Big Organizational Challenges Can Be Overcome With Transparency

With five different generations active in the workforce, it is more important and difficult than ever to keep morale high, employees engaged and turnover low.

According to a 2012 report by Bersin and Associates, $720 million is spent annually on employee-engagement activities alone, and that is expected to increase drastically to about $1.5 billion.

However, the real solution is relatively simple and completely free, yet very few companies embrace the concept: organizational transparency.

At ClearCompany, we conduct annual goal-setting and alignment meetings with presentations by executives and department heads, as well as quarterly check-ins to report on progress. As a result of this company-wide transparency, we have a highly-engaged team and amazing morale. Very few people leave.

Getting started on the path to transparency might be easier than you suspect. Follow these tips to make positive changes that will impact your bottom line:

1. Bring everyone together in an informal setting. 

One of the most powerful aspects of transparency is the clarity it brings to the workplace. Without both transparency and clarity, employees can feel overlooked and confused about their role within the company.

Bring small groups of management and employees together in an informal setting. Present the opportunity as one in which employees can express general concerns, share positive experiences and have an open conversation about what is working and what isn’t.

Beginning the dialogue can be as simple as discussing interesting happenings in the industry and your team’s take on them. Then, lead the conversation into current projects, milestones, and areas of difficulty that need to be overcome.

Don’t come into these meetings with a formal agenda, but allow the opportunity for your team to speak freely and feel comfortable engaging. Just by introducing transparency within a company, employee morale increases exponentially.

2. Identify and share the “5 W's” of company decisions.

 When business decisions are made -- whether big or small -- fill employees in on the details. If information is consistently withheld, it is difficult for employees to understand the strategy and trajectory of the company and their role within it. As such, their work can easily become misaligned or out of scope.

Share the “5 W’s” -- who, what, where, why and when -- of company pivots. This not only engages employees and helps them feel valued, but also clarifies how they will be impacted by the changes. Also, make sure management is available and able to answer questions.

To remain engaged, productive members of your corporate community, employees must understand what their personal responsibility is relative to any changes coming down the pike.

Being open and transparent about company challenges also allows employees to see the bigger picture and feel more empowered to play an active role. With this level of understanding and engagement, your teams will proactively introduce new and creative ways of finding solutions.

3. Be transparent about turnover and encourage mentorship. 

If employees are continually watching team members come and go with no understanding of the cause, retention will suffer.

Remain transparent about employee departures. Clearly communicating team changes in a timely manner will keep employees confident in the team you have worked hard to put in place. They will feel secure not only in their jobs, but also in their specific role and contributions.

Also, leverage transparency to build more collaborative processes. Encourage your leadership team to be true mentors and take an active interest in improving employee skills. Try setting long-term personal goals for each employee that affect the company and their continued growth within it.

By valuing and championing transparency like we have at ClearCompany, you will naturally develop a culture of honesty, collaboration and strong leadership, helping everyone grow. This type of transparent and value-driven culture will see employees stick around for the long haul.

An Ode to Transparency

Advice can be a great thing, but sadly the average entrepreneur receives so much that he or she must become an expert in filtering out the information that simply won’t work. But there is one piece of advice that is worthwhile that works across all industry sectors and types: Have regular, relaxed companywide meetings where members of the team can receive important updates, hang out and wind down together.

Regularly gathering all employees to discuss what is happening and creating a scenario where honesty and ideas run freely can help companies build toward the ideal of transparency.

Before our managers knew it was the right word for what we were doing, transparency was part of my company's culture: At Wix.com, the status of every marketing campaign and product in development is routinely made available to every employee. We've even taken this concept into the physical realm by making sure all our walls are of glass. Regular meetings take place at the team, department and company levels to discuss priorities, challenges and potential new directions.

All these decisions have helped us build a stronger company and these are the reasons why:

1. Unity

As startups mature and grow, they inevitably run into the challenge of transferring the passion for the company to those who weren't there from the beginning. The key to building commitment at a growing company is ensuring that all employees, no matter when they joined the team, are given a voice and empowered to collectively help lead the organization forward.

Transparency plays a critical role. Keeping employees informed of wider company issues, struggles and accomplishments pays off: Any employee could have an opinion or idea that leads to a breakthrough. It also helps break down departmental walls and barriers that can sometimes hamper the sense of company unity. By keeping the full team in the loop, the leaders are showing that every individual is necessary and appreciated, a feeling that will only breed a stronger commitment to working together and furthering the organization's goals.

2. Creativity

From the first day, Wix instituted a companywide communication system that automatically informs the entire team about status updates for products, campaigns and sales. Throughout the company, massive screens show projects going on in the company.

Beyond serving as an efficient internal communications system for a staff that now numbers more than 700 employees, it also allows for maximizing our most important asset: human capital.

Over the last six years, employees from marketing have developed brilliant ideas for feature updates. Ad campaigns have been initiated as a result of quirky ideas from developers and products dreamed up by the customer-service team.

Not only is important to spend lots of time and energy in hiring and retaining talented and creative professionals. Part of maximizing this talent is giving employees access to information.

A CEO needs to set the vision for a company makes a big mistake by assuming that he or she is the smartest person in the company. Opening up access to information means trusting that the best ideas may come from other places. We've embraced this mentality and because of it our company has thrived.

3. Accountability

Companies that don't offer access to information will inevitably suffer from problems of accountability and finger-pointing. For example, one course of action might help a certain project while simultaneously damaging another. Or managers might oversee tasks with incomplete information, with only the senior leadership possessing the ability to put the puzzle pieces together. The result is a team that will constantly and rightfully say, How could I have known?

But when all players on a team understand how the pieces fit together, their actions can be channeled in ways that foster growth and progress.

Giving employees responsibility and demanding accountability aren't harsh realities: They are signs of respect, appreciation and trust. Colleagues will know when they're appreciated, and few things show this more than the willingness to put faith in them.

The effort to conceal information from employees is not only counterproductive. It's exhausting. So a leader might ask, What do I gain by deciding who gets to know what? Transparency, on the other hand, pays off by facilitating a high level of employee involvement and encouraging staff contribution to quality decision-making. It also requires far less energy.

15 Signs You're an Entrepreneur

Pressed to describe the stereotypical entrepreneur, which words would you use? Passionate? Dedicated? Optimistic? Sure, those apply. But insecure and troublemaker are more accurate, according to 'treps who know a success when they see one. Do the following traits, characteristics and quirks describe you? Well then, you might be an entrepreneur (at heart, if not yet in practice).

1. You take action.

Barbara Corcoran, founder of The Corcoran Group, co-star of TV'sShark Tank and author of Shark Tales: How I Turned $1,000 into a Billion Dollar Business, says people who have a concept but not necessarily a detailed strategy are more likely to have that entrepreneurial je ne sais quoi. "I hate entrepreneurs with beautiful business plans," she says.

Corcoran's recommendation? "Invent as [you] go," rather than spending time writing a plan at your desk. In fact, she believes that people with life experience have an active problem-solving ability and think-on-your-feet resourcefulness that can be more valuable than book smarts alone. Those who study business may be prone to overanalyzing situations rather than taking action.

2. You're insecure.

"Many entrepreneurs judged as ambitious are really insecure underneath," Corcoran says. When evaluating potential investments, she adds, "I want someone who is scared to death." Those who are nervous about failing can become hyperfocused and willing to do whatever it takes to succeed. If you feel insecure, use that emotion to drive you to achieve your business goals.

3. You're crafty.

"One of my favorite TV shows growing up was MacGyver," confides Tony Hsieh, CEO of Las Vegas-based Zappos, "because he never had exactly the resources he needed but would somehow figure out how to make everything work out."

A lifelong entrepreneur, Hsieh has done everything from starting a worm farm to making buttons and selling pizzas, so he admires MacGyver's "combination of creativity, optimism and street smarts. Ultimately, I think that's what being an entrepreneur is all about--playing MacGyver, but for business." It's not about having enough resources, he explains, but being resourceful with what you do have.

4. You're obsessed With cash flow.

Before founding Brainshark, a Waltham, Mass.-based developer of technology for business presentations, Joe Gustafson bootstrapped a venture called Relational Courseware. "All I ever thought about wascash flow and liquidity," he says, admitting, "there were seven times in [the company's] eight-year history when I was days or hours away from payroll and didn't have enough cash to make it."

How did he respond? "In the early days, you could step up and put expenses on your personal credit card, but that can only go so far," he says. "You need cash--even if you have the best company and the best receivables in the world--to fight the battle one more day." Other strategies he recommends include working with a partner who can provide cash advances on projects and maintaining close communication with suppliers.

5. You get into hot water.

Stephane Bourque, founder and CEO of Vancouver, British Columbia-based Incognito Software, says true entrepreneurial types are more likely to ask for forgiveness than permission, forging ahead to address the opportunities or issues they recognize, even without approval from higher-ups.

"Entrepreneurs are never satisfied with the status quo," says Bourque, who discovered he was not destined for the corporate world when he kept coming up with new and better ways of doing things--ideas that were not necessarily appreciated by his bosses and often were interpreted as unwanted criticism. Now, he says, "I wish my employees would get into more trouble," because it shows they are on the lookout for opportunities to improve themselves or company operations.

6. You're fearless.

Where most avoid risk, entrepreneurs see potential, says Robert Irvine, chef and host of Food Network's Restaurant: Impossible. True 'treps are not afraid to leverage their houses and run up their credit card balances in order to amass the funds they need to create a new venture. In some ways, he says, they are the ultimate optimists, because they operate under the belief that their investments of time and money will eventually pay off.

7. You can't sit still.

Entrepreneurs have unbridled energy that fuels them long past the time when their employees have gone home. They are eager, excited and energized about business in a way that makes them stand out. Irvine would know: He owns a restaurant in South Carolina, is opening another in the Pentagon and has a line of food and clothing products, on top of hosting his TV show.

8. You're malleable.

"If you have only one acceptable outcome in mind, your chances of making it are slim," cautions Rosemary Camposano, president and CEO of Silicon Valley chain Halo Blow Dry Bars. If you are willing to listen, your clients will show you which of your products or services provide the most value.

Her original vision for Halo was part blow-dry bar, part gift shop, "to help busy women multitask," she explains. But she quickly learned that the gift shop was causing confusion about the nature of her business, so she took it out, replaced it with an extra blow-dry chair, and things took off. Smart entrepreneurs constantly evolve, tweaking their business concepts in response to market feedback.

9. You enjoy navel gazing.

Without direct supervisors, entrepreneurs need to be comfortable with the process of evaluating their own performance, says Laura Novak Meyer, owner of Pennsylvania's Little Nest Portraits. That requires "a willingness to solicit feedback from those around you to self-improve," she says, as well as paying close attention to feedback you may not have asked for, such as customer complaints or being outpaced by competitors. Little Nest surveys every client to ask for opportunities for improvement, and Meyer has worked closely with a business coach for the past five years to identify personal areas where she needs to improve.

10. You're motivated by challenges.

When confronted by problems, many employees try to pass the buck or otherwise wash their hands of the situation. Entrepreneurs, on the other hand, rise to the occasion. "Challenges motivate them to work harder," says Jeff Platt, CEO of the Sky Zone Indoor Trampoline Park franchise. "An entrepreneur doesn't think anything is insurmountable … He looks adversity in the eye and keeps going."

Candace Nelson, founder of Sprinkles Cupcakes, agrees. Despite naysayers who questioned her idea for a bakery in the midst of the carb-fearing early-2000s, she persevered and now has locations in eight states. In fact, she was one of the first entrepreneurs in a business that became an ongoing craze, sparking numerous copycats.

11. You consider yourself an outsider.

Entrepreneurs aren't always accepted, says Vincent Petryk, founder of J.P. Licks, a Boston chain of ice-cream shops. They may be seen as opinionated, quirky and demanding--but that is not necessarily a bad thing. "They are often rejected for being different in some way, and that just makes them work harder," Petryk says. When his former boss didn't approve of his off-duty research into ice-cream quality, he went out on his own to develop a made-from-scratch dessert in bold flavors. Rather than copying what most other ice-cream shops were doing, including buying from the same well-known suppliers, Petryk forged his own path. His early competitors? All but one are no longer in business.

12 . You recover quickly.

It's a popular notion that successful entrepreneurs fail fast and fail often. For Corcoran, the trick is in the speed of recovery: If you fail, resist the urge to mope or feel sorry for yourself. Don't wallow; move on to the next big thing immediately.

13. You fulfill needs.

Many people recognize marketplace holes, but it is the true entrepreneur who takes them from cocktail napkin to reality, says Jennifer Dawn, partner in New York City-based Savor the Success, a business network for women. "Entrepreneurs think of a way to fix it and take steps to fix it. They are innovators." So when Savor's network of women began asking for advice and input from co-founder Angela Jia Kim, she and Dawn created a new product: Savor Circles. These mastermind groups connect four members who give each other tailored input and expertise; even better, they provide Savor the Success with a new revenue stream.

14. You surround yourself with advisors.

Actress Jessica Alba, co-founder and president of Santa Monica, Calif.-based The Honest Company, which sells baby, home and personal-care products, notes that "it's important to surround yourself with people smarter than you and to listen to ideas that aren't yours. I'm open to ideas that aren't mine and people that know what I don't, because I think success takes communication, collaboration and, sometimes, failure."

"Success takes communication, collaboration and, sometimes, failure."
--Jessica Alba, The Honest Company

In other words: True 'treps don't hire yes men; they talk to those with experience and conduct thorough research, gathering as much information as they can to make informed decisions rather than taking a shot in the dark.

15. You work and play hard.

"Entrepreneurs fall down and pick themselves up until they get it right," says Micha Kaufman, who snowboards and sails in addition to runningFiverr, the fast-growth online freelance marketplace he co-founded.

Like in sports, the key to success in business is staying super-focused, the CEO notes. During Fiverr's launch, instead of trying to deal with "an endless number of potential challenges," Kaufman and his team focused on "the single biggest challenge every marketplace has: building liquidity.

Without liquidity, there is no marketplace. It's like worrying about the skills needed for frontside-360 jumps before getting on a snowboard and learning the basics."

Managers Can Be True Leaders Not Just Taskmasters

A quick glance at articles comparing leaders with managers might lead to the hasty conclusion that a leader is broad minded and benevolent, capable of thinking in terms of the long term and motivating and inspiring employees. The manager role is typically described as coping with the status quo, thinking for the short term and issuing requests from the executive branch.

In my opinion, it's potentially damaging to put too much emphasis on contrasts. "Manager" refers to a position in an organization, while leadership is a quality. Experience tells me that some managers can also be excellent leaders. 

Managers are often in the most thankless positions. They must execute company objectives and are tasked with often unpopular actions like implementing cost controls or enforcing employee discipline and carrying out layoffs. Plus, in an entrepreneurial business, the manager acts as the buffer or gatekeeper between the president and owner and the rest of the organization. 

I spent a long time in managerial roles and am now privileged to run my own company, which has allowed me to see the convergence of leadership and management from a different perspective.

So, for new or mid-level managers hoping to move up into increasingly senior leadership roles, here’s what I wished I knew when I was in your position:

1. Hold the CEO accountable. 

Promoting accountability in the workplace does not involve the dynamics of a parent-child relationship. Yet managers are not just responsible for holding subordinates accountable. Rather, accountability should flow in all directions throughout the organization. To build and sustain a successful organization, every person in the company must hold one another accountable, including those of higher rank.

2. Be yourself.

Plenty of people will tell you how to act around your CEO or other senior leaders. The key is to always be yourself. Don’t put up a front. Be genuine and stay true to who you are. It's easy to see through a charade.  

3. Don’t sweat every last detail.

Managers sometimes don’t want to come forward until all of the data is tied down with 100 percent certainty. I would rather know the direction earlier, with less certainty, however. Don’t spend 70 percent of your time chasing down the last 5 percent, which may not even add significant value. By acting this way, you are showing an ability to make decisions in the face of uncertainty.

4. Avoid looking at the other guy’s wallet. 

There are times when a commissioned salesperson who is doing well could potentially outearn a key executive. Never let small thinking get in the way of how people should be compensated and certainly never cap commission plans. Create an environment that defines and rewards individual and team success. Never let anyone else’s jealousy distract you.

5. Be informed. 

Develop multiple data sources in your organization. Don’t let a culture develop where it’s politically incorrect for you or anyone else to speak with other people in the organization. To be successful, you need feedback from your frontline employees and beyond. Identify your key opinion leaders and listen to them. Make sure they feel empowered to communicate with you because I guarantee you they’re communicating with other employees and influencing perceptions.

6. Manage behavior.

A big part of the job is managing behavior. The minute some managers discover that this is a part of their job, they think it’s a kindergarten task. It’s not. You must ensure employee behavior is in line with your organization’s values and that your employees not only understand the company’s values but also never compromise them. As a key executive, managing behavior is one of the most important things you can do to engender a vibrant  culture and ultimately bring your company forward.

7. Put your mission and value statements into action.

The point of these documents is not to just place a poster on the wall. When it comes to your mission and value statements, you must have a plan to put them in action. Communicate them over and over again. Your employees are the ones who will breathe life into these statements, and it is your responsibility to be sure these goals and values are clearly understood. Employees will also pick up quickly on hypocrisy, when leaders post a set of values yet conduct themselves in a contrary manner. 

8. Know the 20/60/20 rule.

When your company is engaged in fundamental change, be sure you understand the 20/60/20 rule. This means 20 percent of your employees will already be on board, and 60 percent of the employees are winnable. And 20 percent will never be convinced, so don’t waste your time. Once you explain and implement the case for a change, the faster you can move forward with it. But always remember that you won’t win over everyone. 

9. You may be good today but what about tomorrow?

Sure, you as a manager may be in good shape now, but are you setting yourself up to succeed in the future? Keeping up with the trends, technology and what is happening in your organization and industry is essential to your company’s long-term success and growth. Develop your own personal plan and evolve and stay relevant. Don’t allow yourself to become a dinosaur.

10. Implement the three Ts.

Whether you’re dealing with a CEO or another employee, follow the three Ts: respectful treatment, transparency and trust. When these are upheld, you set yourself up for a successful relationship that has flowing communication. When any of these are violated, you risk potentially losing an employee or damaging a relationship.

How to Answer Questions Better Than Anyone Else

Be as willing to respond to questions as you are willing to ask them. If you hesitate to answer, people think you aren’t cooperative, don’t know the answer, don’t know what you’re doing, or that you lack confidence. You might even be viewed as acting arrogant and superior in your nonresponse.

Choose your words and tone carefully to hit the right degree of clarity. 

Listen to what the question is. Keep a “pass the salt” tone of voice with no hidden agenda emotion. Maintain a relaxed facial expression.

Attentively lean forward to answer the questions simply, concisely, truthfully, and targeted to the audience. 

Follow the USA Today’s slogan: “Not the most words, just the right ones.” Keep the answers organized. Use complete sentences. End sentences. Provide one thought at a time.

Practice important or complicated answers when you’re not on the hot seat 

so that the answers come to you more readily when you are. Think about what you should, could, or want to answer to a question. Rehearse it in your head, and depending on the importance, rehearse it on your smart phone then play it back to hear how you sound. Listen and think how it will sound to others and how they’ll likely react. Change your wording if necessary to get the reaction you want.

Try out different words to test the different effects. 

Follow the instructions given to airline pilots who are taught to select words that minimize travelers’ anxiety. The phrasing “The new departure or arrival time is…,” is better than the word “late.” The word “gate” is preferable to “terminal.” And “destination” sure beats “final destination.”

Choose descriptive words

 since they have their own body language: For example, “We get a lot of referrals” is bland compared to, “We get a beautiful number of referrals.” “We work well together,” is less convincing than “We work in harmony.”

If you don’t know the answer, say you don’t and then go find it out. Don’t fake or try to fool with the hope that “if you throw things against the wall some will stick.” Don’t attempt to show how much you know when in truth you’re disorganized and nervous and don’t know. “I don’t know but I’ll find out,” works.

“Yes” and “no” are perfectly acceptable answers to almost every question. 

They avoid the groan, “How short the question; how long the answer.”

“That’s something I choose not to answer,” can be your response if they are just being nosy. You don’t have to answer every question (just as they don’t have to answer yours), but it does tend to stop the conversation flow.

 “I’m just going to skip that question” is an answer that works sometimes. It’s more straightforward than what politicians are taught in the art of “nonanswer.” As former White House insider George Stephanopoulos explains it, “The fundamental rule is to shoehorn what you want to say into the answer no matter what the question is.”

If you keep getting the same questions, you’re not answering well. Answer, and then ask, “Is that what you were asking?” or “Does that answer the question?” to make sure you did. Keep it a conversation, not an interview. Pay attention to micro-questions the person is asking. Pay attention to people’s answers to your questions. You need to hear and know their interests and priorities to determine the answers you need to give and questions you need to continue to ask.

Return to questions that were unanswered by you because they got skipped over with “Something I may not have explained well….” It shows you listen, remember, and take responsibility to answer as asked.

10 Things All Entrepreneurs Must Do Before Quitting Their Day Job

Before running a business full time, many entrepreneurs toggle between their day job and a dedicated side hustle. So how do you know when it's time to take the leap and leave your steadier gig behind? If you can check these items off your list, consider your decision made and exit your current job on a positive and graceful note. And for four more indispensable startup tips, check out the video above. 

1    1.Research  Do the requisite market research, talk to potential customers and scope out your competition. 

2   2.  Legal Engage an attorney to trademark your ideas and incorporate the business.

3. Web presence Buy a domain and build a dynamic website.  Make sure customers have a way to get in touch with you and your team.

4. Money Open a bank account specifically for your business

5. Social media Find the platforms that work for you and start building the support of your customers.

6. Identity Develop a consistent brand from your logo to your voice on social media.

7.  Team building Work with like-minded co-founders and assemble a support network of investors and advisors. 

8. Business plan Can't take action without one.

9. Budget  Make sure you have clear, separate books for both your business and personal expenses.

 10. Presentation You're going to have to share your vision with many people as you get the company off the ground.  Get your business proposal presentation in top shape.  
 

We Have Lost Sight of the Real Meaning of Innovation

As new terms go, innoveracy may be a bit of a mouthful, but it’s breaking important ground in today’s business landscape.

Horace Dediu, an analyst with Asymco, recently published an essay after realizing there is a universal ignorance around the meaning of innovation. He argues there is a fundamental misunderstanding around the concept, so he is attempting to coin the word innoveracy, which means the inability to understand creativity and the role it plays in society, to both describe and address what he sees as a worsening problem.

Only time will tell whether the word works its way into the popular vernacular, but the issue Dediu raises is important and timely. As a business culture, we have become obsessed with the word innovation. Its meaning, as Dediu describes, is very simple: “something new and uniquely useful.” However, as we have come to embrace innovation as a popular topic of discussion, its definition has been stretched to the point where we truly are losing sight of its real meaning.

It’s now possible to over-innovate, under-innovate and pre-innovate, among countless other types of innovations. In truth, a spectrum of innovation shouldn’t exist. However, now it does, and many people in business, regardless of experience level or role within the organization, are expected to embrace and operate under an increasingly broad array of definitions.

This needlessly complicates what should be a simple mandate and increases pressure in the workplace.

At Windstream, managing innovation starts with defining it, and there is only one kind. We do not over-innovate, under-innovate, pre-innovate or innovate productively. We only innovate.

If simply defining it sounds easier said than done, it’s because it is. Defining it is only one half of the equation. The other is explaining how creating something new and uniquely useful occurs, all within the context of your company’s short- and long-term objectives and external market factors that impact your business.

More often than not, people will gravitate toward the external market factors and pursue ideas that address a trend. While that is crucial to sustaining relevancy from a brand and product standpoint, it may lead to a culture of need-to-be-innovators who only pursue a certain type of idea and outcome, which may not be a fit for the company.

It’s critically important for senior management to share a vision and be clear in communicating the need to explore ideas at the crossroad, which will not only clear up confusion around innovation and relieve pressure among employees, but also inspire innovation, moving the company forward in a positive direction.

7 Secrets to Designing a Business That Gives You Ultimate Flexibility

We live in unprecedented times. Any entrepreneur today can develop or source products from one of thousands of manufacturers and suppliers, open an online store and reach a global audience of buyers -- from anywhere in the world!

Sounds like a dream, doesn’t it? It is, but it’s a dream come true if you know how to design your business for maximum flexibility and leverage.

The following are seven secrets my colleagues and I have used to build businesses that give us the ultimate flexibility to decide when, where and how we want to work.

1. Choose your business wisely

Certain business models allow for much more freedom than others, so you must choose a business model that matches your desired level of freedom.

Many entrepreneurs start their business with freedom in mind, but then choose a business model that gives them anything but.

After three years of hard work, they are miserable because they feel like they can’t step away. The easy-to-grasp example here is the person that opens a restaurant with the conflicting goal of being able to travel the world whenever they’d like.

Sure, there are globetrotting chefs that live a glamorous lifestyle of travel and celebrity parties, but that’s very rare. Most restaurant owners are there at 6 a.m. to receive the morning delivery of food, and there at midnight to finish cleaning and close the place down.

Be careful to choose a business that has the ideal characteristics to provide the lifestyle you are after.

2. Automate everything

The software that is available to help you run your business today is like magic.

Software systems such as Infusionsoft have eliminated so much manual work and cost from building and running a business that it almost feels like cheating when you know how to use it to your advantage.

Consciously work to find how you can automate every task possible at your business.

3. Only use online systems

When it comes to creating a lifestyle business, nothing has done more to make it possible than the Internet. To completely leverage the potential of the web, you should only use business systems that live on the Internet and can be accessed from anywhere in the world.

Not only does this allow you to operate from any place with an Internet connection, but it also makes it much easier to integrate your business systems together, and integrate with your various suppliers and vendors.

Doing so means less manual tasks and processes, faster communication and increased flexibility.

4. Outsource instead of employ

Not everything in every business can be automated (wouldn’t that be nice?). For those things that still need to be done by a living, breathing human being, you should be aggressive about outsourcing everything that doesn’t absolutely, positively need to be done by employees.

Employees are expensive, can require a lot of hand-holding and are hard to get rid of once you have them. You can find outsourced help for every imaginable task, at prices that will shock you.

5. Empower front-line decision-making

If you want to truly have a sense of freedom from your business, you can’t be glued to your email and phone all day long answering basic questions for your team. You must learn to delegate the “front-line” decision-making -- things such as customer support, refunds, minor operational changes, etc. -- as effectively as possible.

We give everyone on our team three simple guidelines to work from when making a decision. We have them ask the following:

1. 1  Is it good for the company?
2. 2.     Is it good for the customer?
3. 3.     Are you willing to be held personally accountable for the decision you are about to make?

If they can answer "yes" to all three of these questions, they should go ahead and make the decision.

6. Market and sell online

There is nothing cooler than the first time you wake up to a customer order from someplace on the other side of the world. Marketing and selling online makes this possible.

By being able to market and sell online, you give yourself the gift of a much, much larger potential customer base, and the ability to reach them at a cost that is unheard of in history.

If you master marketing and selling online, you’ll never have a shortage of qualified prospects and customers in your sales pipeline, which means more consistent revenue for you.

7. Create recurring revenue

The ideal business doesn’t just sell something once to a customer and then say goodbye. The ideal business creates revenue that comes in multiple times, and ideally very consistently.

It takes a lot of hard work to find a new customer, so once you do, you want to make that relationship as lucrative as possible. There is nothing more liberating than knowing that you have predictable income coming in, month after month.

In some businesses, this is more difficult than others and you have to get a little creative to generate a recurring relationship, while others are naturally recurring in nature.

But you’ve no doubt seen businesses that have taken normally one-off purchases and turned them into recurring revenue models. Businesses such as Dollar Shave Club and MeUndies.com come to mind as two recent and successful examples. If underwear can be turned into a recurring revenue model, just about anything can!

Get creative with your business model. Recurring revenue is quite possibly the best thing you can do for your business, so make this a priority.

I’m a big believer that building your ideal lifestyle doesn’t have to wait until you are done building and selling your business. Follow the seven secrets outlined above and do both at the same time!

Lead From the Top: 5 Core Responsibilities of a CEO

What are the responsibilities of a CEO?

This is something everyone at a company from an entry-level employee to the chief executive should know. After all, understanding what is required of a CEO helps him or her set the stage for the success of the enterprise It also helps employees better understand what the CEO is trying to accomplish, how they can be in support and what they should aspire to accomplish.

CEOs have five key responsibilities, no matter the company's size, industry or geography. Only the chief executive -- who  has a holistic view of the firm -- can take on these duties:

1. Own the vision

 A CEO should determine and communicate the organization’s strategic direction. Until that's settled, making decisions about anything else at the business is difficult. And without this, the company is merely a collection of people pursuing individual goals, guided by their own values.

While other people may help shape the strategic vision, the CEO must be able to describe it in a clear, engaging and exciting way for all stakeholders. All the players in the organization should understand how this direction affects their job and daily responsibilities. Everything the CEO does should support this vision. Too many CEOs have allowed the strategic vision to be nothing more than slogans on a piece of paper rather than guidance informing all key decisions.

2. Provide the proper resources

Only the CEO can perform the task of balancing resources -- the two most important ones being capital and people. The CEO must make both available in the proper quantities and at the right time for the company to succeed.

All executives have experience dealing with budgets and allocating resources. But the CEO's job involves keeping a proper balance of resources for all the disparate groups and initiatives, according to the company’s goals. Skill in making such decisions requires a deep understanding of all aspects of the business as well as a clear vision.

Putting the right people in the right positions with the right training is probably the single most important thing a CEO can do. With the right team, all things are possible. With the wrong team, nothing else matters.

3. Build the culture

Culture is the set of shared attitudes, goals, behaviors and values that characterize a group. It adds up to how things get done at a company and influences the entirety of the employee experience and thus the customer experience. Every organized group of individuals develops a culture -- whether it's explicitly recognized or not -- and the CEO must constantly observe and be involved to achieve the desired culture.

The most critical part of culture is values: The CEO ensures that those values are applied consistently from top to bottom, across all departments. A good culture makes people feel safe and respected, enabling them to perform at their best.

4. Make good decisions

A new CEO is often surprised by the breadth of issues confronting him (or her). One minute the CEO is discussing a new product, the next a human resources issue -- and then along comes a legal issue. It's impossible for anyone to be an expert in all aspects of the business, yet the CEO is the person tasked with making the decisions. Many problem require a solution that will end up affecting multiple departments, and only the CEO is empowered to take such an action. Everyone else can pass the buck from time to time, but the CEO will make the final call when no one else will or can.

5. Oversee and deliver the company's performance

Everyone agrees that the CEO is ultimately responsible for a company’s performance. To be successful, he or she must take an active role in driving that performance. This requires maintaining a keen awareness of the firm's industry and market and being in touch with the core business functions to ensure the proper execution of tasks.

The CEO also serves as the interface between internal operations and external stakeholders. He or she needs to ascertain how different stakeholders expect the company to perform, interpret this for internal teams and then be sure the proper metrics accurately gauge performance. “You get what you measure” is an apt adage. The CEO sets the bar for the level of performance to be reached, regardless of the company's size, type, circumstances or stakeholders.

Some CEOs might find be content to sit back and let the job arrive at their doorstep; after all, there are always tactical things that need to be done. But successful CEOs plan how they spend their time, according to the above responsibilities (and not just tend to urgent to-dos). To successfully grow a company, the CEO should have a clear picture of how to fulfill these functions that only he or she can do, prioritize them and find balance when dealing with the onslaught of issues.