Episode 203
This crisis may have made you close your doors temporarily, or at the very least, shift the way you’re doing business. This episode is all about what you should be focusing on first to get the most out of this uncertain situation!
Mike Michalowicz is the author of Profit First, The Pumpkin Plan, and his latest book, Fix This Next. He is also the Owner of Profit First Professionals, his third million-dollar venture. Mike has been an entrepreneur his entire life and also he is a popular main stage keynote speaker on innovative entrepreneurial topics.
Mike was very successful, but he had no clue what entrepreneurship really was. He saw that sales cures everything, but in reality, a business needs so much more than just that. He ended up losing nearly everything except his family. When he was at the bottom, he thought long and hard about what his next career move would be, something that would give him meaning, and he decided that he wanted to become a business writer to really discover what the core of entrepreneurship is.
Just like us as people, businesses have a common DNA. Mike investigated and researched micro-businesses to macro/big businesses. All businesses have a hierarchy of needs and if we understand what the needs are, we can pinpoint what to work on next and resolve it.
Businesses have five levels of needs, Sales, Profit, Order, Impact, and Legacy. We often understand when we, as people, have needs. We know when we’re in danger or that we’re hungry, but with our business, we often use our gut feelings to solve the most pressing of problems. The first thing to do is make an assessment of all the challenges you might have and then, before you try to fix anything, back those up with empirical data.
Interview Links:
Fix This Next: Make the Vital Change that Will Level Up Your Business
Profit First: Transform Your Business from a Cash-Eating Monster to a Money-Making Machine
Ask The Profit First Professional Facebook Group
Resources:
Scaling Up Workshop: Interested in attending one of our workshops? We have a few $100 discounts for our loyal podcast listeners!Scaling Up for Business Growth Workshop: Take the first step to mastering the Rockefeller Habits by attending one of our workshops.
Scaling Up Summits (Select Bill Gallagher as your coach during registration for a discount.)
Mentioned in this episode:
PhD Research on CEOs
Quick favor: I'm in the middle of my doctoral research, and I need CEOs Here's the question: is there a point where working more hours actually indicates a worse leader? Nobody has measured it. I'm measuring it. If you're a CEO or president with at least ten people in the business and three direct reports, it takes just a few minutes. And Your team answers a few anonymous questions. What you get back is a report comparing how you rate yourself to how your team rates you. That gap is usually the interesting part. ScalingCoach.com/study
Bill Gallagher coaches CEOs and leadership teams on the Scaling Up framework. If something in this episode landed close to home, the free 20-question diagnostic is a good place to start.