Entrepreneurship

Small Business Owners

Words matter. When “small business” and “small business owner” are overused, it becomes belittling. Breakthroughs await those with expanded vocabulary.

First, let’s get an elephant in the room. There is a need for categorization between different types of businesses, and size is an obvious differentiator. This determines how government policies, regulated programs, and other environmental resources are distributed.

Unfortunately, broad categorization leads to business owners not thinking of themselves as entrepreneurs.

Whether it’s the size of a company, revenue, or other quantifiable metrics, using “small business” may be required for economic structuring, but it limits how many leaders think about their own potential.

The opportunity to shift this narrative exists within events where the assemblage is comprised of small business owners. In these settings, use small business terms to target the promotional messaging, then find ways to release those technical terms at the event. Emcees, speakers, panelists, and staff can embolden the audience by using “small business owners” when necessary but then intentionally using more alternative titles that add depth to the attendee’s mindset. Instead of everything being focused on small, use synonyms that describe greatness, importance, appreciation, and yes, small business owners:

  • Entrepreneur
  • Founder
  • Leader
  • Student
  • Innovator
  • Heretic
  • Dreamer
  • Creator

    By using these synonyms, we can quietly inspire more inclusivity through fresh assimilation at events. Even if public policies remain rigid, more people will learn to celebrate and identify with more codifications.

    Over time, more people who may have kept themselves in a box will start to feel enlisted in all that is an entrepreneurial lifestyle. As more small business owners hear, use, and relate to enlivened vocabulary, the expanding taxonomy exposes new ideas, untapped resources, and unexpected realms to confidently explore within the local communities we love.

    Brewed From Within
    #36 📖 Leadership

    By Ben McDougal, ago

    Significance

    Most of us seek peace, love, and significance.
    All can be achieved by offering each to others.

    Visions, missions, and titles guide teams in a shared direction, but linchpins want work that matters, and culture outshines even the most thoughtful strategy.

    The race to revenue makes it easy to see why we’ve been seduced by surveillance, predictable profit margins, and forced productivity. Too often, the easy metrics borrowed from such compliance are the ones that get measured. This leads to endless meetings geared toward delivering information, avoiding blame, and asserting authority for those in charge.

    The illusion is that control will lead to predictable results thanks to a maximization of resources. The problem is, humans are not a resource.

    Extra Shot

    Are your meetings led by a few people talking and most pretending to pay attention? Perhaps it’s time to get real by inviting the team to lead together.

    Leaders who make a difference welcome tension from those who make a ruckus. We nurture initiative, even when results aren’t perfect. This creates enrollment, where enthusiasm is met with consistent action. Promises that are kept lead to progress, which makes intentional permeability easier to execute. When everyone on a team is proud of the impact they make, roles are better understood, contributions last longer, and appreciated energy would be missed if it were gone. This is work worth doing, and it sounds like a symphonic choir when everyone on a team is given a voice to sing their own song of significance.

    Brewed From Within
    #39 📖 Leadership

    By Ben McDougal, ago

    Shifting Gears

    Imagine the howl of a distant motorcycle bolting through the night. Hear the speed and wait for that clutch to drop, knowing more power awaits.

    The first gear is dedicated to initiating motion within an engine. It won’t get you far, but as the red line wraps, a shift brings you into the next gear that builds on the momentum. As that next gear tops out, yet another shifts moves you farther, with higher gears that bring you to full speed.

    Extra Shot

    After pushing a motorcycle to 150mph, twas time to sell that bullet on wheels. A face full of wind is still invigorating, but a convertible will now suffice.

    Any journey is a dance, but reaching your destination requires an ability to temporarily lose power in exchange for more lasting capacity. Whether it’s personal or in business, recognizing a limit prompts a well-timed shift in gears to keep moving forward.

    Brewed From Within
    📖 Entrepreneurship

    By Ben McDougal, ago

    Anxiety

    The mind is divine. It gives us superpowers, and the dots we electrochemically connect make us human. Such capacity allows us to achieve extraordinary things. At the same time, this mysterious grey matter can also hold us back and even cause havoc.

    Anxiety is assuming failure in advance. As a mental cousin to fear, anticipation, worrying, and perhaps even desire, anxiety is like an unspoken agreement you make with yourself to be unhappy until you get what you want.This exhausting emotion is all in your head, yet the way anxiety affects your body is absolutely real.

    For those who pursue greatness, the more we try to achieve, the tighter we wind the strings of life. When harnessed, this fuels strength, creativity, grit, and persistence. As the tension tightens, however, something is bound to break. Healthy habits and being mindful of your personal bandwidth reduces the frequency and severity of such breakdowns, but with the relentless pressure from never-ending progress, it seems impossible to completely avoid disquiet.

    The most common way we attempt to manage such angst is to stop the pain by seeking reassurance. The nourishment of overthinking every scenario in an unknown future may satisfy the moment, but scratching this itch usually makes things worse. Even if we answer every possible question, the willingness to indulge the worry sets a precedent that keeps you coming back to what can become an endless loop.

    An alternate approach is to acknowledge the suffering. Don’t run from it. Appreciate the relentless internal narrative you’re dealing with. Breathe. Be thankful for having something you care this much about. Find peace in knowing you’ve done your best to tip odds in your favor, but invite doubt and welcome an opportunity to be wrong. The anxiety is here and it’s dramatic, but it’s also normal. Let thoughts float by, focus your attention on what’s good, and allow time to heal the pain. Yes, this is like letting a forest fire burn without soothing it with water. It will get wild at first, but it eventually burns itself out. The scorched land is then ripe for renewal and less likely to burn again.

    Extra Shot

    Accepting that anxiety is inevitable

    may be a secret to finding equanimity.

    By acknowledging anxiety, clarifying awareness helps us understand, even appreciate, the energy. This breaks the cycle and reduces the frequency of such misery. Courage over fear also adds an eagerness to lean on support systems, confirms confidence in how the pain will pass, and allows the mind to stay centered with less climactic swings.

    Brewed From Within
    #96 📖 Life & Happiness

    By Ben McDougal, ago

    Head Start

    The entrepreneurial lifestyle resists definition.

    Business owners paint with strokes of curiosity, determination, and innovation. When people build with creative ambition, experience is valuable, but the symphony of desire and attitude plays an equally important role. It takes heart to start and resilience to execute early moves, manage focus, build teams, maintain sales, and provide lasting customer service to maintain momentum.

    The best part about an entrepreneurial lifestyle is that it’s accessible to everyone. This can be seen as students explore projects that transcend the classroom. It’s intrapreneurs fueling positive change in existing companies. It’s startup founders achieving product-market fit with new ideas and others who acquire an established business.

    EXTRA SHOT

    This contribution was written by Sheldon Ohringer. Along with helping us buy a business, Sheldon is an investor and board member who led large sales teams, developed acquisition programs, and as CEO took a technology company public.

    Starting a brand new business is one way to explore the entrepreneurial lifestyle, but buying an existing business is also an interesting way to write your own story.

    While there may be a higher cost for the head start, acquiring an existing business presents an interesting side door to the entrepreneurial lifestyle.

    Organic growth is important, but there are added benefits in augmenting internal development with external acquisitions as well. As you consider a business to buy, avoid future headaches by understanding industry requirements, such as licenses, permits, zoning, and environmental requirements. As you work with existing ownership to determine a purchase price, a valuation based on capitalized earnings, excess earnings, cash flow, and tangible assets are all methods to guide fair negotiations. In the end, the right price is one that delights the seller and excites the buyer.

    As details come together, partner with legal and accounting experts who focus on mergers and acquisitions (M&A) to document the transaction. A letter of intent, confidentiality agreement, contracts, leasing documents, financial statements, tax returns, and sales agreements are all important documents to talk with your M&A team about. Many transactions include a vesting schedule as well, so stay in tune with these details to avoid unwanted surprises.

    There are a variety of strategic ways to acquire a business, but once the transition takes place, new owners are given keys to a kingdom that hails an established team, customer base, and operating procedures. As we see in the Exit section of the Results chapter in YDNTB, there will be challenges during these transitory times, but in the end, virtuous leaders listen to keep the culture balanced.

    All the good that comes with a business is important to maintain, but an audit of negative aspects is important too. This focus on areas that need improvement is stressful, and concerned employees may exaggerate issues to make their own contribution seem important. To stay proportionate, talk with everyone for context, invite resolutions that may solve issues, get hands-on, and stay optimistic to keep your assessment honest and weighted against the big picture.

    Searching and finding undervalued, cash-flow businesses may take time, but it serves as a viable alternative to growing a business from scratch. Intentional candor with areas to improve allows new owners to build on past success while charting a renewed vision for lasting prosperity.

    By Ben McDougal, ago