If you're an entrepreneur, you've heard the statistics that most small businesses overwhelmingly fail.

In my next six blog posts, I want to show you six elements of how to succeed in business, whatever it is you want to start. 

The first of these blog post topics is Finance.

Money Mindset

After I had started, grown and sold a multi-million dollar business, I decided to coach other small business owners. What took me by surprise were the strange ideas that many new business owners had...

As a Business Coach, here are some questions I get all the time from my clients and prospective clients:

• How can I better manage my time?
• What is my purpose in life?
• How do I set realistic goals?

As you can imagine, most human beings ask these questions and feel reluctant to answer them to their own satisfaction. 

I have read three books on this subject recently. Each book had a different approach to creating your life's priorities and managing your time to achieve what is important to...

Emily entered the bank for what she was sure would be the last time ever. 

She rarely went to the bank unless she had problems with her accounts. This time was different. This time, Emily was making the final payment on a loan she had taken out 10-years ago for her greenhouse and shop building. 

Emily owned a successful flower-shop and greenhouse. She managed to get contracts to supply her local grocery stores and a few other flower shops with flowers; plus she had a growing local...

Fred was a structural engineer. He started out working for a general contractor in the construction of small bridges at first; and then gradually worked his way up to some large projects. 

While he loved what he did, it was difficult to predict how much work his general contractor would get in any one year. The problem was that the only people that would hire Fred's company were municipalities who wanted a design-build bridge project. Since most bridges were designed by firms who were...

Tim couldn't believe it. He'd miss another deadline. He was working so hard. His wife was on his case for missing Peter's baseball game. 

With all that he had on his plate, he couldn't find time to complete an advertising campaign for one of his largest customers. Tim was buried and he didn't see a way out. On top of all of this overwhelm, he wasn't making a lot of money with his advertising agency. He didn't understand what was wrong. He worked hard, he had some decent customers; but he...

Emma had always been a creative person. 

In elementary school she always looked forward to art class. It didn't matter what the assignment was, Emma took it a completely different direction.

She remembers when she was in second grade all the students were supposed to create a windmill with a drinking straw and a folded paper propeller. Emma's windmill ended up being an animated work of art. When the wind blew, Emma's windmill showed an animated cat swatting at a ball of yarn. It had...

It was a gray, fall day as Frank laid his father to his final resting place.

His dad's death was sudden. No one expected it. He was only 65-years old.

While Frank was wrestling with the emotions that come with such a sudden loss, he had another worry that had consuming his thoughts. What would he do with his dad's business? Frank worked with his dad in the restaurant business. Some day in the future, Frank would have taken over the business. In fact, Frank felt like he should have taken over...

Brooke felt like she had done well to grow her interior design business, Brooke's Designs, to over $1,000,000 in annual revenue with only twelve employees. 

But it had been two years and she was continually fearful that she would lose the ground she had gained over the last decade. She remembered when it was just her. She was an interior designer with some great ideas and got some traction with a few customers to start. 

Her customers loved her designs and she continued to gain...

We hear the word VISION so many times; and assign it so many meanings, that we lose sight of what VISION really is (pun intended). 

I've done goal setting exercises, visioning exercises, mission statements, core values, and all sorts of things that are intended to give you clarity around where you want to go, whether it's a business vision or a personal vision. 

In the past few years of my life, I have helped others gain clarity around their business vision and how that ties to...

After a tumultuous week, Michael was told that his position was no longer needed at the home builder he had worked at for almost ten years. 

He knew that the housing market would always have its ups and downs, but never thought he would be a casualty of one of the downs. He was wrong. After his long drive home, he shared the news with his wife and kids. While his wife, Pam, was consoling, she was noticeably shaken. After all, Michael was the primary bread-winner; and their savings was...