My Business On Purpose

There’s a hit show out right now called Yellowstone, and while I can’t fully endorse it due to there being quite a bit of language and adult content, there have been some amazing quotes that have caused me to think. So... for the next several weeks I’m going to dive into some of these quotes and talk through their application to business and life. Good afternoon friends, Thomas Joyner with Business on Purpose here. 

Ok, so why Yellowstone? Why pick a show that’s basically a Wild West version of a soap opera? Instead of sarcastic words, using guns... Well, Because all of life is learning. And I feel like in watching it, I’m learning and using this stuff to make sure I’m not off-axis in any area of my life.

That’s why one of our core values here at BoP is Relentless learning. Because in every situation in life we want to listen first, process, and then learn and implement from that. So that’s what we’re going to do today.

So... before the quote, some backstory in case you haven’t watched it.

Kayce, one of the main characters is haunted by his past and is trying to save his marriage. He takes a new job as livestock commissioner in helping the rural farmers and cattle ranchers in any way possible.

He comes home one afternoon and his wife looks at him and says this.

“You really love this new job don’t you?”

Kayce’s response is what struck me.

“I feel like for the first time I’m fighting for people. I like having somebody to fight for rather than something. When you fight for a thing, the thing doesn't care if you win or lose because the thing ain't alive. But when you fight for people, they care.”

How powerful is that? “When you fight for people, they care.”

I wonder what you’re fighting for? When you look out over the next several years of business, what is it you want? And if you get it, can hold onto it, in your hands... do you think looking back that it will make you happy? Will you be satisfied? Or will you just kick the can further down the road knowing you missed the mark?

Here’s the interesting thing we’ve seen over the past several years. Money can’t be that object. History is littered with people who made it financially and they are just as miserable today as they were 10 years ago. We have seen numerous businesses “make it”... doing more business than they ever thought and bringing home life-changing money. But... if the relationships in their business aren’t sound, if all is not well at home, if their marriage is struggling, it may help, but it doesn’t satisfy.

Look at shows like Shark Tank. These billionaires sit in on these presentations just trying to add a few more millions to their portfolio because all they know how to do is add more.

What if we flipped the script and started chasing after what we really want. And that’s healthy relationships and equipping people. 

Because you never sit with someone at their death bed and they say…”I wish I’d made more money in my life.” Or, “I wish I’d worked 5 more hours a week.” No! That never happens. People always wish they’d spent more time with the ones they loved most and invested in the people around them.

So, what does that look like practically?

Is it sitting down with your employees and hearing them out? Figuring out what their dreams are and help them achieve them?

Is it planning some team days where you do speed dating or team day at the go-kart track to promote some laughter and community?

Is there some serious work that needs to be done on the culture of your business so that your team knows you care about them? Do you forget birthdays/anniversaries, do you acknowledge big wins, and celebrate hard work?

Or is your team just punching in and punching out, just waiting for the next Friday afternoon or next week-long holiday?

You spend too much time at work to NOT invest in the people around you. That’s why I love that quote, money, products, your business, it doesn’t care if you win or lose... it’s just a thing.

But people... PEOPLE always care.

So start fighting for the right things. So that years from now, you can look back and realize you were working for the right stuff all that time. So that when you see people succeed and success is lying in the palm of your hand you won’t be wishing you fought for something else.

People care if you fight for them... Man, that’s good.

Have a great week everyone!

You know that moment when you open the mailbox and you see the letter with your name on it?

Not the spam mail, the credit card offer, or the latest internet bill.
That feeling you get when you open a letter personally addressed to you, Hannah or Jason. Behind those words are thought, courage, joy, laughter, tears, surprise, or motivation.

Words are powerful, especially when they are directed to you. Words matter. The thoughts and intentions behind those words matter. The way those words make you feel or react matter.

Think about this.

Every major global religion is all based on a holy book. Writing.
The door to every major global movement or cause has typically stemmed from a book, a song, a poem, a prepared speech, or manifesto. Writing.

One of our favorite phrases is, “if it is not written down it doesn’t exist.”

So why don’t we write more often? We’re scared we’re not that good at it.

Novelist Louis L’Amour said, “Start writing, no matter what. The water does not flow until the faucet is turned on.”

One of the most powerful, durable, and recordable ways to share your human thoughts as a leader is to write them out, personally addressed to your team.

Of course, you have doubts. Poet Sylvia Path helps us confront our doubt saying, “... By the way, everything in life is writable if you have the outgoing guts to do it... The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt.”

When you write a letter to your company you have immediately created recorded history. When your business is two, or ten, or forty years off into the future, those future team members and leaders will be installed with the founder's or previous owners' principles, ideas, innovations, and foundations.

When you do not write a letter to your company, it gets lost to time.

We are encouraging you and challenging you to write a letter to each member of your business every year and personally mail it to their home with their name on the top.

The first exposure I had to a powerful annual letter is Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos in his 1997 Amazon Shareholder letter. I used it in my first-ever coaching session with a client as we built out their Vision Story.

In his letter, Bezos works through some key elements that we can put into a simple template to help you think through your powerful letter.

First, Bezos begins his letter with key milestones that Amazon has achieved throughout the year. It is short and sweet and very powerful coming right out of the gate. No fluff, dive right in. You may say something like…

Dear Hannah,

We saw ACME, Co. grow beyond our projections by about 5% and YOU were a huge part of that. Our goal is to move beyond where we are at now and for next year become the second largest XYZ company in our county...

Next, Bezos then goes on to discuss multiple opportunities that are in front of them. Even if you are staring down the barrel of a recession, opportunity is in front of you. What is it? What could your business do even if you don’t know the “how” quite yet? Writing this letter forces you to see opportunity and then take the risk of sharing that opportunity.

Use wisdom, use discretion, and be bold. You can do all three together.

Third, Bezos begins sharing true stories that are aligned with their unique core values of “long term” and “obsess over customers”. With each of those stories, he is also diligent to layout bullet points of what the impact will be to Amazon from those stories, both the fun parts and the challenging parts.

For instance, an impact of “long term” is “When forced to choose between optimizing the appearance of our GAAP accounting and maximizing the present value of future cash flows, we’ll take the cash flows.”

He’s honest and discrete. Bezos shares what he can share, but I’m sure doesn’t share everything.

Also, remember that Amazon is a publicly-traded company so they will tend to be more open about their financial numbers due to their public transparency. You may wish to not share those.
With whatever you write, just ask yourself, “how will this impact particular team members when they read it.”

The overall goal is to celebrate, encourage, inspire, motivate, show appropriate vulnerability, and vision-cast through your annual letter. Use your discretion with how much information to share.

Next, Bezos shares some key metrics that make sense to the Amazon team. What will make sense to your team? Is it the number of increased contracts signed this year compared to last? Is it the user ratings that have increased this year over last? Your performance rating? Safety metrics?

What are those key metrics that matter to your team? This may be a great place to share them.

Fifth, Bezos devotes an entire section just to the Amazon team... to celebrating them. He is aspirational, saying things like, “The past year’s success is the product of a talented, smart, hard-working group, and I take great pride in being a part of this team.” Bezos is also sober mentioning, “It’s not easy to work here... but we’re building something important.”

Near the end of the letter, Bezos then goes into full-on vision-casting and goal-setting mode. It is a sentence by sentence power punch to the soul of each team member as if to say, “I so value you that I’m going to stretch our horizon, so you will always have a place to RUN by doing your highest and best work.”
Where are you headed? What are the broad steps that it will take for you to get there? Remember the words to the Jewish Prophet Habakkuk, “write the vision down so those who read it may run!”

Finally, Bezos signs off with a two-sentence summary. This would be a great place to reinforce your mission statement saying something like, “This was a powerful year to (insert mission statement), and I am beyond grateful for you. Thank you for your work, your commitment, and for your devotion to (insert a core value here).”

Hey, y’all! Brent Perry with Business on Purpose.

Let’s take a look at where you are as a business. I am going to keep my content short and sweet today because I have a homework assignment for you…. Yes, you!

Have you assessed your business? Lately? Quarterly? Yearly? Ever? 

Maybe you have, and maybe you haven’t... But there is a good chance this is a good season for you to take a little time to get a fresh look at where you are as a business. 

And good news... Business on Purpose has a tool for you. 

I don’t know about you, but I’m not a huge fan of going to the doctor. No offense to any in the medical profession, it’s just not my jam. The waiting room, the needles, the sitting on the table where my legs can’t quite touch the floor and did I mention the needles? It’s not my favorite place to be, but I know the importance.

Just a few weeks ago I was back at my local doc getting my annual check up. The whole kit and caboodle. I even let them take my blood to check all my levels. I wanted to be anywhere else, but I also want to make sure my body is healthy and functioning at its best. 

Sometimes assessments aren’t the most fun experiences, but they can provide us some incredibly valuable insight. 

And so here is your homework. Right now, head over to boproadmap.com/healthy 

One more time, that is boproadmap.com/healthy, and get started. It’s that simple. Should take you 5-10 minutes to complete and get your score. 

And the good news, whatever your score may be, we have some ways to improve on what you have going on. 

Take the assessment to see where you are as a business today. 

Thanks for your time, we know how valuable it is. We are thankful for each and every one of you. 

If you haven’t done so already, subscribe to our Podcast, and/or our YouTube channel.

6 weeks left in 2021! Supply chain issues everywhere, in-laws on the way in town next week, presents to order for Christmas!

Take a deep breath, carve out some time for some Personal Prep for 2022. Good morning everyone, Thomas Joyner with Business on Purpose here.

Two weeks ago, we talked about tweaking and refining your Vision for your business. Last week we looked over your finances and built out a budget for next year. Today, we tackle some personal things in life you need to have a grasp on before moving on, along with a very important conversation with whoever shares your home. 

So let’s not waste any time, let’s dive right on in!

The first thing you need to make sure you are ready for is with a few simple Estate Planning items. A few years ago Scott sat in the Mikkelson Law conference room and told them the truth…” clients have NO IDEA of what they need when it comes to Estate Planning, and they get even more confused when they walk into an Attorney’s office.  Can we build something that makes Estate Planning clear?”

They built a powerful tool that allows you to get the conversation started with your Estate Planning Attorney.

Here is the tool and how it works.

For key leaders and other employees who do not own the business, they should begin by looking at and discussing the two columns on the left side.  

For business owners, you begin looking at the 3 columns on the right side to begin the conversation with your Attorney.

Ask them, “what do I need” and they can use this tool to put an Estate Plan together for you.

It is simple, it’s easy to understand, and ready-made. So if you already have your will, your power of attorney, but just want a copy of this, please let me know and I’d be happy to send to you.

Estate Planning can feel a bit like going to the Dentist, you know you need to, but you don’t like it.  Please schedule time, and don’t put this off.  Estate Planning is an important part of your 2022 PREP for both your home and your business.

The next piece of prep work to dive into is all based around Insurance. I sat in with Landon Papay of Papay Allstate AGency and asked a similar question. Insurance is so nuanced, but this document is at least a starting point, so you can know what to ask your particular insurance agent about.

Everything from personal lines, life insurance, accident plans, and Key Employee Life can be discussed, but you need a starting point. Schedule your call with your insurance provider today or get in touch with us and we can connect you to ones we use.

Lastly, We want you to have a conversation we like to call the Financial Barn!

The financial barn is a conversation WORTH having. It’s powerful to connect and dream a bit about what the next year will hold. 

Here is how it will work.

Get out a blank sheet of paper and a pen, and begin drawing out a stick figure Barn. Don’t get crazy, it’s intentionally going to be simple. 

In a very BOP-like way, let’s go ahead and address the elephant in the room…”What if I don’t WANT to have this conversation with my spouse or partner?”

Seriously, if that is you, then we as a BOP team are asking you to come speak to your Coach directly for advice and a plan.

The number one reason for the breaking up of relationships is a lack of communication about finances.

Remember, we care about you as much personally as we care about your business.

Start adding in rooms to the barn. Living expenses, rent or mortgage, giving, tithe, college fund, 401k, vacation...everything you plan on putting money towards next year and a dollar amount next to it!

Now add those numbers up to see what you need to earn to reach your goal. Is it reasonable? Is it attainable?

So many people just earn and earn and earn and don’t tell their money where it needs to go. If you go over, you can be incredibly generous, knowing you hit your goal.

Let’s get on the same page financially in your own home and it will be a powerful jolt for the financial health of your business and family too!

So those are the 3 areas to knock out before the end of the year. Estate Planning, Insurance Planning and the Financial barn.

Stop what you’re doing and do it right now! Set up meetings with professionals and a time to discuss your home with your spouse or whoever shares your home. It’s that powerful and that worth it.

As always, let us know if we can help!

Have a great week and a great thanksgiving! We have much to be thankful for.

Near the end of each calendar year we walk our heroic business owner clients through a powerful three-day experience we call BOP Prep Week.

For those of you who were High School football players, think back to the dedicated week known as summer camp, or two-a-days.  It was intense, grueling, and wildly necessary.

Those are times that teams grow in their camaraderie, intuition, trust of each other, and anticipation of how to handle a variety of situations.

It prepared you for a long, exciting season where you would experience ups, downs, and everything in between.

An upcoming calendar year for your business is filled with the same twists, turns, blindside hits, and touchdowns as a regular sports season.  

Amidst the business preparation that you must pay attention to (vision, culture, systems, processes, finances, team, etc.), there is another, as important conversation that must be had headed into a new business season; a conversation that is rooted at home.

Anytime we bring up the idea of home, or family, within a business conversation we can hear the sub-conscience of those around us beginning to ask, “but wait, I thought we were just keeping this to business?”

Indeed, a conversation about home is very much a conversation about business due to the reality that business and life necessarily intersect. Rarely does a woman or man have the capability to keep “work at work and home at home.”

Hands-down, the most common reason for the break up of relationships is conflict in arguing. The number one topic of conflict and arguing is… money.

A key feature of prep week each year is that on the third day we have each of our heroic business owners make time to spend with their spouse or partner if they share the home, and walk them through a simple and thoughtful framework around their personal finances.

We do not lead the discussion, and we do not make decisions, we merely invite two people to have a thoughtful, facilitated, guided, human discussion about money together.

How can you talk to your spouse or partner about money and not get in a fight? 

Here are four elements that can help you get started.

First, commit to having a thoughtful conversation instead of a heated argument. Your goal is not to win, your goal is to get on the same page and to create clarity around the idea of money.

Imagine that you had a miniature jail cell sitting on the table in front of you. That jail cell exists only for your thoughts. Imagine that every thought that pops into your head as you were in conversation with the other person first gets locked in that cell so it can be analyzed and thought through before it ever comes out of your mouth.

Incarcerating every thought in a holding cell before it comes out and becomes official takes great emotional strength, but will lead to a more human conversation.

Second, acknowledge openly your own biases and predispositions to money.

There is a Wisdom saying that says, “where your money is, your heart is there also”.  You may have grown up where the responsible idea was to put your money in a savings account. Because your money is in a savings account, means that your heart is with the idea of saving and potentially storing up.

For others, you may have grown up with a responsible idea was to spend what you had, therefore your money is with things, or experiences, which means your heart is there also.

How did you grow up, and what biases have you brought into the relationship regarding money?

Third, set a goal of what you want to discuss and communicate that goal. Do you want to discuss saving more? Spending more? Traveling more? Moving somewhere else? How to spend what you currently have? Why do you want to have this conversation?

For me, I want to have a conversation with my wife because I want to have a meaningful mix of spending for the things that we wish to experience, great generosity for the things that we wish to contribute to, and thought for saving and investing so we can build appropriate wealth and be prepared appropriately for the future.

With that goal, it allows my wife and I to set a number that meets all of that criteria, and then try to create a plan to shoot for that number.

Where things get dangerous is when the conversation is left open-ended and the goal is either endless savings or endless spending, with no floor or no ceiling.

One final element that will help when having the tough conversation around money is to schedule the conversation, the location, and grab a pen and a  piece of paper.

We like to go to a hotel for an overnight, and sit at the bar and begin to map out a stick figure barn. In that barn or multiple rooms.

We have the “living expense” room, the “401k” room, the “hobby” room, the “generosity” room, the ”college savings” room, and so on.

Within each one of these rooms we place a number, and that values the value that we believe that we want to shoot for this year to fully fund that room. Once complete with all the rooms, we simply add up all the numbers, and that gives us the primary number that we want to shoot for this year.

Anything over that number, we go ahead and agree upon what we will do with any excess.

From there on, we set time throughout the year to follow back up on the stick figure financial barn that we’ve written out and do our best to hit the dates of saving, and giving that we have pre-planned.

Part of the reason that money can cause so much tension is this true statement “the love of money, is the root of all evil.”  

Money is not the problem… Loving the money more than other things is where things begin to break down. 

Let’s commit to these thoughtful elements, and instead of fighting with our spouse about money, let’s unite with our spouse, get on the same page, and leverage money as the neutral tool it was intended to be, for the good things that you want to see.

Alright, 7 weeks left in 2021. We spoke about the first step in your year-end business checklist last week. So, if you missed that... stop this real fast, go back and listen and then come back to today. It’s that important and I don’t want you to miss any steps! What do we need to do in our business, to prepare for 2022? Good morning everyone, Thomas Joyner with Business on Purpose here.

Last week we spoke about Tweaking and Revisiting the Vision for your business and communicating that with your team through a year-end letter. It’s simple, yet unbelievably powerful. Today I want to start by diving in on your end-of-year financial checklist.

A quick story for you... a few weeks ago I was working with a local business and we jumped back into their financial dashboard, we call it the level two dashboard, to just look at a few things. They had subdivided their bank accounts into 5 separate accounts. Profit, operating expenses, owners compensation, taxes, and an income account that everything gets deposited into. Simple, yet effective.

We spent some time looking back over the highs and lows of the year and the numbers told us a few things. First, having updated books isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Necessary, yes, but doesn’t give you an accurate picture of your business always.

“I’m looking at our P&L and it’s telling us we made “x” dollars so far this year. Why isn’t that in our bank accounts?” 

Exactly why we do this. Sure enough, all of their cash bank accounts were lower than anticipated with exception of 1. It allowed us to ask questions…

What do your receivables look like? Do we have any big accounts that have yet to pay that will really move the needle? How do we need our team spending their time to make sure we collect on those receivables? Do we need to forego overtime for a period until we can get back to a better cash position? Do we hold off on new equipment or buying material in bulk until we can collect on overdue invoices?

All of this helps give you, the business owner, a better idea of what you need to run your business off of. Imagine if we had just looked at the P&L? Tons of billing, expenses look normal, revenue is up, but everything is not necessarily attached to cash in the business. So you go about your business as usual, spending away and digging yourself a hole.

That’s why we use our Level Two Dashboard. It tells you what you can run your business off of today! And allows you to make informed decisions.

And the beautiful thing about this conversation. We saw that two checks needed to be picked up asap...AND the business owner could actually give himself a small raise and his guys a small raise in the coming year.

That’s why we track our cash position weekly!

So, if you haven’t already. Subdivide your bank accounts. If you haven’t already, go back and listen to our Multiple bank accounts podcast or set up a meeting with us to go through it. It’s magic!

Then, begin tracking your cash position in each account weekly or biweekly. Make sure you’re including payables and receivables so you have an accurate representation of all that you need to know. 

If you have all of that setup, look back over the course of your year. What information can be taken from your cash swings? Are there months that are lower, that you need to cut costs? Can you afford to give yourself a raise? Do you have the money for new hires? What is your ACTUAL net margin??? That’s a big one. Not the one you think you have on a P&L. 

All of this gives you the information to look at next year and put together a simple budget. Nothing too fancy, but project out your work, your expenses, your payroll and do it on purpose instead of just running your business hoping for the best.

It puts you back in charge and helps you make informed decisions going into 2022.

So do it right now! Look back over your level two dashboard and build a simple budget for next year. Do you need to change any percentages, allocate for costs anywhere? Give anyone a raise or change anything up?

Now is the time to make those decisions! 

Alright, that’s all for today. Remember, step one was tweak and revisit your vision and writing a letter to your team. Today was all about financial readiness with subdivided bank accounts, a dashboard to track them, and a simple budget to capitalize on the information for next year.

Now go and do it right now!

Have a great day.

I was sitting on the backside of an eight-person round table in the middle of a high-ceiling, golf club meeting room clearly designed with interiors from the 1980s and yet to be updated.

In the middle of a presentation on resource management the presenter said this, “you can always make more money, you can always make more friends, but you will never be able to make more time... time is a non-renewable resource.”

Huh.

My mind began weaving through all of the available resources that we connect with every day realizing that almost everything that came to mind had the potential to be renewed; except time.

The second that just passed is gone and it will not return.  

Taking a doomsday approach to the non-renewability of time is not helpful, and yet being aware of time’s terminal tick is a wise base for thinking, planning, and preparing.

Whether it is a Mom or Dad tired from juggling work, kids, bills, and friendships, or a newly retired person fatigued from a life of that same juggling, all of us would like to find the silver bullet to having more time for ourselves.

Similarly, we also wish to know the secret for having more time with those we love, with the things we love, with the causes, we are passionate about, and the hobbies that feed our soul.

But, how?

Our clients are asking the same question at the time that I am producing this post. 

This is a special week that happens in November of each year, it is Business On Purpose PREP WEEK where each of our business owners makes time to work ON their business in preparation for the upcoming year.

Most business owners feel a need to “get prepared” in the same way that a dehydrated athlete feels a real need to chug water on a hot, muggy, practice day when after an hour of running drills... they crave it.

Unfortunately, most business owners never make it to the cooler to drag a swig of water before heading off to the next drill.  Over time the inevitable happens, they cramp up and are no longer available to the team for their particular skill.

Business owners are notorious for never making it to the cooler of refreshment for their business.  They wake up to a fresh and exciting new year, with a tired and fatigued mind.

How can business owners make time to work on the business... or just make time for themselves?

First, you must come to your own conclusion that time, in fact, is non-renewable and that you wish to take advantage of that finite resource.

Look no further than the 2020 pandemic for evidence of the non-renewability and fragility of time.  

Care and desire are undervalued realities in the push for personal transformation.  You have to care, and you must have the desire to leverage the resource of time for the mission that you are uniquely built for.

Second, you must stop seeing every detour and distraction as an excuse to making good use of your time.

Truth is, most important things are not urgent.  Where we get caught up is when others place the burden of their own urgency and lack of planning on us!  

This is a sobering statement, “your lack of planning and preparation does not mandate my urgent responsibility.”

Sure, if you are a medical or security professional, or run a nuclear power plant, urgent responsibility is in your job description, but for the rest of us, we spend far too much time reacting to the problems and chaos caused by the lack of preparation of others... or because we have not planned ourselves and are simply responding to THE LATEST, LOUDEST VOICE.

Third, create appointments in your schedule with yourself or with a project that you are working on.

When asked, “hey can you grab coffee tomorrow at 3?”, you simply respond, “I have a meeting I cannot move.”  No need to share that the meeting is with yourself.

That time you are spending in reflection, thought, or project building, is time spent serving others.

Can you imagine a speaker standing up in front of 100 people with no notes and confessing, “I have been so busy responding to unplanned requests for my time that I have not been able to prepare notes for my talk... but at least I made those other people happy!”

She would run out of the room, as frustrated attendees bemoan this colossal waste of the time of 100 people!

Instead, when that presenter blocks three hours to work on that talk instead of reacting to the last-minute distraction, it is as if she is holding a meeting with those 100 people.

We must reframe how our time alone is spent.  Technically, as I write this, I am not meeting with anyone, yet it is on my calendar as a meeting.  My phone is not in the room with me, my email and other notifications are not even turned on.  The only person I am thinking about right now is you... the reader, the listener.  

Life can go on without the buzzing and dinging that we have become addicted.  We don’t have to live like Pavlov’s dog.

Finally, put accountability in place around you regarding your time.  Create an ideal weekly schedule and then share it with a small group and make them ask you about it.

The loving encouragement and gentle push of small group who are pulling for you can be just what you need to make the time for what really matters.

This week, as business owners prepare for the upcoming year they will tweak their vision story, write an annual letter, populate their culture calendar, assess their team’s feedback, review their financials, prepare budgets, and plan their personal budgets and planning.. .all because they have decided to MAKE the time.

K.I.S It's not that kind of tutorial, keep it simple..

Hey, y’all! Brent Perry with Business on Purpose.

I think there are times that we can overthink our businesses. 

Our strategies, our processes, our employees' production, our sales, you name it... we can overthink it. 

An article written in the Harvard Business Review written by Melody Wilding, states, 

“Deliberation is an admirable and essential leadership quality that undoubtedly produces better outcomes. 

But there comes a point in decision making where helpful contemplation can turn into overthinking. To stop the cycle of thinking too much and drive towards better, faster decisions you can: Wilding suggests. 

Put aside perfectionism, right-size the problem, leverage the underestimated power of intuition, limit the drain of decision fatigue, and construct creative constraints.

I remember planning out the proposal to my wife. I spent weeks going through different plans and ideas. It had to be special. I wanted it to be perfect. The wheels were turning. It felt like it was all I could think about. And a couple of weeks into the planning of the big day, I noticed... I was way overthinking this moment. I’m talking about the actual moment of the proposal. I had stopped thinking about what this moment stood for, the fact that I was going to ask the person I wanted to spend the rest of my life with, to marry me. 

I still felt that way, and yes, we are happily married to this day... but in that moment I took my eyes off the big picture. It became about one singular moment that I felt had to be just perfect. And in reality, that wasn’t even the point. Did Alissa deserve a great gesture in the proposal, yes... did she care about how grand the gesture was... no. I had to put aside perfectionism for a minute, and go back to telling myself what this moment was really about, and what it represented. 

It puts the proposal into perspective, and helped me make it our special moment. 

So, are you overthinking in your business? Again, let’s go back to the quote from the Harvard Business Review…

“But there comes a point in decision making where helpful contemplation can turn into overthinking.”

There is a balance after all. As a small business owner, if you’re not thinking and planning in your business, who is? But don’t get trapped into overthinking some of your decisions. 

A couple of suggestions:

     1. Go back to your vision story! 

As we say at Business on purpose, “Vision is historic, vision is necessary, vision is powerful and when vision is absent it leads to chaos.”

     2. Review your core values. 

A lens through which powerful decisions should be made. 

     3. Trust the accountability in your life. 

This can be a coach, a teammate, your spouse, a mentor, a group like a mastermind. 

These are just a few simple ideas to help you keep it simple in moments you feel yourself start to take your eye off the big picture. 

Your business is important, and decisions need to be made everyday. Some of this requires you to do work on the front end (i.e. create or update your vision, writing out your unique core values, etc). 

But you will be thankful for the time in the long run as you begin to K.I.S. (keep it simple).

Thanks for listening. 

If you haven’t done so already, subscribe to our Podcast, and/or our YouTube channel.

We have 8 weeks left in 2021, even less if you subtract time for Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years! So, what do you need to do before then? Let’s build a checklist together!

Good morning everyone, Thomas Joyner with Business on Purpose here. Real quick. If you have not already, go to boproadmap.com/healthy and take our healthy business assessment. If you’re curious at all about how well your business is running, it takes about 10 minutes and will let you know your score immediately! Again, boproadmap.com/healthy.

So, it is NOVEMBER! What? How? It feels like summer just finished and now it’s a full on sprint to the end of the year. 

So what do you need to do between now and then to make sure your business is ready to take on 2022? How do you proactively dive in and make sure that you’re intentional about 2022 being the most chaos free year yet? Well, it starts with hitting on three areas of your business and life. I’m going to take a look at 3 workshop days you need to take for yourself before the end of the year to ensure that your business is ready for everything 2022 will throw at you.

1. Tweak and Revisit your Vision

The end of the year is the perfect time to look at the next year and make any necessary changes or tweaks. Are you well on your way? Is your Vision still possible? Is it too bold or not bold enough? Just read back through it by yourself, and then with your team. Keeping your vision always in front of you is a powerful way to make sure you hit the bullseye! 

A few questions to ask yourself…

-Am I living the life I want for my family? Am I spending time with my spouse and kids. How is my mental health? Are there healthy rhythms I can continue to live in for a long time? If not, write down what that needs to look like and make changes.

-Is the business producing financially the way you had hoped and worked for? Are there any factors leading to that? Do you need to hire or let someone go? Is there anything standing in the way? Are there any new areas of opportunity for the next year that you hadn’t noticed in the past? How do you take advantage of those?

-Do we need to expand or shrink our product line or services to better reach our vision? This is huge! Too often we do what we do and never switch it up! I have a client right now who started offering Christmas light hanging, as they noticed their cash flow dropped in December and January. It helped him stay focused on his financial goal for his business and served a really unique need in his community!

-How is our culture? Is there anything incongruent between who we say we are and who we actually are?

Is there anything we need to do differently? Recommit to team meetings, do some staff development workshops, maybe play together outside of work? Does anyone deserve a premature raise! So often we wait until employees ask, but what if we went on the offensive and decided that to keep the people we want on the bus, we may have to give them raises before they ask for them to show them we value them! Man, what a way to build a positive, culture of appreciation!

Lastly, write your team a letter to celebrate. Too often, we don’t take time to celebrate! What did we, notice I said WE, accomplish. This is a team. Give credit where credit’s due. Don’t blow smoke at your team, but tell them how grateful you are for them. Tell them where you were this time last year...  acknowledge the hard things and shed light on the areas of growth!

Your team wants to feel like they’re on a moving train, so tell them where you’re headed next, but do it in the context of gratitude for a lot of hard work over the past year! That builds culture. That pushes them to want to stay in YOUR business vs look somewhere else. 

Put it in writing! Tell them to hold onto it. That way every time they get discouraged, they can read where you’ve been, see where you’re going and get excited about the direction they’re running. 

Celebrate, Celebrate, celebrate! Don’t just keep pushing. Take a deep breath and celebrate.

Alright, that’s step one...do that this week! I’ll have step two for you next week, but Revisit your Vision and write a letter to your team THIS WEEK! Don’t wait. I promise it will get lost in the holidays if you let it. 

Have a great week and I’ll see you back here next Monday to talk through what you need to look at in your business finances before the end of the year.

Take care.

We have massive expectations at the end of a year headed off into the wild optimism of what a new year might bring... new products, new opportunities, new revenue goals.

And then we look up and it’s March...June...August... and we do it all over again, hoping that we’ll take it more seriously next year, but never stopping to make the time to give next year the pre-planned attention that it both needs and deserves.

It would be silly to show up to an event and the organizer welcomes you with this statement, “although this date snuck up on us and we just sort of woke up to the reality that you all were coming, we’re hoping to make this a great event and are glad that you are here... so let’s make the best of it!”

You would be infuriated and frustrated.  All of the time, attention, and investment it took for you to attend that event; and the event organizer treats it as “not a big deal” that they are not prepared. 

This is how many of us live out our year to year, on the year-end treadmill that methodically and non-dramatically waltzes us into a new year hoping it will be better, but knowing that we did not put in the pre-planned work to ensure that better will happen.

How can we ensure that we take advantage of the freshness of a new year and launch into an optimistic twelve months, having laid the groundwork aligned with a vision of what we see?

Here are four steps to building an annual business plan.

First, you must make time to plan.     

“I just can’t find the time... or don’t have the time.”

We all have the time, but you will never make the time if you don’t first go and find the time to make.

We all have time, and we all have a choice in how we spend that time.  

SPEND time.

Time is a non-renewable currency.  Money is renewable.  Time is not.

You have a finite amount of time, which makes the value of that currency wildly expensive. 

The tasks that you constantly get caught in, are they worth the value of the currency of your time.

You have the time... you must now make the time you have to prioritize preparing for the time that is coming.

Make the time to plan.  Schedule it in your calendar.  Communicate it with your team and your clients and customers.  YES!  They will appreciate your intentionality.

Second, spend the first part of your annual business plan on the vision of your business.

There are three elements that will provide clarity in your vision, so you and everyone else knows where the business is headed.

Remember, wisdom tells us that where there is no vision, people scatter.  So let’s follow the ancient Jewish wisdom to write the vision down so those who read it may run. 

You should have a written vision detailing the snapshot of the future of your business.

With that vision should also come an annual letter that brings clarity to yourself, your team, and your stakeholders and friends.

The best example of an annual letter is the 1997 Amazon Shareholder Letter from the pen of Jeff Bezos.  It’s powerful and filled with vision.

Write an annual letter each year, so you have a vision template of what is coming, along with a chronicle of what has been.

It’s powerful to go back and read what you were thinking back then.

Third, you should spend the second part of your annual business plan on the financial preparation of your business.

Every business will be served well by subdividing their bank accounts so that the revenue that flows in may be allotted to its appropriate destination (profit, cost of goods and materials, taxes, compensation, and operating).

Financial planning comes with time spent on subdividing the infrastructure that holds your cash.

Also, every business ought to have a simple dashboard that tracks the ABCs of the business; cash Accounts, Bookkeeping (receivables, payables, etc.), and Customer metrics (leads, touchpoints, views, etc.).

No business is complete without a simple budget.  SIMPLE!

A best practice is to go back and review the last few years of your business profit and loss statements to review the cost codes and categories.  Evaluate your various expense categories, update where necessary, and then begin to apply anticipated dollar projections to each one based on the vision of the business and where you see it headed in the coming year.

The fourth step of a proper annual business plan is our own personal preparation.

How is your personal estate setup?  Do you have the legal instruments in place you should have; written agreements, contracts, powers of attorneys, will(s) and trust(s)?

Have you met with an Attorney to go over a list of legal instruments that will help protect you and your business in the coming year?

The same holds true for insurance?  Are you overinsured or underinsured?  Have you had an insurance advisor walk you through your insurance options, needs, and future realities?

Personal preparation culminates with an exercise we call the Financial Barn.  A storied exchange took place between a sage and a wealthy man.  The wealthy man was bragging about the growth of his farm and how the yield on his crops grew exponentially requiring him to either put it to use, give it away, or to build bigger and bigger storage facilities.

The man decided to increase his real estate portfolio with more storage barns where the produce would sit.  In his mind, he thought, “I’ll have plenty so I can eat, drink, and be merry.”

The sage responded, “you fool, tonight you will die... and what will happen to your stuff” (my paraphrase).  

It is not wrong to save and store....and it is also not wise to hoard up and build bigger and bigger barns to hold more and more stuff.  

A Proverb says, “in the blink of an eye wealth disappears, for it will sprout wings and fly away like an eagle” (Proverbs 23:5).

A Financial Barn simply outlines the size of your “barn” for the upcoming year, and anything more than that is given away or sold off.  It’s a powerful exercise of generosity, contentment, and taking care of what we have.

With these four steps of an annual business plan, you make the time, cast the vision, set the budget, and ensure the integrity of the business that you are building.

Owning a business is a powerful gift and a burdensome responsibility.  We must treat it as both.