Your virtuous cycle of company growth is within reach.
Don't give it away.
The secret to perpetual company growth is to build your company in the contexts of creator, provider, relator, and guide.
Creating the offer, or next iteration of it;
Providing the context and environment for the jobs to be done;
Relating people to performance, and to each other, with shared knowledge;
Guiding people, and the company, to do great things they’ve never done before.
Stakeholder performance in these roles is what really indicates how well you and your company are performing.
But, we’ve been taught company growth is about being a famous visionary CEO, or putting butts in chairs in the company.
The truth is you don’t have to give away ownership of your company to grow like a big, public company.
Overcome the burden of the cost of capital, and of becoming a commodity, with your virtuous cycle of growth.
Frank Naeymi-Rad, a former member of my company, The Alternative Board or TAB North Shore, built his company, Intelligent Medical Objects or IMO, by consulting hospital leaders on the use of information technologies to more effectively and efficiently coordinate patient care.
His company and his team were good at electronic medical records, artificial intelligence, machine learning, multi-facility scheduling, comprehensive care management, and telehealth.
But, IMO was stuck becoming a commodity as a $2 million consulting service business with different clients year after year.
We worked together to organize the collective wisdom they had earned over those years of creating and providing, and recognized a new way to relate to their clients with their true passion and strength as a company.
Creating their innovative service by solving a critical problem of how physicians communicate within electronic medical records in our patient experience.
You see, physicians do not interpret clinical language in the same way within our medical notes.
An example is one physician uses the term breast cancer to state it is present, but the next physician sees that same term and interprets it as the cancer is not present, because the second physician prefers to use cancer of the breast when cancer is present.
What may seem like a subtle difference in terminology to us, can be a dramatic difference in the care we receive if there is a misunderstanding between our doctors.
So, Frank’s company focused exclusively on creating this more valuable and differentiating service and stopped investing any resources in those other services.
We organized a board of like motivated owners with Frank to serve as his accountability partners, as he did for them with their monthly goals in the context of his annual company plan.
Frank completed his first round in this virtuous cycle of growth as he elevated to be the guide in his company.
We worked together to provide the context for all of the people in his company to organize for this innovative offer.
Because of ongoing value in a subscription model through the medical terminology vocabularies, resolving the misunderstanding among physicians, IMO grew high double digits year after year in recurring revenue.
Frank used our process to create a strategic leadership team to guide the company’s execution and accelerated growth, without compromising performance.
He made another commitment to those stakeholders in his company by offering shares in his company, to create another level of commitment to performance.
When he sold Intelligent Medical Objects, 25 people in the company became millionaires
Be the best and do just that.
If you’ve struggled with growth, and that feeling of care fatigue in your business, it’s not your fault.
We’ve been taught that our value lies in defending our past. As a company, our value lies in the number of years in business and the past financial statements. As people, our value lies in the skills and job titles that we’ve earned over the years.
While that historical performance is valuable, what’s most important is how we use it as a perspective in creating a financial forecast and company plan to create the future value for our company.
As a company it’s critical to build that future value now, so you can pay yourself what your worth now as an owner, while enjoying the life you choose, and collect a generous payout when you choose to sell your company or transition this great company to the next generation of leaders.
Remember that expression from the 2007 financial crisis about companies that were “too big to fail?”
Some of the key executives of those companies still received their “golden parachutes” even after their companies were bailed out.
Well, owners like you and me have been on the outside looking in because it doesn’t matter if we fail, right?
We know small business owners like us have to earn everything.
Some owners, like you, are enjoying the experience of leading their companies and getting paid well for it.
They’re paying themselves what they’re worth today, and building companies that will continue earning a lot of money for many years to come.
Imagine if you were like Frank, who continues to pursue his personal interests and be a guide on his own terms without worrying about money.
Build for growth and always be ready to sell.
You have a choice.
You can continue the struggle with like minded people and your collection of skills, and maybe a few expressions of platitudes and excuses.
Or, you can create your unique position in the marketplace as a business builder with like motivated owners.
Only those who make this important shift in their behavior will recognize the joy of a business that will last for generations without sacrificing joy in your life, with people you love, right now.
Other people will be left out.
There are millions of dollars at stake, with hopes and dreams only in thoughts of “Maybe one day…”
Many owners will never see the money or those experiences because they’re still living in the past, or relying on serendipity.
Too much time defending their expertise and trying to relive those stories from the past.
But, the power to win that money lies in your ability to reflect on those experiences, learn the key lessons from them, and recognize what to do next.
Those lessons will reveal to you what is most valuable to your clients, and what you can do better than anyone else.
It’s how Frank Naeymi-Rad was able to transform his company from a struggling consulting business doing different work for different clients year after year into a world class company solving the problem of physicians communicating without misunderstanding each other, throughout the patient experience.
That’s how to think like someone who isn’t just making a living, but building a great brand someone would want to buy from you.
Because you’ve built something so well positioned and profitable, with people who work together as stakeholders, it would be easier for someone to buy the business from you than build one like it themselves.
I’ve shown you how you could increase your company revenue by millions of dollars with a process that will make your company stronger than ever.
You’ve seen how the transformation will make your life, and those who work with you, better than ever.
You can expand the boundaries of what’s possible.
The decision is yours to make.
You have three options:
Number 1: Hang in there and do nothing.
If you like the hustle, and defending your expertise everyday, I wish you the best making a living.
Number 2: Do this yourself.
Try to carve out time to ask yourself questions you’ve never asked before, and then try to figure out the answers in your spare time.
Maybe you’ll add some opinions from friends at a networking event.
Number 3: Join me, and those who work with me, to grow with our process.
Even with all of your expertise, I think you’re smarter than you think you are. Think about that for a few seconds.
Organizing your company book of knowledge, where you get all of the credit as you create one chapter after another with your stakeholders, and a few allies along the way.
We’ll share four hours each month together to build your unique business with a culture of stakeholders, while supporting the life you want to live now.
Many owners say that they want to build a business, but they end up in a defensive position worrying about not losing something everyday.
But, there are fewer owners who realize that growth is about organizing confidence and humility.
Confidence in all you’ve learned from what you’ve done so far.
Humility in recognizing there is much more you haven’t seen yet.
Organizing our collective wisdom to achieve better than ever outcomes, without relying on serendipity.
It’s what clients, and other battle buddies I’ve organized together, have proven with me over the years.
You can do this, just don’t do it alone or waste time with frivolous networking groups.
Since you’ve stayed with me this far, I believe that you are a business builder with a purpose.
If you believe that you’re a business builder too, book a meeting and share your purpose with me.
Looking to chat first?
Let’s talk about what you want next.
