I got into a conversation this morning with a friend of mine about online multiplayer games – he’s a big fan of Halo 3, we both liked Call of Duty 4, but he had never played Team Fortress 2!  (currently the best 1st person multiplayer game out there in my opinion).

So that got me to thinking what Team Fortress 2 could teach us about running a small business.  If you’re not familiar with the game, here’s a quick overview from the publisher’s website:

Unlike other “class-based” games that offer a variety of combat classes only, Team Fortress 2 packs a wild variety of classes which provide a broad range of tactical abilities and personalities, and lend themselves to a variety of player skills.

Play as the flame-throwing Pyro, the room clearing Heavy, or the Spy, a master of disguises. Other classes include: Scout, Sniper, Medic, Engineer, Demoman, or Soldier.

Basically you play several variations of Capture the Flag types of games online with friends and strangers potentially anywhere in the world.

Here are a few key lessons that I came up with:

It’s important to have friends watching your back!

If you haven’t played, the picture above is a medic in the background making sure that the ‘Heavy’ is staying healthy (using the handy health ray).

You take a lot of shots as a business owner – whether it’s getting shot down by a potential client, getting hammered by rising prices from your vendors or just facing your fears (of bankers, networking, selling, marketing, whatever it might be).

Those are the times when you need a friend or two that can help pick you up and keep you healthy or sane.

(As a side note – Peer Group Advisory Boards are great for this, a dedicated support group of other business owners and a business coach that will tell you like it is, but also give you great ideas and encouragement.  Check out this PAGE if you’d like more information on the idea!!!)

It’s critical to build up your infrastructure

These engineers are building defensive structures to protect their base from being overrun by the competition.

That’s really similar to the systems, plans and processes the business owner needs to be building to stay out in front of the competition.  Way too often you see business owners that are making everything work just by working really hard.

Hard work and skill will take you a long way, but eventually you will wear down and if you don’t have some systems in place that allow you to take a break, a vacation, or just some time to focus on the big picture, you will have problems.

Sometimes you need to stay above the fray!

Let’s face it, business can be hard and it’s even harder when you are trying to slog it out down in the mud with everyone else.

Just like this soldier is doing, sometimes you need to take the road less traveled and find another, better way to get your message or product out the door. 

If everyone in your industry is using Yellow Page ads as the primary source of visibility, you either need to make your ad stand out, or consider trying something different.

If everyone else is charging hourly rates for what you do, maybe you should consider charging some sort of flat rate or bundling together common services – something that will make you stand out.

Bottom line, if you hang out in the crowd and follow everyone else’s lead, it’s really difficult to get ahead.

Don’t get too focused on the day to day stuff

Just like this sniper is about to learn the hard way, if you don’t keep your head up and look around, bad things can come up and give you a nasty surprise!

A lot of people I know are what I would call ‘crisis junkies’.  They thrive on finding fires and do a great job of managing those fires and putting them out…then they move on to the next fire.  Sometimes, when there’s not a fire, they’ll start one just so they can put it out.

It’s a great skill set to have, but if you can’t pull yourself away from the details on a regular basis and look around you, you are going to have problems.  It’s not easy to do, but it’s the single best thing I know of that will help you consciously grow your business.  (another side note, this is what coaches are really good at helping you do…) 

The last point

If you were looking for ways to rationalize why it’s okay to play Team Fortress 2 more often (not that I know of anyone like that), now you’ve got plenty of reasons to consider it ‘research’ for the real world of small business.

It’s a great game, I would highly recommend it – and remember it is important to stop and smell the roses (or fire the rocket launcher) every now and then!

Tell me about your favorite game – I’d love to hear your lessons learned!

Shawn Kinkade    www.aspirekc.comSimilar Posts:

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The Kansas Technology Enterprise Corporation is a state-owned corporation established to promote advanced technology economic development in Kansas. We strive to meet the technical needs of Kansas companies by providing access to individuals with expertise and state-of-the-art equipment and facilities. We even provide or help secure financing for research and development.

This is a really progressive program that most states don’t have, and it’s right here in our backyard!

One of the newer things that KTEC is doing has been the addition in the last 2 years of the KTEC Pipeline initiative – http://www.ktecpipeline.com/ .  The idea is to select up to 10 ‘innovators’ every year, specifically in the technology or bioscience fields and hook them up with resources (including a $35,000 grant), special training from top of the line entrepreneurial experts and access and introductions to partnerships and capital markets.

Getting selected for the Pipeline is extremely challenging and a very big deal.  This year there were over 400 applications and over 60 in-depth interviews to select the 9 winners.

The reason I’m familiar with all of this is because I’m thrilled to report that one of my clients was accepted into the Pipeline program last week.  (Not because of anything I did, but because he’s a brilliant guy with some really revolutionary ideas…!).

Dan Melton is the President of NonProfit Technologies, which is a “a socially conscious for-profit think-tank that develops web-driven products and solutions to improve the effectiveness, cost-savings or impact of public-sector organizations.”

Essentially what Dan and his team are doing is creating cutting edge Web 2.0 applications that are targeted towards the public sector.  Historically the public sector lags the for profit world when it comes to technology but there is a huge need and viable marketplace for the right ideas.

Luckily Dan is full of great ideas that are not only great business opportunities, but will also drive dramatic benefits to the public sector – a true win-win situation.

Congratulations to Dan and the team at NonProfit Technologies!

Stop by his site and check out some of the cool stuff he’s got going on.  NPT

Shawn Kinkade   www.aspirekc.comSimilar Posts:

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Once you get to the point that you no longer consciously think about something it becomes ingrained into your life.  And if you consciously choose the most effective habits, one at a time, you will become an unconscious effective machine…so to speak. 

This stuff really works…

Based on my personal experiences and a lot of stuff I’ve read, this is way more effective than it might seem on the surface. 

As a personal example, I’ve been going to the gym 4 – 5 days a week for the last year or so.  I didn’t have any real specific goals other than wanting to get into better shape, break a sweat, and enjoy some time out of the office.

What I’ve found is that when I miss a day, it bugs me.  My routine has been broken and I’m motivated to make sure I go the next day.  It’s become a habit, a part of my routine.  That’s pretty powerful considering I probably went 10 – 15 years before that without any kind of regular exercise approach.

Some examples of worthwhile habits (not necessarily ones I currently have);

1. Regular exercise
2. Eating right
3. Calling / emailing people back
4. Flossing
5. Reading
6. Writing (journal, blog, whatever)
7. Drinking enough water

Imagine if you could identify just 1 or 2 things that you know are important that you no longer had to worry about doing – because you do them automatically.  If you add 1 new thing every few months, you can pretty quickly develop a whole new way of doing things better and less effort – pretty cool idea!

Where to get started?

There are a lot of different opinions on this, but generally it seems to take at least 30 days (probably more on average) to really develop a new habit.  It’s likely you’ll slip at some point but just keep plugging away. 

Here are some suggestions that might help you:

Start out small

It’s best to build upon successes, and the best way to start out with a success is to start with something that’s not too hard. 

Instead of jumping into “I will work out at least 1 hour every day” start with “I will do a 10 minute walk around the neighborhood 5 times a week”.  Once you’ve got some routine in place, it’s a lot easier to add to it.

Be specific and practical

The more explicit you can be in terms of what you want to do, the easier it will be to imagine doing that thing and planning for a way to do it that will fit your current lifestyle.

If you want to start writing everyday, set aside a block of time that works for you and schedule into your day.  If you’re not a morning person, don’t schedule 6:00 AM for your writing.

Get some help

It’s important, especially for bigger changes, to get some support on board.  It could be someone cheering you on, or helping to hold you accountable. 

This is a big part of what Coaching is all about  If you’d like to create some new habits within your business, give me a call!  If you’d like to work on personal habits, I know several great coaches that can help with that as well.  Give me a call.

Many people have also found it worthwhile to track progress visually, it can be a great reinforcement / reminder of the progress you’re making.

I would highly recommend reading Zen Habits, it’s an extremely well-written blog that covers this kind of thing in great detail.  I especially like the quote the author has on the article I linked to:

We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit. - Aristotle

Finally – here are some online tools that you can use to track your progress:

http://www.habitizer.net/

http://www.everydaysystems.com/habitcal/

http://www.joesgoals.com/

I’d love to hear your thoughts on habits and what you’d really like to add to your life – share your thoughts here.

Shawn Kinkade  www.aspirekc.com

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As a side note, I would highly recommend this.  It’s probably not something you should do daily or perhaps even weekly, but if you haven’t done this for a while, it will do you a world of good to break your routine, get out of the office and just relax, even if it’s just an hour or two. 

It had clearly been too long since I’ve done it and it was good! 

Anyway, during the course of discussion we started to talk about my new business and the obvious question came up pretty quickly:

“What does a business coach actually do?”

It’s a great question and there’s not a stock answer out there that applies to all coaches.  In other words, most coaches do very different things.

So I can’t answer the question for all coaches, and I can’t even answer for all of those coaches that call themselves ‘Business Coaches’.  However I can give you a better idea of what I do…

I work with groups of business owners by facilitating and coaching in a Peer Advisory ‘Mastermind’ type of group called BANG! (Brainstorming, Accountability and Networking Group).  (see here for details).

I also conduct educational workshops that focus on small groups and a lot of interactive discussion to really learn great new strategies and ideas about all aspects of business.  (see here for details).

Finally, my primary ‘product’ is 1 on 1 coaching with small business owners.

With thanks to Adam and Jack from Maximum Value Partners (http://www.askthebizcoaches.com/about/) I’ve been using a modified version of their model to explain what I do.  (This is a 1 page graphic that I pulled together for a recent chamber meeting).

Most small businesses started with a great idea for a product or a service, and the owner realizes…”hey I should start my own business!”  However at that point they suddenly have to start worrying about Sales and Marketing and all of the other ‘Stuff’ that it takes to successfully run a business.

For the first year or two, it probably doesn’t matter too much what they do (assuming it’s a good product or service).  They’re in the honeymoon period and extraordinary measures can cover up any mistakes they may make along the way.  However they will get to a point – whether it’s because they have to hire their first employee that’s not a friend or family member, or because they’ve hit some sort of wall that things stop working so well.

At that point they have a few choices:  A lot of the time, they will fall back into their comfort zone and spend most of their time on their Product or Service, it’s what they like to do and what they’re good at.  They’ll either blindly delegate the other work, or just let it go and hope it works out.  Unfortunately that will not give them a successful business. 

Without all 3 legs of the stool, it won’t stand for long.

Another choice is to try to do it all themselves, work 60, 70, 80 hours a week and spread themselves thin across all aspects of the business.  Look over everyone’s shoulder and put their personal stamp on every single decision.  This may work for a while, but inevitably they’re going to burn out or drop one of the many balls in the air and bad things will happen. 

Ideally what they do at this point is to start working on their business rather than in it. 

Building or improving systems in all aspects of their business, with an eventual goal that they personally are no longer needed for the business to continue to survive and even thrive without them.

It may be the ideal solution, but it’s not easy – in fact it can be really difficult, which is why people may need help…help from a trusted business advisor that will work with them on all aspects of their business:

• brainstorm with them on new ideas,
• act as an impartial sounding board,
• help to hold them accountable,
• keep them focused on what they want and
• give them access to tools and strategies that successful business owners and coaches all over the country are using every day.
• help them reach clarity about what they want and how to get there.

I primarily work with the business owner on the nuts and bolts of their business.  Depending on what’s holding them back, we’ll focus on things like their marketing plan, the system they have in place for hiring, or possibly we’ll look at their overhead and cost structure and together evaluate what changes might need to be made.

A lot of the structure and the way I work with clients has been leveraged from the Professional Business Coaches Alliance (PBCA)  

This is a fantastic group of very experienced coaches from all over that I meet with every week (coaches need coaches too…!) and I leverage them for advice and support.

So in a nutshell, that’s what I do.

As my friend pointed out after we had this discussion, “So you don’t just quote Successories at them and think good thoughts?” 

That’s not what I do.

I’d love to hear what other people think about Business Coaching – what have you seen or heard?

So what does your business advisor do with you?  Can you think of any reasons why it might be really helpful to have somebody to talk to or work with – share your examples here.

/begin shameless plug/  Now that you know what I do, if you even remotely think I could help you or someone you know, give me a call and we can talk about it  (perhaps over a cold beverage if that’s your preference!).  /end shameless plug/

Have a great day!

Shawn Kinkade  – www.aspirekc.comSimilar Posts:

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