Over 30 years of business insight in one place.
I've been a business owner for over 30 years. I was a remote CEO starting in 1993. I've been a coach helping other owners learn from my mistakes since 1995. Since 2006 I've been posting, writing, making videos and tools for my clients. In my semi-retirement I'm putting all that stuff here in a (mostly) organized fashion for free.
Advisor Stack
Advisor Stack
August 7, 2026
From time to time every company needs expertise they don't have in-house. Those are your advisors. Here's a list of some you might consider. Consultants. Consultants bring in expertise you don't have. They may do the work or advise and…
Coaches
DIY Coaching Timeline
July 30, 2026
You’re right. It’s a click-bait title. But I can only work with a handful of clients at a time so on this site I put a lot of the tools and approaches I’ve used for over 30 years with clients…
Organizational Design, People
Do You Have Employees but no Team Leads?
May 16, 2026
Here’s How to Take The Next Step. How Do I Get Out From Under the Day-to-Day and Work On My Business? That’s the most common question I hear from owner/operators. You’ve got people to sell or make what customers pay…
Organizational Design
Tasks Projects & Roles
March 28, 2026
Management is getting work done through others. Here's How. Care about the output not the work. This is a subtle but powerful distinction. Here’s what I mean. When you get in your car for a trip to the grocery store,…
Owners
What Does Progress Look Like?
March 8, 2026
It's bigger than revenue growth. TL;DR - Progress means you get what you want FROM your company. But you must build the right foundation before you can be strategic. When I first started coaching I knew people hired me because…
Marketing & Sales
Prospects to Profits
February 28, 2026
What Makes a Sale? The first time this happened I was surprised. I was talking with a client and his team about tracking their lost/won ratio in sales. They were doing $5M a year in revenue and the owner (my…
Money, People
Compensation Ideas – But Only If …
February 15, 2026
Incentives are powerful - but hard to get right. “Show me the incentive and I’ll show you the outcome” - Charlie Munger. If only business were that simple. The problem is we rarely want just one outcome. We need a…
Organizational Design
Visionary? Integrator? Here's a better idea
February 7, 2026
Different Outputs from a Single Person. When I read about the distinction between a Visionary and an Integrator in the EOS literature my first thought was “Those are just different names for CEO and COO - concepts that have been…
Growth & Plans
Time Skeleton Tool
February 6, 2026
Time Skeleton is a tool for planning your year so you don't get too busy before a critical event.
Growth & Plans
More Revenue Streams Won't Make More Money
January 31, 2026
Levers will. NOTE: You should use your CEO Time to think about this because Revenue Streams are a component of Strategy. Let’s Define Terms. “Make Money” means profit, not revenue. It’s best measured by an aspect of free cash flow…
Goals & Vision
How to use the Vision Sheet
January 20, 2026
How to document your 3 year vision for your company.
Goals & Vision, Organizational Design, Strategy
Why You Can't Work ON Your Business
January 3, 2026
Even though you think you can. I know it’s not a great idea to tell your audience that they’re wrong. But in my experience of working with hundreds of SMB owners it’s true. We aren’t really working on our companies…
CEO Skills
KPIs ≠ Company Health
October 25, 2025
How healthy are you? Don’t Check Your Gut! Did you do a gut check about how you’re feeling to answer that question? If yes, your answer is probably wrong - or at least short sighted. You may feel great but…
CEO Skills
After The Close program
October 18, 2025
You have 3 jobs after you close on a new acquisition. Do them in the right order.
Organizational Design
All the Company Systems in One Diagram
May 4, 2025
I'm Obsessed with systems - as if you couldn't tell. The colored blocks represent the major systems and with subsystems listed within them. Each system produces a number of outputs (results). Any successful company is producing relevant outputs in all…
CEO Skills
Every Business Tastes Like Chicken
April 25, 2025
They're All the Same - Except for the Differences. At the highest level every company needs to do the same things: Make something people want to buy. Find those people and sell to them. Support the making and the selling…
People
Management is not Leadership
April 6, 2025
Plus a Special Announcement you won't want to miss. People confuse management and Leadership. They're not the same. This post is about why you need both but if you confuse them you might end up with neither. But first a…
Marketing & Sales
Worldview
March 16, 2025
NOT political - it's about marketing. Good marketers consider the problem to be "How can convince people to buy what we sell?". Great marketers take a different approach. This post was inspired by the most recent article by Cedric Chin.…
People
What Happens When People Fail?
March 8, 2025
Your Maturity as a Manager is Shown in the Answer. Often when people hire me it's because they're frustrated with the repeated failure of an employee. They complain (or vent to say it more gently). That's rarely useful unless it…
CEO Mindset, Coaches
How the Eisenhower Matrix Works with Coaching Clients
February 10, 2025
This video explains the definition of urgent vs important. Here's how to use this tool in ways that aren't obvious. The goal is to allow you to focus on more strategic and important work and less on the merely urgent.…