Business Growth On Purpose

Owner Interview: The Future of Energy with Hunter Bjork || Ep 317

If you're a manufacturer or an OEM or in other heavy industrial categories, then you know that energy is one of the biggest cost inputs in your world. It can affect your profitability in direct ways.
One could argue that it is the critical link in your supply chain.
Today, we dig into the visionary future of energy production with Hunter Bjork, Founder, and CEO of ISA Industries. He joins us to explore the future of energy and how it affects your business.
Hunter believes that all energy should be inherently sustainable, affordable, and decentralized. As the Founder and CEO of ISA, he focuses his energy on the exploration and development of new sources of electrical power.
After listening to today's episode, visit Hunter's website to learn more about ISA Industries and the exciting work they are doing! 
 

Making Priorities Specific and Measurable with Jose Palomino || Ep 316

What are your specific priorities for your business? Take a second, pause, and really think about your answers.
Are they specific? Is there a clear destination you're aiming for? And how do you know (as a company) if you're reaching your goal?
Today, Jose breaks down why your priorities as a business need to be specific, measurable, and easy to communicate if you're going to leverage your whole organization's focus.

OWNER INTERVIEW: Doing Good is Good Business with Stuart Benton || Ep 315

When it comes to your brand, virtue and growth aren't mutually exclusive. Especially when you know how to rally loyalty from like-minded customers.
Our guest today is Stuart Benton, President, and CEO of Bradford Soapworks. Bradford is a leader in solid personal care products, operating through B2B channels.
Their work has led them to embrace sustainability–or as Stuart says, "Doing well by doing good." And, as we will learn, that’s been really good business. 
Stuart moved into the position of President and CEO of Bradford in May 2016, after serving as Bradford's CFO for over 5 years. He is building upon Bradford’s innovative culture and pursuing important initiatives for the company’s growth. 
After listening to today’s episode, visit Bradford Soap to learn more about their sustainability efforts. 

Picking Smarter Growth KPIs with Jose Palomino || Ep 314

Your P&L sheet can tell you about your growth today, but it's limited in what it can tell you about your momentum tomorrow.
That's why as a business leader, you need to know what KPIs give you smarter insights into how your business is growing. These KPIs help you assess critical questions like:
Are we diversifying our customer base?
How effective are we at re-engaging our existing customers?
Is our team getting more efficient in delivering our offer?
The first question is always what do you measure, followed shortly by how do you measure it. Today, Jose tackles a few of the smarter KPIs he's seen inform faster, smarter business growth.
 

High Quality Growth for High Quality Exits with Damon Pistulka || Ep 313

The #1 mistake business owners make when it comes to selling their business is waiting too long to start preparing their business for sale. 
The key is focusing on high quality growth in your short term goals so that when it comes time to sell, your business is structured for maximum value to your buyers. That kind of growth is our topic today.
Today's guest is Damon Pistulka of Exit Your Way®. We are going to talk about something that is on your radar or soon to be on your radar: what do I need to know to get ready to sell my business.
This is not a how-to sell your business, but a discussion of key principles of how to be ready, know you're ready, and how buyers are going to look at your business when the time comes. 
Damon helps business owners translate goals into real-world results. He is focused on identifying and executing opportunities to increase business revenue, profitability, and value. With 20+ years of building and managing businesses in extreme conditions and diverse industries, Damon’s drive to help clients reach their goals helps them crush competitors and dominate markets to create valuable businesses they can sell when they are ready.
The proven framework Damon and the Exit Your Way® team developed and successfully used in private equity-owned companies is time tested and is used to drive successful results today.
After listening to today's episode, check out Damon's website to learn more about how he helps business owners sell their businesses fast. 

The Big Myths Around Financing with Brendan McMoran || Ep 312

Today, we sit down to talk about financing with Brendan McMoran, VP at First National Bank. Specifically, we're taking a deep dive into small business financing. 
In this episode, we'll bust a couple of myths that might keep you from getting the resources you need to grow.
This episode is especially relevant to those thinking about an acquisition, expansion, and working capital. Brendan is going to walk us through a couple of key things that will help you grow your business on purpose.  
Brendan helps business owners turn their dreams and goals into reality through creative financing solutions. He has over 15 years of lending experience and takes great pride in connecting with clients, seeing their visions, and offering them custom solutions through the SBA loan programs. 
As a Business Development Officer with First National Bank Small Business Finance, Brendan focuses on commercial real estate, construction, practice transitions and expansions, change of ownership, and franchise start-up financing. 
After listening to today’s episode, connect with Brendan by reaching out to him through LinkedIn!

The 4 Step Strategic Growth Plan with Jose Palomino || Ep 311

In the $5M-$50M space, we see a lot of business owners who struggle with this tension: big picture strategy versus day to day operations.
In order to keep your high level goals on track, you need to keep your vision simple and clearly understandable.
That's why in this episode, Jose brings you a clear 4 step plan to set and track your strategic trajectory. Using the picture of a rocket ship, we cover:
The Target: the customers, the margins, market share - the key measurable goals
The Launchpad: the resources, structure, and foundation that you use to launch your mission
The Rocket: the "vehicle" you use to reach your goals is what you offer, your value proposition taking form
The Conditions: the final factor to help you anticipate challenges and see opportunities in your environment
Applying the Strategic Plan
After listening to today's episode, we'd like to invite you to experience a strategic planning call directly with Jose Palomino.
It's a conversation about where you are now as well as where you want to go. By the end, you'll have powerful ideas and specific actions you can take to push your growth forward.
Click Here for Your Free Strategy Consultation
 

Safety Isn’t Sexy, But It’s Good Business with Nelson Brison || Ep 310

Look, we know. Everyone needs safety. But many businesses in the manufacturing space have a bad habit: putting safety at the bottom of the priority list.
Today's episode isn't about guilting you into thinking it's important (thought it might). It's about showing you how safety and long term profitability go hand in hand. Safety isn't sexy, but it's good business.
Our guest today is Nelson Brison of Contingency Safety Solutions Inc. Nelson is a specialist in workplace safety. So if you run a business in industrial services, manufacturing, or anything else where you have to be concerned about the safety of your team, we are going to talk about some principles in how to think about safety and why safety is strategic and can lead to increased profitability in real practical ways.  
Workplace safety is something Nelson experienced firsthand. As someone who has been a workplace accident victim, Nelson has been instrumental in introducing and building safety programs with the help of safety consultants and continuously learning better safety procedures. Nelson has been a senior business development VP in steel fabrication, machining, shipbuilding, and mechanical repair. 
After listening to today's episode, visit Nelson's website to learn more about how he is helping build safer and more effective workplaces. 

The Secret Sauce to B2B Online Marketing with Dave Meyer || Ep 309

Lead generation is the lifeblood of any business, but it's also one of the hardest facets for business owners to lock in. If that's you, we have someone you want to talk to!
Our Guest today is Dave Meyer of BizzyWeb, a growth marketing agency in Minneapolis. In today's episode, we will talk about practical ways for you to create a lead generation platform online for your B2B company. We will discuss insights on how you can do this now, available technology and, the best part, how to do it for free!  
Dave helps "high trust" businesses entering their growth phase to attract, engage and delight their audiences to close more deals. BizzyWeb brings leads and sales to our clients using inbound marketing, optimized websites, advertising, content, SEO, email and social media. 
He is a speaker and trainer for Google and HubSpot, and spends much of his time training and sharing how to use technology to grow business and leads.
After listening to today's episode, visit Dave's website to register for free training and events designed specifically for marketers and revenue teams. 
 

Making Business Work for You with Noah Graff || Ep 308

Our guest today is Noah Graff of Graff-Pinkert. In today's episode, we will discuss some interesting perspectives on how to make business work for you.
Noah is the host of Swarfcast, a podcast that helps professionals in precision machining excel in their careers.
For more than 10 years, he has been a used machine tool dealer, or "treasure hunter" as often calls it, buying and selling used equipment all over the world.
He is also a blogger and editor for the website Today's Machining World, directed at the precision machining community.
After listening to today's episode, check out Noah's podcast, Swarfcast!