In this edition of PT Reading Corner, our book is called Traction: Get a Grip on Your Business and comes highly recommended by the CEO of Innovative Sport Medicine, Wendy Coombs. Traction is written by Gino Wickman and the premise of the book is simple, do you run a business or does your business run you? Entrepreneurs and business owners tend to face common struggles regarding a lack of profit and poor growth, which Wickman says can be alleviated by incorporating a business model. This model is called the Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS) and provides a simple yet effective method to achieve the business success that you have always dreamed of. Keep reading for some key lessons that you can learn from the EOS.
Lesson 1: Have a Vision
Wickman states that the first aspect of the EOS is focused on developing a vision. Any typical business owner will have an idea of their vision, however this isn’t enough. As an owner, Wickman emphasizes that you must be able to communicate your compelling vision to the people around you, which includes your employees and even potential investors. When explaining your vision, you need to be able to create a clear image of the future of your company and explain how it is going to get there. In order to correctly create an image however, you need to be able to answer some questions first. Some examples include: what are your core values? What is your core focus? What is your marketing strategy and what are some issues that you are currently facing? By answering these questions, Wickman states that you will be able to develop a refined vision and focus all your employee’s energy on it, which will lead to fantastic results.
Lesson 2: Get the Right People in the Right Seats
Every business owner knows that the personnel they are surrounded with can make or break their company. Successful leaders tend to surround themselves with excellent and like-minded individuals. But when creating a team, you need to be able to find the right people for the right seats. Essentially, you need to find individuals who share your core values and place these individuals in positions where they can operate at their highest level of skill and expertise. A massive issue plaguing businesses is the fact that there is a clear lack of structure, which results in job descriptions and expectations unclear to all employees. While a looser structure can work during the start-up stages of a business since some employees may have multiple roles, Wickman notes that it is nearly impossible to scale this model. As an owner, you should be able to identify the strengths and weaknesses of each of your employees and place them in a position where they can be at their best.
These were a few of the valuable lessons found in Traction: Get a Grip on Your Business. We, at PT Business Corner, definitely advise giving it a read and would like to thank Wendy for her excellent recommendation!
