MBA1178 Must Read- Traction: Get a Grip on Your Business by Gino Wickman

Let me tell you about Intuit QuickBooks. When I was starting out my business, I remember sitting at my desk late at night not working on my business but cleaning up numbers, tracking and reconciling payments and wondering how this became my life. But once I automated the admin side of things of my finances, those nights had disappeared and I felt a whole lot better. Outdo it with intuit QuickBooks QuickBooks is the trusted end to end solution that businesses rely on for getting paid, managing finances, paying employees, finding new customers, and more. QuickBooks provides a team of AI agents and trusted experts, so doing it yourself no longer means doing it alone. Their payment agent gets you paid faster, their customer agent finds leads, follows up and secures more sales, and the accounting agent automates and categorizes transactions. Get your critical business jobs done with QuickBooks on the Intuit platform.

Ready to save on New Tech? It's time for Dell Tech Day's annual sales event celebrating our customers with fantastic deals and benefits bring. Perks include Dell Rewards, free shipping, premium Support and more. PCs like the Dell 14 with Intel Core Ultra processors will help you do more faster and with a premium suite of monitors and accessories, you can upgrade your whole setup with amazing savings. Visit Dell.com deals.

Hey O welcome to the Hunt Hundred Dollar MBA show, the business podcast that keeps pumping business knowledge every single day with our daily 10 minute business lessons for the real world. I'm your host, your coach, your teacher Omar Zenholm. I'm also the co founder of the Hundred Dollar mba, a complete business training and community online and today's episode is a must Read episode. On our Must Read Episodes I share with you a book that I've read that has greatly influenced me as an entrepreneur. I share with you its takeaways and why you should read it too. Today's must read is Get a Grip on youn Business by Gino Wickman. Traction is one of those books that was recommended to me by several people at several different times. So I finally got around to reading this book and the best way to describe it is it's really a business management user manual. If you want to learn how to structure your business, how to set it up for success, regardless if you're a team of one or a team of a thousand, you're gonna find so much value in this book. I call it a manual, but it's also sort of a workbook. You have to really do some work alongside the reading. So in today's must read, I'm share with you why you would want to Read this book. What are some of the key insights and things you're going to be working on as you read this book and how it can improve your business? One of the biggest compliments I can give this book is that it's probably the most or one of the most practical books I've ever read. This book actually tells you what to do if you get frustrated reading business books and say, hey, give me the formula. This book gives you the formula. There's so much to cover in today's must read. So let's get into it. Let's get down to business. How is your business performing? Are you satisfied with the results? Maybe you feel like your success is being held back. Maybe it's employees bickering or too much bureaucracy or red tape, or you just don't know what to do next. Or maybe you feel like you need to reinvent the wheel just to survive the next few months. Traction is a book that has a step by step method for solving your business problems. They call it the Entrepreneurial Operating System or eos. And it will help you weed out all the unnecessary processes in your business and help you regain your footing and start becoming more and more profitable. Now, I want to say this right off the bat. I really don't like the title of this book. I think the title does not do it justice. It's confusing. It really doesn't really have any relevance to the actual outcomes of this book or what it will do for you. Traction just sounds like, okay, how to, you know, get your business going or how to sell more. It's more than that about how to structure your business for success. This is a case where the title just does not match the value of the book. Some of the key takeaways I got from this book is why trying to please everybody is such a bad idea, why the number one is the magic number when it comes to your responsibilities, and why your company needs rocks to thrive. One of the first chapters of this book dives into the idea of your business values. What does your business value? What does your organization believe in? Now this sounds really woo woo. And a lot of people make the mistake of skipping over this. Maybe because they're like, I'm just getting started, I'm a small team. Or maybe this is just not helpful. No, you need to do this part. And this is probably the most boring part of the book where he talks about values. I'm going to be honest here. But after you get over this hump, the book really picks up traction. You know, pun intended, really picks up steam and everything starts to fall into place. Now, the reason why values are so important. If you think about, you know, some of the best pioneers in business, whether it's Steve Jobs, Apple or Bezos at Amazon, their goal is to build a company that didn't just have great technology, but improves humanity, improves our lives. Now, whether you agree it does or not is another thing, but their intention is to do that is to improve the quality of people's lives. While the goal of this entrepreneurial operating system, the eos that they talk about in this book, isn't this high pie in the sky goal, it's just like run your business properly. Having set values, understanding what you value as a company is so important. You need to communicate this to the rest of your team, now and forever. Now. What I love about this book is that it doesn't just tell you, hey, just define your values, write them down and let's get going. No, it actually helps you with that. Step by step. It actually gives you a series of questions for you to answer so you can define your values. It includes things like your vision, defining your vision, because your vision will guide you along the process where you want your business to be in the future. It has to be crystal clear. You gotta be able to define your vision clearly so you can be able to define it to others, to communicate it to the rest of the team. So they are on board so they know where they're going. I mean, imagine you're on an airplane where the cabin crew didn't know where the destination was. They just couldn't serve the customers, the people that are on the plane, properly. Having everybody on board with the vision is so important. Next, the book talks about planning a series of targets based on months and years ahead to determine your next marketing steps. So basically they're like, hey, where do you want to be? What are your targets for the next three months, the next year, the next three years. That way you can work backwards. When you're developing your business, you need to ensure that your leadership team plans carefully on how they're going to get to where they want to be. Just like it happened by accident. And you'll notice in this book they talk about your leadership team. And if you don't have a leadership team yet, it really encourages you to start thinking about it. Even if that leadership team is just you and somebody else, like the head of customer service or somebody who's like a lead developer or, or the head of marketing or sales, it encourages you to start making decisions as a team of leaders. And not just you. One of the things that book does is it encourages to look 10 years out. What's your target in 10 years? I know this can be difficult because you're like thinking about, hey, I need to pay my bills, I need to keep my business running. It's hard for me to think that far out. But it's important for you to do that. Why? Because everything you do today will affect where you're going tomorrow and the day after and the year after and 10 years from now. How you price your product, how you deliver your product, everything. You want to make sure that it's super clear where the destination is. Ten years from now, you may be saying, I want to get to the point where the business is at this size and I can exit, I can sell. That's fine. But make sure that's clear and you know where you want to be heading. This book also talks about how to ensure efficiency and how you win loyal customers. This book reminds you that you can't make everyone happy. Trying to do so will probably frustrate your loyal customers. This is why you need to define a target market and adapt a strategy to it. And it shows you how to do this in the book. This is incredible actually. It actually shows you how to find a target market and build a strategy towards it. For instance, if you're an owner of a small aquatic center, it's not in your business interest to cater to both active children and stressed out adults. The needs of the two different customer base are different and you won't be able to satisfy them both simultaneously a hundred percent. So choose your market and choose your niche. I read a quote on Twitter once, I can't remember who said this, but it said people don't want a niche because niches are too small for their egos. But niching is how you actually speak directly to an audience and resonate to an actual customer that needs you and needs what you offer. The book also talks about how to make sure you're choosing employees who adhere to the values that you define. So and fit jobs appropriately fit the positions you need. Some people hire just because they feel like I have to have this position filled. Well, does your business actually need X amount of salespeople or X amount of customer service people? The positions come first, then the employees. But more importantly, you want to make sure that you hire people that share the same values as your business. But how do you make sure that? Use the people analyzer. There's a chart in the book that helps you do this. Again, this book supplies a lot of useful tools that you can use in your business. This chart allows you to collect data and then once you've collected the data, you can look for employees who exhibit the most of your core values most of the time, because no one's going to be perfect all the time. Having the right people on your team is key, but you also want to make sure that you have people in the right roles like I mentioned earlier. And guess what? There's a chart for that to help you out with that. It's called the GWC Chart. Get Want capacity? To use this chart, you're going to ask three questions. Does your employee get it? Do they understand their actual role? Do they want it? Do they like the job? And does he or she have the capacity, whether it's intelligence, experience or any other quality they need to actually do the job? If your answer to any of these questions is a no, then you know the person is just not right for the job. Super simple. I love how he just gives you these formulas to use so you can use it in the interview process.

You love what you do. You also love the idea of not doing it one day. But it's getting harder to know the best way to move into the future towards retirement. We hear about inflation, rate hikes, the changing market, gotta get the kids through college, build an emergency fund, and then there's retirement. Here's where Fidelity comes in. Fidelity can help you find clarity in saving for the future, even as your path and priorities evolve. How well, they'll help you create a free, personalized plan that adapts as your priorities change. They'll also show you what's called timely insights, small tips on ways to save and invest to help meet your goals. And you can monitor your plan so you stay on target. The future's coming and so is retirement. Fidelity can help you take it on your way. Learn more@fidelity.com future expenses charged by your investments and other costs and fees associated with trading or transacting in your account. Apply Fidelity Brokerage Services member NYSE SIPC.

The All New five Year Business Boost from Comcast Business it's the certainty of a price lock for five years on qualifying Internet bundles, plus the most reliable WI fi with their best equipment. And ask about a $500 prepaid card when you add two lines of mobile the five year business boost only from Comcast business powering possibilities ends 22226 new customers only one year contract required for guaranteed rate. Five year pricing applies to monthly service charge excluding taxes and fees. Best WI Fi based on Open Signal Awards USA Fixed Broadband Experience Report May 2025.

Traction also goes over how to monitor staff performances. They actually provide some scorecards you can use so you can resolve issues before they get out of hand, before they become huge issues. They there's nothing worse than having somebody who starts in your company who's really talented, really good, but they make a mistake. But those mistakes snowball and before you know it those mistakes look huge and you have limited choices what to do. Sometimes your only choice is to let them go. Don't let that happen. You can monitor and manage your employees with the scorecard they give you in the book and you can decide with your leadership team which performance factors really matter and you can give it a score and it gives you an example so you can do your own. Each factor will have a score from five to 15 and at the end you'll have a end result, an end score for each employee and it's based on facts and the things that you actually value for each position. But best of all, you'll be able to identify any issues early on and you can be able to train and help them become successful. Hey, turnover is not good for anybody, the employee or you. It's costly for businesses, so it's better for you to keep your employees and have them improve. There's a quote in the book that really illustrates this and it's problems are like mushrooms. When it's dark and rainy, they multiply. Under bright light, they diminish. All in all, this book, Traction how to Get a Grip on youn Business by Gino Wickman is a fantastic manual on how to build a great business. The structure, how to run a well oiled machine. It's very practical and it's going to require you to roll up your sleeves and do things. Make some decisions, write some things down and start building upon what you're reading. This is the hardest thing about the book. You have to start implementing as you're reading and it's a great guideline. There's no excuses to this book. They give you what you need to do. All you gotta do is do it. Thank you so much for listening to today's must read. I highly recommend this book, Traction. Check it out. It's worth the read. I even recommend maybe giving copies to you and your management team or the people that you make decisions with when it comes to your business. That's it for me today guys. But before I go, I want to leave you with this. Sometimes we get so busy working in our business instead of on our business. We want to do things that get results right now. But a lot of things that really help your business in the long run take time. It takes time to think and plan and agree and decide. And that's what this book is all about. Laying a strong foundation. A lot of us were so eager to just get the ball rolling. We skip over all that stuff. Not a good idea. No matter how small your business is. Even if the business is just you, you can implement a lot from this book. All right, I'll check you in tomorrow's episode. I'll see you then. Take care.

Is it time to reimagine your future? The right business skills may make a difference in your career. At Capella University, we offer a relevant education that's designed to focus on what you need to know in the business world. We'll teach professional skills to help you pursue your goals like business management, strategic planning, and effective communication. And you can apply these skills right away. A different future is closer than you think with Capella University. Learn more at Capella Eduardo.