The Blog of Maui Mastermind

Have you ever dreamed of building a business you could sell for millions?  Or of growing your business to the point where you could transition completely out of the day-to-day operations and own it passively?

If you’re like most business owners this just sounds too good to be true–it feels almost impossible to build a business that doesn’t require you to be there to run it every day.

After 15 years of working with hundreds of thousands of business owners one thing is very clear–most business owners are building a job for themselves, not a business.

The businesses they are building are dependent on them showing up to run them–day in, day out.  They’re Level Two businesses–with long hours, no real freedom, and no defined exit strategy.

Don’t let that be you.  If you’re a entrepreneur who is committed to take your business to the next level, then I strongly encourage you to read through this email.

You’ll learn about a powerful resource you can leverage to take your business to the next level.  You don’t have to build your business in isolation; you can upgrade your peer group and access a proven accountability structure to do it faster! 

There Is a Better Way to Build Your Business!

As part of the Maui community of business owners you’ve heard me talk about the Level Three Road Map™, a concrete game plan to build a business you can one day sell, scale, or even own passively.  You’ve heard me share real life case studies of dozens of our successful coaching clients that we’ve helped to follow that road map and take their businesses to the next level.

People like:

Tom, the ex-engineer who totally changed his approach to his successful wholesaling business to let go of the control, and instead build to put his business in control.  As a result he’s increased his profits and cut his working hours in half!  He’s on pace to double his business in the next 24 months.

Jennifer, who grew her software company by 80 percent, and added over $1 million of enterprise equity in less than 12 months of working with us.

Blake, an ex-army major who revolutionized his I.T. business and grew it by over 300% in just the first 36 months of working together!

Lainy, who grew her manufacturing company from Middle Stage Level Two to Advanced Stage Level Two in our first year working together, freeing up over 12 hours a week of time to reinvest in growing her business!  She’s currently in the process of expanding to a second manufacturing facility now.

Brian, an ex-national champion athlete who in our first year working together not only freed himself from 90% of the operational area of his business, but also doubled his sales!

What do these business owners have in common?  They all recognized that following a winning road map and working with an experienced advisor team who’ve done what they wanted to do is the fastest, smartest way to reach your goals.

Let Us Help You Reach Your Business Goals 

The programhas 3 distinct layers to it:

Layer I:  The Strategic Layer

We’ll work with you to get a deep understanding of your current business, and you as a business owner.  What are you and your business’s strengths, weaknesses, limiting factors, bottle-necks, and leverage points.  The proprietary tool we’ll use to dissect your business is called the Level Three Business Audit™.

After you complete this 128-question assessment of your business, we’ll schedule a private one-to-one teleconference to go over the results.  Together we’ll map out a customized 90-Day Strategic Action Plan for your business listing out your top three strategic objectives, along with the milestones and action steps you need to follow to reach these objectives. (We’ll even record the entire session so you can refer back to it later!)

Then every 90 days we’ll meet in person to update your Strategic Plan so that you always have a clear, timeline driven action plan to focus your energy and grow your business faster. 

Layer II: The Execution Layer

The thing that separates the successful business owners from the also-rans is the way you execute on your plan. To make sure you execute on your plan, we’ll match you up with a private mastermind group of 7-9 other business owners at roughly the same stage as your business.  Most of these business owners will intentionally be in unrelated industries so that you can bring new ideas, best practices, and perspectives into your business.

You’ll meet with your mastermind group every month with one of our business specialists facilitating the mastermind session.

Also, every two weeks you’ll have a private half-hour phone consult with your consultant to make sure you are staying on track.

Plus there are multiple small group “hot seat” sessions spaced throughout the month for you to get immediate input on any business challenge you’re dealing with, feedback on ideas, and input on resources to leverage in your business.

The goal is to make sure you have the support, clarity, and accountability to execute on your Strategic Action Plan.  While everyone gets off course from time to time, the key is to never let you drift for longer than several days before we bring you back on track.

Layer III:  The Business Development Layer

This is the detailed process we’ll take you and your team through called the Level Three Road Map™ so that STEP-BY-STEP we help you build out the systems, the team, and the intelligent controls you need to successfully reach Level Three.

Part of this is a custom video training program designed just for your business to actually walk you through in small, easy to follow steps, the actual build out of your systems, team and controls.

Plus, your Maui Coach will make sure you’re making consistent progress in building your business as a business, versus getting stuck in the day to day job of your business.

Then at the end of the quarter, we’ll meet in person for a private Mastermind Intensive to take stock of exactly where your business is, its progress to Level Three, and to map out the coming quarter and balance of the year.

This way you will always have a clear, up-to-date road map to follow as you build your business.

Plus at the live mastermind sessions you’ll be able to connect with your peers and deepen those all important relationships.

We encourage those of you who have begun developing a management team to bring your key leaders with you so that you can use the mastermind sessions as an offsite time to fine-tune your business.

Then you go back into the Execution Phase and repeat the process.  This is how – step-by-step–we’ll help take your business to the next level.

How Can We Guarantee You and Your Business Breakthrough Results?

This is a very fair question. And our answer is simple — we’ve done it ourselves — again and again!

You see, we’ve each built multi-million dollar businesses from the ground up. We’ve faced the same challenges you’re facing: creating a winning business strategy, dealing with employee and vendor issues, controlling costs, and growing sales.

Remember, over the past 25 years, the Maui Advisors have personally created, launched, scaled, and sold over $2 billion of businesses!

But more important than the fact that we’ve done it in our own business lives is the impact our ideas and program has had on the lives of other business owners like you.

The real question is, are you serious about taking your business to the next level? 

If you are, then chances are that as you’ve read this letter you’re intuition has been telling you that this is the missing ingredient you’ve been looking for.

I urge you to take the next step now and pick up the phone and call my office at 1-866-214-6619.  I’m not sure if your business is a fit for the program or not, but I do know that after a short 10 minute phone conversation our team will be able to better guide you to the best resources to use to take your business to Level Three.

If your business qualifies, then we’ll schedule a Strategic Business Consultation to look at your business and exactly where you want to take it.  Normally this one-to-one session would cost $425, but because it’s become our best way of discovering some of most successful clients, if your business qualifies, we’ll do the session for free!

In fact, we’ll do this session as if you were one of our consulting clients so that you can get a real sense of what it will be like to work with us, and we can get a real feel for what it would be like to work with you.

Now this may seem like a lot to just find the right clients, but please understand that we’ve honed the process so that we only accept people who are going to both thrive in the program and who are enjoyable to work with.

If you think this person might be you then I urge you to call my office right now.  The number to call is 1-866-214-6619.  Or just email us at programs@mauimastermind.com.

Don’t miss out on this opportunity.  The elite Maui Mastermind program was designed to give you the structure and the accountability… the road map and the upgraded peer group… the direction and the feedback you need to take your business to the next level.

You don’t have to go it alone out there.  Together we will make certain that you’ll succeed and reach your business goals.

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How many business owners do you know who have had an employee or partner steal money from them?

Has it ever happened to you?

Today I am going to share with you 10 “must have” financial controls to protect yourself and your business.

These 10 controls come out of my last book, Build a Business, Not a Job: How to Build Your Business to Sell, Scale, or Own Passively.

It’s part of Chapter two pages 26-30. The reason I share this is because if you don’t already have a copy of the book, I’d like to give you a copy with my compliments –FREE!

The book is 176 pages of great information on how to grow your business, develop strong systems, and build intelligent controls in your business. In fact, it will walk you through the entire lifecycle of your business from launch to exit.

I wrote the book along with my co-author Stephanie Harkness, an incredibly successful serial entrepreneur and past Chairperson of the National Association of Manufacturers.

Simply follow the link below and get your complimentary copy of the book.

——> Click Here To Get Your Free Copy of This 176-Page Book! <—–

That said, here are those top 10 must have financial controls:

1. Have more than one person involved in any one cycle of money.This is an essential “check and balance.” Having two or more people sign off on all money flows and money cycles reduces temptation and makes fraud or theft less likely. Here are a few examples:
   • Person A logs in checks and cash; person B verifies the math and makes the deposit.
   • Person A deposits the money; person B reconciles the bank statements.
   • Person A writes out the checks; person B reviews and signs them.
2. Thoroughly check employees and independent contractors before you hire them. Do a criminal background check on each one and, if they handle money in any form, a credit check, too. Verify employment history and talk with past references, confirming that these references are real.
3. Reduce liquid cash, which is always a temptation.
   Get cash out of the system ASAP and with great care and attention. Here are a few examples of what you can do:
   • Replace petty cash with a reimbursement system.
   • If an employee collects cash from a customer, have that cash immediately deposited the same day with two people involved in that cycle of money flow.
   • Get machines that take credit cards versus only coins and bills.
4. Have appropriate balances accessible in operating accounts and keep other monies in a segregated account(s) with tighter financial controls. This lowers your exposure yet allows you to give access to small accounts with appropriate controls to staff who need operating money.
5. For purchasing decisions, formally set levels of spending authority for your team. For example, if the expense is less than $1,000, no approval is needed, but supporting documentation and receipts must be filed with the area manager. If the expense is more than $1,000 but less than $5,000, the area manager must approve the expense in advance. If the expense is more than $5,000 . . . You get the idea.
6. Establish formal refund and return policies that spell out who is and is not authorized to refund. Spell out which kinds of refunds each has the authority to do.
7. Determine safeguards for customer credit cards and other financial information.
   For example, lock all file cabinets, shred trash daily, use password protection on computer databases.
8. Create a formalized expensing system. This would include a list of expenses that are and are not reimbursable as well as a standardized expense report team members must use. Include a space on that form for the person to sign, declaring the expenses submitted are true and accurate. Require that receipts be attached for all expensed items.
9. Get to know your business and the key numbers so you can quickly see what’s normal and what’s not. Encourage your management team to understand the same. Make it a core value of your business to immediately red flag anything that seems strange. Follow up on all red flags immediately. Here are some examples:
   • Key ratios: Check your cost of goods sold ratio, net income percentages, gross margins, and other relevant financial ratios for your business on a regular basis. These should stay consistent. If they vary or look abnormal, find out why.
   • Key expenses: If you don’t recognize a vendor, suspect an expense is out of line, or see income anomalies, investigate immediately.
   • Key rough checks: Look at the indirect ways of ball-parking your financial numbers to corroborate that things are in line with what’s normal. E.g., compare inventory turns to sales figures; compare staff hours to sales volume; etc.
10. Obtain the right kind of insurance and bonding coverage if appropriate.
    

I hope these ideas help you protect yourself and your business today!

Here again is the link to get your complimentary copy of Build a Business, Not a Job:

——> Click Here To Get Your Free Copy of This 176-Page Book! <—–

Take action now and enjoy this gift with our compliments!

 

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Wouldn’t it help to have a concrete road map through the entire lifecycle of your business from launch to exit?

Well today is your lucky day because I’m going to share with you a short, short summary of this road map. We call it the “Level Three Road Map.”

A Level One business is a business start up. At this point not only do you have little freedom (you’re working long hours just to get things going) but you have little control.

A Level Two business is a business that is operating successfully, but the business revolves around the owner of the business. In essence the business works as long as the business owner is there each day to make sure that it stays working. At Level Two you have the control, but no real freedom.

 

A Level Three business is systems dependent. It is a business that is independent of any one person–including the owner of the business! There are intelligent business controls in place, clear processes and procedures, and a winning management team to guide the venture.

At Level Three you have both the control and the freedom. You can still work in your business, but now it’s a choice each day, not an obligation.

Now we actually break down Level Two into Early, Middle, and Advanced Stage.

With that said, put your business to the test to figure out exactly where you are at on the Level Three Road Map!

Simple Test to Determine Which Level
Your Business Is At (And What to
Focus on at Each Step Along the Way!)

Read through the following descriptions. Choose the description that best matches your business:

Level One: Your business is in start-up mode. You are currently writing up your business plan, or looking to secure your initial funding, or you are scrambling to prove out your business concept. Now is the time for you to sharpen your thinking on paper and launch your business.

 

Early Stage Level Two: You’ve done your planning and initial organizing and your business is going. You’ve got a few paying customers but now you are absorbed in the mad dash to close more business to make sure your fledgling company survives. Now is the time to stay focused on creating the reliable sales and marketing systems and to control costs so that you can make sure your cash flow is stable and allows you to grow.

 

Middle Stage Level Two: Your business is profitable and stable. It works… but to keep it working you’ve got to be there to run it each day. You may have employees, but all the key decisions pass through your desk. If you’re not there to work in the business the business comes to a grinding halt. Now is the time for you to build out your businesses core and start to bring in the team to pull you out of parts of your business.

 

Advanced Stage Level Two: Your business is working well. You’ve got at least one or more key manager/leader in your business to run one of the five core areas of your business: Sales/Marketing, Operations, Team/HR, Finances, and Executive Leadership. Now is the time for you to focus on finishing out your business systems and developing your management team.

 

Level Three: Your business is systems reliant and has a winning management team in place. You’re working there each day is no longer a necessity. You can replace yourself from the daily need to be present for your business to function optimally. Now is the time for you to fine-tune your business strategy, your communications systems between you the owner and your key leadership team, and to define your role if you choose to scale or own your business passively. Also, you’ll need to refine your company dash board so that if you choose to own your business passively you have the key information you need to make sure it is firing on all cylinders (and if not, give you the warning and time to step back in and address the situation.)

So where is your business on the Level Three Road Map? And what does your business focus need to be?

Here is a link to a 4-minute online quiz you can use to more accurately determine your business’s current stage and level. PLUS based on your results, you can access a short video tutorial for each level and stage so you know where to best invest your business’s resources.

—-> Link to “Road Map Quiz” (takes 4 minutes to get accurate assessment)

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Today I wanted to share a very powerful concept that every business owner not only needs to know about, but also needs to use.

It’s called creating your “Core Story”, and it’s the single most important way for you to give your employees, your clients, your prospective clients, and your market place a clear, coherent context in which to fall in love with your business, and to understand your core branding.

I’ll share with you how to use this idea and an example in just a moment, but first I wanted to remind you that if you haven’t yet gotten your complimentary copy of our newest book, Build a Business Not a Job: How to Build Your Business to Sell, Scale, or Own Passively, then make sure you get follow the link below to get your copy now.

——> Yes I want my free pdf copy of this 176-page book NOW! <—–

Now, back to your Core Story…

Every Business Has a Core Story

Your core story is the story of how and why you started your business to begin with.  It’s told with one purpose in mind, to quickly and powerfully share your defining branding in a story that speaks to your listener emotionally.

 We all know stories have the power to communicate so much information and emotion in a short, tight way.  They allow you to tap into deep symbols and give context and meaning to your employees, customers, and market place.

Maui Mastermind’s Core Story

Let me share what a Core Story is by giving you our example.

In 2003, I was part of a mastermind group of 4 very successful business owners.  We each wrote best-selling books and had training programs for business owners and investors.  2-3 times a year we’d meet in a city for 1-2 days and mastermind on ways to help grow and expand our businesses.  And boy did it work.

My mastermind team helped me to triple my net profit in less than 24 months!

During one of these mastermind sessions we were all griping about how at the average 2 hour training class we gave so little happened.  Sure we might have 500 or more people in attendance, but sometimes it felt like only 1 or 2 ever DID anything with what we taught them.

So we asked a powerful question:  What if we were designing the perfect business workshop, what would it be like?

We brainstormed answers like, “It would need to be in a beautiful location and a 5-star resort…”   “It would need to be over an extended period of time not just one day…” And most important of all, “We would have to pre-qualify every person who attended to make sure they were absolutely committed to playing full out and USING the ideas they were learning…”

At first we were just talking hypothetical, but I said let’s do this, pull out your calendars and let’s schedule the event right now.  With a big gulp that is exactly what we did.

That first year we sold out the first ever Maui Mastermind Wealth Summit at a luxury resort in Maui.  The response was so powerful and the feedback from participants so positive we began holding this $30,000 week-long business owner and wealth retreat every year since.  Considering that over 60% of our graduates pay to come back year after year after year we must be doing something right.

That event became the foundation of the Maui Community of business owners with these super-successful entrepreneurs and the Maui Advisors “paying it forward” to the next generation of business owners by sharing with them the things that made a difference in their businesses and lives.  Collectively the Maui Advisors have started, scaled, and sold over $2 billion of businesses.

Your Core Story Shares 3 Key Elements

1. It pulls in your listener and captures their attention.  Didn’t you find yourself imaging who actually goes to that $30,000 event and what it would be like to hang out with them for a full week in Maui?  Weren’t you curious what happens at Maui to prompt over 60% of the participants attend year after year?

   That’s the point of the story, it captures your listeners attention and pulls them  into your business’s world.

2.  It defines the key branding elements of your business in a symbolic and emotionalized way.  The key branding elements for Maui Mastermind are the community aspect of business owners who mastermind together to help each other take our businesses to the next level.

   Also the elements of the exclusivity, the top-of-the-line, best-in-class get communicated through our core story.  These are essential to the Maui brand.  We never wanted to be a “guru”-driven, just-like-everyone-else company.

   We’ve always staked our claim in the fact that the greatest contributors to the Maui Community are the successful business owners we attract who are paying it forward to the next generation of business owners.  Our Core Story also highlights our Maui Advisors who have personally built and sold over $2 billion of businesses.  This fact establishes both the credibility and differentiation of our community–it is filled with entrepreneurs who have succeeded on a massive scale and can share from their personal experiences.

3. Gives your listener a clear context within which to immediately understand what your business is and if it is in fact something that they may want to engage with.

   For us, any business owner who hears our Core Story who has an ounce of ambition is immediately pulled to find out more about us and how they can leverage the Maui Community to grow their business and become a more successful business owner.  Also, mega-successful entrepreneurs are intrigued with the concept of our flagship event, the Maui Mastermind Wealth Summit, and often want to explore ways they might participate or contribute.

   A great Core Story speaks directly to the dreams, desires, and frustrations of your target audience.  More than that, it gives them the simple languaging with which to quickly and easily understand your business.

Your Next Steps

While I’m gratified that you found our Core Story interesting, and that you now understand the concept of your Core Story, I need you to do one more essential thing… I need you to craft your business’s Core Story.

It’s not enough to passively read our weekly business owner eletter, you need to take action and apply what you’re learning.

Take 5 minutes right now and outline your business’s Core Story.  Remember you are not writing your Core Story for yourself, you are writing it to inspire your employees, your clients, and your market place to better understand you and your core brand elements.

How do you know if you have your Core Story right?  Try it out on some of your prospective clients.  If they don’t light up with curiosity, or instantly connect and relate to your business, or feel the desire to engage with you, then go back to the drawing board.

Good luck writing out your Core Story and using this key concept to make your business more successful.

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