My Business On Purpose

For too many business owners it is a pipe-dream scenario that would allow them to leave their business for one month while it not only continue, but also grow in their absence. We are in the middle of doing it right now. After a full Spring of 2023 of working as a team to liberate more clients from chaos professionally, and celebrating some major milestones for our family (daughter’s marriage, final child graduating, and 25-year wedding anniversary), Ashley and I made a decision a while back that we would setup an epic adventure to lean into our family mission of being a light and creating space through wisdom, adventure, and time around the table.  On the last work day of June 2023 we left; and will not return until the first workday of August 2023. By leaving I mean that I, the owner, have no availability to the business team at all.  Email… deleted from my phone.  Slack…deleted from my phone. The only correspondence with any team member or client has been entirely personal to share pics and stories of our

It’s summertime… school will be back in session before we know it and the routine will be upon us! So what questions do we need to ask our business BEFORE fall hits? Let’s dive in… I’ve sat in with clients over the last month and summer is always a weird time. It seems like there is a ton of work, but payments are slow coming in, employees lack motivation or are just absent, and we begin to see the sprint towards the holiday season quickly approaching.  So what questions do we need to ask today to prevent chaos down the road? Well, I may not hit all of them today, but I’ll touch on 3 important ones to ask and engage your team with. Where are we in relation to our written down Vision Story? Don’t have a written Vision Story? Well, start there. Touch on the life you want for your family and the things you want in relation to freedom from work. Talk through your business financials, the products and services you need to offer to hit those financials. Walk through the team size and the culture. All of that. A

What do we pay our new hires? How do we know what the compensation package needs to be? Well, I can tell you it doesn’t start by asking, what is industry standard! One of the questions we get most frequently right now is “What should we pay our new hire?” Now, the first thing I’ll say is if you haven’t listened to any of our podcasts or content on your hiring process, you need to start there first.  You need to make sure you have a Job Role, performance expectations, all the processes needed for their role documented, and have communicated the Mission/Vision and Values of your business. Great, we’ve got that out of the way…we’re ready to hire someone, how do we know what to pay them? Well, I’ve sat with multiple business owners in the past month who have asked the same thing. They always start with, “Well, what are other businesses paying their Project managers, or admins, or sales guys…whatever they’re hiring for.” Friends, let me stop right there and say…that is a dangerous game to play! And it sets you up

I’m a huge NBA fan… but I was struck by something the coach of the Denver Nuggets said minutes after winning the championship this year. Let’s dive in and talk about it today. Thomas Joyner with Business on Purpose here, thanks so much for listening in today. People who say the NBA is trash are just flat-out wrong. It’s absolutely incredible to watch what the Denver Nuggets were able to do this postseason. Their win percentage for the year actually improved in the playoffs, which is unheard of. They humiliated arguably the hottest playoff team of the past few years in the Miami Heat and Jimmy Butler. Nikola Jokic found about 25 different ways to impact the game whether it was driving the ball, launching threes, getting assists, playing defense, you name it! It was insane to watch the way that team came together to reach the mountain top of professional basketball. But here’s what was fascinating to me. The confetti is falling, everyone is holding their kids, hugging, crying, laughing, dancing… all of it. And

Business owners are in a constant state of wondering to what depth they “share the numbers” with employees regarding revenues, budgets, profit and loss statement, and/or balance sheets. A client relayed a story of their administrator going to the mail and coming back with a check for $38,000 to which the administrator looked straight at the owner and said, “Wow, your going to be able to do a lot with $38,000.” Ugghhhh. Business ownership is challenging enough and demands continual responsibility around the health and well-being of employees, budgets, products and services, marketing, sales, customers, and clients.  It is a game that does not stop so how can you relay financial information in a way where employees can begin to understand and positions each employee to see how their work has direct impact on both the top and bottom financial lines of the business? First, you must have clarity on your numbers.  Owners that “wing it” with the finances will scale down their confusion.   Every business owner must c

“I don’t have much to do in my business these days” were the exact words from a business owner I met with last week.  You could get a sense that the words almost scared him as they came out of his mouth and left a concerned sense somewhere between, “I can’t believe this is actually true, ” and, “Am I missing something that I should be seeing?” As business coaches, we can’t help but be excited, and offer a bit of a chuckle when we see business owners arrive at the place where their business is running consistently without their direct, hour by hour, day by day input and effort.  Not by unhealthy abdication, but instead by thoughtful, consistent, intentional leadership rooted in purpose, people, process, and profit. After a few seconds of joy and enthusiasm, we quickly move into a mode where we want to ensure that the owner is in a healthy place, and the team is in a healthy place. Frankly, it makes me a bit uneasy to think about a driven personality with a forward-leaning mindset to be equipped with marginal t

In business, money is constantly moving. A cash flow statement is a bit counterproductive.  As the cash flows, we can see trends and movement.  The moment we snapshot the flow of cash into a static cash flow statement, the cash stops flowing. Taking a snapshot of a rushing river means the river is no longer rushing; it is still.  You can clearly see the river, the level, the color, and the shape, but the rushing-ness of the river is lost in the stillness of the snapshot. The mass publishing of the now infamous story of Chris McCandless documented in John Krakauer’s book In The Wild has led to a surge in the number of me-too explorers who wish to track McCandless’s fateful footsteps.  To reach the famed bus that McCandless made home explorers must trek through and across the Teklanika River.   After safely crossing the river many inexperienced explorers fail to take into account that rivers trough and crest often at unpredictable times leading to many of these post-McCandless explorers stranded in need of resc

“Soaking it up in a hot tub with my soul mate.” How many of you played sports in high school? How many of you have listened to a voicemail that you left for someone else and cringed at the sound of your own voice? For some reason, we decided having a podcast was a good idea, and every time I hear one of mine I’m like…is that really what I sound like? It’s Painful! I remember being in high school and watching film. Anyone remember film sessions? All the guys in here who peaked junior year of high school are like… oh yeah! Should have seen my film! They called me freight train! Haha. Here’s the thing with watching films… there’s nowhere to hide!!! The film doesn’t lie. Here’s the thing in that first clip…Uncle Rico, the character talking there wasn’t willing to look at reality…and probably NEVER watched the film. He wasn’t willing  To look at hard things and say…maybe I’m just not any good. To think critically. No, he lived in this dream land where he was the victim and wasn’t even remotely living in reality. S

We assume, because of our modern loneliness epidemic, that being alone is bad, not realizing that there are healthy forms of loneliness and unhealthy forms.   The legendary John Prine wrote a powerful song entitled The Speed of The Sound of Loneliness.  His lyric lends insight into a common reality for leaders, “you’ve broken the speed of the sound of loneliness, you’re out there runnin’ just to be on the run.”    After launching, incubating, or purchasing a business, the owner or founder begins running at a speed that very few can or will match in the remaining days, years, and decades of the business.  For many, it is a hyper-speed, superhuman pace, unsustainable over time.   There is a sound to loneliness, a narrative, a rhythm that can be of great value to the leader, but for most, they ignore and blast right through the speed of the sound of loneliness and they continue running at a superhuman pace because it is the only way to give momentary satisfaction for our obsession of productivity. We make excuse

Sitting in a room listening to a variety of presentations, most of them non-engaging with slides that looked like this.  HUH? Then a physician stands up and begins to relay a series of statistics accompanied by stories. The suicide attempts among college girls have increased from 1% to 2%...a 100% increase in a 2-year span.  Nearly 1 in 3 girls have contemplated suicide.  We have a college-aged daughter and two college-aged sons…this woke me up.  After the presentation, I waited until the presenter was finished shaking hands and walked over into a quiet corner where he was refreshing coffee and asked, “What happened?” His response, in paraphrase…” it is well documented that there is a two-year reversal in behavior among HS and college students in general…so instead of an 18-year-old dealing with 18-year-old things, you have an 18-year-old who is developmentally 16, trying to deal with 28-year-old things because of the unfiltered availability of information.” Thirty years ago, a small subsection of people in t

How do your customers and clients feel after they’ve done business with you? Do they feel your gratitude? Well, let’s talk about that today! Thomas Joyner here with Business on Purpose. I spent 4 days last week in Mexico with my wife celebrating our 10th anniversary! Gah, what a special time as it was just us for an extended period of time for the first time in 5 years. We’ve done a night or two getaways, but having 3 kids in 4 years meant that we always had a little one at home and so getting any more time than that was challenging. We walked into the resort and from the moment we were there we were welcomed in a way that we never have been before. Let me paint the picture for you. The first morning, because it was the west coast of Mexico and 3 hours behind… I woke up wide awake around 4:30 am. I’m used to going 0-60 when I wake up and it was so strange to wake up and NOT be needed by anyone. The tricky part, breakfast wasn’t served until 7 am! I remembered the concierge telling me they had 24/7 room servic

If you have ever been interested to see a group of business owners conduct a communal eye roll, bring up the topic of bonus and incentives. A few years ago we had a client who decided to reward their team from a banner year and forego distributing a substantial six-figure margin to himself and his partner.  There was no expectation created for this one-off distribution.   It was a $200,000 sum that would be distributed to around 25 employees… you can do the math.  Not bad.   The response? Crickets.   Of the 25 employees, there was a thoughtful “thank you” from three, a casual “thank you” from a few more, and crickets from everyone else. To add insult to unexpected injury, the next day an employee came in and confessed, “I just got a job offer to go make $10k more per year and I don’t know what to do…” Candidly, when calculating an employee's compensation, most owners in businesses with less than 50 employees have not considered the additional investment of bonus or incentive outlays.  When the thought finally

For six years Ashley and I coordinated the meeting of a group of young men who met weekly during the school year.  Some weeks there were four, and others there were sixteen.  All between 15 and 18 years of age and all at different stages of maturity.   We walked these young men through a variety of discussions, situations, and scenarios and even adapted a five stage growth pyramid for each to understand where they were at in their level of maturity.   For these young men we relayed the identification of those stages as  Boy Adolescent Man Mentor Patriarch Upon introduction many of the young men in our group presumed that age was the entry point to each stage.  Turn 13 and you become an adolescent.  Turn 18 and you become a man. One astute young man asked a resonating question around our communal fire pit, “at what age do you become a mentor?” It was akin to asking, “at what year do you become an expert in your field?” In 1964 US Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart was providing an opinion on the use of obsce

Before English was widely spoken in the far corners of the globe, Latin was the lingua franca for much of the European world from the days of the Roman Empire into the middle centuries. Latin stands at the root of many of our English words and offers us contextual insight into the flavor of our language. Some Latin words proved so powerful in the fullness of their meaning that we simply adopted them without alteration into our common language. Such it is with the financially laced Latin phrase pro forma. With past-centric financial statements like profit and loss and balance sheets, it is helpful to see what-was in the lifecycle of our business.   With the power of subdivided bank accounts and the Level Two Dashboard merging the perspectives of real-time cash, real-time receivables, and real-time payables, it is helpful to see what-is in the current state of our business in real cash. We need the what-could-be picture to help us with a complete past, present, and future snapshot of our business.   The pro for

Listen to Jessica VanBrunt, owner of Van Brunt & Company, as she talks about how she implemented processes, a strong company culture, 12-week plans, and effective meetings to achieve business success. 

“It’s just easier if I do it myself.” “No one does it as good as I do it” “They just don’t care as much as I do.” These are all statements that I have heard you make, and they are all statements that will sabotage your Executive Leadership. The leader could drive the tractor, could fulfill the order, could supervise the build, could execute the transaction, could meet with the client, and could negotiate the material pricing. But the Executive Leader reminds herself that she has “Proximity to motivate a team to pursue the named future you see” The Executive Leader creates proximity.  They receive a phone call from the client and elect not to respond, or to immediately pass it to the trained and capable team member who can respond within the core values. The Executive Leader intentionally withholds their response…even when it is helpful, knowing that their discipline will create an opportunity for their team to get more reps in a crucial part of their business. When an Executive Leader willfully withholds a na

Listen to Thomas Joyner, Director of Coaching, and Brent Whitaker, Business Coach, as they discuss the importance of having a clear mission statement. They talk about the difference between passion and purpose, and how purpose is what drives us forward even when our passions change. They also discuss how a mission statement can guide a business and why it's important to define your own mission instead of letting others define it for you. Ultimately, a well-defined mission statement helps us understand the "why" behind our work and keeps us motivated to push through difficult times. LISTEN HERE to learn more! Are you working IN your business or ON your business? Do you have all of the foundational elements that will liberate you from the business chaos?  Take the assessment to find out which areas you can grow and improve on.  Take our Healthy Owner Business Assessment HERE ➡️ https://www.boproadmap.com/healthy SIGN UP for our Newsletter HERE ➡️ https://www.boproadmap.com/newsletter For blogs and updates, visi

Partnerships are hard.  I’ve heard it said, “the only ship that doesn’t sail is a partnership.” Partnerships sound great in theory, almost a no-brainer structure for a small business.  You get two (or more) minds, two skill sets, and twice the available time that in many cases can lead to an exponential outcome.   You also typically get two visions, two opinions, and divergent expectations. Many partnerships function just enough but don’t thrive. In the hundreds of partnerships that we’ve been exposed to we’ve only seen two that can seriously claim that the business is in far better shape due to the partnership than without.   I met with a startup excavating contractor who laid out his plan for his young business, including the threshold levels that would be achieved in order for a second person to be given 49% of his youthful company.   My first question to this eager and excited business owner was, “is this formally agreed upon and in writing?” “Yes.” He assured me that the friend-soon-to-be-owner would be

For 21 years, Ashley and I raised, led, and parented our daughter.  On a beautiful Friday afternoon in April, I had 56 seconds to walk her down a sweepingly curved walkway of gray pavers under an aged live oak tree into the hands of another man who within a few minutes would become her husband.   My time as her dad did not end in the 5 o’clock hour of that Friday afternoon, but my time as the primary male influence in her life did.   In the months and years leading up to this moment, I felt calm and intentional thinking through where we were trying best to lead our children.  In the hours and days after those 56 seconds, my emotions began stirring in realization of a new reality, and one that can bring a man either to joy or regret. I will relish those 56 seconds.  I remember them.  Those few paver-stabilized steps were clear, and I even remember telling my daughter that we should slow down because I had waited 21 years for this short walk together.   The song being sung in the background was entitled Gratitu

She sent us a voice memo saying, “I don’t see my husband or my kids anymore… money is not the issue, I just don’t have the time…I feel trapped by my business.” This Mom is trying to wear the superhero cape in life and at work and feels she is doing neither very well brewing a mental cocktail of disillusionment about the value and gift of business, while also fueling 100-proof guilt straight from the still of societal expectations. Life and business necessarily intersect and can be of mutual value to each other.   Humans were created as a gift to one another, so to work was created as a means of mimicking small little moments of creation each and every day.  This treatise that I am penning now is a small act of creating something new… a small contribution of work.   This morning I was able to sit with my daughter for a short breakfast a mere five days before she is to marry her fiance.  I cannot hide my family emotion from my work creation, or vice versa.  The space for breakfast was set and crafted long befor