Stop Selling Positives—Solve Problems Instead

Hi everyone, Carl Gould here with your #70secondCEO. Just a little over a one minute investment every day for a lifetime of results.

Now, I know the biggest mistake you kick your way, I want to know what the biggest mistake you are making in your business is, so we can go and fix that problem. Here's the biggest mistake. Talking about the positives of your business too much, or giving it too much airtime, right. That's not what it is in a current client working. In the season of business that we're in cold winter, people defer to experts, right. Experts are people that can do two things: solve problems no one else can solve and then charge what no one else can charge. Those are the two things that will determine whether your clients will keep you as an expert or not, right. So here's what we start. So for those of you out with the last one, we'll do a little bit last time, is first thing we want to do is we want to hear, what are the top complaints that you are getting from your prospects and your clients? And what are the top complaints about your industry, not just about you, and some of these complaints that might not even be about your company. But take a moment, write down what are the top five complaints you are hearing from your prospects and your clients about working with a company like yours. What I used to hear is people will start on time, tell me you're going to start (unclear follows) You say you're gonna be done by April 1st, you're not done by April 1st. Tell me one price and there are complaints, change orders or you don't have, you know, you quote them with one price, but then you're short on supply, but you can find it from another source as long as they're willing to pay more. And in my service business, the complaint was we didn't give enough, long enough guarantee on the hardscape and landscape materials. And there wasn't a senior manager on site, those are the top five I heard.

Like and follow this podcast so you can learn more. My name is Carl Gould and this has been your #70secondCEO.

How Structure Creates Scalable Systems 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.

Buy a system i.e you buy a franchise before that franchise can be successful you must have a structure in place, so what's the difference? Structure means you're taking people and putting them in certain roles and giving them certain task, now that is different than a system because in the beginning you are not controlling 100% of everything they do, this is one of the hardest things to grasp in a business because you need to put people in place and with minimal training they have to serve the client and use initiative and their flexibility and along the way of putting people in place, putting people in that structure out of that you will begin to develop your systems. Much like an airplane that sits on a runway, awaiting its time to take off. The pilot must use his common sense and the maximum amount of flexibility in order to get the plane, the cargo and the people in it in the air. He is given a system in the beginning, there is a system for having a plane take off, and there is a structure and a checklist in order for that pilot to launch that plane into the air.

Like and follow this podcast so you can learn more. My name is Carl Gould and this has been your #70secondCEO.

Hi everyone, Carl Gould here with your #70secondCEO. Just a little over a one minute investment every day for a lifetime of results.

Before he does that, there must be a structure in place and he is given that structure, that structure is called the standard day, meaning the ideal conditions in order to take that plane off, based on weather and weight and wind he–there is a very specific structure in order to take that plane off, off and get it off the ground. If the pilot waited for that ideal day to come around, the standard day, how long do you think the pilot in that plane would remain on the runway waiting to take off? If you guess 6 to 9 months? You'd be close. Now we get upset when we wait an extra 15 minutes in a plane, imagine the pilot announcing that we have to wait for the perfect conditions in order to take off because the systems says so, we cannot exercise any common sense or any judgment whatsoever so therefore we will wait for the ideal day in order to take off and hope we don't run out of water and hope we have plenty of batteries because it might be a while. And that standard day that ideal day, comes around a few times a year.

Like and follow this podcast so you can learn more. My name is Carl Gould, and this has been your #70secondCEO.

How Structure Creates Scalable Systems 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.

Buy a system i.e you buy a franchise before that franchise can be successful you must have a structure in place, so what's the difference? Structure means you're taking people and putting them in certain roles and giving them certain task, now that is different than a system because in the beginning you are not controlling 100% of everything they do, this is one of the hardest things to grasp in a business because you need to put people in place and with minimal training they have to serve the client and use initiative and their flexibility and along the way of putting people in place, putting people in that structure out of that you will begin to develop your systems. Much like an airplane that sits on a runway, awaiting its time to take off. The pilot must use his common sense and the maximum amount of flexibility in order to get the plane, the cargo, and the people in it in the air. He is given a system in the beginning, there is a system for having a plane take off and there is a structure and a checklist in order for that pilot to launch that plane into the air.

Like and follow this podcast so you can learn more. My name is Carl Gould and this has been your #70secondCEO.

Stage 7 - Have You Reached the Final Stage of Growth?

Hi Everybody, Carl Gould here, author of The 7 Stage Growth Method and your #70secondCEO, where you invest a little more than one minute a day for a lifetime of results. Today's topic is - Stage 7 The Succession Stage

We're ranking your business right now, where are you in this growth trajectory? 1 is, huh? 10 is, we got it! Alright, The Succession Stage, to what degree do you have a:

• Management team in place?

• Tight controls?

• Solid operations?

• You're running like a finely tuned machine?

• You have a lead generation machine?

• A sales team that's closing it?

• Clients are happy ?

• And you're on the leading edge of product development?

This is rarified air folks. We gotta make sure that you're fully there, if not, put a comment in the bottom, what do you need to do to maximize your 7th Stage here? Rank yourself on a scale of 1-10, tell me your score, and where is your area of improvement?

Like and follow this podcast so you can learn more. My name is Carl Gould and this has been your #70secondCEO.

Stage 6 - Can Your Business Run Without You?

Hi Everyone, Carl Gould here, I am your #70secondCEO and the author of The 7 Stage Growth Method. Just a little bit more than a one minute investment each day for a lifetime of results.

Are we ranking your business on the 7 Stage Growth model OK? Stage 6, give yourself a ranking on a scale of 1 to 10. This is the Stage of Salability. Remember way back to Stage 3 when you're building your implementation team? Now you're building your management team, OK? You need to have in place a consistent resource for a lead generator:

• Your chief marketing or lead generation officer

• Your VP of sales

• Your director of operations who handles all things fulfillment

At a minimum, that's got to be your management team. To what degree do you have those three in place, and they are running the day-to-day operations so you don't have to be there, and you can start to maximize the salability of your business? Also, you need to be cash flow positive on a monthly basis and have enough buying power to take advantage of an opportunity should it present itself. Give yourself a rank. Huh? That's a 1, 10, NAILED IT!

Like and follow this podcast so you can learn more. My name is Carl Gould and this has been your #70secondCEO.

Stage 5 - Are You Known Beyond Your Product?

Stage 5 - Sustainability

Hi Everyone, Carl Gould here with your #70secondCEO, I'm also the author of The 7 Stage Growth Method. Today's topic- Stage 5- The Sustainability Stage

This is the stage when you can first start considering scaling your business. You've laid the foundation in stages one through four. Let's see how you doing in Stage 5, give yourself a rank on a scale of 1-10, 1 low, 10 high. Stage 5 is when the systems have taken over to the point they've created such a consistent experience for your customer base that you are now known for something other than your product and service. Starbucks- the experience, McDonald's- convenience and real estate. They are known for things other than their core product and service. Are you? Give yourself a score on a scale of 1 to 10. One, we're not known for that at all, 10, we are, all the ancillary benefits people really know and know really well. Put your score in the comments section.

Like and follow this podcast so you can learn more. My name is Carl Gould and this has been your #70secondCEO.

Stage 4- Systematize for Growth

Hi Everyone, Carl Gould here, author of The 7 Stage Growth Method and your #70secondCEO, just a little bit more than a one minute investment per day for a lifetime of results. Today's topic - Stage 4.

Rank yourself on how well you have created your systems. This is the Systems Stage, where you decide on the ecosystem or the type of business you're going to be. Up to this point you've been an entrepreneurial-run business; now we're making the switch to a professionally managed business, where you systematize every single aspect of your business. Little hint, start with the most frustrating part of your business and work your way back from there, because any frustration in your business means that you lack a consistent and viable system in that particular area of your business. Give yourself a rank, 1-we haven't figured out what we want to be when we grow up, 10- we've nailed it! Put your score in the comments section below.

Like and follow this podcast so you can learn more. My name is Carl Gould and this has been your #70secondCEO.