Paths Within Step 6 (from The Basics)

This is a time when owners who begin a serious process of self-analysis and business analysis will make choices that will move the business toward sustainability. Your business basics are as important now as when you began. Plus, every person associated with your business -- if you are building a team to carry it forward -- needs to be able to read, understand, interpret, and act on the financials. That monthly report is now a result of their work, too. And though many fail to see it, the business is now taking on a personality and dimensionality that are the results of the work of employees.

Your baby, the business, that was once just an extension of you, is now an extension of many.

In this section of the site, we will constantly bring forward the comments of many owners who have successfully given over responsibilities; then when they "got it," they really began empowering people.

To do this effectively, you will need some kind of knowledge management system. For some, it is the business plan. Everybody contributes to it. Everybody is responsible for a section. For others, it requires even more participation by their people.

Case Studies:

• Tom Gegax just focused on building a team, and his team built a huge business.
• Joseph Arnold and George Hill focused on the basics of their business and are now on their way to becoming a billion dollar business.
• Learn about knowledge management from three episodes: E-culture, KM and WiFi.

2. Your inner community.

History teaches, and your business has a significant history. How is that information being used by everybody in the business to move it forward?

A sustainable business constantly evaluates the leveragability of its products and services. There is a constant review of history -- "Let's go over that one more time," is the attempt to see something that has not been articulated and it could be just that important detail that begins to make a product or business formula work.

Case Studies:

• Review the points made within the episode of the show, Staying Power. All nine points are very basic and really should be internalized by everyone in your organization.
• Pam Rodgers teaches her managers and her managers teach their people; everybody knows how their group is contributing to the bottom-line. She has one of the most successful automobile dealerships in America.

• If you have not already reviewed the work of Albert Black, he is well-worth the time. He has a lot to say about sharing information with the employees.
• This is a good time to review all those shows that are within your type of business or a similar business type. Here you will learn how all of these people continue to be filled with energy even after many years of diligent work to grow their business.

3. Structuring your time. We believe there are products and services that we all need and we are out to find the best and to recommend them here to help each of us become sustainable businesses.

How you work the equity in your business becomes a critical. Look at the section about Money. Learn what a Small Corporate Offering Registration is. Learn about your your options.

Awards Programs for your business: Many of the people we have profiled have come to our attention because they were recognized by one of their peer groups, their national business association, a national publication or one of the groups that recognizes small business excellence such as the SBA, Ernst & Young's Entrepreneur of the Year, or the Mass Mutual's Blue Chip Awards.

Awards Programs for your people: A good time to review the work of Marty Edelston and I-Power. Every time your business is recognized, recognize someone within your business!

4. Projecting the day when "the Chairman of the Board" means something. We all use titles so loosely, yet most people within the business community know when a business is doing well. You, founder/owner, have more time to be more gracious and giving. That is very important. You have become (or are becoming) a role model for others.

This television show is the "anti-Tony Soprano" show. He is the antithesis of good business and the antithesis of a role model.

Though we will be adding and revising this section, consider tracking non-financial ratios.