Fix Yourself To Fix Your Business

Time flies…

It’s been almost 2 years since I’ve published a newsletter.

In that time, I’ve built a company, sold a company, became co-owner of two other companies, and plenty more.

In other words, I've learned a lot about owning and operating agencies and, in my opinion, those learnings are more valuable when they’re shared with others (versus rattling around in my brain).

And truthfully, that’s the goal of this newsletter - an ongoing challenge to myself to document and share what I’m learning as a hands-on operator of multiple agencies (and hopefully, many more to come).

With that being said, I’m excited to share what seems to be my most given piece of advice to other agency and business owners… Your personal problems are your business’ problems.

Fix Yourself To Fix The Business

As an entrepreneur, it’s almost part of our DNA to constantly strive for growth and success. But sometimes, growing our business has to take a backseat until we face our own personal issues.

If you personally struggle with discipline, you’ll likely find that your business develops a culture of unruliness where anything goes.

If you personally struggle with control, you’ll likely find that every action in your business begins to flow through you (whether you want them to or not).

If you personally struggle with comparison to others, you’ll likely find that your business eventually takes on the appearance of your closest competitor, completely losing anything that makes it unique.

I could write a hundred examples if I needed to, but you likely already get the point…

In a small business, the entrepreneur’s strengths and faults quickly become the strengths and faults of the business. It’s not done on purpose, or out of spite, it’s simply due to the size of the business.

At an Apple or Amazon, there isn’t one single person who controls most of the day to day. But in a small business, that’s hardly never the case (especially in the first few years of growth). The entrepreneur likely injects themselves in most situations to ensure things get done, and the business lives to see another day. And to be honest… I’m not sure there’s a way to “solve” this.

I think the best way to counteract it is to simply be aware of it. I’m not sure Pneuma, or any company I’ve been involved with, would’ve grown as quickly if the entrepreneur leading the charge wasn’t injecting himself or herself into the day to day operations of the company.

I write all of this to ask a simple question - is this something you’ve faced? If so, what personal developments did you make in order to further your business?

The Trio

In each of the future newsletters I will include a section called “The Trio”. It will list out three cool things that I want to share with you. Just to set the expectation, there won’t be much of a rhyme or rhythm to this section :)

• In under 48 hours, a few team members at Pneuma built a web calculator that shows you what you could’ve purchased with the money you paid in taxes. If you’re interested in checking it out and providing some early feedback, just shoot me a reply

• If you know me, you know I like personal finance. I feel like I’ve been on a never-ending hunt for the perfect personal finance app, however, I found one that’s caught my attention for more than a week (which is rare). Check out “Oops” on the App Store for a fun take at categorizing your personal finance.

• I love credit card points. There’s nothing better than getting rewarded for spending money that I was already going to spend. Recently I learned about this hack that lets you convert AMEX Points to Brokerage Cash at Schwab. The only downside is it requires a Platinum Amex, which isn’t the cheapest credit card out there, but if used correctly it shouldn’t “cost” you anything (assuming you use the rewards it offers)

An Ask...

I've written newsletters before, but it's been a while. What would you like to see more of moving forward? Anything seem "weird" about this edition? If you can spare 30 seconds and let me know, it would be much appreciated!