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My Business On Purpose

The Business On Purpose Podcast is a weekly podcast dedicated to equipping, inspiring, and mobilizing you to live out your skill set to serve others and glorify God. My goal is to help small business owners and organizational leaders unlock the things you cannot see, and develop actionable strategies and systems that will help you live out your business on purpose.
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Now displaying: February, 2020
Feb 18, 2020

Over the weekend I devoured John Eldredge’s new book, Get Your Life Back: Everyday Practices For A World Gone Mad.

A line in his introduction had me hooked as he was laying out the purpose of the book, “I found myself flinching when a friend texted and asked for some time.  I didn’t want to open email for fear of the demands I’d find there…It made me wonder -- am I becoming a less loving person?”

How I wish that line didn’t resonate when I read it.  But it did.  

Towards the final pages of the book Eldredge diagnoses what is really going on, “these are symptoms that we’re running on fumes.”

Chaos is a gas-guzzler and has a high emotional fuel burn rate especially for those in the service and “helper” industries.

As you build and grow your business, here are low to no-cost steps you can take to both re-fuel while burning less fuel.

First, make time for a daily walk.  This may or may not be your regular sweat-exercise.  The goal with a walk is to get outside. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimates that Americans spend 93% of their life indoors.

Eldredge puts it in a deeper perspective saying that if you live to be 100 years old, 93 of those years have been spent indoors.

In her article The Daily Routines Of Geniuses, Sarah Green Carmichael reflects on the outdoor walking habits of the greats like Dickens (3 hours per day), Tchaikovsky (2 hours per day), and Kierkegaard who would “often rush back to his desk and resume writing, still wearing his hat and carrying his walking stick.

I have been taking a walk most days just around my street (it’s a big circle) for the last few years.  It is restorative.   

Second, time block your week.  We have business owners tell us regularly that time blocking their week has been one of the most clarifying disciplines they have installed.  One business owner even told me a few weeks ago, “it has literally changed my life.”

Why?  

Time blocking your week means that you own your week instead of your week owning you.  Time blocking means that when someone reaches out to you to connect, then you get the share the times you are available while feeling confident in the times that you are not available.

We delivered a powerful webinar called Owning Your Schedule: Stop Wasting Hours Every Week On Small, Boring Tasks That Never Really Add To Your Life.  You can watch the replay here:

http://bit.ly/bophiringwebinar

One humble suggestion as you layout the hours of each day in your time block.  Go to bed earlier and wake up earlier. There is typically not much good happening late, and there is a whole lot of peace and quiet if you are willing to get up early.

Third, find a private workspace without distractions.  The open office concept is cool to look at and yet is killing focus and deep work.

We rent a space in town where we have the majority of our in person, and online client interactions, but then I retreat to my upstairs home office overlooking my backyard most Mondays and Fridays.

Those are the days that I spend preparing for the Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays.

Although we have minimal general foot tracker in our conference room space, distractions still abound.  

In most cases, your workspace as an owner is too accessible.  You don’t have to rent a separate space.  Do you have a home office, or a study room at the local public library, or a corner booth at Panera bread with a powerful set of headphones?

Time block segments of your week at your private office where no one except your loved-ones can find you.

Finally, ruthlessly eliminate hurry from your life.  

I wish I had come up with that, but it is a line from my favorite author and thinker Dallas Willard.  

Theologian Robert Banks points out that “our society is rich in things, but poor in time”. 

Last week I sat with a dear friend in Nigeria for a little over an hour and then mentioned that I needed to head to the next meeting, his response was quiet and simple, “you can be late.”

The West African context is rich in relationships and time, but poor(er) in things.

Even writing this I am already looking forward to the next thing...as I am sure you are too as you read or listen.

Stop.  

Go for a walk.  

But you respond, “none of that will work for me...you don’t understand my world.”

Then you will need to embrace chaos.  

But you don’t have to.

Want to invest more time in building a business on purpose?  You can register for our next Business On Purpose Webinar free here at BOPWebinar.com

Scott Beebe is the founder of Business On Purpose, author of Let Your Business Burn: Stop Putting Out Fires, Discover Purpose, And Build A Business That Matters.  Scott also hosts The Business On Purpose Podcast and can be found at mybusinessonpurpose.com.

Feb 10, 2020

There are seven things you will have to obsess over and implement if you wish to be the leader that your looking for is looking for”

 

  • The Leader Your Looking for wants a WRITTEN and repeated Vision

 

  • Story: BOP began in March of 2015.  Most of my biz owner friends had what everyone saw as a successful biz...and they worked hard.  When I began to ask them, do you know where you’re biz headed? There response was unanimous…”NO”
  • You ought to see the heartbeat a team member when WRITTEN VISION gets shared...it’s like a dry-soul gulping fresh water
  • Why?
    • Prov 29:18 - people die where there is no vision

 

  • Hab 2:2 - it is a catalyst for others to RUN!

 

  • How?  2-5 pages of details around these 7 categories: Term, Family/Freedom, Finances, Product/Service, Team, Client, Culture
  • A dream is a loosely held ideal...VISION is specific and clear!

 

  • The Leader your looking for wants a WRITTEN and repeated Mission Statement

 

  • Story: Care Africa (voiceless, exhausted)
  • They are investing courage into the voiceless and exhausted.
    • If voiceless, but not exhausted = No
    • If exhausted, but not voiceless = No
    • 70 children (mostly single or double orphans) making sure they have what they need to grow
    • 40 Caregivers to make sure that they have what they need to grow 
    • The mission commands respect
  • Think of Moonshine 
  • Less than 12 words, POWERPACKED and memorizable
  • THIS is how you answer the question, “soooo, what do YOU do?”
  • I came to liberate business owners from chaos”
    • What did YOU come to do??...the leader your looking for, is looking for a leader who will have their mission written down and will OBSESS about it.
  1. The Leader your looking for wants you to know your NUMBERS (and to help them know their numbers)
    • Not just P&L’s and Balance Sheets...REAL CASH
    • Story: Gerrick (grew up in a house that just needed a little jingle in the pocket...his Dad was a “cash man”)
    • Money is a tool...treat it as such.  Sharpen it and know exactly how to use it.  Know what you have, know what you need, and plan for the unexpected

 

  • Control money...or it will control you and eat you alive 

 

  • In 2020, the focus for our BOP clients is RE-INVEST (same things over and over)..why?  Profit AND Generosity!!!!
  • Resource: Profit First for Contractors
  1. The Leader your looking for wants agenda-driven, leader-led team meetings that don't waste their time
    • Let’s face it, in the words of Cameron ???...”meetings suck!”
    • Analogy: Meetings are the IV port to the body of your business
    • Story: American Paving Design (laid a great foundation)
    • Agenda Agenda Agenda...repetition repetition...DONT CANCEL
    • Resource: HBR Meeting Cost Calculator 

 

  • The Leader your looking for wants to SEE where they fit in your business

 

  • Medicine has diagramed the human body to know exactly how the whole body works together into 11 body systems (Cardiovascular, skeletal, Reproductive, etc.)
  • Story: PSA (When I walked into PSA the first time…)
  • We are all members of one body each doing her part, but you MUST diagram the entire body (Org Chart) AND the specific body part/role that a leader plays (Job Role)...and review it regularly

 

  • The Leader your looking for wants to SEE the results of their work

 

  • Pilot flying a plane via a dashboard...real time feedback
  • Story: TJ (Dashboard)
  • Here is an example SIMPLE dashboard...job costing, job loss/profitability, cash, receivables, follow up, cold leads 
  • Ambiguity leads to frustration and chaos

 

  • The Leader you're looking for wants to have WRITTEN goals with proper resources AND accountability

 

  • Shoreline was building some incredible product but came to a sobering reality when Chris Dalzell sat down to actually write out his vision story.
    • A Shoreline home was a $1.5mm commodity
    • A commodity!
    • I could ride down the streets of PB and couldn’t tell you which house was a Shoreline house vs. the other builders in town...they were all beautiful
  • Shoreline Construction has transitioned and lived out the custom home building business unlike any other builder I have seen up close. 
  • THIS is their Customer Experience and Project Management wall

 

 

  • Chris, Steve, and John came to a healthy realization understanding that the Shoreline product was less about the finished product and far more about the 18-24 month experience that the customer felt.  
  • Chris also made a tough decision that once every 13 weeks, he takes his entire team OUT of the field for a half day and, through the BOP 12 Week Plan LIVE Event, has each of his 20 team members build out their own 12 week plan 
    • 3 goals
    • Unlimited tactics
    • 12 weeks to complete it
    • Embedded in their agenda-driven, leader-led team meeting and voila...GOALS ACHIEVED around the company with incredible predictability
  • THe leader your looking for needs to SEE what you are shooting for!

BONUS POINT!  The leader you're looking for is looking for a leader who MAKES TIME FOR solitude to read and write.

  • Thomas Jefferson said it plainly, “I cannot live without books”
  • TJ and Gerrick Picture
  • Writing (show pics of annual letters)

Want to invest more time in building a business on purpose?  You can register for our next Business On Purpose Webinar free here at BOPWebinar.com

Scott Beebe is the founder of Business On Purpose, author of Let Your Business Burn: Stop Putting Out Fires, Discover Purpose, And Build A Business That Matters.  Scott also hosts The Business On Purpose Podcast and can be found at mybusinessonpurpose.com.

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