small businesses that succeed don't grow on trees

Written By John W. Woodall, Jr., JD, MBA

Pinnacle Endeavours Management Concepts Group, LLC.

Click Here To Visit Our Website

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Small Businesses That Succeed Dont Grow on Trees

TABLE OF CONTENTS

I. SPECIAL NOTE: Business Partner Needed ........................................ 3

II. About the Author .............................................................................. 4

III. Introduction ....................................................................................... 6

IV. The Kind of Money Entrepreneurs Recklessly Ignore ......................... 7

V. Waking Up to a Bad Dream ................................................................ 9

VI. The Entrepreneur with a Hole in His Pocket ....................................... 10

VII. Thinking Smarter About Entrepreneurship ........................................ 12

VIII. Conclusion ......................................................................................... 14

IX. Additional Tools for the Entrepreneur

a. 7 Reasons to Own Your Own Business .......................................... 16

b. 5 Tips for Creating a Successful Business from the Ground Up ..... 19

c. 10 Common Mistakes When Creating a Small Business ................ 21

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SEEKING A BUSINESS PARTNER

Dear Friend:

I know you are excited about getting started with this eBook, but I need to ask for your help. Im looking for a business partner who would like to profit by helping me take advantage of a tremendous opportunity to assist entrepreneurs all over the world. I read an eye-opening article that you can read for yourself in Forbes Online. The relevant quote says this, "Approximately 543,000 new businesses get started each month (but more employer businesses shut down than start up each month)". 543,000 is a huge number of people starting businesses every month. But the fact that even more businesses close their doors is a great threat to entrepreneurship, but a tremendous opportunity for you and I, as entrepreneurs. The article pulls its information from the United States Small Business Administration (You can see the official report from the SBA Office of Advocacy Frequently Asked Questions Report.

Meeting the Needs of the Customer In response, I wrote this eBook. This is how most people find out about my e-Learning course Striking Entrepreneurial Gold. Many people who have read this eBook have learned that there is much to be learned about growing a business properly and they have decided to purchase the course. So I give this eBook away and I have been able to help a lot of entrepreneurs. I need help giving this eBook away to more people. How You Can Profit from This Partnership: Lifetime Rebranding Rights. If you decide to partner with me, within just a few minutes I'll generate a rebranded version of this eBook. When someone clicks a banner or link and buys our $97 course, you will earn approximately $45 each time. The beauty is this: ITS JUST A PDF FILE! You can give it away hundreds of thousands of times over and it will never cost you another cent. And as you know, every month there are 543,000 new people who will need this information desperately. Two Partnership Opportunities: FREE Lifetime Rebranding Rights If you become a student and purchase our e-Learning course, you get the best of both worlds. You will learn the principles and concepts of Entrepreneurial Growth and Development but I can then also give you the rebranding rights at no additional cost. This means that you have the potential to make many times more money from taking this course than the initial $97 investment. Some have even used these Lifetime Rebranding Rights as a way of generating the money they need for starting up their business. Purchased Lifetime Rebranding Rights Even if you don't need to purchase Striking Entrepreneurial Gold, you can still benefit by this opportunity. Maybe you have a blog or mailing list of people who could benefit from this eBook. If you still want to be involved just purchase the lifetime re-branding rights for a mere $35. To choose the option that is best for you just CLICK HERE. I hope that we might be able to do business together very soon.

Entrepreneurially Yours,

John W. Woodall, Jr, JD, MBA

President

Pinnacle Endeavours Management Concepts Group, LLC

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ABOUT JOHN W. WOODALL, JR., JD, MBA

With over 20 years experience as a corporate level management executive, John has consulted

multiple small and medium sized owners on the growth and development of their business. His clientele

spans from a pre-startup dance studio to an established multi-million dollar construction firm with 5

offices in multiple states. This diversity shows that the principles of his growth and development

consulting are truly universal. John's objective is to utilize his educational, experience and business

success to help the owners of small and medium-sized businesses seize ownership's greatest advantage

and achieve the ultimate reward that business ownership has to offer.

His academic credentials include a Doctor of Jurisprudence degree with a concentration in commercial

law from the Indiana University School of Law, a Masters of Business Administration degree with a

concentration in Finance from the Ball State University Graduate School of Business. John has served as

an Adjunct Professor in Business, Entrepreneurship, Business Law. Accounting and Finance at Indiana

Wesleyan University and Martin University with over 14 years

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of teaching experience. Furthermore, he is the successful author of The Ultimate Reward of Business

Ownership.

The industries that John has consulted for, range from insurance repair construction to travel and

automotive to mattress manufacturing. He teaches small business owners how to grow a business

instead of merely growing a job in a business they happen to own. He believes very firmly that this is a

common failing of many unsuccessful or struggling small business owners. Unfortunately, it is a hidden

failing and the consequences are never realized or even deemed relevant until the business owner has

decided or is forced to end of their entrepreneurial journey because of insolvency, overwhelm, or

eventual gross disinterest. It is only then that they understand that they never built anything of value.

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INTRODUCTION

Contrary to the belief of many would-be entrepreneurs, successful small businesses dont just

naturally grow into thriving mature business organization. It is not like the ripe red apple that is the

natural fruit of the apple seed. The successful small business is the exception to the small business

startup and thus it must be treated differently. The small business organization must be carefully

nurtured and pampered and even trained. However, most entrepreneurs are completely unfamiliar

with what a small business really needs, so they rely on their intuition.

They assume that the growth and development of the business will come by simply generating

the next sale. They fail to realize that the business creature is much more complex than that. As a result

most entrepreneurs generate what I call empty sales that do nothing for building the value that can

only be found in a mature and independent business organization. However, this does not concern most

entrepreneurs. They do not worry about empty sales because in their minds a dollar from an empty

sale spends just as well as a dollar from an engaged sale. It is that kind of short-sighted thinking that

has gotten small business owner in trouble.

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THE KIND OF MONEY ENTREPRENEURS RECKLESSLY IGNORE

I always find it very unfortunate that so many small business owners spend their entire

entrepreneurial careers building a business organization that is completely worthless. Im not saying

that they are unprofitable. Believe it or not, many of these worthless businesses are very profitable (I'll

show you how thats possible in a moment). But the business itself is not worth anything. As a business

owner the business you build should be your hardest working employee. Your business should be your

greatest asset and capable of make money for you even while you are not working. In fact, by its very

design, a business is perfectly capable to holding and carrying an incredible amount of value for its

owner. Thats what a business should do for you, but that is not the kind of business most

entrepreneurs build.

I am a small business growth and development consultant, but I used to be a business broker. I had the

great misfortune of being in the position to tell a lot of business owners that for the many years they

had been in business they had ultimately wasted their time and energy. It was always so disheartening

to see their faces when they would learn that they had unknowingly cheated themselves out of

hundreds of thousands (and in some cases even millions) of dollars. It is a mistake that they will regret

every day for the rest of their lives. This writing is prepared so that you do not have to repeat their

mistake.

After earning an MBA and a Law degree, I started my entrepreneurial career brokering the sale of

businesses. I can say with complete confidence that being a business broker taught me the most

valuable lessons I ever learned about business, in general, and entrepreneurship, in particular. Even

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though I spent nine years as a student of business, I never learned in school what I came to understand

so very well during my first year as one who sold small businesses from one owner to the next.

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I learned that a very common failing among entrepreneurs is that if they are able to survive past the first

6 years, most of them tend to spend the rest of their entrepreneurial career nursing what will ultimately

become a small business enterprise that has no lasting value. They will find that although they were in

business, they never grew a business. For all of their years of effort all that they ever had was a job in

a company that they happened to own. The sad thing is that in most cases they never came to realize it

until it was too late.

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WAKING UP TO A BAD DREAM

You would be amazed at how many people are frantically trying to get out of their businesses. As a

business broker, I was hired by business owners to find someone to buy their business. These owners

were always convinced that they had built a priceless gem because of all the time, hard work, effort and

heartache that they had invested over the years. They were always passionate about the huge financial

windfall they were convinced would soon come from selling their business. And yes, they were almost

always disappointed.

As the business broker, one of the most difficult things for me to do was to share with an owner that the

business they had labored over for so many years was essentially worthless. They could really just

auction off the parts on eBay and make more money. Telling someone that what they had built was

worth so very little was always a very painful conversation to hold.

Based on my work with these owners who had built worthless businesses, I began to work as a

consultant showing owners how to become the successful owner of a successful business. My most

fruitful client has grown over 700% and their company now earns about $35,000.000 in annual sales.

Interestingly enough, neither of those numbers are the most exciting thing about the success of their

story. I had the honor of teaching them how to build a business instead of a job and now their business

grows in spite of them and not because of them. They have graduated from being Self-Employed

persons and now they are truly Business Owners. And Yes. There is a difference.

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THE ENTREPRENEUR WITH A HOLE IN HIS POCKET

I found that most of these people who owned businesses were not what I have termed business

owners. They were instead what I have termed self-employed people. Although these are both

common terms, the way I teach my students, there actually is a substantial difference between the two

terms. The self-employed person has a job working in a business that he or she happens to own. The key

word here is that this person has a job. That means that your business is the place where you go to

work. Unwittingly, this person is giving up the greatest advantage they have as a business owner. Ill

explain what I mean in a moment.

For example, Tony loves working on computers, so he starts his own computer repair business. Every

morning Tony goes to the shop to work on computers. As long as new broken computers come in the

door, he has a job working for himself. In fact, Tony might earn a great income repairing computers. In

fact, lets say that Tony does enough business to take home an annual salary of $100,000. You would

probably say that he is doing pretty well. Right? But watch this.

Lets assume that Tony takes a nasty spill down a flight of stairs and requires hospitalization for several

weeks and then afterwards, he requires several months of rehabilitation. What would you guess Tonys

income will be while he is incapacitated? You would be correct if you said $0. Why? Because Tony has a

job and he didnt go to work. And when you have a job, you dont get paid when you dont go to work.

If, while Tony was away, he decided that he would like to sell his computer repair business to you.

Would you be interested? If so, why? Unfortunately, Tony was the business. His business is like riding a

bicycle. There is only activity if you keep peddling. But, if you stop peddling, you will coast to a

complete halt.

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All that would be left of Tonys business is just the stuff that he used to run it. Not very impressive.

If you happened to be face-to-face with Tony and in a position to write him a check, how much would

you be willing to pay for Tonys computer repair business if Tony wasnt there anymore? If you were

going to purchase Tonys computer repair business, the only thing you could buy would be his tools and

equipment. You could do the same thing at a garage sale. Although Tony was very well compensated, his

business has absolutely no value.

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THINKING SMARTER ABOUT ENTREPRENEURSHIP

Now contrast Tony, the self-employed person, with another type of owner who I call a Business

Owner. The Business Owner is also a person who owns a business, but he or she has assumed the

responsibility for growing that business into a mature and independent business organization. Where

the self-employed person works in the business, the business owner works on the business.

Interestingly enough, the business owner in the early stages of his business will be doing many of the

same things that the self-employed person will do. But eventually, he or she will begin to teach the

business to handle those matters. He establishes systems and procedures. He builds in practices for

accountability and reliability. And he begins to grow himself out of the business.

So lets form another example. This one is for Karen, who loves photography and starts her own

photography studio. She starts out taking the photos herself and earns a respectable but not an earth-

shattering annual income of about $50,000. However, later she hires a young photographer who she

trains to take photos in her place. Now Karen begins to focus her attention on generating more business

to keep her new photographer busy. Its not long before she hires a sales person to generate those new

sales. As the sales levels begin to grow, Karen hires yet another photographer to handle the increased

customer load. However, now she notices that shes spending a lot of time and effort keeping track of

her finances, so she begins the process of interviewing accounting firms to keep her straight.

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Notice several sharp contrasts. At any given time it would be proper to call Tony a computer repairman.

But would it be accurate to call Karen a photographer? No. Karen is a business owner. Now watch this

contrast. Just like Tony, if Karen takes a nasty fall down a flight of stairs and requires hospitalization for

several weeks and then afterwards, she requires several months of rehabilitation, do you think that

Karen will continue to receive an income while she is incapacitated? Absolutely. Karen didnt build a job.

She built a business that did not have to rely on her. Karens business makes money, even without

Karen. However, in Tonys business it was Tony that made money. Which business is most valuable?

Which one would you rather purchase: The one owned by Karen or the one owned by Tony?

Karen has done what so many entrepreneurs fail to do when they are building their business. She has

established a business that is capable of seizing the ultimate reward that business ownership has to

offer. There are many advantages to owning a business but the greatest of them is this: As the owner of

a business you have an absolute right to be paid regularly and generously even if you do absolutely

nothing. When you build this kind of business, it automatically builds tremendous value. For example, if

you take an underdeveloped business like Tonys and a completely developed business that has

achieved the ultimate reward level of business development you will notice a startling development.

Even if both businesses have the same level of sales, profitability and cash on hand, the one that is at the

ultimate reward level will be worth ten (10) times that of the undeveloped business.

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CONCLUSION

This is just one reason that entrepreneurs build worthless reason. There are many others. The key is to

learn how to Think Smart about entrepreneurship because smarter business owners make stronger

entrepreneurs. However, the problem is that anyone can start a business. In fact, there are some

people in business who never intended to be in business. There was just something they enjoyed doing

as a hobby that became more.

In those cases, the entrepreneur was really just interested in one thing (baking cakes, making scarves

and hats, or giving dance instructions), however, as a business owner they are responsible for the things

they are not interested in too (marketing, accounting, human resources, etc.)

The key is to do it right. I invite you to register to become a student of Striking Entrepreneurial Gold:

The Ultimate Reward of Business Ownership. If you would be interested in learning more strategies,

concepts and principles of entrepreneurial growth and development, just click the REGISTRATION link on

the next page.

REMEMBER:

When you purchase Striking Entrepreneurial Gold, you automatically receive Re-Branding rights to this

eBook. That means that you can benefit from this course in two powerful ways. Firstly, by employing the

principles and concepts that you learn in your own business. But secondly, by simply giving your

rebranded version of this eBook away, you will earn approximately $45 every time someone clicks the

link on the next page or a banner at the top of each page and buys this course. You will help a lot of

people in their business endeavors by giving away these eBooks. You can give away thousands by simply

sending out a download link. So, if you want to partner with me and get your rebranded copy of this

eBook just CLICK HERE.

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Simply a Smarter Way to Build a Better Business

A small business can be incredibly demanding of your time, your attention,

your energy and your money. The consuming nature of a business

enterprise pulls the business owner is so very close that he or she cannot

see the forest because there are too many trees. In the Striking

Entrepreneurial Gold e-Learning course, our objective is to teach you, not

only, how to see the entrepreneurial forest, but more importantly how to

successfully blaze a path through it.

Click the Register button and you will agree that Smarter Business

Owners Make Stronger Entrepreneurs.

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7 REASONS TO OWN YOUR OWN BUSINESS

Too many people who own their own businesses suffer from startup tunnel vision. Oftentimes this is

prompted by having been employed by a company that expected far more of them than they were

willing to give. Or maybe it was prompted by a manager who was insensitive and overbearing. The

emotional response to those conditions can generate a short-sightedness that I call Startup Tunnel

Vision. Because of Startup Tunnel Vision, many people become business owners just to have a job

where they work for themselves. I believe that such reasoning is just as foolish as the person who

purchases a brand new desktop computer simply because it has a calculator. The computer has much

more to offer; business ownership does too. So, although there are many reason why you should not

own your own business, allow me to give you seven reasons why you should.

1. You Control Your Entrepreneurial Future: Without a doubt, you are the one in the drivers seat.

There is no one to tell you what to do, when to do it or how it must be done. Every success is because of

your effort and likewise, every failure is your fault. If you are not a disciplined person, this will be more

of a curse than a blessing. But in either case, you can take prideful ownership in the fact that whether it

is a success or a failure - it is your success or your failure.

2. You Are the Sculptor of the Vision: When you own your own business, you are an artist. No one else

in the world can see the end product as vividly as you. Its your vision. But a great vision does not

necessarily mean that you will have a great business. The responsibility for shaping and molding the

business into greatness rests completely on your shoulders. The personality of your business is born out

of the creativity in your managerial plans and actions.

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3. You Have Unlimited Income Potential: There is absolutely no ceiling to how great your income can

become in your own business. Therefore, if you build your business properly, you can create a machine

that is limited only by the amount of income that it is physically able to generate. Your job then is to

enable it to generate more.

4. The Less You Do the More Valuable Your Business: This concept is one that is peculiar to small

business ownership. I call if the Paradox of Entrepreneurship. It says that the less you do in your

business, the more valuable your business becomes. Ultimately, you dont want your business to be

dependent on you. In fact, your responsibility as the business owner is to grow the business into a

mature and independent organization.

5. You Can Be Compensated Even If You Do Nothing: The greatest advantage of business ownership is

that as the owner of a business you have an absolute right to be paid regularly and generously, even if

you do absolutely nothing. But only after you create the kind of business that can permit that. Once

you understand this concept, you will marvel at the focus it generates in your business creation.

6. Such Compensation Is Your Right: When you are the owner, you are entitled to be paid, not as

compensation for your time and not to reward you for your effort its not even because you took the

entrepreneurial risk. When you have built the kind of business that does not require your active

presence, you are entitled to be paid merely because you hold the equity. Its your business. Its your

money, you can do with it what you want.

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7. You Will Own Something of Transferrable Value: If you build your business properly, you will

manufacture value lasting value. The kind of value that you can pass down to your children and they

can pass down to theirs. But too many people who own businesses nickel and dime their business

through inferior planning and preparation.

One Christmas when I was a teenager, my uncle gave me a crisp $50 bill as a present. While I was still on

Christmas Break, my friend and I went to the movies and then we went out to eat. Later I bought some

candy and played some video games at the arcade. By the end of the day, most of my fifty dollars was

gone and I had nothing to show for it. Far too many small business owners reach the end of their

working years just to find that because of poor growth and development planning practices, they have

nickel and dimed their businesses for years and now they have nothing to show for what they have

done. Squandering your time and money is never a good business practice, so dont let it happen to

you.

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5 TIPS FOR CREATING A GREAT BUSINESS FROM THE GROUND UP

Discovering what defines a successful business requires the successful business owner to take a look in

his or her entrepreneurial rear view mirror once success has been achieved. When they take that glance

there should be several things that strike them as obvious that help to get where they are right now.

They Discovered the Need before the Opportunity: Something that has become very common is the

person who is looking for a business to start instead of the person who is looking to start a business.

Believe it or not there is a difference. The person who is looking for a business to start is, in essence,

saying, I have the solution. Can anyone tell me what the problem is? In business, we are problem

solvers. The business becomes successful as a result of its ability to meet a need, not simply because it

exists.

They Innovated on Purpose: Every business must, of necessity, discover and exploit its unique selling

proposition. You have to be able to answer the question, What is it that makes me different than

anyone else? As a part of that process, you must be able to find something that makes you better,

stronger, faster, lighter, or cheaper. Intentionally seek out a new process that will give you a

competitive advantage in you market and your customer a reason to say, Yes!

They Failed on Paper First: They tried out their business model on a Spreadsheet and determined what

they needed to do in order to succeed. Of course, it is impossible to know precisely what

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will happen when a business goes live. However, there is a model or a pattern that the business is set to

work through. Test it. For example, if you plan on purchasing your widgets on 30 days credit, then

based on your mark up, how many widget will you need to sell before that time is up? And will that

level of sales support your rent, payroll, office supplies and the like? If not, its ok. Fix it now.

They Found a Way to Get Started: Although we are advocates of the analysis of which we just spoke, I

always caution business people not to get caught up in the paralysis of analysis and other delay tactics.

There is a safe harbor that many people find in the process of business planning. You can pour a lot of

time an energy in getting everything just perfect and gathering more and more information. However,

the truth of the matter is that every small business owner, operates on imperfect information. The

comfort that many feel in the planning process is actually the avoidance of the fear of the unknown

thing that will happen when you flip the switch to your business to On.

They Knew What Happens Next: There is so much time, effort and attention given to ensuring that we

dont fail that we oftentimes fail to prepare for that unexpected success. Here is a question that may

startup business owners cant answer, What is the very next thing you need to do when a prospect

says, Yes? Believe it or not, it is the contingency that we are least prepared to handle. Every person

who has a business should take a moment and write out step-by-step what will happen if they are

successful in obtaining a new customer.

By considering these five tips for creating a successful business from the ground up, you place yourself in

the best position to enjoy the fruits of entrepreneurial bliss.

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10 COMMON MISTAKES WHEN CREATING A SMALL BUSINESS

I firmly believe that there is no problem if you make some mistakes as a small business owner. In fact, if

you dont make mistakes, you are probably not trying hard enough. However there is a problem when

you repeat the same mistake. As a business owner you need to minimize needless mistakes. If you can

learn from the mistakes of others you are all the better off. Below are 10 common mistakes made by

small business owners that you should work to avoid.

1. Startup Over-Expenditure: When you start forming your business, you are lulled into a false

sense of security. Everything seems just fine. There is no rent; there is no payroll; there are no phone

bills. All you are doing is building the dream. So you buy this and you buy that and you try this and you

try that. But for every purchase and every try you decrease the money that you might need later. The

better strategy is to do just enough to ensure that the business is viable that it can breathe on its own.

Then allow the business to justify the additional purchases.

2. Shooting from the Hip Preparation: The Ready Fire Aim approach to business growth and

development is a common mistake when creating a small business. Investing in rash, unplanned and

oftentimes emotional decision making will establish a flimsy foundation for your business. Always ask

yourself the question, What is the business reason for the decision I am about to make?

3. Paralysis of Analysis: Whereas a shooting from the hip tendency causes you to make decisions

too soon, because of Paralysis of Analysis you make decisions too slow. In business, we

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almost always make decisions based on incomplete knowledge. However, the person who tries to

minimize the risk of a decision to nearly nothing will almost never make a decision. There has to be a

balance that allows you to always have forward momentum.

4. Building Your Business Around Your Talent: If you go into business doing something with which

you are great, then the business will tend to be focused around your personal service or contribution.

As a consequence, you will tend to not develop people and thusly you will not develop your business. As

the business grows, then it will require more of your personal services and contribution. Your time and

attention will be demanded by your business and eventually it will become a burden to you. You will

grow to resent what you have created. You will desire to bring others in who can help you, but they will

only be good at what you are great at. When your customer feels that there is a decrease in the

quality of the services your business offers they will seek someone else who can meet their needs.

5. Working for Yourself: This phrase infers that you have a job where you are your own boss. The

truth of the matter is that when you are the business owner, you dont want to have a job at all. A job is

what you do to earn a paycheck. But you are a business owner, your responsibility should be in growing

a business. The different in these two focuses is huge for your business.

6. Lack of Self Discipline: The truth of the matter is that you are in control. There is no one to tell

you when to show up, or when to go home. No one will tell you that you shouldnt spend all day

watching TV and playing with the kids. You have to do it all as a matter of your own

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discipline. You have to recognize that there is value in each moment that you are awake and that you

will either seize that moment or waste it.

7. Failure to Adapt: Entrepreneurs cannot develop rigid patterns. You have to be prepared to

adapt to whatever new situations arise and you have to be actively looking for those adaptation

opportunities. Just because you have used the same insurance company for many years doesnt mean

that you are getting the best deal right now. However, we tend to become comfortable with what we

have and know. That is not necessarily a good practice.

8. Failing to Develop a Vision: The business person who has no vision is one who will wander

aimlessly from day to day. They will have an uncertain future because that is how they have defined

their future. It is important to know where you are planning to go so you will know when you get there.

9. Failure to Make the Workplace Attractive: In business, you have two sets of customers who you

must establish and maintain attractiveness. The first is the one who buys your products or services. But

the second is the one who works for you. You will invest much time, effort and money in your

employees. However, if you do not make your employment offering sufficiently attractive, then you will

have merely trained your competitors next employees. Then you will have to begin the same

investment in time, effort and money in the next employee. Unless you do something and the cycle will

continue perpetually.

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Small Businesses That Succeed Dont Grow on Tre es

10. Paying Yourself Too Much: There is always a perplexing question that many business owners

have, How much do I pay myself? The challenge is that in the early stages of your business, income

does not flow regularly. Therefore, the tendency of many owners is to pay themselves first. Thats what

we are told when you work for someone else and receive a regular paycheck. However, now you are the

parent of your new business and you have the responsibility for ensuring that its needs are met it you

intend for it to survive. It will have to take priority and until you have made it an effective operation,

you will have to take a back seat.

small businesses that succeed don't grow on trees

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