6 Powerful Leadership Principles to Bring Out the Best in Your People
As a business growth coach I am often asked the question, “What’s your advice on achieving fast business growth?”
My one line response, “Never try to do it alone.”
Whether you are the CEO or a key manager, the quickest road to fast business growth is through having a team of committed people. Strong development is what will allow you to laser focus on your core areas of competencies and not fall into the trap of wearing too many hats, which will only slow you down. (more…)
Thinking of a good business idea is tough. Do you want to start a business, but have no idea what you would enjoy doing that’s also profitable? When it comes to running a profitable business, you want to come up with a great product or service idea that solves a problem a lot of people have whether it’s a big or small problem.
At the same time, you’ll also want to consider what kinds of things you are good at and what kinds of things you enjoy for your long-term happiness with your day-to-day life. There’s no sense diving into a fruitful endeavor if it’s going to make you miserable. You’d end up procrastinating because it won’t feel like fun, but drudgery.
Here are 4 tips to help you in figuring out a good business idea and how to meet in the middle of career satisfaction and reliable profit margins.
1. Undergo Self Evaluation
With the goal being to start a business idea that you don’t find cumbersome, you’ll need to begin with a look inward. This isn’t a process you have to do blindly either. Don’t be afraid to explore personality quizzes, strength quizzes, career tests, or other kinds of assessments to get third-party input. This way, with the more information you collect about yourself, you should start to get a very clear picture of the kinds of things that you’d find suitable in a day-to-day role or even what industries you’d excel in.
For example, CliftonStrengths is a personality quiz that helps you identify which of the 34 identified personality traits are your strongest top 5. Once they’ve discovered these, they share explanations of the strengths, as well as what kind of work or industry goes best with it. The descriptions go on to include other personality traits that you’d work well within others. This could really come in handy when you get to the stage of hiring people to work with you.
Compare the results of the assessment against your previous work or educational experiences to brainstorm possible industries you’re interested in, compatible with, and of course the tasks you know you’ve enjoyed in the past. This will put together a baseline of good business ideas before you start to narrow in on your future business.
Now that you have a little direction, you’ll want to find a more specific space in the marketplace that you can corner. When business owners are assessing their value proposition, what they are really asking is: how well am I able to solve my target audiences’ problem?
To reverse engineer a value proposition, you could consider the biggest pain points in your day and think about how they could be improved or solved altogether. For Gopuff co-founder Yakir Gola, who was the only car-owner in his college friend group, that one problem sparked an industry-disrupting innovation. Who wants to constantly be called on by all your friends when they need to buy groceries or run down to the convenience store? It led to the question, what if the convenience store could come to you? Now for people without vehicles or those short on time, it can.
Finding a very specific need like this for a business idea ensures that people will buy into your product or service. It will be up to you to keep your customers coming back. Solve their problems well and brand loyalty will create a long-lasting revenue stream over time.
If it’s not your own experiences you draw from, perhaps your friends or family have been through situations that can spark a business idea. Not only will this give you a place to finally jump off from, but it can provide you with a group of people to test out your business on.
Going this route, you know you have customers that trust you right from the inception, and they likely would be happy serving as guinea pigs if it means they get to watch and share in your success.
This kind of early and immediate buy-in can be a huge help to launching the business and creating marketable materials to pitch the value proposition to others in need of your company.
4. Understand Local Niches
Another source of business ideas and inspiration can be your local environment. What are the needs within your immediate community? Is there any tourism-related business that can be tapped into? Are you a small town with one busy road running through it that might be able to break up long trips for drivers who need a rest stop? Or maybe the problem is that there isn’t much to do in your town at all and people need something entertaining to do.
Cross-evaluate these possible opportunities with what you’ve learned about yourself from the self-reflection stage and you might just find a point where they intersect. This is a very important step because any of those businesses could or would work but you want to also get fulfillment out of the work you’re setting yourself up for.
All of this advice is not to say the process won’t produce its challenges. You may start feeling absolutely certain of one idea only to end up going in a completely different direction. That’s normal and part of the process.
You need to be able to know when to push or when to pivot. If you’re feeling overwhelmed, just bring it all back to the center of the Venn diagram and simplify things for yourself. What problem would you enjoy solving for other people for years to come? If you can identify that answer quickly, trust your gut and take the plunge. Starting your business will be the most worthwhile endeavor.
QUESTION:
Where specifically do you get stuck in trying to come up with a great business idea you can start?
Recruiting the right talent is critical for business owners to quickly scale your business growth.
So, how do you go about finding top talent?
Many companies are trimming down on payroll in an effort to run leaner. But, staffing decisions affect both budget and revenues. While high turnover certainly bleeds resources, low turnover can also inhibit a company’s growth if that staff has gone stale. Seniority should not win over stagnant.
In either case, recruiting the right talent will be vital to survive tough economic times and to thrive in years to come. Although more people are out looking for work today, business owners will still have to compete to attract and recruit top level talent.
Effective Leadership for Business Owners Can Change Lives
An effective leader knows that inspiration works better than demands, and people respond more positively to change when they understand the goal.
Demands can lead to resistance, while transparency and a sense of purpose can inspire people to follow willingly.
Anyone who has worked for a demanding boss understands the impact it can have on one’s life, both inside and outside the office.
Effective leadership for business owners who cultivate healthy and mutually respectful relationships with their people, make the work more enjoyable and fulfilling for everyone.
Confidence and Courage
For a team to be successful, its members need to have confidence in their abilities and know that they are making a positive contribution to the effort. That confidence may come from being allowed to make mistakes and learn from them, without fearing career-ending consequences.
Enabling people to spread their wings not only builds self-confidence, but the courage to take on new challenges and share their ideas. These strengths will serve them well throughout their careers. Thus creating a stronger leadership for business owners
Support and Development
A good leader will recognize the potential in others. They will see beyond the tasks on a person’s job description, provide the opportunity to develop their skills and support their career growth. In return, they will have gained a lifelong ally.
Though it’s easier to limit a person to the role you hired them for, a good leader will nurture an employee’s growth, even if it means that they might eventually move on. Interacting with people as individuals and trying to accommodate
their unique personalities and styles of communication is an essential skill for an effective leader.
They must possess the necessary people skills to handle any situation professionally. Developing effectiveleadership habits takes commitment. It also takes time, effort, and real-life experience. Building a leadership for business owners
will not be easy and will take perseverance.
Empower and Encourage
Mutual trust is critical within a successful team. Effective leaders demonstrate that trust by allowing people to do their jobs without micromanaging them, which encourages them to take ownership of their work and responsibility for it.
They empower people by giving them the latitude to make decisions and thentrusting their judgment. Successful leaders are as transparent and honest as possible with their people and stand behind them.
Vision and Purpose
Leadership for business owners is great, but when a team that is led by someone who is committed to their life’s purpose, it can bring about positive change in both its members and society in general.
Effective leaders inspire people toshare their vision and a sense of purpose. As a result, they will strive to achieve your mutual goal because they want to.
People who learn to approach their work in this way are more likely to become future leaders who will have the opportunity to bring about positive change.
Strength and Honesty
Leadership for business owners know adversity requires both strength and honesty. If a company has hit a rough patch, the employees usually know it, so telling them everything is just fine may result in a lack of trust.
If a situation is dire, an effective leader will be as honest as possible about what it could mean to the team and how leadership plans to reach a solution. Armed with the truth, people will usually help to put things right, and they’ll do it out of loyalty.
Effective leadership for business owners can make life better for those who follow them by providing opportunities to learn and grow. Showing confidence in people will help them to have more confidence in themselves and encourage them to keep striving for more knowledge and improved skills.
If people understand a leader’s vision, values and purpose, they will be more likely to follow willingly. And with a common goal, the journey can be a lot more rewarding.
Leadership for business owners skills are not always innate and may require some additional study. Whether through instructor-led courses, books or with a mentor, acquiring these skills is an important part of effective leadership. The tools are available. It just takes some practice and commitment.
You don’t need to wait until you’re ready to buy expensive cameras or hire a professional videographer to start recording videos to market your business.
Just start recording straight from your iPhone. If you’re worried your videos might look poor in quality check out this 1 minute video I recorded from my iPhone 7 Plus.
Don’t cut corners and try to hold your iPhone to shoot your videos at arms length. For under $35 it’s well worth the stability and versatility to mount your smartphone onto a tripod.
I started out with a different $19 tripod, but the flimsy legs not only made it too top heavy when I mounted my iPhone, but the cheap tripod was also a struggle to get the three legs to adjust to the same length, which made for very lop sided looking videos.
So, I shelled out the extra 15 bucks and ended up buying this one instead. Having a sturdier tripod now makes me want to shoot more videos since I no longer have to fight with the old one.
This smartphone adapter is what mounts onto your tripod. Then you clip you iPhone right into this piece.
When I first started out with the cheapest adapter I found it became too time consuming to switch from vertical to portrait mode.
So, then I researched and bought this one which I love because it has a 360 ball joint, so I can easily rotate my iPhone from vertical to horizontal — handy for recording video and taking pictures.
This one uses a universal mounting, so it works on pretty much any tripods, clamps and handles.
Record from Your Computer – Double Duty Video Gear:
If you’re recording in person interviews or you want to cut in different angles for your solo videos you’ll need to record from two cameras.
The Canon camcorder is a great choice giving you 57x advanced zoom while the super range O.I.S. (optical image stabilization) keeps the image stead at a longer focal length.
HD videos are recorded to separately available SD cards in the MP4 format for easy playback on most devices. the MMP4 formats are highly compatible with video hosting services and social media websites without format conversion.
When you’re recording from a video camcorder you will likely max out your storage space on the camera, so you’ll need to transfer your videos onto a scan disk.
So definitely, this is another one cool video gear guide for keep!
If you want to record action shots, whether you’re walking, running, biking and even skiing, you’ll want to grab the Gimbal handheld stabilizer.
This workswith iPhone Xs Max Xr X 8 Plus 7 6 SE or Gimbal for Samsung S9/Note, for Sony,LG,Google Pixel 3 XL, Huawei P20,ZTE,Mi and more Android Smartphones.
You can also download their 2019 Newest ‘Hohem Gimbal’ App on your Android or iOS Phones for your gimbal connectivity with Bluetooth. The parameter setting and calibration will help you master the gimbal much better.
If you prefer using ear buds over the table top computer microphone I’d recommend getting the Sennheiser Smart Headset.
When I tried using cheap $20-$40 ear buds I found they were inconsistent. Sometimes I’d get on a video interview and the other person couldn’t hear me. It just wasn’t worth the headache and stress of tech issues cheap ear buds can create.
The Sennheiser is designed for Apple iOS devices. It delivers Sennheiser signature sound and crystal-clear call quality. A situational awareness function allows switching between Transparent Hearing and Active Noise Cancellation, to amplify or silence sound around you. Microphones capture sound like your ears do when recording video.
When you’re watching other people’s videos you probably don’t appreciate good lighting, but you certainly will get distracted watching videos with poor lighting and dark shadows.
This is a great starter soft box lighting kit to give your videos bright, professional looking lighting.
I like the 3 light set because you can use the 3rd light to backlight you. I love watching videos where the person speaking looks like they have a halo around them.
If you’re like most business owners, you probably have limited go to locations to shoot your videos. You might have a messy office, kitchen, family room, attic, closet or car.
A green screen offers you far more variety, creativity and credibility to give the right tone and look to each video. You can choose the background that best matches your message. Use any image you want from beautiful beaches, city high rises, elegant conference rooms or you just want to use your brand colors as your backdrop.
This kit that I bought comes with 2 photo lights. That way you can shoot a bunch of photos to use in your YouTube thumbnails and for your social media posts.
If you want to get soft box lights for shooting video click here: https://amzn.to/312i2pp
Another great video gear is when you’re watching other people’s videos you probably don’t appreciate good lighting, but you certainly will get distracted watching videos with poor lighting and dark shadows.
This is a great starter soft box lighting kit to give your videos bright, professional looking lighting.
I wanted to get better lighting on my face while still using my iPhone, so I found this triple shoe bracket which mounts on my tripod and lets me attach my smartphone adapter and the key light I recommend below.
When I just used 2 box lights I found often times the lighting on my face with either too dark or too bright. That’s when I found using a key light helped to focus on adjusting the light just on my face.
Add the perfect lighting setup to video recording sessions with this key light. The dimmable design lets you choose the right setting for interviews or scenes, and the glare-free diffusion offers a more balanced effect. With a flat profile and metal desk mount, this key light takes up minimal space.
I outsource my video editing, but if you enjoy doing your own editing (or you want your teenage kids to just do it for you) choose Adobe Premiere Pro — this is the most widely used video editing software.
(HINT: if you have high school/college age kids they can take this course at community college and knock out their credits while learning how to edit your videos for you 🙂
If you’re recording in person interviews or you want to cut in different angles for your solo videos you’ll need to record from two cameras.
The Canon camcorder is a great choice giving you 57x advanced zoom while the super range O.I.S. (optical image stabilization) keeps the image stead at a longer focal length.
HD videos are recorded to separately available SD cards in the MP4 format for easy playback on most devices. the MMP4 formats are highly compatible with video hosting services and social media websites without format conversion.
When you’re recording from a video camcorder you will likely max out your storage space on the camera, so you’ll need to transfer your videos onto a scan disk.
So definitely, this is another one cool video gear guide for keep!
If you want to record action shots, whether you’re walking, running, biking and even skiing, you’ll want to grab the Gimbal handheld stabilizer.
This workswith iPhone Xs Max Xr X 8 Plus 7 6 SE or Gimbal for Samsung S9/Note, for Sony,LG,Google Pixel 3 XL, Huawei P20,ZTE,Mi and more Android Smartphones.
You can also download their 2019 Newest ‘Hohem Gimbal’ App on your Android or iOS Phones for your gimbal connectivity with Bluetooth. The parameter setting and calibration will help you master the gimbal much better.
If you prefer using ear buds over the table top computer microphone I’d recommend getting the Sennheiser Smart Headset.
When I tried using cheap $20-$40 ear buds I found they were inconsistent. Sometimes I’d get on a video interview and the other person couldn’t hear me. It just wasn’t worth the headache and stress of tech issues cheap ear buds can create.
The Sennheiser is designed for Apple iOS devices. It delivers Sennheiser signature sound and crystal-clear call quality. A situational awareness function allows switching between Transparent Hearing and Active Noise Cancellation, to amplify or silence sound around you. Microphones capture sound like your ears do when recording video.
When you’re watching other people’s videos you probably don’t appreciate good lighting, but you certainly will get distracted watching videos with poor lighting and dark shadows.
This is a great starter soft box lighting kit to give your videos bright, professional looking lighting.
I like the 3 light set because you can use the 3rd light to backlight you. I love watching videos where the person speaking looks like they have a halo around them.
Even though your computer has built in speakers the sound quality when recording video is not so great.
I researched and tested out using different headsets, ear buds and other ‘cheap’ microphones. After recording with 7 other computer compatible microphones, the Audio Technica microphone is by far the best choice.
The Audio Technica is super easy to set up. You just plug the USB to your computer and using the tripod stand for secure table top use. I like that it consistently delivers high quality sound, it doesn’t block my face as close up mics do, and I don’t have to wear a clunky looking headset.
As I reviewed the videos I shot from different indoor locations I started noticing that my lighting didn’t always look so great.
In the scheme of things, getting high quality sound is more important than lighting. But, once you get the hang of recording videos and you’re ready to step up your lighting, this ring light is a great one to get started with.
It provides soft and flat light, halo shadow for perfect outline and evens the lightening of the subject.
If you’re like most business owners, you probably have limited go to locations to shoot your videos. You might have a messy office, kitchen, family room, attic, closet or car.
A green screen offers you far more variety, creativity and credibility to give the right tone and look to each video. You can choose the background that best matches your message. Use any image you want from beautiful beaches, city high rises, elegant conference rooms or you just want to use your brand colors as your backdrop.
This kit that I bought comes with 2 photo lights. That way you can shoot a bunch of photos to use in your YouTube thumbnails and for your social media posts.
If you want to get soft box lights for shooting video click here: https://amzn.to/312i2pp
Another great video gear is when you’re watching other people’s videos you probably don’t appreciate good lighting, but you certainly will get distracted watching videos with poor lighting and dark shadows.
This is a great starter soft box lighting kit to give your videos bright, professional looking lighting.
I wanted to get better lighting on my face while still using my iPhone, so I found this triple shoe bracket which mounts on my tripod and lets me attach my smartphone adapter and the key light I recommend below.
When I just used 2 box lights I found often times the lighting on my face with either too dark or too bright. That’s when I found using a key light helped to focus on adjusting the light just on my face.
Add the perfect lighting setup to video recording sessions with this key light. The dimmable design lets you choose the right setting for interviews or scenes, and the glare-free diffusion offers a more balanced effect. With a flat profile and metal desk mount, this key light takes up minimal space.
I outsource my video editing, but if you enjoy doing your own editing (or you want your teenage kids to just do it for you) choose Adobe Premiere Pro — this is the most widely used video editing software.
(HINT: if you have high school/college age kids they can take this course at community college and knock out their credits while learning how to edit your videos for you 🙂
If you’re recording in person interviews or you want to cut in different angles for your solo videos you’ll need to record from two cameras.
The Canon camcorder is a great choice giving you 57x advanced zoom while the super range O.I.S. (optical image stabilization) keeps the image stead at a longer focal length.
HD videos are recorded to separately available SD cards in the MP4 format for easy playback on most devices. the MMP4 formats are highly compatible with video hosting services and social media websites without format conversion.
When you’re recording from a video camcorder you will likely max out your storage space on the camera, so you’ll need to transfer your videos onto a scan disk.
So definitely, this is another one cool video gear guide for keep!
If you want to record action shots, whether you’re walking, running, biking and even skiing, you’ll want to grab the Gimbal handheld stabilizer.
This workswith iPhone Xs Max Xr X 8 Plus 7 6 SE or Gimbal for Samsung S9/Note, for Sony,LG,Google Pixel 3 XL, Huawei P20,ZTE,Mi and more Android Smartphones.
You can also download their 2019 Newest ‘Hohem Gimbal’ App on your Android or iOS Phones for your gimbal connectivity with Bluetooth. The parameter setting and calibration will help you master the gimbal much better.
If you prefer using ear buds over the table top computer microphone I’d recommend getting the Sennheiser Smart Headset.
When I tried using cheap $20-$40 ear buds I found they were inconsistent. Sometimes I’d get on a video interview and the other person couldn’t hear me. It just wasn’t worth the headache and stress of tech issues cheap ear buds can create.
The Sennheiser is designed for Apple iOS devices. It delivers Sennheiser signature sound and crystal-clear call quality. A situational awareness function allows switching between Transparent Hearing and Active Noise Cancellation, to amplify or silence sound around you. Microphones capture sound like your ears do when recording video.
When you’re watching other people’s videos you probably don’t appreciate good lighting, but you certainly will get distracted watching videos with poor lighting and dark shadows.
This is a great starter soft box lighting kit to give your videos bright, professional looking lighting.
I like the 3 light set because you can use the 3rd light to backlight you. I love watching videos where the person speaking looks like they have a halo around them.
As a business growth coach I am often asked the question, “What’s your advice on achieving fast business growth?” 
With the goal being to start a business idea that you don’t find cumbersome, you’ll need to begin with a look inward. This isn’t a process you have to do blindly either. Don’t be afraid to explore personality quizzes, strength quizzes, career tests, or other kinds of assessments to get third-party input. This way, with the more information you collect about yourself, you should start to get a very clear picture of the kinds of things that you’d find suitable in a day-to-day role or even what industries you’d excel in. 
Now that you have a little direction, you’ll want to find a more specific space in the marketplace that you can corner. When business owners are assessing their value proposition, what they are really asking is: how well am I able to solve my target audiences’ problem? 
If it’s not your own experiences you draw from, perhaps your friends or family have been through situations that can spark a business idea. Not only will this give you a place to finally jump off from, but it can provide you with a group of people to test out your business on. 
Another source of business ideas and inspiration can be your local environment. What are the needs within your immediate community? Is there any tourism-related business that can be tapped into? Are you a small town with one busy road running through it that might be able to break up long trips for drivers who need a rest stop? Or maybe the problem is that there isn’t much to do in your town at all and people need something entertaining to do. 
