Podcasts about 70secondceo

Being Obnoxious, Good? or Bad? Part 1 Hi everyone, Carl Gould here with your #70secondCEO. Just a little over a one minute investment every day for a lifetime of results. They don't make obnoxious like they used to. I remember the first time I was called obnoxious. I was in the seventh grade. And I was joking in class with some of my friends. We were probably just being louder than we should have been, probably more inappropriate manner than we were in class. But I must have said something that my teacher overheard, you know, and she didn't like it because she came up to me and she said to me, Carll you're being obnoxious. And I could tell that she wasn't happy with me or what I said, but I didn't know what the word obnoxious meant. I don't know what I may have said that upset her. And I certainly didn't see anything wrong with what was going on, right? But all my friends and I, we were just laughing and having a good time. So in the beginning, funny enough, I took it as a compliment. I thought obnoxious was a compliment. So talking about ignorance being bliss, I was out of my mind happy. So at first, I could tell she wasn't happy. So I felt like I did something wrong, but I didn't really think I did anything wrong. So that night, I didn't say anything at the time. That night I go home, and I look up the word obnoxious. And you know what I found? I found that it meant odiously or disgustingly objectionable and highly offensive. Like and follow this podcast so you can learn more. My name is Carl Gould and this has been your #70secondCEO.

Exit Strategy Hi everyone, Carl Gould here with your #70secondCEO. Just a little over a one minute investment every day for a lifetime of results. You've created your exit strategy, you now know what's next. You've done that for yourself. That will be part of your power tools, making sure you have refined, defined and at least created your exit strategy. You want to avoid that blind spot, you want to know what's next for you must figure out what's next for you. And continuing on with your power tools you want to do your succession planning that will entail in some way shape or form. Going back to your advisory board, leaning on your experts to create your will, update your will, your estate, your trusts. This is the time to start thinking about tax protection, asset protection, and at the same time in the process of asking yourself what's next, you may have come up with the answer. You may have decided to get into a new venture, spin off a division, create a new product, take up the hobby you always wished you could do. Like and follow this podcast so you can learn more. My name is Carl Gould and this has been your #70secondCEO.

What to do with a Legacy Business Hi everyone, Carl Gould here with your #70secondCEO. Just a little over a one minute investment every day for a lifetime of results. What can you do with this legacy type business? You can pass it along to another generation, you can donate the business, you can will that business to somebody else, you can sell it, you can keep it as a cash producing annuity or a cash producing asset, even hiring or putting in place a CEO or executor or trustee to manage it as it runs on its own to support your causes for future generations. Which leads us to your final hire and your final firing. You know, you are a stage seven business regardless of your exit strategy. The moment you fire yourself from the position of CEO and you hire and put somebody in that place and the business runs every bit as good if not better in your absence in perpetuity. Like and follow this podcast so you can learn more. My name is Carl Gould and this has been your #70secondCEO.

Difference between Rolling Stones & The Beatles Hi everyone, Carl Gould here with your #70secondCEO. Just a little over a one minute investment every day for a lifetime of results. And let's revisit our friends, The Rolling Stones, and Elton John, for example. These are incredibly successful musicians in mortals in the Hall of Fame and yet when they stop sodas, their music, sodas the popularity and their sales, whereas the Beatles are still among the highest grossing bands in the new millennium, and they have not recorded an album together in over 30 years. Elvis Presley still remains a very robust selling musician, and he's been gone for over 30 years as well. So a stage seven business actually increases in value as it goes. And it is because you put strong leadership behind you, and you have strong products with a strong direction, robust sales, consistent systems and high quality. You've created a culture of iCube of intelligent, incremental improvements to quality you now get to reap the rewards of a legacy type business. Like and follow this podcast so you can learn more. My name is Carl Gould and this has been your #70secondCEO.

 Not Stage 7 Businesses? Hi everyone, Carl Gould here with your #70secondCEO. Just a little over a one minute investment every day for a lifetime of results. So what are some examples of businesses that you might think are stage seven businesses, but are not really there? They are very, very successful in some cases incredibly successful businesses yet are not stage seven businesses and frankly may never have the goal to be 7 Stage businesses. Here would be an example just as Microsoft is a stage seven business. Apple is not, Apple computer is not a stage seven business now, why? They rely on the creativity and vision of Steven Jobs. Whenever he has exited the business, so too has its value. It's still very reliant on him and again, they may never have the goal to be a stage seven business. Chrysler Motors has sought out strategic alliances for the last 30 years. And for the last 30 years, those strategic alliances have not worked out in the manner they had hoped. Chrysler motors still relies on the strategic alliances it has with others rather than creating its unique business identity. Like and follow this podcast so you can learn more. My name is Carl Gould and this has been your #70secondCEO.

Licensing your Name Hi everyone, Carl Gould here with your #70secondCEO. Just a little over a one-minute investment every day for a lifetime of results. There are other organizations where the owner has branded their names so well, that the name has become the symbol for certain levels of quality. These are organizations that even if the person is alive, they can sell their name. An example of that would be the Trump Organization. Donald Trump has licensed his name to many projects, there are buildings all around the world that use his name, even though he is not the developer of that building. His name has become the gold standard in the construction industry and that's by no small accident. He has created a stage seven business because he has very purposefully and very strategically positioned himself and created his business identity. Remember that back from the early stages, remember that back in stage two, his business identity, and he's become the gold standard in construction. And as a result, he's the highest paid in his field, and he has the ability to sell his name, license his name and create affiliations and joint ventures. Like and follow this podcast so you can learn more. My name is Carl Gould and this has been your #70secondCEO.

Can a family-owned company beat a giant chain rival? Yes! Listen to how. Hi everyone, Carl Gould here with your #70secondCEO. Just a little over a one minute investment every day for a lifetime of results.   There is another shop in the area where I grew up in. This is one of my favorites in the age of the big box store. This is the kind of store that normally would be eliminated the moment a big box store came into town and this is a little hardware store. And it actually sits on the road that you drive to in between the two big box stores. And when the big box stores came in the big do it yourself home warehouses, it was feared that this store would go out of business, the owners had no fear whatsoever, because they had been very clear from the beginning what they deliver that no one else can and they are a small business. And yet they're the biggest business of their kind around. Because you go in there and everyone knows your name, knows why you were there the last time they will do the things that in from a service perspective, then no one else will and while it has the name of the family, that first started it years ago, it still remains an icon in the area.   Like and follow this podcast so you can learn more. My name is Carl Gould and this has been your #70secondCEO.

How did an 80 year old farm in the suburbs become a Stage 7 business? Hi everyone, Carl Gould here with your #70secondCEO. Just a little over a one minute investment every day for a lifetime of results.   In a prior life, I did construction and landscaping work and there is this garden center that has been around now for about 80 years. It's been passed along for about five generations to well known has a great name. They have about 20 employees, they do a very, very good business and they call themselves a farm in the middle of a very suburban area where there are no more farms, they have to literally grow crops on a certain percentage of their land in order to be considered a farm. So they grow fruits and vegetables, they deliver a significant experience they've grown with the times, they've added on products, they're the same size as they ever were. And here's the example of wanting to know what the value of your businesses is, they sit on eight acres of some of the most valuable land in the area without fail regardless of the economy. Invariably, somebody they will offer to overpay for the land for them to sell because the land isn't that valuable.   Like and follow this podcast so you can learn more. My name is Carl Gould and this has been your #70secondCEO.

A Stage 7 business with just 3 employees? Here's why it's possible! Hi everyone, Carl Gould here with your #70secondCEO. Just a little over a one minute investment every day for a lifetime of results.   Sitting on the tailgate of your car, eating your ice cream at this place, watching the cars go by is part of the fun. It is a significant and consistent experience that people have enjoyed for years, they know exactly what they're going to get, they're going to come back every time, this building can never be a big business. And it's not a franchise, it can never be a big business because the building is so darn small. You can only fit two or three people in there. And they're bumping into each other as it is. And there's only two lines you can form because there's only enough room in front of the building for two people to stand side by side. And yet there's stage seven business, it's already gone three generations it will go to the fourth or it could be sold to somebody else and without a hitch. We'll be making money every single month, and it has sustained the lives in incomes of four generations. Let me tell you about a media–small size business that was a micro visit. Let me tell you about a small business.   Like and follow this podcast so you can learn more. My name is Carl Gould and this has been your #70secondCEO.

From Microsoft to a family-owned ice cream shop. Size doesn't determine success! Hi everyone, Carl Gould here with your #70secondCEO. Just a little over a one minute investment every day for a lifetime of results.   Let me give you the example of a micro business of a medium sized business and a larger business. In my part of the world, there is this tiny little ice cream shop that has been owned by the same family for three generations. When I was a kid, I actually applied for a job there, they turned me down, turn me down, because I would have taken the job from one of their kids. That ice cream shop is still there today. And I can't tell you the name of the owner anymore. The sign says it's still family owned for the last 50 years. I don't know the people, that place has developed its own personality, is the place that people go nine months out of the year, whether it's raining, whether it's sunny, to all go get that soft cone they make so well. People line up it's amazing. We don't like to stand in lines anymore and the experience of going to this ice cream shop is so significant. That waiting online is part of the fun.   Like and follow this podcast so you can learn more. My name is Carl Gould and this has been your #70secondCEO.

The Beatles are a Stage 7 business. Carl explains why… Hi everyone, Carl Gould here with your #70secondCEO. Just a little over a one minute investment every day for a lifetime of results.   So what is your outcome? For stage seven? Your outcome is to create and answer the question now what? What's next? What is next for me in my life? What is next for me in my business? What is your focus your focus is reconnect to that vision, that direction that MVP planning, put a stake in the ground and start to lead your industry, others will follow you because you are well known and dominant in your market. Your widgets, your people, your processes, and the quality have matured and are delivering consistent results. So what are the examples of some stage seven businesses? We talked about microsoft, microsoft is a stage seven business. The Beatles and Elvis Presley are stage seven businesses. Why? Did you know the Beatles don't even own the Beatles. Elvis Presley doesn't even own Elvis Presley. The Elvis Presley estate has been sold. The name itself is something that can be passed along. It has outlived the people who started it.   Like and follow this podcast so you can learn more. My name is Carl Gould and this has been your #70secondCEO.

You don't have to be BIG to be a Stage 7 company.   Hi everyone, Carl Gould here with your #70secondCEO. Just a little over a one minute investment every day for a lifetime of results.   Your vision is realized. Remember, you have been firing yourself upward for every quarter for the last three years, and you have one more to go. You have one more hire to make and one more area to fire yourself from. We'll talk about that in a minute. Not there quite yet. What's your blind spot? Your blind spot in this area is having no exit strategy, you must have an exit strategy. Whether you plan to exit or not, you must have an exit strategy. Another blind spot is not knowing what's next. What's next for you in your business? What's next for you in your life? Remember when Bill Gates fired himself as CEO, then made himself the Chief Technology Officer and then he fired himself again, so he can focus on his foundation. Now you don't need to be a large company or a Microsoft to be a stage seven company. You can be as small as you can be a micro business and be a stage seven company.   Like and follow this podcast so you can learn more. My name is Carl Gould and this has been your #70secondCEO.

The highest marker of success isn't profit; it's legacy.   Hi everyone, Carl Gould here with your #70secondCEO. Just a little over a one minute investment every day for a lifetime of results.   Stage seven, the succession stage, a legacy is born. Congratulations, it's been 36 months, you are now in a position to succeed your business. This is the ultimate success in business. As a matter of fact, many people believe the reason to start a business is to pass it along to sell it, to donate it, to reap the ongoing residual passive income that comes from it. So what is the personality of stage seven? You and your business are all things to all people. That's your personality, you have strong direction, and you'll notice there's a return to direction. In stage seven, you have a strong direction. You have robust sales, you have consistent systems, you have quality products and controls. You are an MVP business, you are an MVP organization, you're firing on all cylinders, you're giving people a level 10 experience in direction, income and interaction. Your systems and your controls, your internal customers, your employees, and their culture is a fulfilling experience for them. It aligns with their behaviors, with their values, and with their attributes.   Like and follow this podcast so you can learn more. My name is Carl Gould and this has been your #70secondCEO.

What keeps clients coming back over and over again?   Hi everyone, Carl Gould here with your #70secondCEO. Just a little over a one minute investment every day for a lifetime of results.   Stage Five, the sustainability stage, a franchise is born, whether formal or informal, you have created the type of business that has a 90% chance of success at this point. The business has cut the umbilical cord from the owner, expansion is now possible you have duplicated and replicated yourself and your systems they are running on their own at a high level. And it is because of the systems that you have developed, that your clients come back over and over and over again, as we mentioned, you can take a simple idea or product and refine it to the point that you create lifetime loyalty in your customers of the 20 working days in a month, and the 20 opportunities that the average Starbucks patron has to go to their store, they go 18 out of 20 times that is an incredible rate of loyalty and it's because of the significant experience that people have when they go to Starbucks. And the foundation of that is the certainty that they give. I'm going to get my latte frock a mappa cappuccino the same way every time and I'm going to have that significant consistent experience and that is what a franchise is all about. And that is what makes a business sustainable and can live beyond the owner.   Like and follow this podcast so you can learn more. My name is Carl Gould and this has been your #70secondCEO.

Remember working hard for little profit? Now you can expect the opposite!   Hi everyone, Carl Gould here with your #70secondCEO. Just a little over a one minute investment every day for a lifetime of results.   When you are in stage six, you are unfairly and positively rewarded for your past efforts. What that means is people will overpay for your service way back when if you can even remember back to stage one and two and three. Sometimes you are working hard and being paid less. And you wonder, Oh, will this ever change? Will I ever get the reward for my business? Now you can't believe how much you're getting paid for how little you're doing. And this is the reward for managing stage three, stage four, stage five and sticking with it. You're at the saleability stage. You're in stage six, your A Star Is Born, you are about to go to stage seven. This is unchartered territory for 99% of the businesses out there. You've grown and developed a leadership team that will contribute to the value of the business.   Like and follow this podcast so you can learn more. My name is Carl Gould and this has been your #70secondCEO.

You know your business is salable when others want to buy it! Be prepared! Hi everyone, Carl Gould here with your #70secondCEO. Just a little over a one minute investment every day for a lifetime of results.   It's interesting that even if you do not have the goal to sell your business, when you're running, this good of a business and this profitable of a business people will offer to buy you. I remember back in my construction days, when we were building homes, we were building custom homes. And invariably during the course of construction, people would drive up even though the house was not for sale, and we were building it on contract for somebody else. People would come up and hand us their business card with a price on the back. And that price was an offer to buy the home. And when I told the prospective buyer that I was not the owner, they would ask me to pass that offer on to the owner to see if they would sell many times that offer was higher than what the business was worth. Sometimes it was lower. So you want to be aware of what your business is worth. Because when you grow this type of business, you will court buyers whether you do it actively or not.   Like and follow this podcast so you can learn more. My name is Carl Gould and this has been your #70secondCEO.

If you don't put a price tag on your business, someone else will.   Hi everyone, Carl Gould here with your #70secondCEO. Just a little over a one minute investment every day for a lifetime of results.   Let's find out what this business is worth, we are going to revisit our benchmarking. So let's compare the two, are we getting the value? Are we industry leaders? What is our business worth? And what do we need to tweak in small areas in order to make this the most saleable business? Some of the strategies and tactics you might use in selling your business should you choose to do that you might be on the verge of taking your business public. So you want to surround yourself with the experts that can bring you to an–an initial public offering, or IPO, you might merge with another company or acquire another company, you may sell this on your own. At this point, as we discussed earlier, we talked about a tangible analysis of your business, the assessments, the benchmarking, the attributes, indices that we talked about earlier. This is the time to do a full asset analysis of your business, a total asset analysis of your business to make sure that no stone is uncovered and that you are aware of the value of everything in your inventory. Tangible and intangible because there is somebody right now whether you're doing it or not, is placing a price tag on every aspect of your business and you want to be ready.   Like and follow this podcast so you can learn more. My name is Carl Gould and this has been your #70secondCEO.

Functional and dysfunctional problems should both be avoided.   Hi everyone, Carl Gould here with your #70secondCEO. Just a little over a one minute investment every day for a lifetime of results.   Complacency and cruise control can happen here. It is a blind spot. It is a functional problem, but you need to get back to it right away. If you're having cash flow problems, if you're having net profit problems at this point, that's very dysfunctional. This is almost like a second honeymoon for the business. Strong systems, strong controls, cosmetic enhancements, puts you back in the forefront in your market, sales should increase simply by making that change. If you go back to the team that you built earlier on, we talked about having somebody who's an expert in business evaluations. What is a business worth? Here is where one of your power tools will be doing an evaluation of the business. This is an add on and a logical progression to the benchmarking that you've done.   Like and follow this podcast so you can learn more. My name is Carl Gould and this has been your #70secondCEO.

Time to assess your leadership team. Here's what to look for in Stage Six…   Hi everyone, Carl Gould here with your #70secondCEO. Just a little over a one minute investment every day for a lifetime of results.   Here is where you want to, especially in the later stage of six in the later trimester of stage six is to focus on your executives, your leadership team, your key employees, making sure they are not only in alignment, that they are building their core competency. This is an area to revisit your milestones planning. Have you achieved what you thought you would achieve to this point? Very key. You're in the homestretch, you have a business that's profitable, cash flow should be high, very functional at this stage, profit should be high, very functional at this stage. It is the systems and controls that are still driving the business. So it is very functional. If there are times when you feel you get away from your vision. You want to get back as quickly as possible, but it is a symptom of this stage.   Like and follow this podcast so you can learn more. My name is Carl Gould and this has been your #70secondCEO.

Achieving saleability is about cosmetic enhancements, not major overhauls!   Hi everyone, Carl Gould here with your #70secondCEO. Just a little over a one minute investment every day for a lifetime of results.   Our focus has returned to sales. We want our sales to be boosted upward. We want to make these books very shiny. We want our financials looking great. We want to build a credit worthy investor friendly business, the kind that's attractive to financial institutions, private investors, anyone with cash, because in the saleability stage, our star is born. This is not the time to overhaul the business. As we said before in our cosmetic enhancements, the ladies will tell you it's lipstick and Rouge and you're on your way. The men will tell you, put on a baseball cap. Check your underarms, little deodorant, you're on your way. Cosmetic enhancements, this is not a time for an overhaul of the business. And when you pursue selling the business, you want to make sure you've left highly trained talent behind. It's your goal to sell the business or not. Part of what will make you valuable is the fact that the business is not reliant on your efforts and energy.   Like and follow this podcast so you can learn more. My name is Carl Gould and this has been your #70secondCEO.

As a business expands, it can lose its vision. How to avoid that in this episode of #70secondCEO.   Hi everyone, Carl Gould here with your #70secondCEO. Just a little over a one minute investment every day for a lifetime of results.   Other blind spots to be aware of and to be careful of letting sales dip at this point, there any sales dip at this point is a dysfunctional problem and a crisis point. Be careful of a loss of direction or a disconnect from your MVP planning, your mission, your vision and your planning. Remember, you're expanding now, your mission statement must be accepted by everyone in the group. So the mission statement that is on the wall in the CEO's office, every person in the organization must know it by heart, on demand, spontaneously know it, and believe it that's how you'll know that your programs and your enhancements have gone all the way down and trickles down to the entire organization. So what is our outcome? Our outcome of the business at this point is cosmetic enhancements. We're still staying focused on our planning. We have our eye on our sales goals or milestones planning. Now we want to build and upgrade the products, the look and feel of the image. That's part of our focus as well.   Like and follow this podcast so you can learn more. My name is Carl Gould and this has been your #70secondCEO.

Your business is expanding. Your systems are self-sustaining. What could possibly go wrong??   Hi everyone, Carl Gould here with your #70secondCEO. Just a little over a one minute investment every day for a lifetime of results.   Stage six, the saleability stage, A star is born. At this stage, we now have three of the four dimensions running very highly. We've instilled a culture of i cubed, we've created the systems, they're sustainable, we've expanded our business, we have multiple locations, or a franchise or a sequel or an affiliate program we bought on new projects, we must be careful of our blind spot. And our blind spot in stage six is cruise control, or complacency. We think we've won the game and it is over yet. We've put everything in place, now we can just kick back and enjoy it. Not quite. You'll notice on the graph that D is still very low. It is the systems and the controls that are driving the business. sales have increased exponentially. This is a time that many people will party and think that they're done. You still have some work to do.   Like and follow this podcast so you can learn more. My name is Carl Gould and this has been your #70secondCEO.

Licensing, franchising, affiliate programs, joint ventures… Here's what comes after Stage 5. Hi everyone, Carl Gould here with your #70secondCEO. Just a little over a one minute investment every day for a lifetime of results.   Strategic end of building your business. Now is the time to look into licensing, franchising, expansion, affiliate programs, joint ventures, other types of networking. If you have a product, create a sequel, now's the time. Stage five is the foundation and will lead you into stage six and seven in a way where the business is running itself. You know, you're in stage five, when you can leave your business for two months or more and return back to that business running as good if not better while you were gone. That's when you know you have a stage five business. It's immortal. It can live beyond you and it has developed its own personality.   Like and follow this podcast so you can learn more. My name is Carl Gould and this has been your #70secondCEO.

Do you have your finger on the pulse of the industry standard?    Hi everyone, Carl Gould here with your #70secondCEO. Just a little over a one minute investment every day for a lifetime of results.   So now that your systems are working in the business, how do you work on the business? Here are your power tools. Now is the time to revisit all of your benchmarking. How are you compared to the industry standard? How are you compared to your standard of becoming tops in your field, you're now about to expand. So you want to make sure that you're following very closely and have your finger on the pulse of the industry standards because it is what you will need to live up to in order to expand so internally with your employees, now is the time for performance based incentives, non monetary bonuses and recognition. Employee of the month other programs on and on getting your employees involved in charitable causes, sponsoring events, company picnic that also is attached to some worthy cause.   Like and follow this podcast so you can learn more. My name is Carl Gould and this has been your #70secondCEO.

Think you won't have blindspots by Stage 5? Think again!   Hi everyone, Carl Gould here with your #70secondCEO. Just a little over a one minute investment every day for a lifetime of results.   Now, what are some blind spots for stage five? And it's a bit of a paradox, because there really should be no blind spots at stage five. So let me discuss a bit of why franchises fail, whether you bought one or you built it to this point, the number one reason why franchises fail is the owners deviate from the system. They don't follow through in the system. They refuse to let go of micromanaging their employees who they have trained and empowered and help design the systems with. These are the areas you need to be very, very careful of because the personality and your disk graph for stage five, you'll notice that D part has come down a bit, you as the owner do not need to be driving everything you can let go. That will free up the systems to create incremental improvement in all areas.   Like and follow this podcast so you can learn more. My name is Carl Gould and this has been your #70secondCEO.

Want to expand and duplicate your business? #70secondCEO Hi everyone, Carl Gould here with your #70secondCEO. Just a little over a one minute investment every day for a lifetime of results.   Your outcome here in stage five is strategic expansion. How am I going to build this business? How am I going to expand it? How am I going to grow it? How am I going to duplicate it, or as part of your expansion plan here, you might be considering your exit. So one of the tools will be–that we'll talk about later is an exit strategy and making sure you have one in place for at least you are beginning to formulate that exit strategy. Your focus is going to create a culture of iCube, intelligent, incremental improvements to quality. How do you do that? You're going to do a debrief and feedback of virtually every process on a regular basis. You're going to provide feedback to your co-workers. You're going to coach them, what are three things I saw that you did great? What are three things I think you can do to take your performance and your results to the next level? And then offer support and resources in those areas.   Like and follow this podcast so you can learn more. My name is Carl Gould and this has been your #70secondCEO.

You're in Stage 5 when your customers can expect a consistent experience. Hi everyone, Carl Gould here with your #70secondCEO. Just a little over a one minute investment every day for a lifetime of results.   The personality for stage five, your disk for stage five, is that you are incredibly strong in the area of systems and you have high quality, very high quality, so the business can now outlive the owner. The business has cut the umbilical cord from the owner, it spread its wings, it can fly on its own sales begin to grow exponentially here, because you're getting a lot of reward from a lot of different areas. You have repeatable processes. That means a more significant and consistent experience and you get a connection at a deeper level than you had before. Customers will now come to your place of business or patronize your service or your widget because of the expectations that you have established, because of the consistent and significant experience you give them.   Like and follow this podcast so you can learn more. My name is Carl Gould and this has been your #70secondCEO.

When does a business become sustainable? When it can outlast the owner! Hi everyone, Carl Gould here with your #70secondCEO. Just a little over a one minute investment every day for a lifetime of results.   Stage five, the sustainability stage. In stage five, you are sustainable because your systems are running the business, your business can now outlast the owner. A Star Is Born, your systems become the rockstars, the business has actually cut the umbilical cord from the owner, your business has now developed its own personality, and it is more than likely different than yours. The business will reflect your vision, yet it might go about it in a slightly different style than you may have. Now that your systems are up and running and running well, the systems work in the business you can now work on the business.   Like and follow this podcast so you can learn more. My name is Carl Gould and this has been your #70secondCEO.

Want better results with little or no additional resources? #70secondCEO  Hi everyone, Carl Gould here with your #70secondCEO. Just a little over a one minute investment every day for a lifetime of results.   Now let's move into the later part of the stage. We want to improve our quality. You're getting into the part of the stage just like teaching your child to walk or  to ride a bicycle. They've been doing it pretty well so far. You don't need to stand right behind them. You're in the same room of course keeping an eye on them, but you don't have to walk right behind them and keep your hand on the car seat or by the seat of their pants. They can walk on their own now so our power tool for Stage Four and what will lead us to stage five is our iCube or intelligent incremental improvements to quality. We accomplish that through automation computerization process refinements, the little tweaks, the 1% improvements like we said incremental think smart, be intelligent, incremental means increased results, little or no additional resources.   Like and follow this podcast so you can learn more. My name is Carl Gould and this has been your #70secondCEO.

Achieve intelligent, incremental improvements in every area of your business.   Hi everyone, Carl Gould here with your #70secondCEO. Just a little over a one minute investment every day for a lifetime of results.   This will be an uncomfortable stage systems are what you probably avoided in your last job or your last enterprise and this is what you need to embrace right now. 1% improvement or what we call intelligent, incremental improvements to quality make it 1% better in all areas judged by results, I promise you it will be uncomfortable at times. If you're getting your result do more of it. If you're not then change it. Do not judge by how it feels because there's a good chance it will feel uncomfortable.   Like and follow this podcast so you can learn more. My name is Carl Gould and this has been your #70secondCEO.

Stage 4 is when you start to reap the rewards! Hi everyone, Carl Gould here with your #70secondCEO. Just a little over a one minute investment every day for a lifetime of results.   Certainty sets the foundation for a significant experience for your employees and their customers give them both the certainty and a significant experience, they can create a connection that was not possible early. Stage four is when you really start to reap the rewards of your early effort, part of our focus and what will lead us into our power tools for stage four is measuring and monitoring all of those systems measuring and monitor part of our focus, which leads us into our power tools for stage four is measuring and monitoring all of our systems incremental improvement in all areas, meaning just take every one area of your business and seek to make it 1% better, how can I make it slightly better today, you're in the middle part of the stage, you're improving your systems, you're measuring and you're monitoring and here's how you measure your systems. You judge your systems and you measure your systems by the results you achieve not by the level of discomfort you feel while implementing those systems.   Like and follow this podcast so you can learn more. My name is Carl Gould and this has been your #70secondCEO.

Predictability breeds certainty. Certainty attracts clients. Discover the benefits of consistency. Hi everyone, Carl Gould here with your #70secondCEO. Just a little over a one minute investment every day for a lifetime of results.   So the bookkeeper's job has to develop its own personality and that means consistency predictability, not you coming in the office early one day to write the checks as fast as you can, and then coming home late that night and trying to staple the receipts as fast as you can, because you have to get out to your son's ballgame or date night with your wife, or your husband, or running into the office very early on a Saturday morning, before you head out to the family barbecue to get some book work done. No, no, no consistency, every day, slow pace, come in, look at our tasks for the day, execute those tasks. So you can set your watch by what the people in your office are doing. Walk in, you see somebody doing a certain task must be Monday must be Tuesday afternoon must be Friday. You need to get predictable in your office. That predictability breeds certainty. Certainty breeds action out of your customers.   Like and follow this podcast so you can learn more. My name is Carl Gould and this has been your #70secondCEO.

The Systems Stage often begins with a sales dip. Don't panic! #70secondCEO every week day. Hi everyone, Carl Gould here with your #70secondCEO. Just a little over a one minute investment every day for a lifetime of results.   In the early part of the stage, you may notice that your sales will dip a little bit, that's your blind spot, your blind spot is that your sales may dip a little bit especially early. And that's a functional problem. It's okay. Why? Because early on in the stage, you are going to turn your focus internally to your employees. Just like when you're teaching your child to ride a bicycle, you run right behind them, you have your eyes on them the whole time. You have your hands close by so they don't fall and hurt themselves and you're running alongside of them as a redundant safety measure just to make sure that they have the confidence to do it on their own and as you create and you manage these systems, your sales are about to turn and head upward exponentially. The major focus of this stage is systems, structure, systems, structure. Your outcome is to implement these systems and have them work on their own and develop their own personality.   Like and follow this podcast so you can learn more. My name is Carl Gould and this has been your #70secondCEO.

Systems are predictable, consistent and reliable. But are you ready to let them work? Hi everyone, Carl Gould here with your #70secondCEO. Just a little over a one minute investment every day for a lifetime of results.   That's a system when you have an activity or a group of activities that you can remove yourself from. Now, you remember way back when we're talking about the discovery process, and we said, Every job has a personality. Every industry has a personality. Well, in your business, each job is going to start to assume its own personality. Systems, by their very nature, are predictable, they're consistent, they're reliable, they're scheduled, and they're very structured. What comes with that is a slower pace. The pace will slow a bit, just as you were being patient with yourself in stage three, it's now time to be patient with others, meaning your staff. You need to stay the course.   Like and follow this podcast so you can learn more. My name is Carl Gould and this has been your #70secondCEO.

In the Systems Stage your business begins running itself. Hi everyone, Carl Gould here with your #70secondCEO. Just a little over a one minute investment every day for a lifetime of results.   You actually have a business, you had a job to this point, you now have a true business. Why? Because you're ready for systems you have been preparing. In stage three, you even wrote the policies and procedures manual. That's like teaching your son or your daughter how to ride a bicycle, you put the training wheels on or you're teaching them how to walk, you're going to implement those systems, where you're going to be right behind them all the way with your feet with your I'm sorry, with your hand on the seat of their pants, or on the seat of their bicycle, just to make sure they don't fall and really hurt themselves all the while allowing them to learn how to ride on their own. This is one of the most rewarding stages from a personal standpoint, you will go through in your business because this is where all of the little birds grow their wings and start to fly. So what is a system? Our practical definition of a system is any activity or any group of activities that you can remove yourself from and it will still run on its own.   Like and follow this podcast so you can learn more. My name is Carl Gould and this has been your #70secondCEO.

Congratulations! Only 10% of businesses reach the Systems Stage. Here's what comes next…   Hi everyone, Carl Gould here with your #70secondCEO. Just a little over a one minute investment every day for a lifetime of results.   Stage four, the system stage. You've made it, you're 18 months into the journey. You've planned out your vision, you've done your MVP planning, you become a specialist, you're an expert in the field, you went through the synergy stage, you survived the sandbox, you know how to play nice with others, you were working harder than you ever thought you would ever have to work in your life for what seemed to be less reward than you ever thought you would get possible. Now the tables turn, you made it through the miracle 1% you have reached where only 10% of businesses will ever see and that is you are at stage four. Congratulations, you made it, implement the power tools at stage four and you will be unfairly and positively rewarded for the effort you put forth in stages one, two, and three and you will watch how quickly and efficiently you rise to stage from stage four all the way through stage seven. This is the system's stage. Welcome because a true business is born.   Like and follow this podcast so you can learn more. My name is Carl Gould and this has been your #70secondCEO.

What's the biggest problem of the Planning Stage? Cash! #70SecondCEO   Hi everyone, Carl Gould here with your #70secondCEO. Just a little over a one minute investment every day for a lifetime of results.   What are some of the functional problems this time? What are some of the functional problems at this stage? Cash, you have very few of any sales, cash flow will be a problem, profits will be a problem, or money, all things money may be an issue here. You haven't even gotten your loan yet. You're not even capitalized. At the same time, you need to prove to a lending institution that you're worthy of it. So cash will be an issue, money will be an issue and one of the power tools that we're going to focus on. Well, there are numerous and they're all surrounding the planning, or the MVP planning most valuable player if you will, mission, vision and values and purpose planning in stage one, as well as using assessments and working with a strategic partner.   Like and follow this podcast so you can learn more. My name is Carl Gould and this has been your #70secondCEO.

Sell your idea before you create it! Here's how…#70secondCEO Hi everyone, Carl Gould here with your #70secondCEO. Just a little over a one minute investment every day for a lifetime of results.   Stage one, the strategic planning stage. If you look down at the graph, you'll see in front of you what is the personality of this particular stage? Well, your major focus is going to be drive, your other major focus is going to be income and interaction because remember, we have to persuade the marketplace that we have a good idea and we have to sell it first, before we create it. Now that's high risk, because you have to live up to what you said after the fact you have to deliver on what you've promised. So this is all about making the promise delivering the promise you will need to have a quality product because as you as you get to the latter part of the stage you want to develop you're about to sell your product so that doesn't need to come into play. your blind spot here and it'll be non a virtually non existent is systems, you will create a little bit of structure, your systems will be virtually non existent. You're going to do whatever it takes to get yourself to that first customer. Your focus for this particular stage is to design your future. It's both your focus and your outcome really.   Like and follow this podcast so you can learn more. My name is Carl Gould and this has been your #70secondCEO.

Problems are part of the Speciality Stage. Don't sweat them. Use them!   Hi everyone, Carl Gould here with your #70secondCEO. Just a little over a one minute investment every day for a lifetime of results.   Stage two, the specialty stage. If you look on your page, you'll see a graph that's indicative of the personality of this stage. What is the driver?  We drive on direction, that's our major focus. We also drive on quality, building our core competence. That's also a major focus. What's a minor focus? Income, we can't ignore that we need to have sales, cash keeps us in the game. By virtue of driving forward, putting in quality and focusing on sales, we will develop some systems that will happen as a byproduct, what we'll do, if anything in that S or systems column is build some structure, what will be your blind spots in stage two? Stage two will be in stage two, the blind spot will be systems, there will be many times where you will be frustrated because you don't have an effective system or your total structure is not in place. That is a functional problem of stage two, it will happen expect it and when it does, it's just part of the stage should you choose to solve that that will require you to go to stage three, if you're okay with that and you understand that that's a dynamic of your business. That will be part of stage two.   Like and follow this podcast so you can learn more. My name is Carl Gould and this has been your #70secondCEO.

Before you can expand, you need to strengthen your core.   Hi everyone, Carl Gould here with your #70secondCEO. Just a little over a one minute investment every day for a lifetime of results.   By assessing the people and benchmarking the positions, what you're doing is you're growing your organization from the inside out, you are strengthening your core competency. And remember, that's a major focus of stage two is building that core competency. That's why we call it the specialty stage, you are a specialist, you need to be the best to be the best. You strengthen from the core. You strengthen your numbers, you strengthen your people, you strengthen your teams, you strengthen your organization from the core. To do that, you need to know how the people think and how the numbers think and what it takes to become tops in your industry. Like and follow this podcast so you can learn more. My name is Carl Gould and this has been your #70secondCEO.

Use benchmarking to gain a competitive advantage. Hi everyone, Carl Gould here with your #70secondCEO. Just a little over a one minute investment every day for a lifetime of results.   You also benchmark and assess, you assess the teams as a functional unit, and you benchmark the entire company. On the intangible side, click the link on the page below to see how this works. This gets into a little bit more detail. And there's a technology that will drive that. To understand where you go as a unit as a business. You need to understand not only how your employees work as individuals, you must also maximize them as a team. There is a way to do that and in the seven stage methodology, we provide a technology that you can understand not only the individuals, you get to understand those individuals collectively as a team.   Like and follow this podcast so you can learn more. My name is Carl Gould and this has been your #70secondCEO.

How do you measure performance? Check out this episode of #70secondCEO. Hi everyone, Carl Gould here with your #70secondCEO. Just a little over a one minute investment every day for a lifetime of results.   While there will be similarities in these positions from company to company, your business is unique, therefore every position will be unique and the top performer will have a unique description in your business. So you benchmark every individual position in your business and you compare those to the assessments that you and your employees have taken in stage one. You remember you did those assessments, you assess the people, you benchmark the positions, that's the way it works. And then you grow those people and you coach those people up to the levels of the benchmark for your position, want to be the best, create the prototype and then work towards it. Here is one more nuance and a part of the seven stage process that will give you a competitive advantage over your competition.   Like and follow this podcast so you can learn more. My name is Carl Gould and this has been your #70secondCEO.

Becoming #1 in your field requires a measurable target. That's where benchmarking comes in… Hi everyone, Carl Gould here with your #70secondCEO. Just a little over a one minute investment every day for a lifetime of results.   The tangibles are the numbers. That's the 28% of the value of your business, that's based on the numbers. What you do when you benchmark is to find out what are the industry averages in each of the areas of your financial statements and you're going to find out how you compare to everyone else in the industry because it gives you something to shoot for now, it gives you a target, you will know what it takes to become number one in your industry, whether that's your goal or not. You need to know who you're up against, what is the competition and how you can eliminate that competition, you need to understand it first before you can eliminate it. Now you have the intangibles or the people's side. Now you don't benchmark people, you benchmark the positions, you benchmark their jobs. What that means is you create the prototype for each position. So you go back to your discovery organizational chart, and you have your sales and your marketing and your assistants and your secretaries and your accountants and your bookkeepers and your receptionist and you benchmark what is the ideal for that particular position in your business.   Like and follow this podcast so you can learn more. My name is Carl Gould and this has been your #70secondCEO.

Optimize the performance of each person in your team. Hi everyone, Carl Gould here with your #70secondCEO. Just a little over a one minute investment every day for a lifetime of results. Business into what brings it in, what keeps it in putting in all the tasks, and the descriptions of those tasks and then the names of the people next to those tasks. You want to make sure you're creating your brand, your branding strategy, how are you going to become unique, and a leader in your industry. Now you've created–now that you've done this, you've created a number of targets and objectives. You now need to find out how you relate your work so far relates to the optimum in your field, and the optimum performance of each of the individuals and the teams within your business. What does that all mean? That means you're going to go through an exercise called benchmarking. You're going to benchmark the tangibles and the intangibles of a business. Like and follow this podcast so you can learn more. My name is Carl Gould and this has been your #70secondCEO.

Have you created an advisory board yet? Find out why you need to, #70secondCEO. Hi everyone, Carl Gould here with your #70secondCEO. Just a little over a one minute investment every day for a lifetime of results. The power tools for stage two. First, you want to make sure you're creating your advisory board, who are the other professionals and the other experts that you want to surround yourself with. At a minimum, you should have an attorney or legal adviser, you should have an accountant or tax advisor. Now, these advisors might be the same person, your attorney and your legal adviser might be the same person or they may not, there is a difference. The accountant might do your taxes. The tax advisor is a more strategic partner. It might be the same person and it might not, you'll need to decide that. At a minimum, you want these people on your side, the accountant, the attorney, the Legal Adviser, the tax advisor, you want someone who understands business valuation, and that might be a business broker. That might be a financial benchmarking expert. Like and follow this podcast so you can learn more. My name is Carl Gould and this has been your #70secondCEO.

How do you reach top pay in your field? Build your credentials! Hi everyone, Carl Gould here with your #70secondCEO. Just a little over a one minute investment every day for a lifetime of results.   The challenge that you have here is that most of the time the business runs the owner in stage two, this is an area of concern. Part of your focus needs to be implementing your MVP planning, working with your strategic partner, your advisor, building those credentials and maximizing this stage by making sure you're among the highest compensated in your field, because in stage two, there is a limit to what you can earn. There is a limit, because there's only so many hours in a day, and there's only so many people you can reach. So if you are a tradesman, if you're a doctor, if you're a financial planner, if you're an accountant, if you're an attorney, there are only so many hours in the day and there are only so many clients who can service. So part of the equation is making sure that you are among the top paid in your field and to do that you need to build your credentials to become the highest certified or the highest acclaim in your field.   Like and follow this podcast so you can learn more. My name is Carl Gould and this has been your #70secondCEO.

What's the top certification in your field? Use it to build your brand! Hi everyone, Carl Gould here with your #70secondCEO. Just a little over a one minute investment every day for a lifetime of results.   So who are some experts in their field? Well, Elvis Presley, The Beatles, the tops in their field, they didn't invent music, they are the tops in their field. If you're a surgeon, become board certified. If you're a mechanic, what is the top level credential you can get? What's the top certification you can get in your field? Early in the stage, you want to build the quality of the product and your quality, meaning continuously develop those credentials because as you move to the middle part of the stage, it is your brand and it is your credentials, which will begin to gain momentum in your sales. You're going to build those testimonials, you're going to hone the quality of your product and the quality of your offering. That's going to be your focus, most businesses live in this stage for the majority of the time.   Like and follow this podcast so you can learn more. My name is Carl Gould and this has been your #70secondCEO.

Here's a great asset you already have… and how you should use it. Hi everyone, Carl Gould here with your #70secondCEO. Just a little over a one minute investment every day for a lifetime of results.   There is no one else in the world that's like you already by definition, that's the good news and what are you best at by definition, because you are unique, and you have a unique set of significant attributes, you are the best in the world at being you. There are no others like you, what are you the best that embrace who you are at your core, and who you are, when at your best? That is your core strength and you focus on developing your core competency coming from your core strengths. And you'll notice in our personal discovery wheel, how you can design from the inside out from the core outward, so you can build on your strengths.   Like and follow this podcast so you can learn more. My name is Carl Gould and this has been your #70secondCEO.

Stand out from the crowd! Carl discusses nurturing  a unique business identity. Hi everyone, Carl Gould here with your #70secondCEO. Just a little over a one minute investment every day for a lifetime of results.   Stage 2, the specialty stage. Remember, you've done your planning, you've created your vision, you're on your way to be an MVP organization. Then somebody actually purchases your product or service, your widget. Your idea, a job is now born. Congratulations, someone bought your idea. Here you want to–your outcome is to become an expert in your field to build your core competence. Develop your brand and your image. How are people going to know you? One of the first things we're going to focus on is creating your business identity. What is unique about you? Why should someone hire you over everyone else in your marketplace? And what are you the best in the world app?   Like and follow this podcast so you can learn more. My name is Carl Gould and this has been your #70secondCEO.