Recently I was hosting a session of my Rainmaker Roundtable, a select group of entrepreneurs who sell services to other owners, on the topic of professional integrity and ethics. With their input and my further thinking, here are my three conclusions.

1. Know exactly who your client is and always serve them best. For example, if your client is the firm and the owner is a destructive influence as its president, you have the duty to do what is best for the company up to and including removing the president so the owner and the company will thrive.
2. Be true to how you make money and don’t compromise. For example, if you make money dispensing unbiased advice, don’t take a commission recommending a vendor who provides what you just prescribed
3. Always practice transparency unless it compromises confidentiality. For example, if you will make money, benefit, or be placed in a compromising position by learning or knowing some information, tell the person providing the information why, beware ,or to stop. And when the information comes from your client, (See #1 above) it is absolutely confidential.

What do you think?

In October, a long and tempestuous relationship between the owner and coach of the New York Yankees came to the breaking point. Even if you aren’t a baseball fan, or hate the Yankees, what lessons can we all learn on managing the leaders of our businesses?

To review, Joe Torre, with only a couple of years left before retirement,  expected to remain with the team he took to twelve (12) playoffs and four (4) world championships. With his track record and penchant for managing to the highest standards of integrity, respect and consideration for his players and fans, Torre felt he was beyond evaluation or a performance-based contract. George Steinbrenner, the owner, was in complete disagreement. As the boss of baseball’s most storied team, he and his sons have a singular expectation–World Series Championships–and pay the price for victory at any cost. As we all know, the opera of Joe and George had its finale when Torre rejected Steinbrenner’s victory-based one year contract out of hand, leaving both without a contingency plan.

As business owners, what we can learn and avoid from this sudden ending to one of baseball’s greatest successes?

If you and your president:

•  Personally or professionally disagree on objectives, get on the same page now for your organization’s sake.  Otherwise your people will try to reconcile your differences and in the process waste everyone’s time, money and energy.
•  Have to compromise on how your objectives will be met, determine your personal threshold of acceptable disagreement that you will not only tolerate.  Never fight in front of the “children” whether they are customers, employees or vendors.
• Create a contingency plan or go-to resource for resolving differences, you can avoid needless escalations that can bring you to business divorce.
• Prepare a doomsday scenario and a triage plan if you have to eject your president or if he/she walks out.  Understand that the more you have prepared for a crisis, the less it will be seen as one

Managing a talented, capable leader can be one of the most trying challenges for you as the owner. And if your president becomes respected by your customers, employees or vendors, you may have created a peer who threatens you.  But if you recognize you cannot lead your business all by yourself and have found a talented second in command, managing through your two egos, testosterone and quirks will be a lot easier.

In October, I had the pleasure to address my home town, Solon, Ohio’s Civic Club, on regional growth.  The local press covered it here and if there is any truth to rarely being a prophet in one’s own land it was thrilling to be so well received. Solon Ohio is a great suburb, balanced commercially, relatively integrated, and in great shape given the decline of Northeast Ohio which surrounds it.  The big issue in Solon right now is which billion dollar development project the town should choose to replace its lack of a downtown with a high-end lifestyle center like NYC’s South Street Seaport or Columbus’ Easton Center.

With Cleveland’s gang shootings only 4 miles away and an intractable struggle between city politicians unwilling to give up their fiefdoms and share power with redundant suburban governments and services whose residents (e.g. Solonites) decreasingly work in and enjoy Cleveland, the new developments are a real flash-point for debate.

• Does Solon need such a showcase when there is so much destitution and redundancy nearby?
• While the new development will raise the retail and restaurant standards, it will put local incumbent retailers out of business.
• Bringing such additional wealth into Solon, in terms of a new tax base, employment and opportunity will only siphon more away from other less fortunate neighbors.

 Regardless of these good points, Economics 101 says that the strong need to get stronger because it is unlikely the weak will do so.  Cleveland is the most charitable city in the country yet is invariably one of the poorest.  I wrote an article about this titled Doing Well vs.Doing Good which lays out my premise that it doesn’t help anyone to help others until one can stop being a burden him or herself.  Giving charitably is great but our region has a knack of producing one hit wonders in the form of entrepreneurs, who after scoring one business hit, devote themselves to a life of charity and non profit work. Instead of taking their talents to higher levels and employing more people, paying more taxes and building more wealth, they start yet another redundant charity, non profit which only contributes to the cycle of Cleveland staying the most charitable and poorest.

So, when asked why should Solon raise its standards even higher, after even after just being named the best suburb in North East Ohio?  I say, because it must.  Excellence draws more talent and dollars towards it, raising margins and profits as it does tax dollars, employment and social services.  If mediocre retailers, restaurants and services fail in the face of increased competition, their customers were obviously willing to pay more for better quality and the incumbents blew it.

A good suburb, can no more rest on its laurels than can a good business or rock star.  Life is a competition and there are winners and losers.  When the flight attendant says, “Put Your Own Face Mask on Before Helping the Person Next to You,” she is not kidding.  We all owe it to ourselves, our clients, employees and our vendors to make ourselves healthy and as successful as possible.   Tell me what you think below.

Dear Clients, Colleagues and Friends,

Do you need a jolt to shake out of your ownership doldrums? Use the virtual world to generate some of your own buzz. Recently, I was bemoaning what a boring and challenging a month October had been when:

• My business was named a HB100 winner here  where I ranked 7th!
• Last month’s www.birolsblog.com post was featured by Carnival of the Capitalists, the web’s premier reviewer of business blogs
• A clip from my recent NYC speech appeared on YouTube Link
• I was contacted by a Vietnamese publisher who wants to translate my book, The Five Catalysts of Seven Figure Growth and market it in his country.

(WITAFYB) What’s In These Anecdotes For Your Business?

With and through Web2.0, if you share your message and value, the Internet continuously and economically promotes your expertise and your business.

Are you interested in a new idea for doing this in your business? Ask me below and I will respond with an idea for you!

After surviving and succeeding in relative anonymity for years in business, isn’t it remarkable how much attention you get from people who now confront you with black and white decisions you are told you just have to make?

In charity and volunteerism:

If you are told, “To be respected in your community you better give both your money and your time to visible causes,”  I suggest you remember to that you must continue to do well before devoting yourself to doing good. 

In politics:

When you’re baited with, “You must be a Republican, because Democrats will just tax and spend” or “You have to vote Democrat because Republicans are for NAFTA and against immigration!” Consider that since elections, issues and platforms come and go, and aren’t you really independent?

In loyalty to town, association, or team:

As you are admonished with, “Can you believe that LeBron James would root for the Yankees?” or “Our industry practices require that…” and “If you don’t say nice things about your town, don’t say anything,” remember that although groupthink mostly creates fond memories of great moments, it rarely to leads your success.

As an independent, committed owner, you grew your business by staying true to your best and highest use and making grey decisions to serve your clients, employees, and vendors in a very uncertain world.  Your flexibility and tenacity will always be keys to your success.  And your commitment and independence are your most valuable strengths.   When you are told you must make a choice from their options, reject their dogma, go with your gut and create your own choice. If confronted with black and white, remember what they tell you on the plane, “When the mask appears, place yours on first and then help the person next to you!”  Until Willie Nelson stages a benefit concert to save the small business, your best assets are your own strength of commitment and power of independence.  Invest these wisely!

 What do you think?

In writing The Five Catalysts, I described how confidence and conviction is any owner’s first catalyst for growth. And this confidence and conviction comes from a defining point that pushes on owner to turn her or his passion into action.  With October being National Women Business Owner’s Month, I got to thinking how so many successful women-business-owning clients of mine got started and how they built their businesses successfully despite surviving divorce, being widowed, or having to support a family where success was not an option but an imperative for survival.

And as their businesses have grown, I see that “women’s intuition” has caused many clients to make better decisions based on reasoned judgement.  Certainly, fewer women owners are “too smart to help” and aren’t making testosterone-driven decisions based on ego and “diminishing capabilities.” Maybe I have just been lucky, but women are more willing to listen to outside advice which has made them great clients I have been able to help more than average.

In this time of changing business environments, customer demands,and irrational financial markets, there are a lot of women business owners whose patience and perseverance have brought great value to their customers, employees and vendors!  And on top of this, many are also raising families at the same time.  Do you agree, why?

This week, my friends at Executive Renaissance Forums reprinted my article, The Seven Commandments of Pricing.

Rereading it, I got to thinking how often all of us who believe in value pricing either forget to do so or refuse to pay someone else for their value.  If you agree, why is it so difficult for us to walk this talk?  I have two thoughts and ask for your reactions.

 1.  While we know our service or product is “worth it”, when we actually sell it, we often forget to define precisely how it resolves our client’s pain or creates their opportunity for success. Assuming our clients will do this creates the second challenge we can all understand.

2. When we are presented with a service or product that is priced based on its ultimate value to us, we have to accept responsibility for producing expected results through consuming it.  Accepting this accountability in front of others is hard.

What do you think?