My Business On Purpose

What exactly IS the function of an ORG Chart? Two phrases I've heard in the past week… "I feel like our business needs more from our employees." and "I feel like we have holes between what our business needs and what it actually has!" My answer? You're absolutely correct. Happy Monday friends, Thomas Joyner with business on purpose here. We're going to answer the question today of what exactly is the function of an ORG Chart in your business. Let's go back to those questions that I was asked this week. And surprisingly, the two go together. The first one gets to the thought of What does your business need? It's a great question to ask. If you could wipe the slate clean, fire everyone (hypothetically speaking, please don't go out and fire everyone right now), and build your business to serve your needs today... would you have the job roles you have? Probably not! No, you need more from your employees, because they were hired in chaos... NOT from a place of vision. "Gah, the phones are ringing off the hook, we have to hire another administrative person!" Or maybe something like this, "We're driving all over the place, we need someone who can handle estimates and still do a little work on the job, so let's make a hybrid Project manager/estimator role to fill the gap for right now." Well, that whole fill the gap excuse lasts a year, then 2 years, then you can't remember what you were hoping that role grew into in the first place. You're not crazy, it happens all the time! Let's look at the second question. "I feel like we have holes between what our business needs and what it actually has!" Of course, because when you hire in chaos, it's solving an immediate need, but not the most efficient, best long-term need. And here is what happens. You end up with a bunch of people on your team with overlapping job roles, working outside of their strengths because the urgency is informing the hire instead of the vision and the need informing the hire! When we start in crisis and don't think things through we end up with an ORG chart that looks completely different than what the business needs. So... where do we start and how do we combat this? You have to go back to this thought of if I could start over from scratch and build my business to serve my current revenue numbers, what job roles does the business need. Notice what you didn't hear me say. I did NOT say, who do we currently have in our business and what else do we need. No, this may take us shaking up our entire business to finally, FINALLY give the business what it so desperately needs. So, go through the 4 main pieces to your business, ADMIN, Marketing, sales, Operations, and start putting down roles. To handle the administrative tasks our business needs, what roles does that require? Do we have 4 people handling this part-time? Could it be blended into one job role to help with communication and collaboration? In looking at Marketing, ask, who is quarterbacking the marketing processes. Who is leading the charge and what support do they need? With Sales? Who's in the field, how much can they legitimately handle? How many salespeople and managers does the business truly need? And with Operations, what does that team ideally look like? Is that how we're running things? If not, why not? The last question I want you to filter all of this through… Does this ORG chart, we built allow us to manage the growth we're expecting and wanting in our vision? If not, what are the necessary roles we need to get there? I love doing this! It's so simple and yet gives you a framework for all hiring. No more hybrid roles where one person is operating in total confusion because they're just a stop gap for all overflowing work! That's not effective and horribly inefficient. Your business will tell you what it needs if you're willing to put in the time and listen. But think long-term for a second. What if your business had all the roles filled that it needed, with employees that knew what they were held accountable for... with room for business growth! That's the purpose of an Org Chart. To tell you what your business needs today... and what your business needs to accomplish your vision. Thanks for listening today... Hey, make sure you subscribe to our podcast and our YouTube channel. We've got free content coming out daily for your commute to work or for just sharing with your team. Get on and subscribe...

How To Develop A Job Description Growing up in a faith community, we would head out for loads of different community service opportunities picking up trash at a community park, repainting old homes, sorting through spoiled food at a local food bank; or the time in Denver when we were serving in a food line while a group of men smoked pot on one side of us while a knife fight broke out on the other side. Serving people who will never be able to pay you back is rewarding, but what can put a damper on community service is a lack of preparation and planning. Showing up to a service project with a "whatever you bring will be helpful" message is far more confusing than a message of "here is exactly what we would like for you to do". When there is ambiguity, the result feels like you are muddying the already murky waters of chaos without clear direction on what the mission and the task is. Owners are notorious for simply "needing help" and then finding people with a mind and a pulse and "throwing them to the wolves" so they can "figure it out as they go". We tend to perpetuate the "whatever you bring will be helpful" myth. It's a less-than-ideal way of empowering others to help drive the mission of the business, and yet it is done every single day. There is a better way, a way that is more human, kind, and visionary. People react to chaos, but they respond to vision and clarity. A simple, honest, written job description is a powerful and necessary step in building clarity and vision that a new team member will require and is in search of. Here are four ways to develop a helpful job description. First, on a sheet of paper or document, do a total brain dump of everything you wish this person could do. A healthy job description is just that, a description about the job. What are all of the tasks and responsibilities that this role will own? What are all of the little elements you would want this role to do? In a stream of consciousness write everything down that comes to your mind. Even if it doesn't make sense, write it down, just get it out of your head into a place you can actually see it. How specific should you be? The more specific the tasks you write out, the more clarity you will bring? For instance, you may write down "accounting". Be more specific like "payables, receivables, receipts, bank reconciliations, payroll, timesheets". Second, categorize tasks into three or four (or more) groups. For instance, if you are hiring a project manager for construction, you may want to categorize your job description this way… Pre Construction Construction Closeout Team Communication Admin Underneath each section is where you will add many of the tasks that you wrote out in the first step. The third step in developing a job description is to add your mission statement, your core values, and also to add any additional narrative you would like for a new recruit to know. We actually have started to add an open letter to the new potential team member providing a narrative overview of what we are looking for and also insight into our culture. Here is a snippet… "We believe that business owners can have a great business AND a great life. The best way to have them make time for what matters most is to liberate them from the chaos that distracts them. And that is where you come in! We are looking for a Marketing Strategy & Campaign Manager to come in and set up the systems that will invite 100 new people per week into the BOP Train Station so they can engage and make the decision to be liberated from chaos or not. We have good systems, good processes, and a great product. But we need someone to come in and obsess over drawing crowds of people in so they have an opportunity to know that help is available to them." This is a massive contrast to the corporate job description that sounds more like a legal brief than it does a human document. Allow your job description to show your humanity. The final step in developing a job description after you have the categories, the tasks, and the human element of the job description, it's time to test and title the document. Read back through what you have written so you can test it. Do you feel like it brings a helpful level of detail and explanation for the role? Send it to a friend or peer who has some insight into your business and allow them to read through it to see what questions or thoughts they may have. Once proofed and tested, only then do you put a job title on the job description. That's right, wait till the very end. Why? We put generic, placeholder titles on most roles (Accounting Manager, Sales Associate, etc.). Once you have read back over the role, what would you title the role regardless of what the industry suggests you title it? What job title actually describes the role you see? Use that job title. A unique job title will help grab the attention of people and jolt them out of the cliche of hearing some generic title. Once tested and titled, it's time to market your new ro

4 Four Lessons Learned from Year 1 with BOP It's been a year at Business On Purpose for me... and one thing I can honestly say is it's been a roller coaster. So what are the 4 things that have truly stopped me in my tracks this year? Well, let's talk about that today. Happy Monday friends, Thomas Joyner here with Business on Purpose. Coaching 20+ businesses, writing new content, helping clients put out fires, hire new employees, manage supply chain shortages, opening a new office in Nashville, you name it! It's been a challenging year to say the least. With all of that, there have been a few things that have stuck with me. A few things that fundamentally changed the way I view work and are things I will carry with me for years to come. I wanted to share them with you not to brag about all that I've learned, but to offer you the chance to marinate on them with me. Maybe they change your perception a bit. Maybe they push you to tweak the way you do things and grow in your own ways. We should always be growing, always learning and I hope that this stirs your mind in a way that you will process, then act on whatever you're challenged by. So... the 4 major lessons I've learned from the past year. You must know your why Knowing your why! We have to start here. I've seen this over and over again. Business owners that don't know their why end up one of two places. They either burn out in the process of chasing their goals. Just bored and exhausted from the mundane day to day. No true fire in their belly to storm the next hill, but just going through the motions because their work is not attached to anything. Or... they end up in another place. They accomplish their goals, survey the scene and realize it's not all it's cracked up to be. They look around and realize that this goal is only meaningful if they grow next year or go bigger next year. The goal had no why behind it and so it felt completely empty at the end. I had lunch with a business owner last week who had some BIG goals... growth, expansion, and new locations. I was so excited for him. I'm a dreamer at heart and I love listening to other people's dreams. After he finished telling me about what he hoped for in his business, he made such a profound statement. He looked at me and said, "I've got to figure out why I want to do all that though." I was kind of shocked he went there. I asked him to explain what he meant by that. "Well, I know that if I accomplish all of that, there's just gonna be more goals on the other side of it and it will feel really empty if I don't create spaces for people to meet, places for people to work and provide for their family, and a place for a community to come together." That's it. That's everything. When the why is firmly in place, it frees you up to chase after your goals knowing that there's more behind it than just money and growth! Don't forget that and know your why! There are no bad teams, only bad leaders. If you've read Jocko Willink's book, Extreme Ownership you know that this is one of his main points. This may seem harsh. "You don't know my team, Thomas!" You're right, I don't. But I have seen time after time over the past year, when a leader in a business takes extreme ownership, believing that every shortcoming in his business lands squarely on his shoulders, it frees his team up to operate at peak efficiency. Why? Because now, the owner takes it upon himself to train, train some more, and then retrain. They take it upon themselves to listen to their team, learn from them, and lead them towards a common goal. They build processes to free their team-up from questioning every move and delegate authority for decision-making to develop leaders on their teams. I've watched teams go from barely functioning to absolutely crushing it as the owner decided to finally lead instead of just getting by. It's a beautiful thing to watch when a person takes that ownership. Doesn't pass the blame, but views it as their sole responsibility to make sure their team succeeds. That's what leads to high-functioning teams. Now, that weight is heavy. The responsibility of running a business is heavy. But it is one that should never rest on the shoulders of your team. It's too heavy for them. But when you shoulder the load, train your team, and equip them to do their job... it leads to a business functioning exactly the way it should. Whether you believe you can do something, or believe you can't do something... either way you're right! It all starts with belief. Someone told me this years ago and I've seen it over and over this year. It's why we start with Vision. If we can see it, if we can believe it, it becomes possible. But the moment we doubt and think that it can't be done in our minds, we lower our ceiling and seal our fate. Belief and positivity are such powerful forces in our businesses. Our teams need to know we believe in them and believe that they can get the job done. Our teams need to know where we're headed and feel the b

Must Have Tool For Hiring: An Organizational Chart Template Human anatomy is simply the study of the structure of the human body. In 1862, an antiquities dealer from Bridgeport, Connecticut named Edwin Smith was living in Egypt and connected with Mustapha Aga, another dealer. Smith purchased an ancient Egyptian medical papyrus that dates back to the 17th century BC and had taken residence for all of those years in a tomb near Thebes, Egypt. The Edwin Smith Papyrus as it would become known, is the oldest surviving deep-dive into 48 various cases of trauma to the human body. The Edwin Smith Papyrus served as an external map to an internal world so others could quickly and systematically build on the prior learning of others. The papyrus is the oldest trauma text in existence and is remarkably cutting edge for its antiquity. Each of our businesses has a structure, an anatomy. In the same way science has uncovered eleven primary systems in the human body (i.e. cardiovascular, musculo-skeletal, etc.) it is crucial that we understand and publish the primary systems of our business along with the muscles that allow them to function. It is time we value the simple business org chart in the way we value a simple anatomy drawing realizing that it brings empowering internal clarity for all of our employees to see the systems and muscles of the body. To build a simple org chart need not be complex. First, write out the four systems that are found in every business. Administration (to include accounting and finance), operations or production, marketing, and then sales. Each business is supported with these four structures, and each of the four structures will have various muscle sets to help them move. Second, write out the minimum number of roles within each system that will enable the business to move. Be very careful to not start writing the names of people in those roles, but instead to have a mindset of role first, people agnostic. We must be careful to not build the business around certain people (because people may change), but instead to build the business around specific roles that we will then place in the skilled custody of people down the road. It is rarely a good idea to find a person and then write a role. Instead, ask the business what roles it needs to best operate towards its identified mission. Third, determine who is responsible for the day to day oversight of the entire body (business), and then who will be responsible for the oversight of each individual system and the roles that make that system work. Once the roles are complete, only then do we fill the roles with people. For some, one person may fill multiple roles (i.e. office manager, bookkeeper, etc.), for others, multiple people may fill one role (i.e. superintendent, customer support). For the basic org chart, focus on the roles first, the people will come later. Once built you will have created clarity for you, your team, and future team members to come. You will then be able to get on with the business of writing powerful job roles that are aligned with the proper structure of your business and then align the right people with the right role!

Happy Friday folks. Brent Perry with Business on Purpose here. It's June... we made it. Summer is here, and I hope you are ready. My best piece of advice... don't let your clients ruin your vacation. Story of 2 clients this week talking about summer. Mexico story Freedom fishing in Florida What are your summer plans? So the question of the day, how do you save your vacations? And yes, I think you can save them before they even start! Let's get practical Plan your time away! Hopefully, you have already done this. It can be a week with the family Golf trip with the guys Traveling home to see parents or your child who is away for the summer 2 day trip with the girls You name it This is crucial I am leaving town in June for a week with my girls, and I have already let my clients know. Communicate with your clients/customers the days you are going to be out! The days you don't want to be available. Don't be available! It's that simple. If you have planned in advance and communicated, then you don't have to feel the pressure to be on. Change your voicemail Set your email with an automatic response Don't open text messages Thanks for your time. I hope there is something here that you can take with you. We will talk again soon... but do yourself a favor this week. Enjoy these summer days!

Vision, Mission Statement, And Core Value Examples You Will Actually Use It was beautifully designed and placed on the wall of their printing business in the cosmopolitan city on the southern coast of Nigeria; three wall plaques side by side by side. The first plaque read "Our Vision". The second, "Our Mission". The third, "Our Core Values" The world of business has been uniquely lulled into apathy as to the true value of a vision story, a mission statement, and a set of unique core values. We usually respond to such with an eye roll and a "yeah, we have those" as if we just asked you about a collection of VHS tapes in your attic, or your old cell phones from the early 2000s; "yeah, we have those." It is also clear that they are dusty and looked at only during your annual office clean-up day with sentiment and reflection. We have stripped the power away from articulating and casting a clear vision. We have butchered the value of a bomb-dropping mission statement. We have relegated core values to strategic talking points that check the box of purpose in the eyes of customers or stakeholders. Let's reset and challenge ourselves to take a fresh look at the life-giving tools of a vision story, a mission statement, and unique core values. First, a challenge to write your vision story. A few thousand years ago we found a Jewish leader in a desperate place crying out to God for help and frustrated, "how long do I have to cry out for help before you listen?". Here was the response that ultimately came, "write the vision down, make it plain on tablets, so those who read it may run... if it seems slow, wait for it, it will surely come." Every business must have a vision, and that vision must be written and made plain to everyone because of the truth this wisdom, "where there is no vision, people scatter." Instead of making excuses as to why a vision won't work, even though we've rarely tried, we must implement, commit, and believe that our team and our clients will have greater clarity because we have greater clarity. Here are seven categories to work through as you write out a detailed, multi-page, bullet-pointed vision story. The first category is the duration of the vision. How far out does this vision take you? Is it 18 months? 24 months? 36 months? Our culture used to allow for 10 and 20-year visions. Those durations are much harder to gain clarity on because of the speed of our culture. We recommend that your first vision story be 24 to 36 months. Instead of writing "36 Months", write the actual date that is 36 months from now like "December 14th, 2025". It makes your vision feel more substantive. The second category of your vision story is the family and freedom section. You may ask, "but isn't this a business vision?" Yes! Business and life necessarily intersect. Although we think we can "keep work at work", we know better. What happens at home follows us to work and vice versa. What vision do you see for your family in 36 months? Write down the ages of each of your family members. Write down what you hope for them by that time. Write down the things you wish to do and experience together. Write down everything you can think of in terms of the growth your family will experience because of the growth your business will experience. Also, consider the freedom you hope to have as the owner of your business. Want to have your Fridays free to creatively think over new ideas? Write it down. The third category is the finances section. What profit do you calculate your business to generate then work backwards? In order to generate that profit, you will need to spend and invest what amount? Add the anticipated profit to your anticipated expenses and you will have a rough estimate of your total revenue needed. If it's a crazy number, then think about it. Is it ambitiously silly, or ambitiously doable? The fourth category is the product and service category. What products and services will be needed to generate the amount of revenue that you envision in the third category? Write them all down. The fifth category is the team category. What roles (not names of people, but roles) will be needed in order to market, sell, deliver, and administer the products and services that you identified that will ultimately get you to the total revenue that you envisioned? The sixth category is the client or customer category. Describe in great detail who the person or groups of people are who will purchase and procure your products and services. Be detailed! For example, "our best clients are business owners that have between two and fifty employees, been in business for at least two years, are cash flow positive, and struggle to find the free time to spend on the things that matter most in their lives." We also encourage you to write out details of who you do not prefer to work with as a client or customer. For example, "we will not serve business owners who think they have got it all figured out, who demean their employees as widgets,

Top 5 Hiring Mistakes I once spoke with a former COO of Disney and had a brief conversation about how he spent the allotment of time he devoted to work each week. His response was, "I spend 60% of my week trying to find the right people to bring into Disney." In my head, I'm thinking, "you mean to tell me that you are basically devoting all of Monday, all of Tuesday, and all of Wednesday to finding and hiring people?" He obsessed over finding and developing the right people to fit the mission of Disney because he realized that the amusement of Disney is a commodity, you can find similar amusement at Six Flags, Carowinds, or any number of other theme parks around the world. What makes Disney of higher customer value is the non-commodity part of Disney... people. Coffee is basically coffee. What makes a great coffee experience is the barista who remembers your name and remembers that your Kindergartener just had graduation last week. Hotel rooms are basically hotel rooms. What makes a great guest stay experience is the person at the front desk making you feel like you are the only guest. Our product or service, whether it is ice cream, a five million dollar custom home, or a consultation, is simply a commodity. What makes it a repeatable experience is the person facilitating the relationship. All of a sudden you realize why the former COO of Disney would spend at least three days out of every week locked in on finding and developing the right people. As business owners recruit and train, there are at least five common mistakes that owners make that sabotage their product experience. The first mistake we make in hiring employees is making excuses about why we can't find people to hire. Hiring is hard work and requires grit and grind. Very few businesses in the world have a line of people standing outside of their metaphorical door awaiting the slim chance of entry. We must treat hiring with the same reverence, passion, skill, strategy, and accountability that we treat sales, operations, and accounting. In a market where there are plenty of applicants, you must do the hard work of making your business attractive and irresistible, ensuring clear expectations, over communication, and motivational fit. In a market where there are very few applicants, you must do the hard work of making your business attractive and irresistible, ensuring clear expectations, over communication, and motivational fit (aka - the same work). Stop making excuses and start making blocked time in your weekly schedule to shake the bushes and let the world know that you've got a great opportunity available. The second mistake we make in hiring employees is being unclear about what we are asking them to do. Let's be blunt. Please, WRITE A CLEAR JOB ROLE. There, I said it. There is no magic to this. What is the role that you are asking them to do? Write it down in plain language. No corporate speak. Don't say you want a self-starter or someone who is results-oriented unless you are hiring a salesperson or a visionary. Otherwise, realize that 86% of the world's population (according to PeopleKeys) have a passive personality which means they are awaiting instruction. Map out all of the elements that you are asking of them day to day. Don't stop there, also provide an example weekly schedule of what their week might look like hour by hour and day by day. You might say, "that's unreasonable." My response, "then you are not ready to hire." In fact, please don't hire if you are unwilling to bring clarity through a written role and written model weekly schedule. You are setting your new employee up for failure and it is not fair to them or their family, and it will negatively impact your business. The third mistake we make in hiring employees is we have no idea what a new hire compensation will do to our finances. Breaking even on a role is not a profitably winning strategy. We've heard many owners say, "if we can just sell X widgets then we will break even on this role." Let's shift our mindset to seeing employees as investment in growth. Many business owners use a 1 to 3 ratio when thinking through how to compensate an employee. For every dollar invested in an employee, the expectation is that the employee's work would return three dollars of real revenue (total revenue minus cost of goods sold). It might be more, but we hope it would not be a lot less. Each employee is not brought in to just fill time and space, but instead to push the business ahead profitably towards its powerful mission. The fourth mistake we make in hiring employees, and this mistake is widespread, is neglecting to properly onboard and then wonder why the new employee feels lost but won't say anything. The challenges we have with employees six months and six years from now are challenges that could be prevented if we are willing to make the time and put the hard work in now. Hard work is not taking a mindset with employees that each should exhibit common sense. Candidly the id

Defining Your Avatar: Your One Perfect Customer" Happy Friday folks. Brent Perry with Business on Purpose here. It's nice and rainy here is good ole' Tennessee, but we still have some good content to talk about. If you have worked with us in the past you know that on the vision story we walk with you through, we ask a couple of questions about the type of clients or customers that you want to work with. And on the flip side of the coin, we also ask questions about what type of clients or customers that you don't want to work with. Story about sales job at WireMasters (2 different customers) I am reading a book right now, written by John Lee Dumas, host of the podcast Entrepreneurs on Fire. And one of his chapters is titled, Create Your Avatar. Which he goes on to explain that "an avatar is a single individual. Your avatar is your perfect customer, your model client, the ideal consumer of your content, your products, your services, and your offers." His idea is simple, spend some time really thinking about your perfect customer. Now, let's make sure we're on the same page. Just because you spend time thinking though, and creating this avatar, doesn't mean we expect this is the absolute only customer you will work with. That's not reality. As a business owner, you will with a doubt find yourself working with all different types of clients in the field you are working in. Then what's the point? Why spend time daydreaming about your ideal customer, when in reality you feel like you don't want to say no to anybody. Couple of things… As Dumas explains, "Allow your avatar to be your guide at every fork in the road." Meaning, as business owners you are faced with many decisions throughout the day and weeks…. and it usually involves a decision to go right or left... a fork in the road. After you have defined and dreamed up your perfect customer, you now have help in that decision. Which way would your avatar go? They are your perfect client, after all, let them help you in your decisions. Use some freedom in defining your perfect customer, to say no to some people. There will be clients who will just not be worth it to work with. Your avatar will be north on the compass, and you will be able to identify someone not taking you in the right direction. Start with 1, see how it goes. So how do you create your avatar? Well be specific, and ask some questions and jot down your answers. The more specific you can be, the better your avatar will work for you. Some examples, Age Male or female Married Kids Hobbies Communication style (text, emails, phone calls) Do they commute to work? Work from home? What does your business provide that they are looking for? Why would they choose you? Thanks for your time. I hope there is something here that you can take with you. Spend some time with your avatar over the next couple of weeks. You might be surprised how this simple tool can help liberate some of the chaos in your world.

How To Determine A New Hire Salary There are two areas of a small business when an owner will resort to gut feel faster than any other; who to hire, and how to compensate that new hire. We were a few months into coaching a business owner when the time approached for her to hire a new role in her contracting business. After helping her think through what to offload to the new team member, write the role, and determine the onboarding process (something she had never done before), the next obvious question came, "so how much will you offer in compensation?" Her response, "I have no idea." The good news is that she is not alone. The bad news is that strategy will almost always lead to a bad outcome down the road. Employee salaries are a bit like government programs, once set and offered they become difficult to retract and adjust. What factors should be involved in determining a new hire salary? What factors should we pay less attention to? It would first help to refocus on a question we rarely ask...what is the point of an employee salary? Business owners often feel a responsibility to "provide for our employees". That is not true. It is the job of the employee to provide for themselves and their family, and it is their decision on how that gets done. The business becomes one vehicle that can be used for the provision for each employee in the business if the business is generating enough margin to indeed provide compensation. Culturally, we tend to believe that businesses magically make money and that employee salaries should naturally increase in direct response to time. In other words, the longer a person is on the job the more money they should make. Obviously, this is damaging. I worked with a fellow employee years ago who was at the company for over a decade and was making double what myself and other less experienced employees were making, and yet he continuously underperformed. In essence, he was being rewarded year after year for simply showing up. Employee compensation should be built and continued based on the value the employee brings to their role and overall to delivering on the mission of the business. So how do we determine employee compensation that aligns with business revenue generation and profitability? We must listen to our business and hear what it is telling us based on what is actually happening in the business. First, you must know your numbers. As a reminder, we are not financial professionals and make it clear that we are offering suggestions based on what we have seen other business owners do. Make sure to consult with a financial professional when making these decisions. Knowing your numbers sounds obvious and yet most business owners do not know their total revenue, cost of goods sold, or gross margin (or what Mike Michalowicz calls Real Revenue = (Total Revenue minus Cost Of Goods Sold)). Seeing your net income on the bottom of a profit and loss statement is nice (and necessary), but it is not the entire story. We must be aware of all of the numbers below your total revenue and above your net income. What percentage of your real revenue is spent on personnel, taxes, insurance, fees, dues, equipment, communications, marketing, etc? Once you know those then you can begin to compare those numbers over the past few years and then determine if you are light or heavy in each area based on the return that you are receiving from each of those investments? The money you are investing in marketing, is it generating leads? The money you are investing in software tools, is it producing efficiency in production? The money you are investing in people, is it producing sales? It is impossible to set a new hire salary, or to even know if you can afford to hire a new person if you do not listen to the numbers that your business is using to speak to you. The second step to determine your new hire salary is to set your ratio. I heard years ago that the average new hire salary should be set around a 1 to 3 ratio (1:3 ratio). What does that mean? Essentially, for every dollar that you invest in a new employee role, that role should either… Generate an additional three dollars in revenue Or, free someone else up to go generate an additional three dollars in revenue The 1:3 ratio is not set in stone and is simply a suggested starting point. We have found experientially that the closer the role is to sales, the higher the ratio will likely be. One business we coach runs a 1:7 ratio for each salesperson they hire. In other words, if they compensate a salesperson at $100,000 annually, then they expect each salesperson to generate $700,000 in real revenue (total revenue minus cost of goods sold). Using a ratio below 1:2 does not make much sense because you are simply breaking even on a role that is meant to help you generate additional profit. The third step in determining a new hire salary is to run the calculation based on your ratio, and what your numbers are telling you. As an example, let's say that yo

Who holds you accountable? Who holds you accountable? To your standards, your goals, your vision? Happy Monday friends, Thomas Joyner with Business on Purpose here. Meeting with businesses can be a roller coaster. There are hundreds, if not thousands of variables at play every single day! So how do you navigate those? How do you work through those? How do you make sure you put the work in to build a business that matters. What I see, more often than not, is that most of us don't have a plan so we're stuck in the same place spinning our wheels. About a year ago, I was meeting with a heroic business owner and we spent a little over an hour talking about their business. The highs, the lows, the wins and the struggles. All of it. This guy had no problem articulating where he wanted to take this thing, and in all honesty, he had the confidence and drive to get there. He even had a plan for all of the stuff he wanted to develop in his team. So we parted ways. I wished him well and told him to call me if I can ever help with anything. 8 months later we grabbed lunch again and I asked him for an update on business. The frustrating part for him... he hadn't done anything with those plans to grow his team. Sales had gone up, their reach as a business had gone up, but organizationally they were struggling. He lacked the accountability to get what he wanted to accomplish done. He would wake up and there would already be a fire burning in his business. But instead of letting it smolder a bit, so he could work on some crucial elements of the business, he ran to the fire to put it out. He listened to the loudest voice shouting for his attention and, "Just never got around to it." It's a story that is not foreign to us. A separate heroic business owner I met with months ago wasn't much different. This one, however, needed some help with his Vision. So we worked hard for a few hours getting that written down and in place. We went our separate ways as they weren't quite ready to take on a 1 on 1 business coach. I checked back in on them about a month ago and they haven't stuck to their Vision. They got distracted and are chasing other things that are moving them further and further from what they truly wanted in their Vision story. Again, they ran away from the accountability that would have held them to it. Sound familiar? A third business I met with months ago. We sat down and spoke about getting all of their processes recorded. They were hoping to sell their business in the future but really wanted a sellable business that someone could come in and run from day 1. We went back and forth for a while, but they felt they didn't need the accountability and they could handle it on their own. Well, I checked in on them a couple of weeks ago to hear their process. Like most businesses, they just got busy, haven't started, but are doubling down to get moving. Nothing had changed for them because no one was there to hold them accountable. So why does this happen? We have so many good intentions, we're talented and smart individuals. Why can't we seem to get the business headed in the right direction and keep it going that way? Well, I think it's because of a lack of accountability 9 times out of 10. When we lack accountability, the wind can blow us wherever it wants us to go and there's no anchor holding us to a location. That's part of why we named our new content the Business on Purpose Compass. It's to be a guide, pointing us the right direction. But here's the thing about accountability. It's not a one-time event. No, it's consistent. It's unwavering. It happens over a long period of time. Sometimes it's abrasive. Sometimes it's encouraging. That's the power behind it. It's the simple reminder to stay focused on your team meetings, to train your team to your standard, when chaos is buzzing in the background. It's a simple phone call in the middle of the week asking about those 2 processes you said you were going to record but hadn't gotten around to it yet. No, you said you were going to do this, schedule time for it, and let's keep moving forward. We have a tendency to self-sabotage when left to ourselves. But when someone who is fully objective can look over your shoulder and offer perspective, hold you accountable to your vision and values, and give you the tools to get there... that's freedom! So, what kind of accountability do you have in your life? If none, how do you go about getting it? Well, maybe you need to set up a biweekly lunch with a group of like-minded business owners? Maybe it's being fully transparent with them once or twice a month and then letting them speak the truth and hold you accountable. Maybe you need to join a mastermind group of people to help you think through what you can't understand and shine some light on your blind spots? Maybe you need a business coach to meet with you twice a month, give you a roadmap and a compass to build a business that matters. To not let you settle or chase after your

When To Hire Employees For A Small Business? He finally admitted, "we were so desperate to find people that our hiring process consisted of simply determining if they had a pulse!" Unfortunately, this is where many business owners find themselves as their business grows and they become a slave to the soupy chaos of product creation, delivery, billing, payables, taxes, and dealing with employees. The good news is that regardless of your business or industry, it does not have to be that way. There is hope and that hope comes dressed in what looks like hard work. You are going to discover the first step in finding purpose-centered and value-fitting people to help you accomplish the mission of your business and it actually has nothing to do with hiring. In early history, a team of twelve spies were commissioned and sent on a reconnaissance mission to discover a significant section of land in the Middle East to determine if they were fit and ready to take over that land. As with most group decisions, there was dissension among the spies as to the fitness of their small nation state to annex this land that belonged to other groups. In fact, only two of the twelve had confidence to move forward. Their confidence held firm and eventually this tiny nation state moved in to occupy a territory of land that was promised to their forefathers years prior. Before you hire it is important to have the mind of a reconnaissance spy peeking into your own business and asking your business some pointed questions. When in London riding the tube you will hear an automated voice imploring you to "mind the gap". When you feel a gap in your business, there is an urge to fill the gap with an employee...and fast. Before you send a new employee into that gap that you feel, it is crucial that you first see the gap, and to sloooow down. Here are four questions you can ask your business to determine if it is time to fill the gap by hiring employees. First, have we properly delegated all tasks to our existing employees? A bookkeeper called me one day in total frustration saying, "if one more client drops off a shoebox of receipts for me to organize for them I'm going to quit!" Her client abdicated their responsibility and my friend in a no-win situation. Abdication is the failure to adequately prepare so that others pay the consequence. Delegation on the other hand is the relentless and thoughtful preparation and training that sets up another person for success, and then the consistent follow-up to ensure that the delegated task is being implemented well. The tasks that you are looking to be deployed by the new employee...have they been documented and set up for repetitive training? Second, we need to ask if we have a predictable and consistent habit of agenda-driven and leader-led weekly team meetings so that we can intentionally communicate with our existing and future employees? I know, you think, "more meetings?!" No. Better, consistent meetings. Most meetings are inconsistent and rarely have any element of follow-up and accountability. Ask yourself honestly, do we have a standing meeting every week that has a written agenda, a designated facilitator, and follow-up on action items from the previous week? If not you are setting your existing employees and any new employees up for failure. Imagine a marriage relationship with inconsistent and haphazard communication. It doesn't work! Third, do we have clarity on what system in our business this person would be serving? Each business, regardless of industry, is equipped with four major systems; operations, administration (accounting), marketing, and sales. What system(s) will this new employee be a part of, and then what processes will they own within their system? You as a business owner have never experienced true entrepreneurial freedom until you have experienced the joy of having an employee fully equipped to own their role and to know exactly what is being asked of them and how that fits within the structure of every other role in the business. Your Org Chart and a Process Roadmap will allow them to see what parts of the business are fully dependent on them. Fourth, are we willing to make the time to onboard a new employee and continually lead? Hiring an employee is the start line of the marathon of working for your business. When you hire a new employee you have simply invited them to ninety days of stretching and preparation. Then after ninety days of intentionality, only then can the starting gun fire and the marathon begin. Who do they need to know? What do they need to know? What tools do they need to learn? What techniques for those tools are unique to your process? What does communication look and feel like? How does culture get intentionally installed instead of being just a cross-your-fingers hail mary? We have to be disciplined as business owners to resist leading from our feelings because they give us false positives all of the time. If you cannot make time to ask these fou

Number One Team by Greg Gray Business Coach My Business On Purpose Greg Gray is an international leadership and business coach, who has been serving others for over a decade. He is the author of Business Owner Freedom: Transform Your Business To Create The Lifestyle You Desire. Greg also hosts the Everyday Business Leader Podcast. He is a regular contributor to the Business On Purpose Podcast, that can be found at mybusinessonpurpose.com. He resides with his family in Southern Middle Tennessee on their farm. #businessonpurpose

What Makes A Great Leader? by Greg Gray Business Coach My Business On Purpose Greg Gray is an international leadership and business coach, who has been serving others for over a decade. He is the author of Business Owner Freedom: Transform Your Business To Create The Lifestyle You Desire. Greg also hosts the Everyday Business Leader Podcast. He is a regular contributor to the Business On Purpose Podcast, that can be found at mybusinessonpurpose.com. He resides with his family in Southern Middle Tennessee on their farm.

"Let's Talk About Your Time... Really, Your Mornings!" Hey there, Brent Perry with Business on Purpose. Happy Monday. Or, whenever you have stumbled across this video I hope you are doing well. What does your morning routine say about you? What does your morning routine look like? Does it matter? Maybe... let's take a look. It's been said, "The morning is the perfect time to get into peak physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual state. The right morning routine would help you learn, grow, and improve every facet of your life." Are you taking advantage of your mornings? When I was just out of college (22 years old) I was a guy that could sleep in to 8:30 for my job, and if I ever woke up in the 7's...man I was up and at it "early" in my mind. I would pat myself on the back if 7 am morning actually happened. I would sleep in at the last minute, jump up, grab a quick shower, grab a coffee on the way, and arrive just in time for my first meeting. This went on for a few years until I got invited by a group of men I looked up to and admired to run with them twice a week in the mornings. I was pumped, of course, I wanted to run with these guys and spend some time with them. They gave me the location, and the time... 5 am. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. These guys wake up to run at 5 am... like what? But for 2 days a week, it was worth it. (Now I'm going to take a minute to say all this happened before I became a dad of 2 little girls. I realize how crazy this seems now... I can't even remember the last time I woke up after 7 now, but at the time this was a big deal). But before I became a dad, where is what I learned from these men. They absolutely loved their mornings. They looked forward to them. And not because they could get more work done in the day. But because the mornings were theirs. Is your morning yours? It needs to be. By the time you step into your business, you should be ready. Again, physically, mentally, emotionally, and possibly spiritually. You want to be your best, and function at your highest potential. Take advantage of your mornings. And if you aren't already, take back your mornings! So what do we do? I love this quote by David Goggins, "Every morning in our lives, we have a choice to make. You have the choice to stay in bed and say 'Forget it, I'm not going to work out today.' or 'Forget it, I'm not going to work hard today.' That's your choice that you make every single day of your life. Make the right decision." Let's make the right decision. What time do you need to start working on your business in your daily schedule? 8? 7? 6? That time can be different for each of you, but there is a time that you can identify. So let's start, at minimum, an hour before that. Set your alarm (set 5 if you have to). And wake up. Stretch Drink some water Read Workout Meditate Shower Walk for 30 minutes Drink coffee in your favorite chair Get yourself ready for the day. My oldest daughter is the earliest riser in the family, she wakes up at 7:30. There isn't a day in the week I am not up by 6:30 at the latest. And 6:30 is late. For me to be at my best, I am usually up around 5. Now, this isn't about me. Please don't take this as a "look at me" post. I have had to learn over the years that for me to be my best on a given day, I need my mornings. And I think you do too. Thanks for your time. I hope there is something here that you can take with you. Drop a comment if you have some tips/hints for others about morning routines. Have a great week.

The ugly side of business growth Ok, so you've reached your sales goal... now what? Is it all it's cracked up to be? Let's jump into that today! It's a new week, I hope you're doing well, Thomas Joyner with Business on Purpose here. I've seen businesses that earn 300k with an 80% margin... and I've seen million-dollar businesses with 3% margin. You tell me which you'd rather have! You see, we hear these massive sales numbers all the time and the owner's exclaiming they've arrived! But that's never how we measure success. $500k, a million, 10 million dollars...it really doesn't matter. Because you can bring in all the money you ever dreamed of, but if you're not profitable, you run the risk of working for free and getting stuck answering to a business that will demand everything from you with no payoff in the end. Don't believe me? I was working with a business just a few months ago. "We did it! We landed the contract. Sales will increase by 50% next year by signing this one whale to a long-term contract." "That's amazing! Congratulations... how's your margin priced in there?" I asked, just wanting to double-check and not regret it later. "Oh, it should be between 18 and 20% depending on a few pieces of efficiency and if we have to buy any new equipment." Awesome, let's look at it. Well, we started jumping in the numbers and realized quickly that it was not as peachy as it seemed. "We'll need to hire a new manager and a new team of subs to make sure we handle all of this extra work. The manager is gonna need a truck, and a trailer and insurance goes up, and our equipment isn't geared to really handle this scale of work, so we're gonna need 30-40k of equipment." Can you feel the margin shrinking, or is it just me? We got all the way to the end and pressed enter on our calculations. Had they just moved forward without truly looking at the numbers, they would have lost 12% on the year. Now, maybe they could have survived it. Maybe they had enough in reserves to make it, and granted, some businesses start out knowing they will lose money for a year or two before becoming profitable. But the differences is those businesses are prepared to take that hit. They have cash reserves to weather the storm! When you're expecting an 18% margin and lose 11-12% that's a gut punch you are NOT ready for. So, we started making some cuts. We went back to the profit first model and started building in another bank account for capital purchases. That way we can pay cash for new equipment as it becomes available in a few months. Once we ran the numbers again, we landed at a healthy 7-8% margin (which is really good for this business) for year one. Guys, that's success. A lot of people can bring in sales. A lot of people can land the big deal because they undercut prices so they have razer these margins and have no chance if, and when, something goes wrong. But that's no way to run a business. That's a huge reason we use the multiple bank accounts model. So that we can spy on our finances, make quick, informed decisions that will keep us profitable. It's way easier to course correct early on than to try to make up for poor decisions. So, do you know your numbers? Have you sat down and truly checked to see what your margin is going to be or are you bragging about top-line revenue thinking it will magically figure itself out? If so, that's going to get you into a world of trouble down the road. Hear me say this... top-line revenue matters, but not if the system is not in place to handle all of the work. So, if you can do the work on the front in to make sure you can maintain the margin, that is how we measure success. This is the ugly side of business growth. We overextend ourselves and our entire team struggles. But... had we thought through it and put in the work to build out a system that is able to handle more revenue, we can sit back and truly be proud of the business we've built. One that is secure, ready to handle anything, and structured to last a long, long time. I hope that makes sense and would love to chat with you if it doesn't. Let me know! Again, make sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel and podcast. You won't regret it. Have a great week!

Why Is It So Hard To Find Employees Right Now We sat down for an impromptu Happy Hour last week with a handful of our local clients. The topic we thought was most relevant was "how do we manage material delays and price increases?" After some BIG Wins (we always start meetups with BIG Wins), we then lobbed the topic for discussion. Within five minutes, all of our business owner clients were knee-deep in conversation about a different challenge... employees. We started to slowly guide them back to our selected topic, and again within another five minutes, they were shifted back to a deep discussion about... employees. It's true, the number one challenge most business owners deal with... employees. Go out to eat and you will feel what it is like for a small business to not have enough employees. Business owners are having to go to new heights to find and keep employees. The common thought is that the extension of unemployment benefits are leading to a lack of motivation for people to get back to work. That may be true, but there are other reasons. The pandemic pushed a significant amount of employable people towards the idea of remote work. I can think of a few people in my social circles who have moved to remote work exclusively. It's hard to tend the bar remotely. It's hard to manufacture plastics remotely. It's hard to sort produce, load trucks, and stock shelves remotely. Is it that people want to work remote, or is it that they just want to work somewhere they enjoy? According to greatplacestowork.com, "84% of employees at The Container Store say it is a great place to work compared to 59% of employees at a typical U.S.-based company." The Container Store is a collection of physical retail and warehouse locations that require primarily in-person job opportunities. How is it they have high satisfaction but offer very little remote opportunity? It can't be the product, plenty of other retailers sell organizational products. The Container Store has a remarkable culture of communication. You can see it played out on their unique blog standfor.containerstore.com. One of the seven foundational principles (core values) for The Container Story is communication is leadership. In other words, when you communicate, you are leading. The inverse is true also, when you do not communicate, you are not leading. Before you write off my statement "culture of communication" as cliche, stop. Here is my question for you. How have you communicated the job opportunities that you have? Typically, an owner will simply say, "I'll go post an ad to see if we can find someone." When they do find a couple of random people, they are fast-tracked through a half-baked hiring process and then wonder why in six months the owner is ready to get rid of the new employee. Before you go try to the find the right person or people, here are four pieces of communication you can set in place to lead through your own communication. First, shoot a video explaining your mission and values. Explain, in your own words, how you integrate your mission into your day to day. Also, walkthrough and demonstrate how you actually use your core values in decision making. This assumes that you both have and use your mission and unique core values. Second, write a letter explaining exactly what you are looking for, and what you are not looking for. This letter will accompany your job description. Here is an example of the opening section of a letter we wrote to accompany: We're hiring a Marketing Strategy & Campaign Manager because we can't accomplish our mission to liberate business owners from chaos without one. We need someone to wake up every work day and ask "how can I use A) all of the amazing BOP tools and talent, B) the right available digital tools, and C) the right invitation tools to get 100 people each week into the 'BOP Train Station' so they can have the opportunity to be liberated from chaos?" We believe that business owners can have a great business AND a great life. The best way to have them make time for what matters most is to liberate them from the chaos that distracts them. And that is where you come in! Third, write a job description that actually walks through the details of the job. Scrap the corporate nonsense that fills most job descriptions with words like self-starter, or detail-oriented. Based on the DISC profile, approximately 86% of the world has a passive personality (C and S personalities), they need a catalyst to help them get started on something. Only 14% of people are active personalities (D and I personalities) who would have strong capabilities to be self-starters. Also, only 17% of the population has a predisposition to a high level of details (C personalities). Tell us what the job actually is. Cut the corporate speak, and write so humans can read it and understand. Finally, publish all of your communication. Post it everywhere! Have a dedicated page on your website to all of the tools mentioned above with a specific URL th

4 Key Steps Away From Chaos Chaos... that ever-present foe (or friend) to some of you. How do you take much-needed steps away from it? How do you close the door on it and lock it out for good? Well, let's talk about that today! Happy Monday friends! Thomas Joyner with Business on Purpose here. Every single sales meeting we do inevitably comes back to employees and sales. Every. Single. One. But what's behind all of that? What's really at the core, the root of the problem? Chaos. It just boils up and keeps us from training our employees as well as we should. We're chasing revenue numbers and trying to meet sales quotas, so we never put in enough time to build out the necessary systems and processes to alleviate that chaos. So what happens? It just sits there, staring us in the face and daring us to make a change. But we don't. We just let it chase us around until we figure it out or burn out. So, how do you leave chaos behind? How do you turn the corner and get above the noise? A few weeks ago we sent texts out to several of our clients to ask them that question. They are rocking the BoP Roadmap and the ones we texted are far enough along to have some perspective of how they got there. We sent them a simple text. "If you were to tell someone in one sentence how to succeed as a business owner, what would you say." We were asking in the context of new Business on Purpose clients, but the message translates to any business. Here are the top 4 answers we got: Put in the work and show up. We are asked all the time, "What's so special about the Business on Purpose Roadmap?" Our answer? It's packaged in a way that we can guarantee if you put in the work, you will see your business change. That may sound arrogant, but it's getting to the point where we've seen it work with enough businesses... so we have the confidence to say that. Just like boiling water. If you put water in a pot and add enough heat, it will start to boil. If you have a business and put in the time on your vision, mission, values, delegation, recording, and training on processes, everything we coach. You WILL get above the chaos. Here's where that's tough. You have to put in the work. We can't do it for you! Just a few weeks ago I was meeting with a business owner who wanted to work with us. I asked him how much time he would have, outside our coaching, to work on implementing this. He couldn't commit to any. So... I told him we may not be the right fit. That's right, turned down a sale. Because if you're not willing to do the work, we don't have a magic wand to wave over your business. It's hard work, but it will succeed if you put in the work and show up. Side bar there, if there's ever a coach or consultant claiming a magic wand to cure your business? RUN THE OTHER WAY! It never happens outside of hard work. Schedule time to work ON your business every single week, not just in it. I was really proud of my client who texted back this one. Early on he struggled to find the time to work on his business. There were a lot of fires burning. A lot of things to do and spinning plates to keep in the air! He was a little frustrated at how slowly he felt like the ball was rolling, so I challenged him to set non-negotiable time to implement what we talk about every week. If he will commit to that for 2 months and it's still not working, I'll tell him to walk. No questions asked. The beautiful thing? He scheduled the time, never missed a meeting with himself to work on his business and the snowball is cruising downhill. He has an effective team meeting, he has a team leader that's newly trained and crushing it as he leads in the field, and their finances are finally telling them something from subdividing their bank accounts and spying on their businesses money. It's changed everything. But not without doing the work every week. Implement quickly... don't wait This one seems like second nature. Like, why pay for the coaching if you're not gonna insert this into your business. But we do this, right? We read self-help books and say, "Man, what a great book!" A year later, we can barely remember anything that stuck out about reading it. We go to a conference and listen to amazing speakers, but we don't write it down and implement it, so it's forgotten a month later. We remember the feeling, but there was no lasting impact. So to succeed in business, you have to LEARN AND IMPLEMENT. It's why that's a core value at BoP. The longer you wait to implement, the less chance it has to make any kind of lasting impact. Put in the work and implement today. This week. Now! You get out what you put in, stop making excuses. This one was one of my favorites because it was accompanied by another little quote. "Excuses are like butts... every business owner's got one!" I love it! And it's so true. Everyone has a reason why it's not time for coaching or why they can't seem to get free from chaos. But when was the last time you drew a line in the sand? When was the last time you

How To Make Work More Enjoyable For Employees We were sitting by the fire when the phone call came around midnight. On the other end were my son and a group of 17 and 18-year-old male voices practically shouting in unison saying, "You're not going to believe this, we got Mr. B to do the worm in the middle of the dance floor!" It was prom night, the final opportunity for these young men to slay the dance floor with their High School classmates, and they wasted no time making a night they would both remember, and joke about for decades to come. Mr. B is the unpretentious and well-beloved principal of their High School, and yes, he succumbed to the pressure of a group of fun-loving Seniors and wormed his way into their hearts forever. A year prior to that night those same young men began developing a written plan for prom, what they would wear, what they would eat, where they would go before and after, and most importantly, the energy and dance moves they would bring to the dance floor. One of the young men made this statement the next morning, "Like Sherman I came in and left destruction in my path... only mine was on the dance floor." The night was capped by the reality that their most unassuming and softest speaking friend would end up being coronated Prom King. The after-party was a mix of acrobatic stunts still in tuxedo duds, an endless flow of food, long games of manhunt in the woods, crashing on air mattresses in an old shed, and then waking up to the delicious scattered, smothered, and covered delicacies of the always-open invitation to the Waffle House. What of the Prom King? He decided to make his entrance to the after-party in running shorts, suspenders (no shirt), and his newly received Prom King Crown. Of course, he did. These young men had fun. The type of fun you want to have. Fun that builds a culture. Fun that you want to remember. Fun you want to share with others so they can enjoy a morsel of the fun. Fun that breeds more fun down the road when you're sitting around your own fireplace reflecting. You push back saying, "well, that's not my personality". That is where you are wrong. Fun is not reserved only for those who are considered to be "fun". Fun is not a scarce commodity. Fun can spark at any moment. You could even stop and have fun right now. You could listen to a Jim Gaffigan joke and belly laugh... right now. You could think about your most embarrassing moment and belly laugh... right now. You could pull a goofy prank on a family member or teammate and belly laugh... right now. The English word for fun has its roots in an old French word amuser meaning to stupefy, waste time, gape, wander, loiter, be lost in thought. Jeff Campbell encouraged me to be "intentionally wasteful" every now and then. That is what fun is. Of course, fun is not our continual state in life, but it is something we should certainly make more time for. Here are a few ways you can begin to incorporate more fun into your day to day. First, schedule fun. Putting an activity on a calendar feels like it cheapens the sincerity of the activity. It's not true. Think about the National Football League. They schedule their fun every Thursday night at 8 pm, Sundays at 1 pm, 4:25 pm, and 8:20 pm, and Monday nights at 8 pm. An example of scheduling fun in a business is to start each team meeting with BIG Wins; something fun, interesting, or special that has happened in life or business that is worth sharing. Every time our team shares BIG Wins we always end up laughing along with one of our team members following something they share. Also, put dates on the business calendar to go do something different... something fun. A make time to plan for those dates. Not just classic team building, but even a one-day training each year where you inject some light-hearted fun in the day. Shoreline Construction recently had their annual offsite team training that was loaded with learning and laughter. Coastal Shores Landscaping did the same and the room was filled with smiles! Those High School Seniors made a plan and they haven't stopped talking about the results. Second, give yourself permission to be intentionally wasteful. The intention makes it purposeful, the wastefulness allows you to not be productive for a while. For a productivity hound like me, the permission to intentional wastefulness is hard. It helps that I am married to a lady who knows that I struggle with intentional wastefulness and will often just nudge me and say, "Hey, enjoy... it's ok." Time is a scarce commodity, but it does not require perfect efficiency. Third, spend more time with fun people. This is not a call for you to surround yourself with who live life steeped in mindless immaturity. Jim Gaffigan is by far my favorite comedian on what is a very short list, and what to us sounds like goofiness is actually the product of hundreds of hours of thought, script, practice, rewrite, edit, practice again, and deliver. Comedy is hard and requires mature disciplin

Do You Have The Time? Hey there, Brent Perry with Business on Purpose. Happy Friday. I hope whenever you have stumbled across this video you are doing well. I ran across a quote from Laura Vanderkam this week, "Do you not have time or do you just not want to do it? There is a difference! Blaming time for what you aren't prioritizing doesn't complete tasks." I ran across this quote as I was studying because I was having several conversations around time management and weekly schedules this week, and this idea really got me thinking. What kind of time are we prioritizing? In college, I fell in love with ultimate frisbee. I grew up playing every sport you could think of and played baseball all through high school. So when I got to UT frisbee was something new. Something exciting. Something fresh. I was in. And I remember one night as I was cramming for an accounting exam the next day the text came through…" frisbee at rocky hill tonight?" Now you should also know that up to this point I had procrastinated, and this was the first night I was opening the books to study for this exam. This decision really was a no-brainer. I had put off studying, and now I was going to miss out on something I loved because I hadn't managed my time. But, alas, I just couldn't help myself. Ultimate frisbee was calling, and I had to go. So I went and played, for hours. Had a blast. Came home, tried to pull an all-nighter, and got up the next morning went to my exam, and walked out with a C-. It really could have been worse, but not my finest moment as a student. The truth was, I just didn't want to study. I had the time. There was nobody or nothing to blame but myself and my lack of time management. Again, Vanderkam's quote, "blaming time for what you aren't prioritizing doesn't complete tasks." The task at hand wasn't completed. In sharing this story, I am sure that most (if not all of you) can relate to this story from some point in your life. And I hope that as we have gotten a little older, maybe a little wiser, that we can learn from these times. Especially when it comes to the businesses you run and work in. How is your time management? How is your schedule? Are you making the time for all that matters? Are you making time to work on your business and not just in your business? Our hope is that you have a weekly schedule, an ideal weekly schedule if you will. One that allows you to focus on your business and those tasks that you need to get done. Do me a favor...look at your week. Monday through Friday. And let's start filling in some time. Start with the "big rocks." The non-negotiables. Maybe that's a weekly workout you need in your life. Maybe that's taking your kids to school. It probably involves specific roles in your work that need to get done. And let's get those down on paper. An easy place to start, write out a calendar for next week. Write out the non-negotiables. And then use some space to write in time to work on your business. Ask yourself, do you have the time? Or do you just not want to do it? This will help you as you move forward, and begin to work on delegation in your business. Thanks for your time... literally! Have a good weekend.

Four Ways To Deal With Material Shortages And Price Increases In the third month of building out our Ram Promaster van as an off-the-grid getaway camper, I walked into our local home improvement store and gasped out loud. A ¾" sheet of Oak plywood was $65 (USD). An 8' section of poplar wood was $40 per board. Ouch. For an amateur just learning how to do basic woodworking and sure to miss-cut, these would mean some expensive experiments. No longer was it measure-twice-cut-once... but instead, measure for an hour and cut (hopefully) just once, and sometimes twice. We spend much of our day with business owners and key leaders in the contracting, services, and supply industries and it did not take long to start reviewing their bids to customers and realize that $250 per square foot pricing was rapidly increasing to $300 and $400 per square foot in our area. A perfect storm of production cuts in anticipation of COVID increased demand of services during COVID, and the intracontinental migration of people from more-restrictive to less-restrictive geographies has led to a class increase of demand and a decrease of supply. Restaurants are running slower with longer wait times due to a shortage of staff. Architects are running slower with longer start times due to a glut of new projects. Builders are running slower with longer supply delays due to material shortages. Landscape construction providers are running slower with challenges finding both labor and material. In a study in classic macroeconomics, supply and demand are dancing reluctantly like two kids at an awkward seventh-grade winter dance. When demand is the lead with supply weakened, business owners have the uncertainty of getting the time and materials to complete the work. When supply is the lead with demand weakened, business owners have the uncertainty of finding work. In this time of massive demand with struggling supply, how do we deal with unpredictable material shortages and price increases? Here are four tools in the toolbelt of a purpose-centered owner... First, communicate with your team and your customer. How many times have you sat in an uncomfortable airplane seat while the aircraft rests still on the tarmac with no rationale as to why it is not moving? Although we are grateful to have the benefit of air travel, it is made less frustrating with information. Pilots have access to an amazing amount of information and yet consistently (not always... but often) withhold the information from the tens or hundreds of people sitting blindly in the back of the aircraft. Sometimes a simple, "We're still gathering information and I will be back with you in 10 minutes for an update whether we know anything new or not." Communication is a powerful tool even when the communication is "I don't know." Be thoughtful in your communication, don't be hasty. Your team members and your customers are your partners, without them, you do not have a business. Without you, they do not have the valuable service you offer. Second, grow your cash. Recently, Rick Steves was interviewed by Guy Raz on the powerful How I Built This podcast. Raz acknowledged to Steves that his multi-million dollar travel business had to have been decimated by COVID. Steves agreed, and was then asked by Raz how he maintained his staff? Steves responded by saying that he kept his entire staff of 100 people with virtually zero revenue for the entire year of 2020. Raz pressed and asked how, Steves said simply, "We had a good 30 year run as a privately held company and I saved up cash." Steves' cash reserves have provided options. Business owners are susceptible to obsessive tax advice that encourages minimizing how much taxes are paid by purchasing unnecessary assets. If legitimately needed, then these can be beneficial purchases. Just remember, when you spend that cash you a) likely pay a premium for whatever it is you purchased, b) you must now pay to maintain that purchase, c) and you no longer have access to the cash used to make the purchase and used to maintain the purchase. Access to your own cash, even though you have to pay taxes on it, can be a powerful hedge against the uncertainty of material shortages and price increases. Review your cash position with a qualified CPA who is not obsessed with buying a bunch of year-end distractions. Third, ensure your contract language clearly spells out what happens in the wake of material shortages and price increases. For many industries, there is a gap between the time a contract is signed and when work is performed. Markets and materials fluctuate daily. Some vendors have price locks and some don't. It obviously helps to communicate the consequences of such changes up front. We know of one builder who had recently removed the price fluctuation clause from their contract months prior to COVID because they felt it was a barrier to clients feeling comfortable. And then the prices started to increase and a $1mm home was now $1.4mm. You can imagine th

Why Do I Feel Busy, But Not Productive? She was sitting across the conference room table about to take on another task and then finally sat back, looked up, and let out an exasperated sigh. The only words she could seem to muster were, "why do I feel busy, and still seems like I get nothing done?" In other words, why do I feel busy, but not productive? It is a frustrating reality for many owners and key leaders. Owners feel it when they are slow to delegate, or sit with the quiet sentiment of "it's just easier to do it myself." Key leaders feel it when they are inundated with abdicated tasks, and sit with the quiet sentiment of "why can't we just get more help to handle all of this work!" Busy has become a badge of honor, suffering, and importance. What if you struck the word busy from your response when asked how you are doing? We say it all of the time. "How have you been?" Your response, "busy". Looking back on the use of busy in written history, Google NGram Viewer shows that the word has seen two spikes. The first was around the 1920's and seems to be in response to the Industrial Revolution and the incessant work life of the factory laborer. The second spike in the word "busy" started back in the 1980's as the efficiency-laden personal computer technology revolution began in widespread earnest. The use of the word continues to rise. To be busy is to simply have a lot to do. Busy says nothing of effective, impact, positive, negative, helpful, or hurtful. Busy is not good and it is not bad... it's just busy. It is entirely possible, dare I say the norm, to be busy and yet to not be effective. To be busy and to not be valuable. To be busy and to not be productive. Much of our busy-ness is an exercise in simply in busy-ness, and not in activity that is leading us towards a defined vision. So why do we feel busy, but not productive? Three reasons. First, you do not know that ultimate vision behind the work you are doing. This one is easy to overlook. We all assume that we are all headed in the same direction. Without a constant reminder of the endgame, the finish line, the vision, then we fill the vision void with our own, competing personal visions. A business without a written, and oft reviewed vision is a business that is filled with as many visions as there are people. Imagine a misaligned military where each member is left to choose their own mission. Ask yourself, and ask your team, "do you know where we are headed?" If they do, then keep repeating it. If they do not, then write it down, share it, then keep repeating it. Second, you feel busy but not productive because you have little to no boundaries. I recently heard Lance Golinghorst articulate that we all have access to three major scarce resources: time, energy, and attention. Attention is indivisible. It is well researched that multitasking doesn't work. As I am writing and reading this, I should not be brushing my teeth or checking my bank balance. Energy is renewable (I can generate more energy), and transferable (I can give you energy and you can give me energy). The real wake up call is in regard to our time. Time is non-renewable (we cannot make more of it), and it is not transferable (you cannot give yours to me). You go into each week with a defined, finite allotment of time. Either you put boundaries throughout your day roping off all of the tasks and responsibilities, or we will do it for you. If you do it, it allows you to maximize your scarce resources of time, energy, and attention. If we do it for you, then we will devour your time, energy, and attention. You can make excuses as to why it won't work in the specific role you are in. We love you, but your role is not a special unicorn or snowflake. Own your role by owning the boundaries for your role and then share those boundaries with us so we can support you. The third reason you feel busy but not productive is because you have yet to disappoint the unrealistic expectations of others. You think that we expect you to drop everything to pay attention (one of your scarce resources) to us. There is one thing that you can do to allow us to extend an unlimited amount of patience around your boundaries. Communicate. Communicate your boundaries. Communicate your delays. Communicate your completions. Communicate your expectations. We have unrealistic expectations of you because we assume you are at our beck and call. Instead, communicate with us that in fact, you are at our beck and call… "... between 2 pm and 5 pm on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays." Then, on those days and times, communicate with us. Do not focus on the rare exceptions to this truth like the time a customer called you in a panic at 11 pm because they had to know the answer now. Does that always happen? No. Know where you are going, why you are going there, create boundaries with your weekly schedule, and communicate. Soon you will begin to feel productive, but not busy.

How Do You Handle Conflict In The Workplace Let me paint a picture for you... you walk into work, look to your left and the admin won't lock eyes with you. You walk into the break room to grab a donut, no one's talking in there. You sit down at the team meeting and it's quiet as everyone is looking at their phones. What happened to our team? We used to laugh a ton and all get along, but for some reason, we can't seem to move past all of this conflict. Does that scenario sound familiar at all? Ok, maybe it's a bit dramatic. Maybe everyone's not avoiding each other's stares. But, I don't think I'm that far off. Are there situations that are off-limits to talk about? Maybe jokes that are a bit too close to home and when they're made everyone kind of awkwardly laughs? Maybe there's that suggestion at the meeting for the boss and you start to see some steam leaking out of one of his ears? I don't know what it looks like in your business, but I know one of the constants in every business is conflict! So, how do we typically deal with conflict if, and when, it comes up? Most people do one of 3 things... ignore it, take it on too directly and run over everyone in their path, or take it on just enough to make it go away in the moment, but never fully deal with it. I've actually seen this with multiple businesses I've worked with recently. There's always that one person the owner says, "Oh, well, I can't say that to them." My response is always, "Why not?" We go back and forth for a bit, but it almost always comes back to conflict that was ignored and never dealt with. It's created this "No Fly Zone" that everyone steers clear of and has to walk on eggshells around. Or maybe you take it on too aggressively. Maybe you, as boss or supervisor, shut it down immediately, raise your voice and humiliate the person in front of the team. Proving you're the alpha and they are not, But what did you do in that situation? You lost all chance of them ever wanting to follow your leadership willingly. You bred discontentment and resentment in the workspace and a culture of shame. That's NOT what we're going for. You see when conflict happens, and it inevitably does... most of us react. We move past it or move in too quickly. We have a knee-jerk reaction based in emotion that we normally regret later on and realize that it was in no way productive for our team or our business. Instead (React or Respond), we should focus on responding. Surveying the issue at hand in the conflict, analyzing the best response, keeping emotion at bay, and dealing with it in a level-headed manner. This React VS Respond battle is waging a war in our country right now. Typically something happens and everyone jumps on one side or the other of an issue before taking any facts into consideration. They React... and whoever shouts the loudest gets heard. What our business needs is time spent responding. Thoughtfully, to whatever happens. There's a great verse in the Book of James in the Bible. It says this…" Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry." "Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry." Now, I don't know about you, but how many of you, if someone asked your friends or coworkers about you, think that those words would be used to describe you? I'd wager not many of us. No, so often we're the exact opposite. We're caught in this Reaction mode of never truly listening because we're too busy thinking about our rebuttal or thinking about how we're going to respond. So we never hear the other sides thoughts to be able to empathize. Slow to speak? Come on Thomas I have things to say! I'm the boss, I've earned the right. Well, yes that's partly true. You've earned the right to respond in a healthy way that builds your team up. Not to just berate and belittle out of emotion. Slow to become angry? "Well, you don't know what they did. You just don't get it. You don't know what their mistake cost me!" That's true... I don't. But I do know that our businesses are made up of people, that represent families and they deserve to be treated as such. Quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry. Man, I can't help but think that if we adopted those words right there, our businesses would culturally change almost overnight. Now, here's something I get really often... especially with the popularity rising of things like the Enneagram or the DISC profile tests. I'll hear people say, "Thomas, I can't help it that's just the way I'm wired. I'm an 8, a challenger, you know?" Or "I'm a D on the disc profile, so I'm just direct!" Look, being an 8 on the Enneagram or a D on the disc does not give you permission to be a jerk. It just doesn't. Learn some self-control and watch your employees and coworkers respect for you grow. When they know you could blow up, but you choose to respond, man that's next-level leadership. Or on the flip side…" Thomas you don't get it, I'm a 9 on the enneagram. I'm just a pe

Choose your hard One of the conclusions I've come to over the last year of being a business coach... is that everything in the business world is hard. Nothing comes easy. Especially this year in the midst of a pandemic! It's all really, REALLY hard... managing employees, staying on top of your numbers, scheduling, estimating, selling, HR, getting sleep, getting time with your family, all of it! So what do we do with that? How do we figure out what to make of that? Well, let's talk about it today, happy Friday Thomas Joyner here with Business on Purpose here. I was zoning out after putting my kids to bed this week and just scrolling along on Facebook seeing what was up in the world and I saw a quote that forced me to read it a handful of times. This is what it said. "Relationships are hard.Divorce is hard.Choose your hard. Being Overweight is hard.Being fit is hard.Choose your hard. Being in debt is hard.Being financially disciplined is hard.Choose your hard. Communication is hard.Not communicating is hard.Choose your hard. Life will never be easy. It will always be hard.But we can choose our hard. Pick wisely." Man! Let's unpack so much of the truth in those words. I think so often, we feel like we're missing the boat because work is hard. Or life is hard. We think for some reason we missed a turn or made the wrong decision because it's hard. Hear me say this... the hard doesn't make anything you've chosen wrong! In fact, oftentimes it may mean that you've made a wise choice! Life is going to be tough, but it's the tough that you choose that defines your direction in life. And it's no different in business. Business is tough. It will always be tough, but we have the choice to decide which hard we want. We can be fully intentional to choose a hard that is worthwhile. Think about this. Running a business with no direction is hard.Running a business based on vision, mission and values is hard.Choose your hard. Trying to do it all yourself is hard.Delegating and training your team to own their role is hard.Choose your hard. Going through your week haphazardly is hard.Facilitating meaningful team meetings is hard.Choose your hard. Building a business absent of systems and processes is hard.Building and recording systems and processes is hard.Choose your hard. Running a healthy business without knowing your numbers is hard.Staying on top of and tracking your numbers is hard.Choose your hard. Work is hard.Building your business into a work worth doing is hard.Choose your hard. You see, we don't get to decide whether or not business is hard. Don't believe me? Well, can you tell me the last time you heard someone say… "It's just kind of been a breeze recently, I don't know what everyone else complains about. This entrepreneurship stuff is cake!" No! It doesn't work that way. But we can choose what matters. We can lean into the hard that we want to choose. And we can build a business that has real impact in everything it accomplishes, knowing full well the hard that will happen along the way. That's life-changing stuff y'all! Spend some time today, choosing the right hard things! Don't get nervous when things get hard. You didn't mess up? Or maybe you did and you need to course correct. THAT'S OK! But don't make the mistake of stumbling along with no direction. Choose your hard. Hey, make sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel and podcast if you haven't already. It's been described recently as "going to business church!" Ha! I love it. Hope you enjoy.

Can You Answer This…" What do you want to be remembered for?" Thoreau's quote while living near Walden Pond for two years, two months, and two days has been rightfully recalled and repeated amidst the noise of the past five to ten years, "most men lead lives of quiet desperation." A really famous lady died last year. A really rich guy died the year before that. A really successful lady died the year before that. Did any of them matter? The more modern poet John Mayer thinks through his checklist in his song Something's Missing: "Friends, (Check), Money, (Check), Well slept, (Check), Opposite sex (Check), Guitar (Check), Microphone (Check), Messages waiting on me when I come home (Check)...How come everything I think I need, always comes with batteries?" We have all of the stuff and yet we still seem so unsatisfied and obsessed with more. It is said that when the acclaimed "father of modern management" Peter Drucker was in school, he had a teacher who gave his entire class a profound question, "What do you want to be remembered for?" The teacher at the time told the young class of teenagers that it was ok if they were not able to answer the question immediately, but that if they could not answer the question by their forties, then their life would have been wasted. Could you answer that question? What do you want to be remembered for? Let me ask another way, what do YOU want to be remembered for? Not what the loudest voice in your life wants from you...but what do YOU know that you have been built to do even if those things are not the most commercially lucrative offering? Even if you will be seen as an "outsider". C.S. Lewis was speaking to a group at London College in the 1940s and likened the constant striving of a person towards the expectations of others to an onion peeling contest saying, "You are trying to peel an onion: if you succeed there will be nothing left." To the outsiders, Lewis goes on to lend them courage saying, "Until you conquer the fear of being an outsider, an outsider you will remain." The irony? Being an outsider is only true to those who are not following their God-designed calling and are trying with all their misdirected might to do what is popular... and constantly following short. These battles are solved if we are willing to put in the hard work of answering the simple question lobbed to a group of teenage students, "what do you want to be remembered for?" This is such an important question to have a written answer for that we will begin to have every business owner we work with answer this. Three reasons you should answer this question in writing. First, the answer to this question will color and guide every decision you make in the all important "back half" of your life. You do not have time to waste. At the time of this writing, Ashley and I are 48 days away from cheering on our second child as he departs for life beyond our home. The speed of time is punishing. Second, the answer to this question will influence the people who matter most to you. Can you imagine if you held a piece of worn paper in your hands with the handwriting of your great-grandmother or great-grandfather describing what they hoped to be remembered for? It would be a relic to be cherished and possibly guiding wisdom to provide clarity as you pursue what you want to be remembered for. At minimum, you would be grateful for the effort they gave. We all wish to have some impact on the people in our lives who matter most. Being intentional about knowing what you wish to be remembered for will allow you to align decisions with that desire. Finally, the answer to this question will lead you to a life less inhibited by widespread fear and more in line with a life of purpose. We want to matter. We want our work to matter, our family to matter, our children to matter, and our own lives to matter. What does it mean to matter? We know what it is not. Mattering is not general success in societal metrics (your net worth, your work title, your number of social media followers). To matter is to live out what you were built and designed to do. That is what you need to find because that is what you will wish to be remembered for. Lee Iacocca, the famed automotive executive who brought Chrysler back from the brink reflected, "Here I am in the twilight years of my life, still wondering what it is all about...I can tell you this, fame and fortune is for the birds." May you not be a business owner or key leader who arrives to your twilight years still wondering what it is all about. May you instead be a thoughtful soul who had forethought and intentionality in knowing what you wish to be remembered for and then align your remaining days with that aim.

How To Hire The Right Person... Even When You Can't Find People To Hire Never have I seen so many "Now Hiring" signs on the side of massive manufacturing plants, in the front windows of bistro shops, and permanently wrapped on the side of service trucks. Ashley and I were on a date weekend and three places that we went to eat were all noticeably short-staffed. In one local public house, with around 30 tables and a full bar available, they had one, non-kitchen staff working... one. We all tipped her well, helped serve ourselves, and cheered her on but the realization hit. Regardless of cause it is hard to find good people right now. Meeting us at the front door of another restaurant we visited was a smiling hostess who, after some conversation, was laughing that the only reason she was there is because her friends work there and called her last minute to see if she could come help "seat people". She technically was not on the payroll. The vision of our business is calling for growth and growth is calling more people but how do you hire the right people when you can't find any people to hire? Someone told me last week, "INDEED (the online job posting site) must be making a killing right now!" Probably so, and yet finding and hiring the right people seems to be killing us. What do we do? Where do we find the right people? How can we get good people to buy in to our great mission and provide an exceptional service? I've got hard news, and even harder news...and yet there is hope. The hope is this, people are still people and people migrate towards experiences they find fulfillment in. The good news is that the bar is low right now for business owners creating a fulfilling work experience for people to migrate towards. The other bit of good news is that people are still people and people are social...they want to share things with others they know. But the things they share must be remarkable...worth remarking about. How can you create a remarkable culture that a very small group of people will be attracted to and then go and invite their friends? This is the hard news...it ain't easy, but it is doable. Let's take this in two parts. Part one, creating a remarkable culture. Part two, finding the right people to come join your remarkable culture. Starting with part one, how do we create a remarkable culture? For many, it means ping pong tables, free sodas and snacks, cadillac-style benefits, and unreasonable perks that do more to promote not-working than aligning great people to do great work and lock in on a collective mission. Culture has very little to do with ping pong tables and Reese's Pieces. First, in order to have a great culture, you simply must have written and installed structure. Noise and shifting foundations are the new landscape for our society. We are being encouraged to each have our own worldview. It is a curious thought that after deliberation leads to the realization that society cannot function without agreed upon collective structure. Too much structure leads to dictatorial rule, too little and truth becomes relative, and stop lights become suggestions rather than law. In business, structure equals written vision, mission, values, process roadmaps, job roles, org charts, hiring and onboarding processes, and consistent communication hubs like team meetings and daily huddles. Bad cultures are built (yes, bad cultures are actually built) by business owners who say they have structure, and then disregard the structure. Second, in order to build a great culture, you must repeat and maintain your structure over time. Built by leading your weekly meeting...every week. Built by working your hiring and onboarding process...every time. Built by reviewing your mission and values...at every gathering, at every sales call, on every page of your site. Talking about them in real conversation when you rise up, walk around, and lie down. They become engrained. Built by showing up to your huddle...every time. Bad culture is built by saying you will do this, and not showing up. Culture is created through the intentional planting of either the right or the wrong ingredients...it is your choice. Culture is not reformed in a retreat, or after a two-week strategy period with a culture consultant. Culture responds directly to the effort you apply to the systems and structure you create. Ashley and I want to be married for a long time so we put a series of structure in place that facilitates connectedness in our relationship like dating weekly and getting away quarterly. You could say, "that's not love if you have to schedule your relationship!" I'm not sure it's love if you don't intentionally schedule it. Part two, how do you find the people to come join your culture? First, KNOW the job role you are asking people to commit to and KNOW the processes you are asking them to do. A good job role will be a simple outline of all the tasks and processes you are asking that person to commit that is tied directly to the vi

What kind of baseball are you playing with your business? Are you swinging for the fences... trying to make a big splash? Or are you hitting singles and doubles every day? Well, let's talk about each of these and the why behind them. Happy Friday friends, Thomas Joyner with Business on Purpose here. I hope you're doing well today. A few years ago, a movie came out called Moneyball. It chronicled the rise of the Oakland A's baseball club and their revolutionary approach to changing the game. Their GM, Billy Beane realized something... they didn't have the capital to play the game the way the Yankees, Red Sox, Dodgers...etc. played the game. Their strategy was based off of signing big name free agents that could swing for the fence and produce home runs or have a high batting average as power players. Get a few guys on base, hit a home run. Win the game. Simple, but EXPENSIVE! What Beane realized was that there was a different way to run an organization. He started looking at often forgotten stats like On base percentage as a way to manufacture runs and began a new age of what is now known as "sabermetrics" in the MLB and is the way every single organization runs its ball club. So why is this such a big deal? Well, a lot of those high-paid players hit slumps. They struck out a ton, meaning they were ineffective. And with their unbelievably high payroll, it put a tremendous amount of stress on the finances of the organization. But low paid players hired to fill a role and produce, created dividends over and over and over again. So, if you look in your business...what's your strategy? Is it making the high-priced move... hoping you hit the home run? Or is it base hits...base hits...base hits. The problem is, base hits aren't sexy. They aren't what books get written about or what we brag about to our friends and colleagues after work. Home runs is where the glory resides. Well, that is until it puts you under. See here is what happens. We've seen this half a dozen times already this year with businesses we coach. That one big deal comes across your desk. The one you've been waiting for! It's a homerun in every possible way. So what do you do? You take it and say, "We'll just figure out how to make it happen and the profits will be so much higher that we'll figure out the back end later." So you sign the deal and then go to work figuring out the numbers. Alright, if we do this we have to hire a new crew. And if we hire a new crew we'll need a new Project Manager to be over that team. Well, that PM will need a truck to get around to job sites. That crew is gonna need a trailer... and tools and embroidered collared shirts, but then the project had a snag so they need some overtime to get it finished. Whoops, now our supply chain is backed up so our guys are on the clock, but can't get the materials we need so we're paying them to work slower or do other jobs around our business. Or maybe it looks like this…"Oh, we'll just hire a Sub crew. That will save us on payroll taxes and then we can just use them as needed for this massive job!" Well, that works until you have no leverage and the guys walk off your job for a higher-paying job. Now you're stuck with a deadline and a rapidly shrinking margin. You look up at the end of the year and somehow your topline was 30-40% higher than the year before... I mean you hit a home run with the new deal right, but then you look down at your Profit and it's smaller than the year before. And on and on it goes! You can laugh and say that this will never happen, but we're seeing it time and time again. Base hits friends! It's not sexy... it's not flashy, but it's the way to win. Why? Because as you grow your business with base hits you begin to build processes that work. You build systems that can handle your steadily growing business. The foundation is rock solid...so that when the big deal comes through, you're ready to handle it. If you watch Shark Tank at all, they use this phrase all the time…"Drowning in opportunity!" The entrepreneur is on there, they grew too fast and got too excited about all the potential revenue coming in that they didn't take the time to build their business the right way. So they're sitting there with Purchase orders that they have not chance to fill without going into massive amounts of debts, their manufacturing is a mess, distribution is a nightmare, oh but they've got purchase orders! Base hits, guys. Base hits. So, what kind of baseball are you playing in your business. Are you relying on the home run? Relying on that one whale of a client who, if they left, would absolutely crush your business? It's not sustainable. It's not a responsible way to run your business! It leaves you vulnerable on all sides and at the mercy of making that one deal happen. Or are you playing Moneyball with your business. Finding creative ways to play the game and creative ways to innovate along the way. All the while building a foundation that is ready to handle whatever

4 Things Your Employees Need To Hear From You… What do your employees need to hear from you? Let's talk about that today. Happy Friday friends, Thomas Joyner with Business on Purpose. Everyone's got that first boss you work for. You remember them? Can you picture them? If so, what does that picture look like? Are they yelling at you? Are they coaching you up? Coming alongside you? What are they doing? Well, my first boss, thankfully, was a huge gift to me personally and professionally. I remember day 2 on the job him sitting our team down and doing 3 things that set the tone for my almost decade on Young Life staff. I'll get to it here in just a second, but I think every employee needs to hear these things from their boss. They need to be told and reminded constantly. So often we, as business owners, cover this stuff once and think that our bases are covered for the next year or two, but no these conversations need to happen monthly, if not weekly or daily. They need to be a part of the fabric of the business in a way that you can feel and taste! So, these are the 4 things your employees need to hear from you… Where are you going? Where do we want to be in a year, 3 years, 5 years? It's a simple thing, but do your employees know what the long-term goals for the business are in tangible, broken down steps that they can begin to tackle on a daily basis? Day 2 on staff with Young Life we talked all about the scale and scope of ministry in the town we were placed. We dreamed about the new schools we wanted to reach and the new leaders we needed to get there. We spoke of the funds we needed to raise to make that happen. And at the end of that meeting, we knew exactly what was going to have to happen to end up where we wanted to be. We had a clear vision of all of that, now we just had to put in the work! Your employees need to know how you're going to get there. As we sat there with this tall task of things to accomplish we were struck with no clue of how to actually get there! So, one by one my boss asked us what are the hills we're willing to die on when it comes to ministry. And we listed them out. As we stepped back, we were struck that these were filters through which every decision could make. A set of core values and principles that we could stand on that would keep us on track towards our vision. So do your employees know how to make decisions? Do they have something grounding them and filtering every decision? Do they know that these are the keys to getting them to where you want to be? If not, they need to know how you're going to get to your vision. It's what helps build momentum and build credibility in your community. A shared value system to accomplish the vision. Why are you going there? We spent a ton of time last week at our 12-week plan talking about work. That our work needs to be more than just a job! More than just clocking in and clocking out. We saw a plumber setting a toilet at a new park. Is he just setting a toilet? No! He's creating a space to help out a young mom who's overwhelmed and needs a clean place to take her child to the restroom. He's facilitating people being outdoors, knowing that they can go to the park and not have to worry about a restroom emergency. That's what changes your attitude about work. Are you just driving in nails and framing a house? Or are you building a shelter for generations of families that will live under that roof? Knowing you're providing quality work for one of our core needs. That "why" is what should get you out of bed in the morning! It's what makes a job what we call, "a work worth doing." Your team needs to know the why behind what you're doing so that it becomes a part of your story! We need YOU, to get there. So often we get this complaint from clients. "Well, we hired this person and they just aren't working out." Here's what I'd say to that. Most times, employee failures are more on the owner than they are on the employee. Why? Because we rushed the hiring process. When we rush the hiring process, we miss something and end up rushing the firing process. It's why we have such a thorough vetting process for hiring and 6 mos of onboarding for every hire. Because we value people enough to not want a constant in and out in our business. That doesn't accomplish the vision and that doesn't value our employees. However, when you take the hiring process slowly, you can look at your employees and say, "No, you're the right person for this job. I believe in you and I need you to help us get where we're going!" That's empowering leadership. Taking ownership of your hires and equipping or training them to chase after the vision. Your employees need YOU to believe in them sometimes before they can believe in themselves. I hope you know that. So, if these have never been communicated in your business take time to plan it out. They need to know where you're going, how you're getting there, why you're going there, and that you need them to get there. Have a

Sell me this… What is the message you're telling your clients? And what do you really offer? Well, let's talk about it! Hey there friends, Thomas Joyner with BOP here. I'll never forget sitting in professional selling class at Clemson University and the professor pulls out the age-old selling conversation. He calls a student upfront and says, "sell me this pen." The first student clearly rattled, asks him if he wants to buy the pen. Uh, no, said the professor. Next! The next student walks up there and says, "I'm curious, are you interested in any pens? I've got some amazing options that I'd love to show you." Nope! Said the professor and he sent him back to his seat. Then the third student walks up there. At this point, we've all had a few minutes to calm our nerves and think through what we've learned so far. The student sits down and just says, "so Jesse, tell me a bit about yourself." They go back and forth a few times and the conversation slowly gets to what he does and what his needs are for his business. From there, the student starts solving his problems one by one... all with the purchase of this pen. He went on and on about it taking 3 years to develop the way it fits in your hand and the slow release of ink so there's never too much or too little. He talked about how when you click it to get the point to come out it's quiet, not like other ballpoint pens that you can hear from down the hall. And finally, he finished by saying how professional it looks and how reliable it is. "I'm sold!" Said the professor and we all just laughed. You see selling almost never starts with an object. A thing, a widget, a service. No, it starts with understanding a problem and then finding a solution. The process of understanding that problem and finding that solution is your story! And people always want to buy a story. We had our 12-week live event last week and had just an amazing assortment of 20 businesses join us in person and another 20 or so through zoom. Our speaker, Billy Watterson spoke all about the power of story to change your life and change your business. I was struck when he said this, "People don't buy the thing, they buy what the thing can do for them!" Man, that is so true! People don't care how great your thing is or your service is until they know what it can do for them. So, are you telling them what it can do for them? Are you highlighting the benefits and all the ways it improves life for them? If not, why? Tell your story! Tell how you came up with your design and your service. People need to know the why behind everything you do from an operations standpoint. And if it's not something worth sharing? Change it! Find a way to make it share-worthy. There is so much noise from a marketing standpoint right now. So many things being thrown around that authenticity sticks out like a neon t-shirt on the beach. People can spot it from a mile away. So take some time today... maybe for the first time, to write down your story. Write down the why behind your product or service and begin to document it and share it with the world. I wonder how many great products or services have fallen by the wayside because they never shared their story with the world. Remember, "The world doesn't want to buy your product, they want to buy what it can do for them!" Now don't lie to them. Don't make something up. But craft a story to be proud of and highlight all of the benefits for your ideal client. Find what problems you solve and relate it to your client. That's it! The rest is up to them. That's all for today friends. Make sure to check out our podcast and YouTube channel when you get a minute. So much great stuff on there! Have a great week!

Inexpensive Marketing Ideas For Small Business There is no love loss in my relationship with marketing. If you ask any of the members of my Mastermind they would chuckle if you asked about my history with marketing. Their response would sound something like this, "he hates marketing." It's true. I don't like things that feel ambiguous and cross-your-fingers-ish. Marketing can feel like trying to find an undersized needle in an earth-sized haystack, in the dark, upside down, with sub-zero temperatures...all while wolves are chasing you and snipers are aiming in on you. Two years ago we tried to take the shifting and unpredictable tide of marketing and put a system to it. I read the interesting book by Marcus Sheridan entitled They Ask You Answer (the second best marketing book I've read next to This Is Marketing by Seth Godin). Sheridan makes a powerful (and yet obvious) point that customers prefer honestly providing direct responses to their biggest questions. The title of this post for instance; Google told me that this is the title that many of you have searched in the past. I can answer this question based on our experience. Our answer may vary from other business owners... but it is how we see it from our angle. If you go to our website at mybusinessonpurpose.com you will find that we answer the biggest question we receive directly on our homepage so as not to waste the time of business owners who are not a fit, and yet to solidify our offering for those business owners we are a perfect fit for. In following Sheridan's model we have created a unique and inexpensive content marketing strategy that adds loads of value to our existing clients, our future clients, and our existing team. First, we ask each of our coaches to write one article per week between 500 and 800 words. The subject of the article is simply a response to a question that we received from clients during our coaching time the previous week. I can hear some of you now, "I can't write!" That is another battle for another time, but you can certainly talk, right? Of course, you can! Pretend that a client just asked you a question, turn your phone camera on and record your response and then go get it transcribed using a service like Rev.com. Voila! You have your article. Second, we ask each of our coaches to use the article they wrote as the script for their video. Pretend you are a radio show that happens to do video recording. Download the Teleprompter app on your phone, press record, and read your script with a little life and enthusiasm. Third, we send our article and video each week to a virtual team member who then edits both the article and video with some callout headlines and images. These edited assets then become an amazing list of tools that both existing and future clients can draw value from. From only one weekly article and video we are able to provide a YouTube video and Facebook Live video, a podcast episode, a LinkedIn article, a blog post, and a string of valuable social media posts with images. It is an inexpensive marketing process for our business in terms of real dollars spent, although it costs each one of our coaches about two hours of time per week. With four coaches this process can provide up to twenty pieces of content per week that we can share with our network. For us, we believe that our online media is air support to our ground game. The most effective form of marketing in our work with business owners (and most other businesses) is direct referral by word of mouth...that IS the ground game. After being referred, the first place future clients will go to learn more about us is our online channels. With this inexpensive marketing idea, we make sure that we are adding credibility to the referral, and more importantly, adding value to our existing and future clients. Don't make excuses as to why this cannot or should not be done. Get started with this methodical, consistent, predictable, and inexpensive marketing idea, and maybe even your relationship with marketing could be redeemed like mine has been.

Business On Purpose LIVE Event- The Power Of Storytelling by: Billy Watterson Owner, Burnt Church Distillery

BOP Live Event- A Work Worth Doing "The work you're doing is only a work worth doing if you decide in your mind that your work is A WORK WORTH DOING." #businessonpurpose by: Scott Beebe Founder | Head Coach My Business On Purpose

Do You Have Wise Counsel? Who did you consult the last time you had a big life decision? How about the last time you had a small decision? I want to hear about it, and I want to talk about it today. Happy Friday everyone, Thomas Joyner with Business on Purpose here. We live in a world right now that is moving faster than ever before. Split-second decisions happen all day, every day. And yet the thing that seems to be lacking day after day after day is wisdom in each of those decisions! So, what is the filter that we run everything through? Do we just freewheel it and deal with the consequences, or is there a system that we run everything through? I think we're seeing right now that most of us just run...and correct mistakes along the way. Because we really don't have anyone in our life that we would consider wise counsel or a mentor, so we don't bother to fill the void, we just make judgment calls and see what happens! Think about the way journalism works these days... it's ready, fire, oh shoot we forgot to aim. They release content knowing it could potentially be damaging or not 100% correct, but they will retract the story later on if it's false. It's a horrible way of going about your business. Or in business, we don't take the time to get the information needed to make a wise decision, so we push forward hoping we made the right call, knowing that it could cost us down the road. So, why do we do that? If we know it costs us, why do we keep making poor decisions? Well, I think it's because we don't know there's another way. I also don't think we know the value of wise counsel in life. I was reading in the book of Proverbs the other day and it said this…" Where no counsel is, the people fall: but in the multitude of counselors there is safety." Let me say that again, "Where no counsel is, the people fall: but in the multitude of counselors there is safety." That's powerful. Would you say you have a multitude of counselors? Ok, not even a multitude, but do you have any? Do you have a group of people that you run business decisions by, do you have people that you run personal decisions by? Questions about marriage, kids, fitness, hobbies? Anything? Just last week I had a situation in my family where I was just stuck. Spinning my wheels day after day and I needed some perspective. So, I called a man I really respect and asked him to speak into it. I took him to lunch and just said, "tell me what I'm not seeing." Here's what I can tell you. The perspective he gave me was worth 10x what I paid for it. Which, conveniently, was an $8 burrito. It saved me frustration. It saved me mistakes that would have cost me and set me back in other areas of life. But, it took me humbling myself and reaching out for wise counsel. So, if there is safety (and I would add security, wisdom, steadfastness, freedom) in having counsel, why don't we run to it? It's why we use business coaching as our platform to liberate business owners from chaos. If our mission, which it is, is to liberate business owners from chaos, we choose to be counselors and extra sets of eyes on your business. Everyone needs a coach or mentor. Whether you use us, BOP, as a coach or not, YOU NEED WISE COUNSEL IN YOUR LIFE! Think about the best athletes of all-time, most of them are marked by a great coach or mentor in their life. Michael Jordan had Phil Jackson, Kobe had Phil Jackson (Ok, maybe we all just need a Phil Jackson in our life!). I'm kidding, but Tom Brady had Bill Bellichek, Tiger Woods had his dad... all giving them perspective and coaching/mentoring every step of the way! So what wise counsel do you need? Or, better said, what kind of coach do you need? One that can shine a light on your weaknesses and fortify your strengths. Every day. That's it. Someone who can teach you the pieces of your business that may be blind spots for you. Someone who can provide perspective and rationale to help you make informed decisions. Oh, but we can't afford that. That's a luxury only high margin businesses can afford. Really, I'd argue that you can't afford not to. As I said, whether it's us, or someone else, you can't afford not to have someone helping you navigate tough decisions in your business and in your life. Not having a coach is costing you more than you think. I guarantee it. And that's exactly the value we provide our clients. Always peeking over the shoulder, pointing out what's ahead, giving perspective from our experience with currently coaching over 80 businesses and thousands of hours of these conversations. Helping you avoid costly mistakes and walking alongside you to help you make informed, wise decisions. So, let's talk! If you feel like we're not right, we will help you find the coach that's right for you because we believe so strongly that everyone needs a coach. Heck, it's why we have coaches that coach us, as well! It's a game-changer. Do it! Again, if you just want some free content that we send out, make sure to subscribe to our YouTu

How To Structure Your Business Mentoring Program To Change Lives Tragedy struck this past Friday night. A young, 18-year-old student, friend, athlete, and rising star is dead. What we know right now is that at least one, if not two gunmen took fire on another car while driving their own car. Now one young man is dead, one is in critical condition, and one is in a wheelchair for now while he processes in his mind everything that went so wrong so fast. Our family was beyond excited that same Friday night because our college daughter had come home for an evening to hang out and catch her breath before heading back to school. We laughed around the dinner table for a while... in another part of town, chaos was brewing. Then. Gunshots. Why? Saturday we woke up somber but still distant from the story. Our kids knew of the students involved in the incident, but not firsthand. Sunday morning we woke up with a completely different proximity. A mug shot of one of the young men who was a member of the small group that we started four years ago when these students were freshmen. There were only five in that original group... and now one of those five is wearing prison orange staring empty and scared into a County Detention Center camera. The emotion centers in our heads began to buffer and spin. How? Why? Who? When? Over and over again. Feeling real empathy for the Field's family of this young man who is now gone, and for the lifetime of lingering pain. Feeling anger at the escalation of teenage emotion. Feeling confusion. Feeling failure. Why? WHY?? Here is a hard truth that I was forced to reckon… While I spin my wheels myopically building a kingdom that will ultimately dissolve, an 18-year-old somewhere is ready for my faulty influence, my lackluster enCOURAGEment, my unpolished intercession, my handshake, my slap on the shoulder, and my curiosity about their life. A business on purpose affords us options. We have the option to grow, build, create, innovate, lead, shift, and research. We also have the opportunity to invest the margin our business provides; marginal time, money, resources, and connections. Tim Elmore in his book Gen Z Unfiltered relayed that "72 percent of high-school students wanted to start a business and nearly one-third of those ages sixteen to nineteen had already begun volunteering their time." There is a real desire among High School students to do something unique, innovative, entrepreneurial, and meaningful. Your business can be a training ground for that. Here are three ways (there are plenty more) for you to begin a business mentoring program that would provide students exposure to your influence, and just maybe give them a reason to their still-developing teenage emotion. First, you can simply begin meeting with a group of students regularly. You may be surprised... but students like to congregate and they love it even better when there is food. Come up with a basic theme of your time together, get some cheap food, and plan a simple activity. We began meeting with students four years ago at a local Wendy's Restaurant with cheap breakfast biscuits. I would play a five-minute video of something motivational and then have a silly activity ready like burning a match from end to end, or a spit-ball competition at the head of a Dave Thomas poster (the founder of Wendy's). I would share stories from our life and business and focus on one big takeaway from our time and then drive those five guys to school. That group still meets, now it is on Tuesday nights (because all of the guys can drive) and has grown to 10 to 15 on any given night. Where do you find the students? Ask the coaches and local youth leaders (like YoungLife or FCA). They would welcome your support, and the students will invite their friends. Second, build a simple business mentor program. Create one role in your business that could easily be filled by a student (especially social media management) and create a one-year, revolving program where you bring a student in each year. During that year, go ahead and map out a calendar for their time and also the time that you and your team will intentionally spend with them so they can learn. I am proud of a local drone training company here in Bluffton (Crossflight) that has invited a group of four students to come and take part in an internship. One of the young men in our Tuesday night group is a part of it and they have taken the kid gloves off and are empowering these students to learn drone flight while also taking their drone pilot's license. Finally, connect with other local business owners and collectively determine mutual roles that one or two High School students could co-op on. If you are a law office, maybe you can connect with other firms in the area for mutual services that a young student can help with. Investing in students is an active decision that takes active effort, time, and money. Your failure rate may be high, your confidence level may be low, but the good news is

Do your employees know all that you think they know? So many frustrations with employees. Why can't they just do things the way I would do them? Well, maybe they don't know how you would do them! Good morning everyone, Thomas Joyner with Business on Purpose. The past few weeks I've set up Weekly Team Meetings and trained local business owners on our process for that. The funny thing is we always get the same objection. "Thomas, we've tried it in the past and it doesn't really work." You see, most team meetings are miserable. Boring. Basically pointless. They go on for way too long, they don't accomplish what they should accomplish... and worst of all, there's no follow-up. So, what should a team meeting look like? What makes it worthwhile and game-changing for your business? 5 simple things: A written agenda. If you don't write it down it doesn't exist. Here's what writing things down shows your team… it shows them you've prepared. Shows them this is a legit meeting and gives them a predictable set of items that they know they will be asked about. Write out what you want to cover. BIG Wins If you've spent any time around us, you know we are all about BIG Wins. It stands for begin in gratitude. It's simple but helps to make you feel known and seen. Gives it a personal touch in a meeting that normally feels all about business. But it also gives you rare insight into your teams life that you don't get when you jump straight into business. Do it, every week. Follow up from last week's action items Nothing is more frustrating than being asked to do something and then never get any feedback. This is your chance to hold your team accountable. You don't need to list everything your team needs to do, but what are the main focus points from the last meeting and how did they go. Next week's action items, or action items for the near future Again, if your team knows they will be asked about them at the next team meeting, they can plan accordingly and execute the plan. Give them the things to focus on and let them know y'all will talk about it next week. 5-10 min of Training This is where you get creative. Pick one process each week and train the entire team. Let everyone poke holes in the workflow or give feedback on things. Businesses want to do these day long or multi-day training days, and while that's great, your team retains less of it than you think. But if you can build 5-10 min of training into each team meeting, times 52 weeks... that's A LOT of training throughout the course of the year. Served up to your team in bite-size chunks they can digest and be held accountable. So back to my clients... I've had to try their first team meetings in the last 2 weeks. The first one came back and said it was one of the best things they had done this year. He picked an easy process, how to set up your service truck every day. What are the things you don't leave the shop without? You know what? They had no idea what they were responsible for having on their truck every day. They grew as a team. So, next time something happens, the business owner isn't driving it out to them on the job site, or they aren't getting paid to drive back to the office for supplies. Their trucks and employees are ready for whatever comes. That changes your business! That gives you freedom from the chaos! And when, inevitably, one of your team members fails in an area. Hey, it's ok, but we talked about this. You were trained on our process. That's radical accountability that brings the performance of your team up every day. So, what's stopping you from having a team meeting? Is it the thought of, "Oh, well they just don't work for us." It's not true. Build out your process, implement it, and watch your team grow. I can't wait to hear some stories of successful team meetings. Make sure you subscribe to our YouTube and podcast. So much great stuff on there. Have a great weekend!

My Friend's Cancer Made Me Confront Chaos I received a quote recently that bothered me, "slow dancing with chaos". It immediately recalled the famed John Mayer title, "Slow Dancing In A Burning Room". Christmas Eve, we are driving through a small, pass-thru town on the way to have a quick glimpse at the university that my son just committed to attending and running for. "Hey man...just wanted you to know before word got out... I've got stage 3 melanoma." About four weeks later, another bomb... a 14 x 14 centimeter mass on his kidney. My friend and I along with another dear wisdom mentor grabbed lunch as we do throughout the year. No agenda, we typically just check in with each other and then meandor the back roads of our experiences while laboring intently to take in new views along the way while staring out a windshield of the wisdom of foundational books and Proverbs. If it sounds geeky, your perception would not be misaligned. Throughout our lunch, I was unusually quiet primarily because I was moved by my friend's hope, joy, laughter, humility, curiosity, and confidence. At one point he told us of the many texts he had received encouraging him to "kick cancer's ass", and "you can do it!". He obviously appreciated the backing and optimism, and yet he had a contrasting strategy for the next few months as he cranked up radiation. "Scott, I want to be a helpless lamb in God's arms." How did he come to such an outrageous game plan? The human spirit must fight, battle, war, aggress, and strike blows to that which invades. This quiet warrior had procured a different armamentarium. His stockpile was one of quiet, thought, slowness, patience, stillness, and sharp perception. To my knowledge, I do not have cancer or one of a thousand other possible ailments that can lob death threats and sentences at the very bodies they call home. I, and you likely as well, suffer from a more social disease; submitting to chaos. Email tethers us. Facebook (insert your channel of choice) grips us. The expectations of others blind us, and societal noise confuses us. Ryan Holiday contends that Stillness Is The Key. How can my friend have the courage to build an arsenal in such stark contrast to the common battle tools that are wielded? He practices stillness. My friend wields the sword of wisdom, the shield of a quiet life, the helmet of thinking, the spectacles of reading, and the smiles of joy. Chaos thrives in the stickiness environment of busy. Chaos LOVES busy. Our usual response to chaos is to match it with louder and louder chaos. Chaos is loud, be louder. Chaos punches, punch back harder. Chaos confuses, act like a know-it-all. Chaos delivers a blow, try to kick its ass. Holiday quotes Marcus Aurelius, "Ask yourself at every moment, 'Is this necessary?'" Holiday goes on to say, "Knowing what not to think about. What to ignore and not to do. It's your first and most important job." Stillness will determine your battle armour. Stillness will provide the insight that you need in the moment. Stillness sets the stage for wisdom. Chaos on the other hand... well, if stillness is the key, then chaos is the beautifully groomed path to destruction. I will not offer a typical stepwise approach to stillness... for I need stillness in order to see it for myself. Maybe this wisdom statement will help, "be still…" Drop your hands. Step back. "... and know…" I'll invite you to fill in the blank. 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.

Is your business ready for a huge boost in revenue? Are you drowning in opportunity? Frustrated thinking that if you could just get your head above water, everything would stabilize? Well, that's a great place to dig in for a bit today. Happy Monday y'all, Thomas Joyner with Business on Purpose. One of my favorite shows to watch with my wife is Shark Tank. Not only do you see some amazing new products, but I love the dialogue between the Sharks and the business owners. It's a back and forth as they figure out a valuation and then agree upon what to do moving forward. I bet 1 out of 3 businesses that come on the show is frustrated because they can't effectively manage inventory. They need cash to fulfill orders and are, as Mark Cuban likes to say, "Drowning in Opportunity." When the orders are manageable, they can fulfill them and keep customers happy. But, when they make it big and the wal-marts or the Krogers of the world start putting in PO's for thousands and hundreds of thousands of units, they have no way to finance the order and quite literally go under because they can't fulfill the order. It's something I saw last week...live, in person! I got a call from a client last week in a panic. We just got offered a $500,000 contract. What do we do!?!? Now, 500k may not seem like a lot to you. Or it may seem like more than you ever imagined from a revenue standpoint. But this would bump his business up about 30% overnight. That's substantial. As we spoke, it was fascinating to look back on how far his business has come in working together for the past 6 mos. Had this opportunity come about 6 mos ago, he would have had to say no. He had no clue what the margins were on his jobs, no clue how much cash he had to work with. Hiring? Nope, not right now. But with months of hard work, he's locked in on his margins, he knows to the penny how much cash profit is in his business, because it's sitting in an account (not on some spreadsheet somewhere), and he's ready to hire to make this happen. That is liberation from chaos! Gah, I get so pumped up just talking about him because I'm so proud of him. He's put in the hard work to get his head above water and be able to make sound decisions from a position of thriving instead of just surviving. That's what is going to keep his business growing. Continuing to build the foundation and make wise decisions for growth instead of just winging it and risking it all. So...where are you in your business today? If that opportunity presented itself, could you take advantage of it? Seriously, ask yourself what would be a life-changing contract for your business to receive. Name the number right now. Then ask yourself, if I'm honest, could I handle it and would I know what to do? I hope the answer is yes. I hope your business is in a place of strength and can take advantage of these kinds of opportunities because they don't happen very often. If the answer is no, don't beat yourself up. We work with businesses every day that answered no to that question just a few weeks and months ago. But the difference with them is they made the tough decision to start working ON their businesses and never looked back. They got help from people who know how to get them there. If you're curious, here are the 3 things I see holding businesses back from being able to take advantage of opportunity. They are in a poor cash position in their business. They are either over-leveraged, or just don't know the margins, so they can't make an educated decision on how best to grow. Their teams are poorly trained and rarely held accountable. This happens all the time when a business owner can't delegate and effectively equip their teams to do the work they're asked to do. It limits the ceiling and holds you back from ever growing to your potential. Not getting perspective. It happens to all of us...we see things the way we see them and when someone else finally gives us some perspective, a new way of seeing things, we can make adjustments and grow. You need perspective. So...don't wait to build your business into what it can be. If you want to be able to grab hold of opportunities as they come up, do the work and set your business up for success. You owe it to yourself, your employees, and the people you do business with. Thanks so much! I hope you have subscribed to our podcast and our youtube channel. Our entire team is putting content out there, so make sure you don't miss it. Have a great week!

How To Find And Hire The Right Person For The Right Job This is a monumental week for us, today our team welcomes a new team member, and tomorrow is the six-year anniversary for our business. To give you some context, we spend our days liberating business owners from chaos so they can make time for what matters most. We do that with powerful business coaching that helps business owners and key leaders build systems, processes, and purpose using the Business On Purpose Roadmap and then graduate onto the Business On Purpose Compass. Business coaching is nuanced and requires a unique skill set that requires intuition and is hard to replicate. That is why we are a team of four coaches instead of forty at this stage of the game. How did we find and hire the right person for the right job? What I am about to share is simply the play that we have called when the game situation calls for bringing a new team member in. There are many ways to proceed... this is ours. We will do well to remember that hiring and leading a team is not the equivalent to a primary care nurse checking vitals prior to a visit with a physician. Of course, vitals are a part of it; prior skill set, past employment, complimentary personality, etc. Hiring should be thoughtfully intrusive and investigative. Not in a weird CSI television kind of way, but in a thoughtful, well processed, well-intentioned, goal-focused direction. Hiring an employee is more metaphorically aligned with marriage than it is with dating. We are not inviting someone to a job, we are inviting them to a mission, a calling, and we need their help to get there. An in-human way of hiring is how most hiring is achieved; check for a pulse, make sure they are not too bazaar for what you are comfortable with, see when they can start, and send over the paperwork. An incredible human way of hiring is slowing the process down. Not starting at the minimum requirements (experience, degrees, certificates, etc.), but instead walking them through the mission and the role with check in along the way. We have eight steps that we thoughtfully walk a new team member through over an extended period of time in order both to make sure we are aligned with that person and that they are aligned with our mission. Step one is pre-recruiting. Before we ever reach out to someone we check off five pre-recruiting items: Define the gap: what is the gap in the business for which we need to bring another team member in to fill? Define the role: what role do we need that person to play in order to fill the gap? Define the budget: what compensation will be appropriate for this role based on the revenue that will be generated or supported because this role exists. Ask for internal candidates: larger businesses should look around internally to see if there are any "homegrown" candidates for the role. Share the role with key stakeholders: prior to traditional posting of your new role in the job search databases Step two to finding and hiring the right person for the right role is the initial phone or Zoom interview. It is intentionally distant and has a goal of simply reading the situation by asking general questions of background, experience, desire, and motivation. Step three is the first in-person interview (if applicable to location). In this interview, we do not share anything about role specifics or compensation. Before you get married your biggest questions are not regarding future financial goals and or roles within the home. They are important to discuss prior to marriage certainly, but out of the gate, it is important to make sure there is a simple motivational fit. We want to make sure this new candidate is aligned with our vision, mission, values, and culture. We spend the entire time reviewing those written cultural and purpose-centered documents along with our Org Chart and case studies so they can get clarity and ask questions. We take just a minute to explain the compensation structure (i.e. base plus commission) but do not discuss numbers. Our desire is they want to be on the team because of purpose first, then we can get to some of the other elements of the agreement down the road. Step four to finding and hiring the right person for the right role is the due diligence phase where we ask the candidate to take a DISC profile, complete an appropriate homework assignment to determine competency and motivation, and we follow up with three references from three different relational backgrounds to the candidate. Step five is our second in-person interview (if applicable to location). This step is where we dive deep into the role, where that role fits within the larger organization, and how that role helps our business to take another step towards liberating business owners from chaos so they can make time for what matters most. This is time that we roll out the specifics of compensation for discussion and review. Step six is a live meet up with the candidate and their spouse (is applicable). We want

Does your business rely on you... or your system? Employee-dependent businesses, lack of trust for employees, and never taking the time to systematize... so many things to get to this morning. Happy Friday friends I hope it's been a great week. Thomas Joyner here with Business on Purpose. We do a business owner lunch about once a quarter or so with businesses we have zero connection to. It's so much fun as there's really no expectation other than to invest back into some new businesses and make some new connections. Yesterday I sat down with about 8 business owners and we began to talk all about Delegation... the goods, the bads, and the uglies associated with it. It was powerful and they left with some practical ways to own delegation in their businesses and left with multiple tasks to systematize and train on after they choose to delegate. We were moving until we hit a roadblock. One of the business owners brought up the frustration of feeling like there were several things that he couldn't delegate. "What do you mean by that?" I kind of asked him to go a little further in-depth. "Well, estimating is probably 80% of my job. There are so many variables. So many things you have to know and things I can't really train on to get this off my plate." I agreed with him for a minute but then asked this question. "So what happens if something happens to you?" You see, that's what we have to think about. When we are the business, we're severely limiting the ceiling we can achieve. Severely holding our business back from reaching its potential. But, what happens if something happens to us and we can't estimate for two weeks, a month, 6 most? Does this business just stop estimating? Especially in times of COVID... we have to think these things through. "The challenge," I said, "is to get people to buy into your system, not buy into you." Salespeople want to sell themselves first and foremost. Because oftentimes they view sales as someone's not buying what I'm selling, they're buying me. While that sells a ton at first... you're basically selling your time at that and becoming incredibly vulnerable as a business. But... when you can create a system that people are buying into, a customer experience that is a competitive advantage, then people aren't coming to you for you, they're coming to you for your system. Which, in turn, sets others up to help carry the load of estimating, bidding, coaching, and whatever complicated operations you may have. It's no different from when I started here at BOP. Scott was the face of this business for 7 years. When you called for business coaching you wanted Scott. And he is AMAZING at it. But think about this… Think there aren't a ton of different variables in our business? We coach businesses all across the country and world, in every different industry (in a time of pandemic I might add) and there's problem-solving that goes into every coaching session. It's a training nightmare getting me up to speed. But here's the thing Scott saw a while back. He doesn't have to train me on 5,000 different variables, he just has to train me on our system. He put the time in to create a system that works industry-wide and then pushed me to focus on learning and implementing our system. And the verbiage changes right. No longer is it…" Hey, come to me for coaching and we'll get you straightened out." It's, "Hey, we have to get you in our roadmap to get you moving the right direction." You see the beauty and the power and the secret sauce, if you will, should be your system. That's what unlocks almost unlimited growth. So now, it almost doesn't matter who the coach is, the system is intact and the coach walks you through our system. So, here's the challenge for you. How do you build that system where you currently are? It doesn't just happen. But...if you want your business to be able to thrive if something happens to you, for your employees to be able to run without wondering if they're doing the right things if you want to rip the lid off your potential and allow for huge amounts of growth... PERFECT YOUR SYSTEM! Or at least get started. Yesterday we talked a ton about just getting started. Because the perfectionist in us wants to say that if we don't get it perfected quickly then it's not worth doing. No, Scott took 6-7 years building this system, and it's still changing today as we learn and re-implement. But we wouldn't be where we are today had he not written it down and started creating it. Don't let it scare you... but also don't believe the lie that you can't get things off of your plate. It's just not true. Hey, if you haven't already subscribed to our podcast or YouTube channel... check out my business on purpose on both platforms. So much great content coming out weekly! Have a great weekend y'all and let me know if you ever want to connect.

Cameron Herold Interview Hosted by: Scott Beebe Founder | Head Coach Business On Purpose CHECK OUT our website: https://www.mybusinessonpurpose.com/ LIKE and SUBSCRIBE to our YouTube and Podcast channels: My Business On Purpose #businessonpurpose

Is your success in spite of you? So often there are so many variables linked to success, so how do we know which ones were the real reason behind it all? Well, that's what we're going to talk about this morning. Happy Monday y'all, Thomas Joyner with business on Purpose here. I love meeting with new businesses and asking them what they attribute their success to. A couple of weeks ago I was meeting with a friend who ran a mortgage office and he said something that struck me. We were talking about the Mortgage business and how on fire it has been recently. Clearly, he had a great year and originated a record number of loans for his branch. I started asking him what was behind that. He said a few things I expected like, "Well the rates were so low, people's buying power jumped this year," or, "so many people moved south due to the pandemic and needed a lender", or even, "everyone and their brother decided to refinance their homes this year to lower their rate." All that stuff was predictable. But, what I appreciated was what he said next. He said, "Thomas, if you didn't succeed in the mortgage industry this year, you probably can't make it. It was almost too easy. This year we succeeded IN SPITE of ourselves, but the true measure is going to be next year where we have to succeed BECAUSE of ourselves." Now that's a heck of an observation. You see, he realized that this year's performance had very little to do with the effectiveness of his business. It didn't have to do with the processes or workflow or even the customer service. Sure, that stuff helped, but the waterfall of business was flowing so strongly, that they didn't have to be great at what they did in order to succeed. But next year, when the pipeline is a little less strong, when the refinance market slows down and everyone has the rate they are after, the competition really kicks in. The playing field is narrowed so to succeed, it has to be ON PURPOSE! I thought about that in the context of this pandemic. Are you ready for the year after the pandemic? Have you been living in chaos mode so long that you've lost your advantage? So when the pipeline starts to slow down a bit, your processes aren't ready to keep the sales moving forward? You see this is why we're so passionate about systems and processes. They are tested in the midst of the fire, but they are perfected in the calm. Their worth is truly realized when there is nothing else to fall back on. So, before it's too late, where are the holes in your processes? Where do you need to take some time to work ON your business, so that your business is ready to handle what this year will inevitably throw at you? You have to have a plan! I loved what my friend said. They weren't just expecting this year to go off without at hitch but were going back to customers and asking how they can improve by sending surveys. They were poking holes in the customer experience to make sure that, this year, they succeeded because of their systems and processes. One thing we say around here all the time is, "There's no competition for a well-run business." And we truly believe that. The day you commit to that is the day you stop succeeding in spite of yourself and truly build a competitive advantage that keeps you in front for the long haul. If that doesn't make sense, reach out... let's have a conversation. We want you to succeed because of yourself. To build a business free of the chaos! One that you can be proud of and not have to worry as much about the external factors blowing your business around. Hope you guys have a great week! Make sure to follow my business on purpose on YouTube and subscribe to our podcast. Man, there's so much good stuff on there. Take Care guys.

Four Tools To Help Resolve Conflict At Work It was silly; grown adults yelling and screaming at an umpire for a bad call... at a tee-ball game. Why? Why do we lose our minds and create conflict? Conflict is literally to strike together. Think about metal grinding together... conflict... parks... explosion. We are people with emotions. We are people with opinions. We are people with varying perspectives, worldviews, tendencies, and biases. It is only logical then if you put two people together in an emotional situation where opinions can be expressed, or biases can surface; explosion may not be far behind. My first manager at Pfizer Skip Clarkson used to say, "speak to people the way they wish to be spoken to." That mindset is our foundational rally cry when discussing the importance and power of the DISC profile. Understanding where a person is on the DISC graph gives you incredible empathy and intelligence when having the right conversations with the right people. It is not our nature to think about another person when responding or reacting to a situation. We are bent to be me-first thinkers. What is in it for me? What does this mean for me? It is not surprising that when two, me-first people connect, an explosion is imminent. But what happens when explosion is the outcome? What happens when the tension of conflict gets red hot. How do we cool that tension, and repair any fractures or brokenness that comes? We always say, life and business necessarily intersect. You can't have something happen at work and then successfully "leave it at work" in the same way that home-things follow you straight to work. John Ussery, who oversees business development at Shoreline Construction in South Carolina, said this recently in one of our coaching meetings, "You can't change someone's mind. But you can build rapport, offer empathy, and give them new information so they can change their own mind." In other words, the goal is not to try harder, yell louder, talk faster, cry harder, withdraw sooner, or demand more for less. Instead, your goal is to be a stage-builder. Stage-builders set a stage for which others have the opportunity to perform. Stage-builders get very specific instructions from the performers quietly and behind the scenes so they can create the right atmosphere for the show to wow the crowd. It is impossible for the stage-builder to win if the performer does not win. But if the performer wins, the stage-builder automatically wins every time. The entire goal of a stage-builder is to, again as Ussery put it, "de-escalate a combustible scenario." In other words, set the stage so the performer is in position to wow the crowd... then we all win. In conflict resolution, being right is not the goal, instead, setting the right stage is the aim. There are four tools to discover that we will equip you with to stock your emotional and relational toolbelt that will allow you to minimize the pain and discomfort of conflict, and instead build relationships that bring mutual joy and value. The first of these four tools is listening. Chris Voss in his book Never Split The Difference says, "it all starts with the universally applicable premise that people want to be understood and accepted. Listening is the cheapest, yet most effective concession we can make to get there." Listening is discovering, finding out new bits of insight, information, and perspective. Listening is not thinking while the other person is talking and missing everything they are saying or having your arms crossed and eyes down like a six-year-old. Listening is not, showing apathy, having an attitude of "it's fine", or being selective in what you hear. Active listening requires you to use your EARS... Eye contact & Nonverbal Responses Ask GENUINE questions Repeat & Drill Down (Tell me more about that…) Summarize With Notes The second tool of resolving conflict is mirroring; simply repeating the last 3 to 5 words of what the other person just said. For instance: "you really frustrated me when you cut me off in that meeting". You respond, "I cut you off in that meeting?" They correct, "well, I felt like my point wasn't made yet." Mirroring forces more details. The goal of mirroring is to allow the other person to keep talking... and talking... and talking. Many times, they don't want to be right... they just want to know that you are listening with your EARS!!! Voss quotes Psychologist Richard Wiseman who studied restaurant servers and found the average tip of waiters increased by 70% using mirroring versus those just using the positive reinforcement of "great", "awesome". The third tool of conflict resolution is labeling allowing you to verify the emotions of another person. Voss says, "give someone's emotion a name and you show you identify with how that person feels." Labeling connects you to a person much faster than traditional "get to know you" methods Voss gives us three phrases to use in your toolbox for labeling… It seems like… It sounds like… I

Do you let yourself dream about your business? The same old thing... day after day. Nothing exciting on the horizon. Nothing new to speak of. Sound familiar? Great, let's talk about how to change that. Happy Friday friends, Thomas Joyner with Business on Purpose here. I had a mentor in Young Life that told me something 5-6 years ago that changed my life. Now I like change, by nature. I go looking for it. I like something new and different every day, so systems and routine and schedules taste bitter in my mouth, even though I know how beneficial they are to me and my productivity. I went to a meeting for all of our regional Area Directors and the guy speaking to us was asking us if we dream. And not just practical dreams, but big, elaborate dreams. Dreams that kind of take your breath away and make you go… "Man, if that really happened, it would change everything! For the better." You see, I think we get so stuck dealing with the fires going on around us, that we forget to dream of a different way of doing things. Or, we get so stuck with one part of our business, that it robs us of the ability to dream about what else we could offer as a product or service. We lose our ability to just wonder...what if? As I sat there in the meeting I realized that I was in that boat. I hadn't dreamed anything really BIG in a while. The speaker went on to talk about a meeting he sets with himself at 2 pm every single Friday. He calls it his "New/Next/Nap" meeting. It's exactly what it sounds like. He blocks out an hour at the end of every week on Friday afternoon at 2 pm. If someone tries to meet with him, hey I'm booked at 2 that day. It's non-negotiable. And he does one of three things. He dreams about something "New", something that could come "Next," or some days he's so beat, he just takes a quick power nap to recover from a crazy week. This was a man who was responsible for 100's of people, that made a meeting every single week to dream or take a nap. There was very little on the agenda. Some days he would dream about starting Young Life in a new town, so he would get in his car and drive over there to pray at a local high school. He might walk in the principal's office just to meet them and see what happened. Other days he would just make a phone call or two to see if anyone had any connections or just start writing down thoughts on what's next. But here's the cool thing. The growth and things that were brought about from one hour every Friday was game-changing. New ministries were started, new teams built, new plans were hatched to reach new communities. And some days he just realized his limitations and took a nap. Because he realized to be his best he couldn't burn out. You think... well that works in a ministry setting, but we have stuff to get done. I can't just daydream and actually run a profitable business. Oh really??? Google has recently started something called the 20% Project. They allow (and in some cases mandate) their employees to use up to 20% of their paid hours at work, working on personal projects. Working on things that may go nowhere. On innovating, developing...and DREAMING. So, if it works for Google... one of the largest companies in the world, why can't it work for you? Don't get so locked into the day to day that you can't dream about a new product or service or a new business idea. It's why we build it into our Vision story. We want you always innovating and always poking holes in your workflow so you can continue to get better at what you do. So get into your Weekly Schedule. Start making time for it. I'd be surprised if it wasn't life giving to you. You see, we don't start a business so we can do the same thing day after day until we die. No, we get into business because we see that we can do things a better way from the get go. And yet, somewhere along the way, we lose that. So here's my challenge today. Next week, go ahead and schedule your "New/Next/Nap" meeting with yourself. Fight to keep it on there and not push it aside. Be consistent with it over the next month or two. I guarantee your business will benefit from it... even if it's just having a more rested, more productive owner. Have a great weekend everyone and if you haven't subscribed to our YouTube channel or our podcast, search my business purpose and join the family. We're releasing new content there just about every day! Take care!

What To Know Before Entering A Business Partnership... And Why Many Don't Work I've heard it said many times that "the only ship that doesn't sail is a partnership". Why? People. We're emotional creatures. We have shifting thoughts, ideals, perspectives, and interests. What excites us today may not excite us tomorrow. For those business owners who are married, you already realize that marriage is a lifetime process to work at and build. Partnerships are not much different from the perspective of setting expectations. The emotions of a partnership can range from relief to appreciation to frustration and even so far as paranoia. Partnerships are mysterious. If a partnership is 50/50 then what happens when there is no consensus on an issue? Typically, partners will push the can down the road until... BOOM, explosion. Partnerships can work when great care is taken to make them work. Here are a few things that need to take place before a partnership is ever entered into. First, both partners must share a vision. If two partners have two visions, then they are likely to compete for resource and energy pushing the vision they most align with. A partnership with two visions has no vision at all. Second, both partners must preemptively have hard discussions. How will ownership be divided? What day to day role will each partner play in the business and what is the fair market compensation for that role? Do you agree on the debt tolerance of the business? What about time commitments, non-competes, intellectual property, and entity endgame (sale, cash flow)? These conversations are better discussed prior to the launch of the partnership instead of post-startup, or even worse, not at all. Third, partnerships need to be mutually aligned and very aware of each personality within the partnership. Is one partner passive and the other active? Is one partner a driver and the other more compliant? Is one partner more loose to laws and regulations where the other partner is a stickler for compliance? A partnership must function at the same speed... together. Fourth, partnerships must discuss and agree on the financial details like reinvestment, debt, compensation, and draw percentages. Running pro formas and budgets beforehand can save a lot of time, headache, and frustration on the back end. Finally, partnerships must have a set weekly time they meet to discuss the business part of the business. Even better if these meetings have a set list of questions that the partners ask each other. Questions like, what blind spots do you see? What opportunities are we missing? What support do we need to be extending to our team and customers? These are hard things. Partnerships should only exist where the skill of one partner fills the gap for the lack of that skill in the other partner. If not, it is likely best that you stay away. Ships are meant to sail. Partnerships often sink, but it doesn't mean they all do. A business coach is well placed to help mediate the regular communication of partners. Every partnership needs a dedicated, long term coach.

Who is a step ahead of you as an owner? Do you have a business mentor? Why do you even need one? Let's talk about that today... Good afternoon y'all! Thomas Joyner with Business on Purpose here. When I started in Young Life, who I worked for almost a decade. I'll never forget it. The first meeting we had with our Regional staff, they asked us to fill out this form and send it back to them. They asked for two names. One name of someone who's a peer. Someone who's praying for you, who knows you well, and who is walking alongside you as a friend. Now, that one was easy for me. I had some great friends and had no problem thinking through 4 or 5 names to write down. The second thing it asked for is a mentor's name. And they wanted their phone number and e-mail so they could check-in with your mentor from time to time. I kind of broke out into a cold sweat as I realized I didn't have one. I went and asked my boss about it and he said, "Hey, that's fine for today, but you need to have one by the end of the month." So, I came home from the meeting and immediately started thinking about who might be willing to mentor me. I had to humbly go up to that person, tell them why I was asking them this, and then ask them to start meeting with me once or twice a month. Here's what I quickly came to realize about this relationship. It started off a little awkward, but as we met every other week for lunch, I soon began to feel so comfortable that everything topic-wise was on the table. Relationships, work, faith, masculinity, family, fitness... ANYTHING. And I had someone that was pushing me to be the man that I wanted to be. Now, if that worked in my personal life, why shouldn't it work in the business world? I think sometimes we believe a bunch of lies about business owners. We believe that they're too busy. I couldn't disagree more. We make time for what we value. I also think that sometimes we're not humble enough to ask for help. If you're a business owner it means that you have drive and can take initiative and are probably incredibly talented. But can you be humble enough to ask for help? Can you be humble enough to let someone in and actually take the advice they are giving? That can be a huge challenge. The last thing I'll say is I think we believe the lie that we're the only business that has these issues. Here's a trade secret...you're not the only one struggling with employees, or cash flow or training, or vision... OTHERS JUST LEARN TO HIDE IT BETTER!!! Trust me, there is not a problem that your business is experiencing, that someone else hasn't already walked through and dealt with. And probably learned both the WRONG way to deal with it and the RIGHT way to deal with it. Don't get stuck feeling alone in your problems. So, how do you go about finding a mentor or a coach for your business? Well, find someone who's business looks like what you want yours to look like. When I needed a mentor, I looked for someone who's marriage I respected and who was a step ahead of me in life. That process was simple, I went up to them and just said hey, I respect who you are as a person, as a man, and as a leader. I've been wanting to have someone speaking into my life and just someone I can bounce things off of a couple of times a month. Would you be willing to do that? Maybe in the business world, it goes something like this…" Hey, I've always respected your business and your leadership. Could I take you out to lunch once a month and just pick your brain on some of the stuff going on in my business? I need some help. People are encouraged to see they're respected. People want a platform to give back and to encourage others a step behind. And here's the thing... if they say no, ask someone else! They aren't rejecting YOU, it may just not be the right time. Everyone needs a mentor or a coach. Can you be humble enough to ask for one? Think about great athletes, great writers, great leaders... they're almost always directly linked to a great coach, mentor, or group of individuals surrounding them and offering feedback. You don't have to do it alone. We tell people all the time, whether you hire us, or not, hire a coach or find someone to speak into your life. It's the only way to get where you want to go as a business owner... and a person. Here's the last thing I'll say. When you have a mentor or business coach, turn around and do the same for someone else. There's always someone a step ahead of you and always someone a step behind. Be for someone what you want someone else to be for you. Have a great weekend y'all! Don't forget to subscribe to our YouTube and podcast for some incredible content every week. Take care.

Are you putting in the work? What separates the good businesses from the great ones? The ones that get by from the ones that excel. Well, let's talk about that this morning... Happy Monday friends Thomas Joyner here with Business on Purpose. My wife and I tested positive for Covid this week, so I've been ripping through some books. I've loved it as I've read a book for fun, one for education, one for growth in my faith and I can just kind of bounce back and forth between them. Now, I married a girl from Kentucky, a state known for its bourbon and, naturally, I've grown to truly love tasting new bourbons and hearing the story behind them. This may sound overly introspective, but the families that produce bourbon spend their entire lives perfecting their bourbons and I can appreciate the work that goes into it. A few weeks back a friend handed me this. Pappyland, a story of family, fine bourbon, and the things that last, by Wright Thompson. It's masterfully written and incredible storytelling as the author walks through his own family's history and weaves it in with the story of the most famous and hard to come by Bourbong in the world, Van Winkle Family Reserve, or Pappy. It didn't take long for me to start taking notes as the story truly affected me. In 1972, the bourbon business was in a nosedive. Profits were meager and the distillery that the Great Pappy Van Winkle built was sold by his son and cheap imitations were made under the same label. They began to use a new yeast to produce the bourbon and, while it technically worked, it lost some of its uniqueness and intricacies that made it truly the best. The author said something that I initially passed by and then came back for a second read. He said, "More and more today, we don't want to do the work or take the chances required for greatness, and we try to fix all those shortcuts on the back end with marketing and branding- modern, fancy words that mean lie." Whoa! Let's unpack that a bit. What's he really saying? He's saying that too often we won't do the work it takes to truly be great, to truly solve the problems our world needs, or we settle for something that's good enough. But greatness requires something else entirely. Greatness requires hard work and taking chances. Now, most people equate taking chances to foolishness. But I don't think the two go hand in hand. It's not foolishness to innovate and try new things. It's not foolishness to invest time into training our teams or making sure our client experience is the best it possibly can be. But, so often we stop short of that. We settle because IT'S. HARD. WORK! That's something we tell each client we work with. There's no magic wand to wave that can magically fix your business. And if there was, we would probably charge a lot more for it! It takes hard work. Day after day, week after week, month after month to build a great business. But here's the amazing thing... what's leftover after the hard work is the thing that lasts. Think about it with home building. When we use quality supplies and a creative approach, we build a house that lasts, not one that falls apart within 15-20 years. So, the question stands. Where are you taking shortcuts? Where are you using marketing and branding to try to maybe in a roundabout way, lie to the customer? It's one of the things I love talking through with business owners when we write out their unique core values. When they say things like excellence or extra-mile customer service or we want to be the best... I make sure it's not just lip service. Because you can't take a shortcut and accomplish things like that. There is no shortcut to get there! Have you ever put out an ad and thought, "I don't even believe that about our company, but maybe it will drive sales?" We can do better than that. I'll finish with this... during my quarantine, I'll admit that I got sucked down some rabbit holes on YouTube. I found myself watching an interview with Jeff Bezos the CEO of Amazon (and I know he stirs up mixed emotions, but hang with me here), but it was an interview with Jeff Bezos from 1999. The interviewer was asking him about the viability of a company based solely on the internet. Which sounds crazy to me 22 years later, that this was even a question! But Bezos had some incredible answers. The one thing that struck me, was in 1999, in the midst of something that was a risk, something that had never been done before, Bezos said this about his company. "That's what we're about, if there's one thing Amazon.com is about, it's obsessive attention to the customer experience end to end." That's not taking a shortcut. That's innovation... obsessive attention to his work in a direction that invokes change. So I'll send you off with a question today. Where are you tempted to take a shortcut or where are you tempted to not put in the work in your business, that's robbing you of being able to be authentic with who you are to your customers. Let me say that again...Where are you

What do 18 mo old swimming lessons have to do with your business? It's almost spring and all of our friends are having their kids get refresher swim lessons... so what does that have to do with you and your business... well let's jump on in. Good afternoon friends, Thomas Joyner here with Business on Purpose. I was on the phone the other day with a good friend and client, Stephen Page with Guild Mortgage here in Bluffton and we were just catching up on life. We went through the normal routine of wives, work, and kids and he started telling me about his 18 mo old daughter taking swim lessons. He was obviously a proud dad as he said he sat there and watched his daughter, who started walking a few months ago and who was now jumping into the pool, spinning around and getting back to the side. At 18 months old! And he said something that struck me... He said, "It's amazing all the things she's capable of at such a young age. I guess she just needed the opportunity to do it!" We hung up, but that thought went round and round in my head. "I guess she just needed the opportunity to do it." How often can that be said in our own businesses? How often are we holding back the people we're responsible for from growth, from succeeding, or from accomplishing new things? One of the questions Scott has started asking me in our weekly onboarding time is this. "What do I need to let go of so you can continue to grow in your role?" He seriously asks me that every week. What does he need to let go of, what is he holding onto too tightly, that is keeping me from growing in my role. Because his desire is to have team members that are owning their roles, growing daily and weekly, and never staying stagnant. You see he realizes an important thing when it comes to managing us... our team can only ever maximize its potential if he's willing to let go of things and allow me to fail, then learn, then grow, then accomplish. And maybe along the way we realize that I and the rest of our team are way more capable than we ever realized! The second thing I wanted to point out is how this mindset of limiting our capabilities is actually crippling our businesses performance as a whole. Think about this... how often do we dream about what might be in our business? How often do we say, "I wonder if we could grow to that?" Or, "What if we could do this in addition to what we're already doing?" So often, our lack of dreaming and courage is the only thing holding us back from growth! That's why in our 12 week planning, we always have a future section. We want to keep track of ideas that will challenge us and not limit our possibilities. We want to push ourselves to a place of knowing our limits. Maybe it doesn't work out, but at least it won't be for lack of vision. It's what is so powerful about the 12 week plan. Let's figure out 3 important things that need to be done, or 3 areas of growth over the next 12 weeks, and then put action steps, a real plan in place, in order to accomplish it. That's what being a business owner is all about. Empowering your employees, pushing them to grow and realize their potential...and then putting a plan in place for your business to continue growing for years to come. Don't wait on this! You can accomplish so much more than you realize you're capable of. If we can help you put a plan in place or help you equip your employees, reach out to us. We'd love to run alongside you. Make sure you subscribe to our YouTube channel and our podcast for more amazing content we release every few days. Have a great weekend!

How Do You Build A System For Marketing, Not Just A Strategy? So many folks we talk to want to talk about Marketing strategies, but not build a marketing system. So how do you do that? Well, let's talk about it. Happy Monday friends, Thomas Joyner with Business on Purpose. I spent countless hours at Clemson University studying marketing. It was my major and something that actually made sense to me. Accounting, not for me, but Marketing... I loved it! I had a professor that spent months every semester drilling into the 4 P's of marketing. Product, Price, Placement, and Promotion. He drilled that marketing mix into our heads every minute we were listening to him... and it worked. For years! However, I was shocked the other day, when a local business owner puts words to something that we have felt for a while. "The 4 P's are out... it's the 4 E's now!" he said. Now this man has started and built more businesses than I can shake a stick at, so when he speaks, I listen. But everything he said, made sense as he put words to things we at BOP had been feeling for a while now. In this new model of marketing, the consumer has grabbed hold of the power. They are more informed, less patient, and more demanding than ever. Gone are the days of being able to maintain your advantage over a competitor for months or years. No, sometimes now your advantage can be only for a few minutes before someone knocks you off and offers a similar product at a similar price. So, where does that leave us? Well, with the 4 E's of marketing. The first E goes from the product to the "Experience." The challenge becomes not just focusing on the product's deliverables, as your advantage may only last a short while, but focuses more on the customer experience and workflow you provide. How can you deliver the best product, WITH THE BEST EXPERIENCE, in a way that creates long term customers? The second E goes from place, to "Everyplace." Typical marketing was an on/off switch that interrupted people during their normal day. Think billboard advertising that grabbed a customer's attention away from their morning commute or a commercial in the middle of a football game that interrupts your experience. When we shift the mindset to "Everyplace," we're trying to intercept the customer in a way that is convenient for them, and at the time they are most receptive to our marketing efforts. Think about apps that walk you through the sales the moment you step in a grocery store or an interactive video series that helps give you the pros and cons of a specific decision. We must begin to, as Brian Fetherstonaugh said, "Today we have to intersect consumers on their turf and on their terms. And that could be anyplace or every place. The third E goes from Price to "Exchange." Everything we do has a value attached to it and it's not always monetarily. Think about Toms Shoes for example. They weren't amazing shoes, but they were attached to a cause that made people want to jump in and engage. There was value passed along that wasn't just about the money but was about the fulfillment to the customer. So do you even know what is being exchanged to a customer when they buy your product? You must master explaining that in a meaningful way, especially in a climate where the price is no longer the only means of decision making. Lastly, the final E goes from promotion to "Evangelism." Marketers used to find one benefit add of their particular product and stick to that time and time again to sell. Today, that's simply not enough. Today, customers want to be tied into a mission and customer experience that makes them raving fans and more likely to rave about you to their peers. That's the ideal sell, right? Create customers that sell for you. This may be a new term for many of you, but it's creating a replicating marketing program that, like the energizer bunny, keeps going and going and going. It's social marketing because it appeals to all of our sense and need for belonging. So take those 4 E's. Don't just think through a strategy, but build a system to engage all of them in the marketing of your business. When it comes to the experience, build out your ideal customer experience, write down the processes that need to happen and then build out holes in your workflow to accomplish it. For everyplace, find creative ways to intersect your ideal customer and build repeatable actions that come alongside them. Don't just waste money throwing it out the window, but build a marketing system you can track and analyze to make sure it's worth it. For exchange and Evangelism, build a powerful mission to go with your business that is the thread that ties it all together. Make sure your widget is not just a widget, but something that truly changes the client's life for the better. When you do all of these things, you bring marketing to a place that it will radically transform your business and the lives of those you sell to. Thanks so much for listening, make sure you check us out on Y

How Do You Actually Get Things Done? How do you filter through the noise, the constant barrage of images and content thrown at you on a daily basis? Well, let's jump in and talk about it. Thomas Joyner here with Business on Purpose! I read a statistic this week that blew my mind recently! "On average, over 500 hours of content is added to YouTube... EVERY MINUTE!!!" That's outrageous, over 500 hours of content is uploaded to YouTube every minute. That means you can never catch up. Another statistic for you... Netflix currently has 200 shows and movies under production to be added to their streaming platform to be added during 2021. That means you could binge-watch a new series (not individual show) or movie every day for almost 7 mos and still not watch the same thing twice. That is mind-blowing! In fact, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings recently was quoted as saying that their "biggest competitor moving forward will be an individuals sleep!" Think about that for a second, your attention is being fought for day in and day out...every second of the day. But your attention is being attacked not just to keep you from sleep, but to keep you from working hard, spending time with your family, being productive, getting healthy, every aspect of your life is being fought for by outside influences. So how do you fight back? How do you filter through all of the noise and begin to implement things in your business or organization that truly can change it! Well, it starts with putting down the distractions for a bit and making time for what truly matters most. I was sitting in a coaching call with several of our clients last week and several of them all sat there and said, Thomas, it's so hard to just find time to get started! I have great intentions of doing the Roadmap, but I just get caught up and stuck and I look up and the day or week is gone! So, we pointed them back to the Weekly Schedule. It's why we implement this with every business owner we work with. Until you can dictate what your schedule is, you don't stand a chance to move past the chaos. You have to set a time, EVERY WEEK, to work on your business. We call it dental chair time… Think about the last time you were at the dentist with that hygienist all up in your mouth cleaning...you don't ask them to stop so you can answer an email or take a call or put out a fire. NO! You're in a dentist appointment. And here's the funny thing, we believe that a dentist appt is a better excuse for being off the radar than taking time to work on and build our business. It's no different! Set time in your schedule every week to implement. Imagine the clarity you would have if you took 2 hours a week as time to get perspective on what is going on? Imagine how freeing if you just cut your phone off or put it on do not disturb and closed that email tab at the top of your browser to give yourself enough time to filter through some of the noise and make game-changing decisions about what you want to implement. Chaos is fighting for your attention! There's no doubt about it. The question is can you push the pause button on the distractions long enough to do something about that. To cut through all of the awesome content that's being thrown at you, to process it, and figure out what you're going to implement in your business. As Scott loves to say and Joe Calloway made famous, "Vision, without implementation, is hallucination." Don't fall into the trap of getting distracted, but build your week up the way you want it to look, and then DO NOT WAVER from it. Implement, implement, implement. It's the only way to take your business where you want it to go.

Welcome to this online tutorial for How to own your fitness...and not get discouraged! Thomas Joyner with Business on Purpose here, so this year at BoP we're spending a good chunk of time on you, the business owner or key leader, as a person and not just in a business role. We want to touch on every area of life...and that has to start with your health...and your fitness. The first thing I will say is if you knew me in the past you would laugh that I might be teaching a tutorial on this. I led an active lifestyle, I loved all things outdoors and loved to move as long as it was attached to an activity. But...going for a run? Nope, not unless I'm being chased. Working out? Couldn't have thought of a worse way to spend an hour of my day. I wanted it to be fun and exciting and to see results instantly. Friends of mine used to actually make fun of me as I would work out for about 6 weeks a year, get bored and decide it's just not worth it. Rinse and repeat for the next 8-10 years until...I was married and had a kid...or had two kids. All of a sudden, I realized I want to be around for years. I realized that my future health affects people around me. But here's the thing. It doesn't just affect me 25-30 years from now, no it affects me today. Of course, I want to be around for a long time. I want to know my grandkids and teach them to hunt and fish, but I can't just stay motivated by something 25 years in the future. No, I need some positive reinforcement today. Here's what I've realized through this process of beginning to own my fitness...it's lowered the stress levels I have running throughout the day. I get a good workout in the morning and I respond to life differently. The way I can play with my kids and chase them around with more energy. The clarity with which I move through the day and the sleep I get at night is all improved. I'm a better husband, dad, friend and employee because I'm getting moving and getting in really good shape. I've heard it said that, "When you are healthy, you have 1,000 dreams, when you're not healthy, you only have one...GET HEALTHY!" And it's so true! So, what holds us back from taking ownership of our fitness? The first thing I think we struggle to do is find the right motivation. For me, it was making sure I'm around for a long time for my wife and my kids. So, everytime I'm trying to decide if I'm going to wake up, I picture their life without me in the future, but it's the motivation I need to get my tail out of bed and get in there at 6 am. One of my favorite things Dave Ramsey asks his call in guests is, "Are you sick and tired of being sick and tired." Obviously he's talking about finances, but is it any different with your fitness? Are you sick and tired of being overweight, stressed, having a lack of energy, or concerns about future health? Until that statement is true and you find the right motivation, you'll never get into the gym or out on a run. So what's it for you? Is it your family? Is it being a better version of yourself today? Is it an improved day to day life with more energy and a healthier lifestyle? Find your motivation and hold onto it in a way that propels you to success. The second thing we struggle to do is make an investment that actually costs us something. Part of my problem is I wanted to get in shape until it cost me something. And I would always stop short of that moment. Think about it...why do you think 9 out of 10 machines in a Planet fitness are empty? It's because 10 bucks a month isn't enough cost to get you off your butt and into the gym! It's just not. If you have the option of binging another show on Netflix or sleeping in or get to the gym, you never made a significant enough investment to force you to go. Now, please, do not use this as a reason to buy a $2,000 Peloton if you don't have the money, or hire a personal training. If you have the money for that great! But I know, for me, I chose a gym that was not the cheapest, but the one that was a big enough investment that I force myself to take advantage of the investment and actually get something out of it. I'm too cheap to pay good money for a CrossFit membership and NOT use it! So what's the investment for you? I had a buddy one time who wanted to get in better shape and he couldn't find the motivation. Finally, I looked at him and said if you really want to get in shape here's what you do. Put $250 bucks in a checking account. Every time you skip a workout you pay me 20 bucks. He looked at me like I was crazy. No, seriously, you value your money enough to not just want to give it away. Plus, every time you workout it will feel like you're saving 20 bucks. So, we did it and the first time he missed, he was ticked! But, I held him to it and he venmo'd me 20 bucks. Again, two weeks later, he missed. 20 more bucks! And he was hot about it! For the next month he never missed a workout and by that time had built the habit necessary to make it work and he was past the initial misery of

How To Determine A Return On Marketing Investment "Ugh." That was a direct quote from a client when I asked a simple question, "how is your marketing going?" This post is as much an encouragement to marketing support service businesses as it is a call to action for business owners who are frustrated with trying to determine their return on marketing investment. The barrier to entry is about the same for palm readers, business coaches (ahem), and marketing service providers...not very high. Just about anybody can hang a shingle and call themselves a marketing agency. That loose availability does not mean there is no significant value to be found in a well-run service. So how much should you spend as a marketing investment, and for goodness sake, how do you realize a return on your marketing investment? First, let's discuss how much to invest in the first place. Your planning and delivery of marketing in your business should be as intentional and well thought out as product development, product delivery, accounting, sales, and all other systems of the business. Resources must be spent on marketing (the definition of marketing is not limited to advertising and promotion) with the same intentionality as resources spent on things like employee compensation, product and service delivery, and insurance coverage. In conversation with a marketing agency owner, I asked, "how much should a small business invest into their marketing?" His response was, "it depends." He went to provide a range that I thought was very helpful. Three percent of gross revenue (total income minus cost of goods sold) would be a low marketing spend, whereas twelve to thirteen percent of gross revenue would be an aggressive marketing spend. The question then becomes, "what do we invest are marketing resources into?" This is an important mind shift in understanding that marketing is not a cross-your-fingers, hope-for-the-best, haphazard shot in the dark. Marketing is a system. Just like the conglomeration of all of the bones in your body combine to form the skeletal system, and that system works in calculation and coordination, so all the conglomeration of promotional elements in your business work to form the marketing system. I like to think of marketing in terms of channels or canals. You have the channel of social media, the channel of your website, the channel of live events, the channel of advertising, or the channel of say a podcast or YouTube. Each channel provides a connection point for you to connect with your potential or actual client or customer. The most overlooked, and yet perennially most effective form of marketing for just about every business on earth is quite old fashioned. Word of mouth. Yes, word of mouth marketing is a channel, and is probably the most trafficked channel your business has. There are three things you can do with your marketing system and the channels that combine to collectively share your mission with a targeted world. First, map out the exact channels that should exist in your marketing system and turn a blind eye to the channels that are distractions. All of your friends may be seeing great success with a certain social media platform. You might even hear a podcaster say, "you've got to be on Mashblot (a fictitious social media channel I just made up)!" No, you don't. You should invest in channels where your target client or customer is paying attention. If they are not looking at Mashblot, may be best to bypass and go to a channel that fits. For some, you may not need to be on social media at all. We coach many contractors who are far better served to set up two lunches per week with vendors, general contractors, Architects, and Developers instead of trying to generate leads on Facebook, YouTube, or the platform du juor. What channels are your clients paying attention to? Map it out. Second, create a process to nurture and educate that channel. You can ask a simple question, "what is the end game?" For your social media...what is the end game? For your in person lunches...what is the end game? For your website...what is the end game? Our coaches spend a significant amount of time face to face with business owners. Over lunch or coffee, our end game is to coach! When a non-client reaches out to us to "learn more", we try to spend less time talking about the features and benefits of our deliverables, and instead we actually coach them during that time. It allows our client to get a feel for actual coaching and to evaluate their need for transformation. That is our end game, coach well and allow the business owner to experience freedom directly. For us, our website, social media channels, the My Business On Purpose podcast, and Live Events all exist to facilitate an in person or virtual meeting where we can coach in real life and understand the reality of a particular business owner. Once you have your specific and finite channels, each channel must have a process all aimed towards an end game. Thirdly, d