13 Lessons Verne Harnish Taught Me

Written by Cheryl Beth Kuchler, CEO Think Tank

It’s been almost a decade since I first heard Verne Harnish speak at a two-day “Mastering the Rockefeller Habits” workshop in Washington D.C. about “Scaling Up” a small business. It was, to put it bluntly, engrossing, overwhelming and life-changing.

Listening to Verne Harnish is like drinking from a fire hose. More illustratively, as one of my fellow Lehigh alums would say, listening to him is like drinking from the beer bong of business learning.

There’s so much to absorb, it’s nearly impossible to keep up. And if you’re not quick enough, you could drown. Six or seven hours into his workshop, as my head was going under water for the umpteenth time, I decided I needed a life vest.

So I started to capture the “highlights” from my learning to help me remember as well as focus. Two days later, I had thirteen points that summarized my key insights, my takeaways, which in turn would guide my behaviors in the years to come – in my own consulting business – which I was working to grow as well as with my clients who were working to grow their businesses.

As pertinent today as they were ten years ago, I offer them to you to consider for your own 2018 planning.  My favorite? #3 – If you have a problem or an opportunity ask yourself, “Who’s already doing this and how are they doing it?” Verne taught me that most business problems have been solved by someone else. We spend way too much time re-inventing the wheel. You just have to figure out who that resource is, and reach out. (See Lesson #2 for your next step.)

And click here to read my complete list of Verne’s 13 Lessons. Which one will you be focusing on for the coming year?

New Workshop: Google Local Marketing Power Workshop to Help Small Businesses Succeed on the Web

Emerging Enterprise Center is helping small businesses grow their presence online by sponsoring a Google Local Marketing Power Workshop, which will feature a lesson about how to optimize their free google business listing to rise to the top of the search results.

The workshop will be hosted on Wednesday, January 25th, 2017 at the Emerging Enterprise Center located at the New Castle County Chamber of Commerce, 12 Penns Way, New Castle, DE  19720 from 8:30 AM to 11:30 AM EDT. Only 100 seats are available. Bring your laptops and get your business online.

Let’s Put Our Cities on the Map is a program from Google that brings community members, business owners, and civic leaders together to help small businesses succeed on the web.

 

“4 out of 5 consumers use search engines to find local information nearby, yet only 37% of businesses have claimed their listing on a search engine,” says Emily Harris, Manager of Google’s Let’s Put Our Cities on the Map program. “Small businesses are the engine of local economies and when they flourish, their communities do as well.”

Let’s Put Our Cities on the Map is a program that empowers communities to support their local businesses and encourage them to get on the map. Local businesses keep our communities strong; when we help them succeed on the web, they make our communities even stronger. The Google Local Marketing Power Workshop is a Google presentation hosted by Emerging Enterprise Center in cooperation with 360 Business Success, Official Google Partner.

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About Get Your Business Online

Let’s Put Our Cities on the Map is a program designed to empower communities to support their local businesses by helping them get on Google Search and Maps for free. Businesses that are online grow 40% faster than those that aren’t. Let’s help every local business get their information online. Explore our site to learn how you can join in, support businesses in your community, and put your city on the map: www.gybo.com