Last week at Montana West Economic Development’s (MWED) August E2 (Entrepreneur-to-Entrepreneur) session, I had the pleasure of moderating a panel of business owners whose business have, as I call it, hit “cruising altitude”.
The E2 panels started back during Liz Marchi’s service as Executive Director of MWED and continue to this day, where they are organized by MWED’s Kim Morisaki. Sign up for E2 email notices on their events page.
E2 tends to takes on a business-related technology topic like “How to start marketing your business online” or “Using social media for business”, but the topics also touch on “regular” marketing, operations and other pertinent info for both startup and existing businesses.
In August, we asked accomplished business owners to share a few things with the group about what got them from startup to cruising altitude.
Speaking on the panel were Ray Negron, owner of Cimarron Café and Catering (Columbia Falls); Dave Cordell, owner of The Apple Barrel (Evergreen) and Laura Meissenburg, owner of Meissenburg Designs and Electric Avenue Gifts (Bigfork).
While each traveled different paths to where they are today, their comments echoed similar thoughts about a number of topics ranging from accounting to how they deal with setbacks and especially, adaptability.
One common factor was a constant consumption of business information from sources ranging from the Harvard Business Review (not the hoity-toity publication you might expect – it’s a very good read on a wide range of topics) to cookbooks to face-to-face mentoring with a group of experienced farmers at a local cafe.
You can read Harvard Business Review at HBR.org, where you can sign up for email notifications (weekly) of newly released articles. Read quickly, the free access to articles is available for about a week.
If email and reading online isn’t your cup of Earl Grey, subscriptions to the printed HBR are also available. There are also HBR editions that focus on business in India and China, if your business has an international flavor. Even if it doesn’t, these articles often contain some wisdom you can use right here at home.
All three noted the value of having a spouse or significant other involved in the business – at least tangentially – because the value of bouncing ideas and problems off someone else with a different view was critical to them.
On that note, I suggest reading Napoleon Hill’s “Think and Grow Rich” (TaGR) to learn about a business owner’s resource called a “mastermind”. Mastermind groups have been incredibly valuable in my experience, but good ones can be tough to assemble.
TaGR doesn’t tell you how to assemble a mastermind, nor how to select members, but there are books on the topic (Google is your friend). I can tell you that the right group can be invaluable to your success, particularly if you come to the table with an open mind. Reading TaGR has other benefits as well.
Back to our E2 panel… the group also was 100% consistent about the necessity of absolutely, positively believing in what they are doing. It was clear that a right cross from Muhammad Ali wouldn’t set them back permanently.
Long-time readers know I don’t spend a lot of time talking about the mental side of business here at BiP. I avoid them because those topics tend to be a “the teacher will appear when the student is ready” sort of thing. What I mean by that is that many roll their eyes and discard the head-space kind of stuff as meaningless fluff.
Trouble is, that stuff is pretty critical. If your head’s in the wrong place, your climb to cruising altitude is going to be a rough one. Even if you do reach cruising altitude, head space issues are will make your stay there more difficult, especially in the face of the never-ending challenges that all business owners face.
So what’s this babble about? It’s a little about suggesting you put E2 on your calendar, but more importantly, it’s about absorbing as much business info as possible. Read it, use what makes sense for you and your business and move on.
Want to learn more about Mark or ask him to write about a business, operations or marketing problem? See Mark’s site or contact him via email at mriffey at flatheadbeacon.com.