A few years ago I was invited by Sam and Lia Cocks from Urbantech Group to take part in a Celebrity Debate on the topic "Street Smarts and not Book Smarts is what it takes to be an Entrepreneur".

Is your environment really limiting your personal growth?

Over the years I've heard lots of animal stories that reinforce ideas about people and business. They can put both clearly in perspective - even when they're not even true.

The humble goldfish has long been used for this very purpose.

What Do You Do?  In many cases, your success will be determined by how accurately you can define what business you’re in. It has to be presented from your customer’s view – they need to know WIIFM (What’s In It For Me!)

You might know this one,  but here's a story about four people named Everybody, Somebody, Anybody and Nobody.

If you have the mindset for growth, if you understand the psychology of your perfect customer and know exactly what they look like, if you’ve defined what your business does as opposed to what you do in your business, and if you have all your foundation systems in place, then it’s time to go marketing!!

Thomas Watson, the father of IBM, was once asked how he built his company into the structure it became – because, he said, “I planned that structure from day one”.

Most small businesses, if they have a structure, build it only to suit their current needs. Consequently, a few people are designated to fill all the roles so the structure is defined by the individuals and not by the tasks they do. As this becomes ingrained over time it becomes difficult, if not impossible, to separate the two.

In building a 20/20 Business, a structure that delivers you total control and ultimate freedom, you must first build and secure your core foundations of leadership, team, finance, operations and marketing & sales. You need to drive them deep until they’re resting on solid bedrock.

It was 3.00 pm on a cold and wet Wednesday afternoon when Jake walked into the bar. The place was quiet apart from the TV on the wall which was tuned to the local sports station. He sat on a stool at the far end and ordered a beer.

Dave, the barman, who was a pretty good judge of people, could sense the anxiety within Jake.

Two factors that dramatically impact our ability to "achieve outcomes" are stress and overwhelm.

Look at the picture above and guess how heavy the glass of water is?

Would it surprise you to know that the absolute weight doesn’t matter? It depends on how long I hold it for. If I hold it for a minute it’s not a problem. Hold it for an hour and my arm will start to ache. Hold it for a day and my arm will feel numb and paralysed.

Unfortunately, most people who start, buy or inherit their own business will end up as an exhausted failure rather than the successful developer of their own “freedom” machine. Most have been struck with an entrepreneurial seizure - there’s the manager who takes redundancy and starts a consultancy business, the labourer who quits to become a contractor or a cook who opens her own restaurant.

The most productive people are not always busy people, they don’t need to be. But, when they are, they know exactly what they’re working on and why. Read the following statements and consider which group best describes how you operate. Is it time to make some changes?  

This story is from my dim, dark past, with “dark” being the key word... read on, it’ll make more sense. It gives context to a number of personal insights into the challenges faced by business owners everywhere, together with some thoughts on how to resolve them.

While the story is important, if you’re one of those people who needs to cut to the chase, either due to a lack of time or lack of attention, then head to the section titled The Insights I Gained, otherwise I hope you enjoy!