Building a Fast Growing, High Profit Business

What We Discussed with Steve

On this episode, host Eric Dickmann interviews Steve Preda about building a fast growing, high profit business.Here are some highlights of our conversation:

• [00:03:47] Keeping the end goal in mind – Whatever is the reason entrepreneurs start their businesses, whether they want to sell it in the future or run it forever, it is important to begin with the end goal in mind. Whatever your ideal life is, figure it out first, and then use the business as a vehicle to get you there. A business is a great way for people to fund that ideal life.
• [00:06:40] The two kinds of entrepreneurs – While we all have different goals for our business and personal life, entrepreneurs have two different mindsets – those who fall in love with their idea and hold on to it forever, and people who always want to contribute new ideas to the market, and later profit by selling these concepts to larger companies. 
• [00:08:47] What does it mean to design your future? – In Steve Preda's book- Buyable, he emphasizes four major points. The first major point talks about designing your future. Steve points out that businesses need to identify what they want to achieve in the future and picture their ideal life years from now. Then, business owners have to build a plan on how they can achieve the desired goals.
• [00:12:27] Orchestrating your business – Orchestrating the business is the second step. According to Preda, orchestration is making the business run well. There are three purposes to make a business run efficiently- make it self-managing, growing at a steady pace, and make it profitable.
• [00:18:08] How should companies think about growth? – Do you own some real estate in the minds of your customers? If you feel that you're not growing fast enough, you have to identify your growth drivers and focus efforts on the areas that can push the business forward. Steve encourages businesses to consider four things when looking at growth- differentiating the brand, consistent growth, building a talent-attracting culture, and having an internal sales engine. 
• [00:24:49] Constructing your ideal life – Constructing the ideal life is the fourth element in Buyable. Steve tells business owners that they have to know whether they want to stay in business or not. If they're going to stay in business, they have to identify what the terms are and live with the pros and cons However, if they aim to sell the company, they must accept that there are certain decisions that you won't be able to influence to the same degree. He firmly advises entrepreneurs to sell their business only if they have a compelling future. You are not retiring from the business; you're retiring to something better.