Let’s face it. We entrepreneurs think we can do it all. At least, we do….until we realize we can’t. If you don’t come to that realization at the right time, you can miss out on a ton of growth. When I was getting started, I did it all. I was the bookkeeper, the marketing guy, the sales guy, the CEO, the HR guy, the executive assistant, the client director…you name it. Like I said, I did it all. And that’s the way it should be in the beginning. When you start a small businesses , you don’t have the budget to hire a team…
All posts by Josh Turner
A couple of posts back I shared with you how an old school manufacturing company I was part of catapulted to 4x growth by implementing 3 very specific principles (check out that blog here if you missed it). At the same time AMSL was having so much success, Boa Construction (the original residential home building side of the company) was also exploding. (if you missed that story, click here). We were firing on all cylinders and tearing up our market. Eager to continue this growth trajectory, we were looking for new ideas. So, in the midst of this success, we started a…
In my days working as CFO at Boa Construction, I was part of a lot of cool stuff. Like I shared with you in the last My Journey blog, we developed a killer differentiator that our competition couldn’t hold a candle to. (click here if you missed that post) Now, this tool wasn’t the only good thing the company had going for it. We also had a great group of people that worked very hard, and an owner who was passionate about growth. In addition to Boa, there was something equally impressive happening within our sister company, Architectural Millwork of St….
I used to poo-poo mastermind groups. I thought it was little more than a scheme to get people to fork over hard-earned cash in exchange for the right to sit in a room with other fools and share business advice that could be had freely elsewhere. “I’ve gotten this far on my own. Why not just keep doing the same thing?” And that’s exactly what I planned on doing. Then one day a friend of mine, Adam Kreitman, told me about an online group full of high-level marketers. When he rattled off a couple of the names…I thought, “wow…those are some…
Running a business can be lonely. If it’s just you, there’s a lot of time spent alone. A lot of time working by yourself. Even if you have a team, it can still be lonely. The decisions are yours to make, and the weight of those decisions are yours to live with. Being in business for yourself is a massive, winding adventure. It’s like being on the open road, all by yourself, to chart a course that you alone are responsible for. But you don’t have to be alone. One of my all time favorite books is a brilliant parallel…
So there I was, a 25-year-old who looked not a day over 17, and all of the sudden I’m the CFO of a 20-year old company. (If you missed the last step in “My Journey”, click here to get up to speed.) This company was Boa Construction, a company with around 100 employees, doing about $8 million annually. That’s a daunting job for a nervous newbie, but I was ready for the challenge. And it certainly helped that Boa had some amazing advantages over the competition…which meant more beans for me to count. The Differentiator That Kept Customers Coming Back Most construction…
It’s a mindset shift that’s recently helped me in a lot of areas, and I think it’ll do the same for you. In your business and life…are you exercising or are you TRAINING? There is a big difference. I recently read this article “Why You Should Stop Exercising & Start Training” from Hone Life. The following quote really stood out to me. When you train, you prepare more than just your body. You anticipate the obstacles you’ll face, the mindset you’ll need, and the feeling of accomplishment you’ll achieve if you perform well. And therefore you prepare with intensity and…
Recently I shared the story of how my dad’s company was forced to shut its doors. (click here if you missed that post) At the time, it was really devastating to me. After all, I was planning on working full time in the family business after college graduation, which was now only a semester away! I had to refocus, and fast. To Find Plan B, I had to Embrace Uncertainty I was majoring in finance because initially I had thought it would be cool to be an equity analyst. So once my Dad’s construction business was no longer an option, I figured…
What’s better? A cold call, or a call with a prospect who “knows, likes and trusts” you? The answer is clear. But it takes developing relationships to move a cold prospect to this stage. And relationships take time to build, are one-to-one, and can’t be scaled….or can they? I say they can. Relationships CAN be built in a scalable manner, in mass, with people that you barely even know. (But trust me, they know who you are.) Use Online Communities for Relationship Building So how’s this done? The way we do it is by building online communities that attract your…
A few days ago I told you about my earliest work experiences, and how working alongside my dad gave me my first true taste of what hard work really is. (click here if you missed that blog) When I initially started working for my dad, we were carrying drywall up flights of stairs together…but within a couple years, his business had grown to the point where he didn’t have to do the physical labor anymore. Instead of swinging a hammer, he managed the business, worked with clients, and spent a lot of time on marketing and sales. He had positioned himself as one of…