Are These Key Spokes Missing From Your Business Cycle?

Have you ever ridden a unicycle? I tried one as a kid, and remember how wobbly that first ride was. The cycle had one wheel, one rider, no handlebars for support. All it took to navigate it was a strong set of legs and a good sense of balance. I remember how exhilarating it was to stay upright, and the humility when I realized there was no one but myself to blame when I fell.

Some equate business ownership to walking a tight line or being on a unicycle. "It's lonely at the top," one business owner told me. And yes, keeping everything in balance, leading, managing, hiring, firing, tracking is a lot to juggle. But being alone is not one of the rules of business or leadership. Being on top of things, aware of trends, educated, and involved is. Getting help is an admirable trait, not a fault.

Business is a very unique game. Imagine making the decision to go into sports without knowing anything about the game.

Like tennis.

If you know nothing of the sport, then court is a place you go to pay tickets, and a racquet is what the kids were making when you were trying to get to sleep. And "Love alll?" Isn't that a common phrase from the 60s?

Sports teams have coaches. Business owners have business coaches. Why? Because, like sports, business is a game - a very strategic game with very specific rules, processes, and systems. The playing field might be different than a tennis court, football field, baseball diamond, bowling alley, but there are specific things found in both sports and business that are similar and imperative. These include:

* Rules. In sports, the rules are the specific guidelines that must be adhered to. In business, these are the policies, systems, and regulations you put into place that are not to be broken.

* Connection. To get home, you have to hit the ball. In business, you have to connect. It's great to have a product or service, but if you can't get it to the customer, you're not in the game.

* Systems. Imagine if you orchestrated the same play, play after play. There's arguments for consistency, but there are arguments for switching things up; when one play doesn't work, try another. There are some systems that are set, but within those systems are options to magnetize efficiency. Those options are called strategies.

* Team. Clearly if the team is not on the same page as you or each other, things will fall apart. It's no different in business. I'm sure you can come up with more parallels, the point is business owners wouldn't think of having a sport that didn't have these key "spokes" in place, yet often don't equate the same importance with running a business.

Rules are pretty straight forward. What do you accept and not accept as permissible in your place of business? What do you need to make clear to employees so that they are clear on what is acceptable and what isn't? Don't chalk good behavior up to common sense. You'd be surprised at how many employees don't share the same values. Clue them in.

Connection is all part of the business cycle. The business owner supports the team. The team supports the customer. The customer supports the business. The business supports the business owner and round and round it goes.

Systems in sports are well laid-out and practiced plans of action. In business, systems are applied to each department and to each project. The areas to systemize are:

* People and training/education

* Delivery and distribution

* Testing and Measuring

* Technology and processes

What's better? To train and then retrain employees or to put effective training manuals in place so that training is systemized?

What's better? To reinvent the wheel every time something needs to be delivered and distributed, or to have a system in place to automate delivery and distribution?

What's better? To guess on numbers and hope traffic converts, or to have a system in place to test and measure everything, giving you real numbers in real time with real results to work with?

What's better? Is it more effective and efficient to cut corners and keep ancient equipment and outdated processes in place, or to keep up with software and technology and keep current with modern forms of communication?

While the answers may seem clear, you'd be surprised at how many business owners don't have employee handbooks or manuals in place, don't have a delivery and distribution system in place, don't test and measure anything in place, and barely know how to do basic computer navigation, let alone tackling anything dealing with social media. In a short amount of time, they burn out, and burnout is the #1 cause of businesses failing.

Ultimately, the daily cycle of business may leave you feeling like you're all by yourself, but you're not alone.

Business Coaches are business owners themselves. They know what goes into running businesses, systemizing, testing and measuring, and staying current with technology, and they can help you get in the game. After all, isn't that what a coach is for? To teach, train, encourage, help, and hold you accountable for reaching the goals set forth?

Symptoms of Depression: Your Consulting Business Is Sick

Today we are going to talk about business codependency. I'm sure you've never heard of this topic before, so I'm introducing it to you today. When you achieve a goal you set for yourself it provides a great feeling of accomplishment. Your ability to meet goals is what has created your current success in business. However, as you accomplish more and more individual achievements in your business you become addicted to the high. You need to keep doing things to feel successful in your business and your business needs you to keep accomplishing things in order for it to exist. This is actually a picture of codependence.

What I believe. I believe that you are in a codependent relationship with your business.

Why I believe it. Codependent is defined as a relationship in which one person is physically or psychologically addicted to another person, as to alcohol or gambling, and the other person is psychologically dependent on the first in an unhealthy way. In other words, you are psychologically dependent on something and it is also psychologically dependent on you. The two of you need each other to exist. I believe that's true with you and your business.

You are codependent. You are psychologically, mentally, attached to your business. When you work on your business, you feel like you're doing something that matters. For this reason, it feels better to work on your business than it does to work on other things. You are addicted to your business because you need it to feel useful. Your business is addicted to you because it needs you to function. As a matter of fact, if you don't work in your business every day, your business dies. A much healthier approach is to appreciate that you and your business are two separate entities. You are a human and your business is not. You created your business and you should have control over it. You should be giving your business instructions on what to do.

Relevance to you. One of the primary roles of your business is to support your lifestyle. The question is, are you living your best lifestyle right now? How should your business work so that you can live the way you intend to live? You created your business because you wanted to live a certain way and your business should help you execute that picture. The fact that you built your business to require your intense daily effort is inappropriate.

Instead, you should be building your business in a way that requires less and less of you as time goes on. This transition is a process and you won't do it all at once. Our job is to help you all along the way. On the other side of this transformation, there's a much healthier relationship between you and your business. As a matter of fact, your business gets more done because more people are able to work in it and work on it. You can also get more done because you aren't tied to the solo relationship of working in your business. It's a better deal for both you and your business.

Being passionate about what you do is a wonderful thing and many times it is vital to the success of your business in its early stages. However, this passion has the potential to turn into an addiction for both you and your business. You crafted your business and you have the power to give it a life of its own, in order for it to continue to grow without you being present at all times.

Future of Online Business Development

Everybody looks for the efficient and effective online business process. Yet, somewhere down the line everyone is concerned about the future of internet business development. It is sure that the upcoming online business era is under the shed of sheer competition. However, experts and analysts are coming up with new online strategy so that online business developers can foresee profitable outcomes.

It is only through the internet business that one think of fading borders, when it comes selling their products to the larger mass. Even the most popular business tycoons have realized that E-Business is the massive growth phase. This is a reason that most of traditional business holders are switching or integrating their business with the electric platform. Thus, the debate of the E-Business seems stronger and more flourishing in the coming years. For people are not so good with internet business development can look up to the internet experts. They will help you with creating, developing, and growing your business on the internet.

However, you must be able to choose your business experts deliberately so that you get the right advice and can precisely draw your ideas into reality. The future proof online business development carries with more easy access of the internet services. Services such as Mobile-ready, social network savvy, useful content can be great managed by online experts and increase your electronic economy.

Future of E-Business development is that it helps in integrating business with the existing business processes and workflows. Moreover, you can select the latest proven Internet technologies to add much to your existing business. Thus, online successes will increased profit steams for your business.

Here go a few commendable steps for the development of online business

Brand Development and Consulting: the online marketers take care of your business at the initial stage and secure your tag line for the new business. Right from the business name to the domain name and social media extensions, everything can be a taken care of.

Logo, Corporate brand, website Design and brand design on social Media: this is a vital section of your online business development. Including impressive graphic designs, the professional SEO and web designers ensures your website to have a correct professional look and feel. Further, it should mark strong presence on the social media through potential avenues.

Marketing and Advertising through Internet Marketing: it is not that only exclusive look works for your website. After your website gets ready, you have to start immense awareness for its proper growth. You can do this through SERP, SEO, Social Media, Forums, Business Directories, PPC, Email, Telemarketing and traditional media. If you have a small business then key is the immediate cash flow which can targeted through internet marketing.

Follow on support: after you business gets the up thrust, it is essential to keep it in a moving shape. This also makes a point that you must constantly strive for the new market positions.

Move From Family Business to B-School

Applicants who have worked in a family business sometimes worry that their professional profile won't measure up when compared with other MBA hopefuls with more traditional employment paths. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Every year, top schools accept students who will go back to work for the family business. In fact, 9 percent of the applicants accepted into the Harvard Business School class of 2014 had worked for, or planned to work for, their family-owned company.

Business schools strive to compose a cohort of diverse personalities and backgrounds to guarantee lively discussions, so depending on your role in the company and the type of business itself, your experiences would likely add a unique perspective to the class.

Part of your school selection research should focus on what types of resources and support for family businesses are offered by your target programs. For many applicants, a one-year MBA program is ideal since you won't need the internship and recruiting opportunities that job-switching students in two-year programs rely on.

I advise applying to the best schools that you think you can get into because they will offer a great education as well as the best networking opportunities. Also, think about whether the school's geographic location will help you build a network which would directly help your family business.

Family business management has emerged as an important discipline at business schools as second- and third-generation family members realize the need for specialized skills in order to take over the reins and create a more corporate work environment. Over the past decade, schools have introduced courses and clubs on family business, founded centers dedicated to the subject or launched concentrations in this area.

Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management has a Center for Family Enterprises. Columbia Business School, stating that 80 percent of businesses worldwide are classified as family businesses, offered a course this spring on Family Business Management. And students and alumni of the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School can participate in the Wharton Family Business Club.

If the school offers a student club focused on this group, reaching out to current members for their insight on the program's benefits might prove invaluable in your decision-making process.

As with any winning application, the strategy in this case is to show in detail how an MBA degree will help you further your professional goals. Explain with specifics what you need to learn in order to grow the family business.

Paint a clear picture of your vision for the company's future, and leave no doubt as to how an MBA will help you make an impact on the business after graduation. That way, the admissions committee understands why business school is the logical next step.

For your essays, start brainstorming some of the challenges your business has faced, and come up with examples that show how you as a family worked to overcome those obstacles. Business schools place a high value on teamwork, and what better way to show commitment and follow-through than by demonstrating you know how to work well with others to achieve a common goal?

As many applicants know, the ideal recommender for an MBA application is the manager to whom you report directly. However, if your immediate supervisors are relatives, you'll need to get creative since you cannot have a family member write your recommendation letter.

Can you approach a supervisor or manager from a company you've previously worked for? Or have you worked closely with any clients or vendors that can speak to your managerial or leadership abilities?

Our client Bill had been working for the family business, a manufacturing company in Baltimore, for three years after college.

After brainstorming for recommenders he could approach outside the business, Bill hit upon a retail vendor that had been supplied by his company for more than a decade with whom he'd built a strong relationship. Since this vendor was evaluating Bill on many similar criteria as a direct supervisor and was an objective, outside source, he turned out to be the perfect choice.

In the end, Bill's family business-based application fared well next to candidates coming from a corporate background. He was ultimately admitted to Dartmouth's Tuck School of Business and University of Virginia's Darden School of Business, and chose Darden to be a little closer to home.