Founder’s Cap

Professor William Wetzel, a venture capital expert, is credited as the first person to use the term “lifestyle business.” In these companies, he said, “there’s no upside potential for creating wealth.”

Today, the term “lifestyle business” is oftentimes used dismissively. The companies we respect most – Apple, Google, Amazon, Coca-Cola – are growth companies with untold potential for creating wealth.

If you were to ask 100 business owners if they had lifestyle companies or growth companies, it is likely that upwards of 95 would tell you growth. That’s not because 95 truly do, but because only 5 are willing to admit they don’t.

You’ve probably seen the television show Undercover Boss where the CEO or owner takes on an entry level position in his or her company—and gets an education in what’s really going on. But you don’t really need to pretend to…

From time to time, the growth of your business will slow or even seem to stall. It’s vital for you to understand whether this is simply a case of normal growing pains or whether your business has gotten stuck on the far more dangerous plateau. There are clear ways to determine this, and two questions you need to ask of your business when making this diagnosis.

Long before I ever started coaching clients, I observed a phenomenon in my own family business that was a surprising inhibitor to the company’s growth. You would never think that the creative, energetic drive that a small business entrepreneur brings to a new enterprise could hinder its growth, but it can—and it happens more often than you think.

Steve Jobs once said, “Don’t let the noise of other’s opinions drown out your own inner voice; and most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition.” This is great advice for someone starting a business; but terrible,…

Letting go of micro-managing is almost always the hardest step for a founder but it can be a vital factor in encouraging the growth of your business. Sometimes this lesson is forced upon owners. I recently ran into a business…