Strategic Planning - Professional Business Coaches

Five Things NOT to Say at Your Strategic Review (or at any meeting)

Two Must-Do Guidelines and Five Clichés to Avoid.

Your strategic review is a rare opportunity to take an objective overview perspective on your business. It is a time for questioning assumptions and a space in which to encourage creativity and involvement. It is not a place for rigid thinking or hackneyed business phrases. In the ideal business world, all meetings should accomplish one or more of four things. They should 1) Generate new ideas to add value. 2) Share...

4 Practical Steps to a VALUES-Driven Business

Too many businesses "talk the talk" on values but fail to "walk the walk." "Integrity: We work with customers and prospects openly, honestly, and sincerely. When we say we will do something, we will do it; when we say we cannot do something, then we won't do it." This sounds great doesn't it? Unfortunately, it's one of four aspirations never actually implemented by the now-bankrupt and infamous Enron. Contrast those empty public relations statements with...

Best Business Lessons Ever, Anyone?

1. It is so valuable to "Work the Process"! At a recent team meeting, we took a few minutes to reflect on last year and to draw out the valuable lessons we learned, so that we do more of the same this year and next year. One thing we unanimously appreciated was what we call "working the process." Here at PBC, we share a common value of approaching work systematically.

It is very important to us that we give the best advice, training, and guidance to our clients...

The 5 BIG Business Risks

Here are the five major causes of business failure and some tips on how to reduce your exposure to these risks.

1. Client Over-Dependence: Take a good hard look at your receivables spreadsheet. Does half or more of your monthly revenue flow from just one customer? If the answer to this analysis is yes, then I'm sorry. You are less a business enterprise and more of an independent contractor. The risk to your future and that of your employees is obvious. The action...

3 Risks to Your Business That Hide in Plain Sight

We have been spending a lot of thinking time lately with Nassim Nicolas Taleb, the author of The Black Swan and Antifragile. Black swans are his metaphor for events that are a) unpredictable; b) massive in their consequences for the people concerned; and c) obvious in hindsight.

Below are the three of his most significant points. We call them “risks hiding in plain sight.”

❶ The world would have us treat our...