I’ve watched a lot of businesses become successes, others ... not so much. The successful ones have one thing in common. Is it purely the godlike inspirational genius of the founder? No, it’s having a really good 2ic.

Here's why. How to spot them, plus the perils of falling in business love with new recruits because they remind you of you.

To get a real sense of how your business is going, you have to use your software yourself. You have to go into the stores. Call the call centre. Open an account. And see what your customers have to deal with. And you have a head start in that you know your product.

If your business has more than a dozen people, I guarantee you will find at least one thing you’re putting customers through that will make you hang your head in shame.

Here's that submarine ad I mentioned https://ianwhitworth.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/IMG_6828.jpg

For us regular SMEs, it’s a constant battle to creep your prices up. 

It’s a scary prospect. In your mind, your customers might drop you right away and run off with a cheaper, dirtier competitor.

Yet you must do it. Because none of your staff or suppliers are coming to you with a request to bring salaries, rent, or sales stock costs down.

Finding great up-and-comers is vital and one of the great pleasures of business. 

Here's the one characteristic to help you spot future stars.

Early on in your business, you will do humiliating new business pitches and tenders. You will lose by an Eric The Eel margin.

And yet, looking back, I’m glad it happened. If we’d won those contracts, our business would look very different and we would still be trapped in a subservient hell of our own making.

Enjoy some business pitch horror stories and the lessons we learned.

This week: the single thing your business can do to take the edge off customer service complaints.

As we edge back into life outside the house, now is not the time to be demanding to speak to the manager.

There has never been a greater need to check your privilege.

We look at businesses rebuilding after the COVID battering, and how they're coping with a crippling skills shortage on top of that.

Want to be … better at stuff? I’m going to save you so much time over the next few months. I read a large, eccentric mix of business and motivational books over the break. Every few weeks I’ll let you know what you can learn from each, and whether you should bother reading them yourself.

This week: Grant Cardone's 10x Rule vs Parkinson's Law. Which one has personally made me a fair amount of money? Listen and find out.

I promised you exciting news: Undisruptable is coming out in one of the countries you'd least expect! All the details of how that happened in this week's story.

1000 True Fans link I mention in the show https://kk.org/thetechnium/1000-true-fans/

While other, more entertaining areas of business will get you out of bed in the morning, it’s the boring, nerdy things that will save your arse.

Payment terms are in the top 5 disciplines for SMEs, and most people are terrible at it.

It’s always been so, and it’s doubly important if you’re in a COVID-affected field. It’s time to toughen up on terms and conditions.

Last year story I refer to in the show:

The Opportunities Of Customer Change: Get Out Of Your Mental Tracksuit Pants 

Realistic Post-Jobkeeper Survival Tips

In January people bring back lists of new daily habits and routines they’re going to try out, because they read Atomic Habits. It's a great book, and you need those habits, but they're just basic housekeeping in the quest for success.

You come back to 2022 with a new system for box-ticking your daily tasks, and get lots done, but it's a great way to stay in middle management forever. Efficient daily habits are a great way to feel like an achiever while you ignore the big, important moves that will make you happy long-term.

So this week, step away from that shiny new 2022 task-planner and ask yourself the big question: what am I trying to distract myself from here?

And what are you going to do about it?