Leverage for Entrepreneurs

Jeff Bezos says that the higher your role is in the leadership of a company, the more you are just getting paid to make good quality decisions.

That's your job - make decisions!

In fact, he only expects himself to make three good decisions each day.

As an entrepreneur running a smaller business, you have to do both the THINKING (making decisions) and the DOING. It's my experience that way too much emphasis is put on the DOING.

Hustle!

Work harder!

Grind!

That's all DOING.

But an entrepreneur has to make good quality decisions, or all of the hustle in the world is just keeping you on a treadmill.

Do you expand into a new market?

Launch a new product?

Sell your business?

These are all critical decisions.

But do you have a FRAMEWORK or PROCESS for making high-quality decisions? My guess is no.

That's why I think you'll find the resource discussed in this episode incredibly helpful - I certainly have.

The pandemic has rocked our economy, destroyed businesses, and made many people feel helpless.

Life got real hard, real fast for a lot of people - including many entrepreneurs!

So how do you stay on track to hit your goals, even when you feel out of control and uncertain about the future?

In this episode, I share a strategy that has worked for me over the last year: setting 'micro-targets'.

This was something I decided to do to make sure I stayed focused and managed my fear of the unknown when I realized how bad the pandemic was going to be...and thankfully the results have been fantastic.

I hope it's as valuable for you as it has been for me!

All the best,

Mike Cooch

The #1 reason why people say they started their business - or want to start a business - is because they believe it will give them more freedom.

Freedom to decide what you want to work on, who you work with, where you live, how often you travel, what time you get up in the morning, and how much money you make.

And a privately-owned business is still the #1 way in this world to create that freedom, which is why entrepreneurship is more popular than ever.

But not every business creates more freedom for the entrepreneur that started it. Some require constant operational attention. Others are fixed to a specific location, making it hard for the founder to travel or live where they'd like.

Every business has factors that limit its growth and the freedom it gives the entrepreneur - I call this 'friction'.

In this episode, I talk about friction and how to remove it to create more freedom from your business. 

All the best,

Mike Cooch

I think I can safely say that we are all glad to say goodbye to 2020 - what a mess of a year in so many ways.

But, as with all challenging situations, there were a lot of good lessons to take from the year.

I found ten lessons from 2020 that I thought were particularly valuable for entrepreneurs.

I hope they are as valuable for you as they were for me!

All the best,

Mike Cooch

In this episode, I interview Michael Booker, who shares his experience building a side hustle that he's incredibly passionate about, having lots of fun with, and is using to build more opportunities for himself and his family.

If you have a passion that you dream of turning into a side hustle, then you are going to love this episode and get a ton of value from it.

In this episode, I share a critical lesson for anyone selling to the small business community.

Selling to small businesses can be TOUGH!

And it's made much tougher if you are focusing on the wrong things when you feel stuck and aren't getting enough sales.

But you may not have a SALES problem at all...here's what it likely REALLY is, and what to do about it.

In this episode, I interview Nehal Kazim - one of my favorite entrepreneurs ever!

I first met Nehal when he was still in college. He was hustling to provide for his family while still in school and had come to my Sales Bootcamp event in Denver, CO to learn how to build a sales process to grow his business.

That kind of drive and willingness to invest in himself is what has always set Nehal apart from other people.

Warren Buffet said something that has stuck with me over the years that I try to keep in mind when evaluating business opportunities.

And I have to admit...I'm pretty terrible at following his advice in this case.

But the 'Automatic Car Wash Lesson' is probably one of the most important lessons for understanding risk vs. reward and how it impacts your ability to create wealth as an entrepreneur.

I hope you enjoy it!

All the best,

Mike Cooch

How do you get and keep momentum as an entrepreneur?

So much of it is your psychology.

In fact, I think the psychology of the entrepreneur is perhaps the single most important factor in the growth of a business.

So what about your psychology takes away from your momentum?

There is one factor that I see very frequently in small business owners and would-be entrepreneurs that I work with that impacts everything from their ability to pick up the phone to prospect, to their willingness to ship new products.

In this episode I share what it is.

Entrepreneur's everywhere struggle to sleep - it's a curse! We have so many things going on in our heads at any one time, that shutting down at the end of the day can be hard.

I've tried just about everything other than sleeping pills (those freak me out), and some things have definitely helped.

But there is one secret that has made the biggest impact by far, and I think it will be true for you as well.

All the best,

Mike Cooch

If you're selling services to the small business community, you have three different types of potential customers that all get lumped together as 'small businesses', but they are very different in what they want to buy and how much they'll pay.

A common mistake - which kills your profitability - is selling the wrong services to the wrong buyers, oftentimes without even knowing that you're doing it

To grow your business quickly and profitably, you must know the three different types of customers, be able to identify them in your sales and marketing process, and strategically design your services to meet their needs at the right price points.

I hope you enjoy it!

Mike Cooch

I learned this rule early in my career, and I think it's been one of the most important - but little known - factors in creating a profitable, scalable service business of any kind.

Digital Agencies, consultants, coaches, and freelancers would all be very smart to pay attention to this rule and adopt it at their business!

I hope you enjoy it!

Mike Cooch

LVRG.com

In this episode, I share a lesson I was reminded of as I watched Apple's recent earnings report announcement.

Their 'wearables' division is growing so fast that it's now bigger than their Mac business, and if split out as a separate company would be one of the 150 largest companies in the world.

That's insane!

It also was a powerful reminder about how you can add huge amounts of profitability to your business.

I hope you enjoy!

Mike Cooch 

Each New Year (and new decade in this case) brings excitement and the sense of having a fresh start.

It acts as a cue for people around the world to spend time reflecting on the past, considering their priorities in the year ahead, and resolving to make specific changes.

And for a period of time, however brief, many people will get better performance from themselves for the days and weeks ahead. Unfortunately, as we all know, for most people that improvement in performance will be temporary.

I believe it's a particularly important learning opportunity for entrepreneurs, who must be able to create their own 'cue' for peak performance each day if they hope to thrive.

I hope you enjoy!

Mike Cooch

In this episode I share with you what I believe is quite possibly the most important skill that you can learn as an entrepreneur…heck, as a human being!

I’m also going to share with you some of the particular strategies and techniques that I have learned around maximizing the skill.

In this episode I share what I believe may be THE most important lesson I've learned about selling to small businesses:

You MUST focus on a single vertical market (at least until you are doing seven-figures of revenue).

There are so many benefits to doing this. In this episode I share four critical reasons why you need to make this decision to focus and go 'all in' on a single vertical if you hope to compete and thrive when selling to small businesses.

I'd love to hear your thoughts!

All the best, 

Mike Cooch 

LVRG 

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In this episode, I share what in my experience is the #1 factor impacting the rate of profitable growth at your business, particularly if you are running a service business of any type: Agencies, consultants, coaches, etc. 

This single factor may seem obvious at first, and I think that's why entrepreneurs overlook it and don't give it enough attention. But it has tremendous 'downstream' impact throughout your business, and should be your focus, particularly in the earlier stages of your business. 

Enjoy and let me know what you think! 

All the best, 

Mike Cooch 

LVRG 

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