us by surprise, others are like a slow drip that eventually builds up to a complete clog in the drain of our life. It’s not a matter of if you will feel stuck on the journey, it’s a matter of when and what you do about it when it hits.    

I remember a cool parable I heard a long time ago about a person who fell into a deep hole. Two people passed by this person and offered a remedy that wasn’t helpful. The third person was a friend who chose to jump into the hole. The person in the hole said: “Why did you do that? Now we are both stuck?” The friend replied: “No worries, I’ve been down here before and know the way out.”  

When I went through two of life’s top stressors at the same time: advanced cancer and divorce I found myself stuck in the hole many times. Perhaps you came across this article and you are feeling stuck in a hole or maybe you know someone who feels stuck. Either way, let’s explore how to get out. 

Let’s take a look at what happens to the brain when we are experiencing feelings around being stuck: 

  • Unable to progress is a ramification directly linked to a fixed perception about a situation in the mind. 
  • Neurons that fire together, rewire together. If you are firing neurons hooked to negative thought patterns: I’m stuck; there is no way out; this is the way it has been and the way it will always be, you will create a messaging system that backs up your impoverished view of reality and you are along for the ride until you make a conscious effort to change your thoughts around your situation. 
  • Once a messaging system is created around a negative perception: I’m stuck, the RAS (Reticular Activating System) goes to work distorting, deleting and generalizing information that does not support your conclusions about situation that is fueling the conclusion: I’m stuck.  
  • Messaging systems formed in the brain by repetitive thoughts can be rewired by consciously offering an alternative thought. For example: I’m stuck and the thoughts that anchor that messaging system can be replaced with: I don’t know what to do in this situation…YET and I am willing to find out a way thought it. YET is the key word that opens the mind up to solutions-based thinking.  

Bottom line, just because a negative thought drops into your brain causing you to feel stuck does not mean you need to give it free rent and serve it breakfast in bed. You are the landlord of your mind and have the ability to evict. In the midst of the stuck feelings, you are capable of giving yourself permission to explore what it would look like to get unstuck. It’s when you forget that there is another way available to you that you stay stuck.   

Much of what holds you back from personal excellence in your life comes directly from the meaning you make from the information you are taking in around you, and the assumptions and conclusions you make from that meaning.   

For example, let’s say you have a colleague that continually gossips to you about everyone else on the team. You feel that gossip is non-productive behavior and don’t like that they continue to do it around you.

You could create meaning around this situation that sounds like this: well, this person lives alone and doesn’t have a lot of people to talk to so maybe this is their outlet. Shazam, you just backed up the meaning around this situation with a conclusion that is keeping you stuck as an accomplice of non-productive behavior. Rather than saying: “I’m stuck, I feel bad for them, there’s nothing I can do.” 

You can direct a thought that sounds like this: “Hey, wait a minute, I don’t have to be the victim of someone else’s words if I don’t want to be so what do I want to do about it?” Now you are in a position to get yourself unstuck from an undesirable situation. By posing an alternative thought linked to curiosity you have given yourself access to the part of your brain that is solution focused.  

Anytime you interject a question to an impoverished view of reality you short-circuit the negative thought pattern and open up your mind’s ability to explore an alternative way of thinking about a situation.  

 Some questions to ponder the next time you feel stuck: Don’t I have to stay here? I wonder if there is another way through this? What would I do if I was unstuck? What might a way out of this situation look like? What resources do I have available for solution? What resources do I want to connect with that would be helpful to me? What is one forward action step that I could take to get unstuck? 

Take Action: 

This week think about what you are thinking about. When you do feel stuck, write down the thoughts that are fueling that conclusion. Practice the SNAP:  

  • Stop: breathe, meditate, tap and remember you are not the struggle unless you choose to be. The serpents in your mind love a good victimization and stone throwing party…leaving you hung over in anger and frustration that fuels the I’m Stuck program. Life is too short to throw your moments away along with your inner peace.  
  • Notice: What conclusions are you making that is based in “story” verses fact? Notice the power you are giving to the circumstance to define your sense of value, worth and capability. Notice your main emotion and where it is showing up in your body. Stress and disease walk hand in hand.  
  • Ask: Is this mine to work through or someone else’s? Too often we cast ourselves as the main character in someone else’s drama. You are more effective if you get off the stage and maintain integrity, peace and calm…emotional intelligence is a powerful first line of defense.  
  • Pivot: Turn away from “below the line” behaviors: blame, shame, ugly talk, gossip, stone throwing. Lean into behaviors that showcase the person you are committed to being in this world. Erase negative thoughts and replace them with positive, curious thoughts that open your minds ability to access solution based thinking.  

 Lauren E Miller, has a Masters in Adult Education with a Certification in Human Resources Development. She has personally conquered two of life’s top stressors at the same time, advanced cancer and divorce. Now Google’s #1 Stress Relief Expert, Award Winning Author, HRD Trainer and Certified Sherpa Executive Coach, Lauren provides process driven programs and custom trainings with structure, guidance, support and accountability designed to create positive change in behavior resulting in positive impact on business (IOB) and life purpose.  Explore More: http://LaurenEMiller.com