Summit OS® Blog
Business Growth and Strategy Insights
Do You Hit the Rule of 40? Have you heard of the Rule of 40? Since the mid-2010s, venture capital firms have used this rule of thumb to evaluate SaaS companies and other recurring revenue businesses. These types of businesses often operate at a loss in the early years while...
Pour Into People to Get Results I recently spoke with a business owner acquaintance who’s been frustrated with her team for some time. “My competitors are catching up, and we lack a sense of urgency and initiative,” she said. I wondered how it was possible that all her people lacked...
Steve Jobs famously said, “Simplicity is the Ultimate Sophistication.” No doubt, keep things simple if you can. However, the opposite can be equally useful. I stumbled on this idea while chatting with a guest on a recent episode of the Management Blueprint podcast. We were talking about the perils of...
Do you ever get frustrated when people can’t make up their minds and leave you hanging? Sometimes a bad decision is better than no decision—at least you can pivot and course-correct. Yet people still hesitate. Why not just pull the trigger? Turns out, decision-making is hard work. It’s mentally taxing,...
Coaching is all the rage these days. Life coaches, executive coaches, and business coaches abound. Is this hype really necessary? Or just a hoax threatening to scam you? I think you can do without this hoopla and ignore the noise. For example, a “life coach” is probably totally redundant for...
One of my team members, Nel, went swimming with friends last week when he suddenly felt a sharp pain in his foot. At first, he thought he had stepped on a sea urchin, but when he looked down, he saw the black ink-like venom seeping from his wound—the mark of...
Want a Leadership Team That Leads Without You? Building a leadership team in a small business isn’t like running a Fortune 500 company or a private equity-backed firm where you can scoop up top talent, toss them in at the deep end, and see who floats. Can swim? Great. Can’t...
Ever wondered how private equity investors grow their portfolio companies? Their goal is simple yet ambitious: triple the value of a small business in 3–5 years before selling it to a strategic buyer or another private equity fund. Why the rush? Their investors expect a hefty 15–20% annual return on...
The Hidden Battle of Entrepreneurship Growing a business can be terrifying—not just because of the risks, but because of the emotional scars it leaves behind. Where I grew up, many believed entrepreneurship was either a scam or dumb luck. You made it to the top by bribing the right people,...
Starting weekly tactical meetings with a positive check-in has become a standard practice for many small business teams. It’s that moment when everyone shares personal or business good news to set a warm, upbeat tone before diving into strategy. Some executives love it, citing the camaraderie and rapport it builds....
As coaches, our business is simple: catalyze results. If our clients aren’t achieving better, bigger, and more profitable outcomes than they would on their own, we’re falling short. Fortunately, we have an arsenal of tools at our disposal. For example, we can: These tools are invaluable, but there’s one that...
Most business owners talk about growing their companies. In fact, Bank of America’s 2024 Business Owner Report shows that 87% of medium-sized businesses expect to grow. But here’s the catch: many business owners don’t truly want growth. What they actually want is a good income and a balanced lifestyle. And...
