Take Flight – Business Growth Strategies with Business Coach Dan Holstein

If you’re thinking about starting a business, or even how to expand your market, check out my interview with the co-founders of Lost Aviator Coffee Co.

Adam Wright and Steve Zago had their jobs as commercial airline pilots end when the pandemic decimated the airline industry.

In this interview, they share their story of shifting their identity from career commercial airline pilots, to start up entrepreneurs.

From how they came up with the idea once their jobs were gone, how they learned all about the coffee industry, which was almost completely new to them, and what they’ve learned, Adam and Steve share advice to new entrepreneurs, and how their positive attitude and their values have been their map to an astonishing first year.

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www.kaizenperformance.com

Do you get interrupted more than you would like? Is it impacting your ability to get your most important objectives completed?

If you answered yes, you are definitely not alone.

So, why do business owners get interrupted and distracted so often? Well, the bad news is that we co-create the interruptions.

But that's also the good news!

Remember - your business is a reflection of your priorities and letting interruptions run rampant might just mean that you do not yet have a strategy to combat them.

In this week's video, I share a simple strategy that you can start using immediately to stop the interruptions, empower your team to be more productive - and save yourself a lot of time - that you can use for what's most important to you.

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If you feel like you’re working too hard in your business, try looking for leverage points. The concept of leverage in business is crucial because it allows you to do more with less effort.

I was reminded of this when I went on a walk recently and saw turkey vultures circling overhead. With every circle, these birds would fly higher and higher, and eventually they'd go off in whatever direction they wanted.

But the cool thing about this is that they didn't flap their wings at all. The turkey vultures are experts at maximizing efficiency. They know how to capitalize on leverage.

Seeing these turkey vultures made me realize the importance of leverage in business. Too many business owners feel overworked and overwhelmed. By finding leverage points, you can reduce your workload and become more productive and relaxed.

But to do so requires a shift in thinking. You have to remind yourself that there are easier ways of doing things. Keep looking for better systems and methods that will make your job more efficient. Also, remember to delegate whenever possible.

By seeking out leverage in your business, you’ll find that your level of productivity can increase without increasing the amount of work YOU have to do. Transform the way you run your business.

After all, why flap when you can glide?

So, keep leverage points top of mind. Take a look at your systems and processes to figure out what can be improved. And, like the turkey vultures, make efficiency your goal.

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Like most business owners, you probably conduct regular performance reviews with your staff, but how about process reviews? Are you regularly reviewing and taking steps to improve business processes? Or, do potential issues only come to light when something goes wrong?
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Today I want to talk to you about the importance of conducting process reviews and people reviews. After all, your processes are directly tied to team performance so if you can ensure your processes are efficient, your whole team benefits, right?

The truth is, as your business grows and develops, your processes also need to adapt. Processes that were once sufficient will no longer work as your business outgrows them.

Don't leave it too late to spot ineffective processes.

Set aside time regularly to collaborate with your employees to conduct process reviews so that you can uncover bottlenecks in your business, and create a plan of action to correct them, and drive your business forward more sustainably and profitably.

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👉 There shouldn’t ever be a need to use pushy sales tactics.  Rather, it is important to be persistent when it comes to selling.

A lot of business owners are happy to take a call and help someone; but they often don't want to do an outbound call, go to a networking event, or otherwise follow up when someone doesn't get back to them. Often, the reason is that they don't want to get pushy.

But that fear of appearing pushy can end up holding you back. Really, following up with someone just shows that you’re being consistent and looking to help your clients and prospects.

So, where does this resistance to sales come from? Well, when we're growing up we hear our parents and caregivers talk about the salesperson who sold them a “lemon“ or simply wanted to make a commission. Hearing these stories, it’s easy to associate salespeople with pushy sales tactics.

If you assume that that’s how all of sales is, then you're going to be losing out on a lot of business because you won't be persistent and overcome objections.

If you’re better than your competition, then you owe it to your prospects to follow up with them. Who knows, maybe they’re just busy, or don’t quite understand your product or service. If someone's asking a lot of questions, then you just need to stand out better.

A great salesperson is someone who professionally helps someone solve a problem or fulfill a need.

If you set out to help, then you won’t have to worry about appearing to be using pushy sales tactics. It’s easy to be persistent when you have the other person’s well-being in mind. And when you look at it that way, you’ll end up selling more.

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Have you ever noticed that your best ideas and solutions to problems come to you when you mind is free to wander – usually during some unstructured time or activity that doesn’t require a lot of mental focus?

As a business leader, part of your role is to solve problems – and lead others to solve problems too. And this requires think time. But with the pace of business – how much time during the day do you have to sit around and just think?

In this week’s video, I share why setting aside time to think, will help you grow your business. As well, I share a couple of strategies to help you overcome the barriers that keep you from having that valuable think time for yourself.

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Do you know who the most dangerous employee is? It's the person with great skills, and a bad attitude.

Why are they dangerous?

Because while they may do good work, they can rub other staff and clients the wrong way, aren't a good team player and generally require more care and feeding than anyone else on the team - which takes up your valuable time.

But the worst thing is that over time (which is going by so fast) they can convert some of your greatest team members into some of your worst.

I hope this episode on the impact of toxic employees spurs you make a decision and take action if you have folks like this on your team.

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www.kaizenperformance.com

Have you ever had a toxic employee that made you feel like they were holding you hostage? Did their behaviour make team management more difficult? In this video, I share some strategies that you can use to deal with these kinds of employees and ultimately maintain cohesion within your organization.

What I mean by toxic is someone who may not be a bad person, but for whatever reason just doesn’t fit into the organization and doesn’t get along with the rest of the team.

In this episode, we'll share with you at strategy to easily categorize your employees to help you understand them in terms of skill and attitude. These 4 categories help you see who is really an amazing asset to your team, who has the potential to get there, and who is a toxic employee that is bringing everyone down.

Every week, we bring you business tips and coaching for business owners and management teams.

Dan Holstein has been a business coach for over 10 years and helped hundreds of business owners grow their business and take flight.