Entrepreneurs are an amazing, brilliant, and interesting group of people. They have lots of ideas, many of which will not make it to fruition.
When an entrepreneur hits on that one great idea, the work is just beginning. Entrepreneurs wear numerous hats as they create and nurture their idea into a real company. There are risks, sleepless nights, and sometimes self-doubt gets in the way. But it eventually all comes together and an entrepreneurial start-up validates its product or service, gains market share, hires more people, and grows.
At some point on this journey, entrepreneurs get stuck. Their world just doesn’t feel right because they find themselves regularly struggling with one or more of the following challenges:
- Lack of control – over time, strategy, or the company
- People – don’t listen, understand or follow through
- Profit – there’s not enough of it
- Growth – is okay, but they just can’t seem to break through to the next level
One of the primary causes of these struggles is that as entrepreneurs we worry about every aspect of our business, except how to manage it. I started my first company when I was 21 years old. It was a rock climbing school. My business partner and I were excellent climbers and excellent instructors, and we had lots of satisfied customers. We did a lot of planning prior to opening the school. But I cannot recall one conversation around how to manage the business. We seemed to think “as if by magic”.
We see entrepreneurs employ a common fix – the magic pill. They read a book every month and try a new technique. Then they talk to a colleague and try another approach. Let us not forget the blog someone points them to. Many of these approaches provide excellent information. Yet most of them do not provide a complete set of simple tools that equal a management system that creates control, gets the right people into the company, generates adequate profit, and helps the owner break through the ceiling to achieve their next level of growth.
Every entrepreneur has a vision and stumbles along his or her journey. It’s easy to believe our own excuses, particularly if they are good ones. Come up with a plan and assemble what you need, but whatever you do, don’t label your vision as impossible.
When I was a business owner, I was looking for a management system that would provide the foundation and direction my business needed. EOS® gave me structure and a set of tools to help me identify my vision and Core Values, build a leadership team, and hold my team and myself accountable to our goals.
Before I committed to EOS, I read the book, Traction, by EOS® founder Gino Wickman. I’m sharing chapter one of Traction with you today. It helped me understand the system, and made me want to learn more. I hope you’ll want to read the whole book, and feel the same as I did.
EOS® is not a hard-to-understand system, but it is complicated to implement yourself. If you need a fresh perspective on your business from someone who knows EOS® backwards and forwards, please fill out the consultation form below to request a 15-minute phone conversation with me. I would love the opportunity to share my experience with you, and help you achieve your business dreams. Not with a magic pill or fairy dust, but with a tried and true business system like EOS®.
