Donald Miller

And then all of a sudden you're hiring people. You're firing people. You're trying to figure out healthcare benefits. You're dealing with customer service. All of a sudden you're taken out of the sweet spot you were in when the business grew and you're put into a different role. And that role is running a business. And almost none of us have any education.

We figure out how to install the systems and processes that are necessary in order for a business to not hit the ground but actually come back up and start climbing again. Those are the 35% of businesses that actually make it and go on to make millions and millions of dollars. So those systems and processes are what this book is about.

Even if you got a master's degree in business, you don't know how to run a business. Most master's programs train you to be chairman of the federal treasury. They don't train you to run a business. And so we don't know what we're doing. And because we don't know what we're doing, customers realize it. Our products, uh, aren't as, the quality's not as good as it used to be.

It's the six systems and processes that you need to install in your business in order to avoid crashing your business. It will teach you how to run a business so that it is a predictable, dependable revenue machine.

The relationships we used to have with customers are now strained because we've turned those over to account executives. We ended up falling on hard times a little bit, so we ended up giving 90-day terms to a customer in order to get bigger profits. Then we ran into a cash flow issue, and you know what happens after that. You just kind of, you bomb. So that's the down part of the S-curve.

Now that's where those 65% of businesses, that's where they crash when they hit the ground. The rest of us though, we do something. We figure out how to run a business. We figure out how to install the systems and processes that are necessary in order for a business to not hit the ground, but actually come back up and start climbing again.

Those are the 35% of businesses that actually make it and go on to make millions and millions of dollars. So those systems and processes are what this book is about. It's the six systems and processes that you need to install in your business in order to avoid crashing your business. It will teach you how to run a business so that it is a predictable, dependable revenue machine.

Well, about six years ago is when my business really experienced a transformational moment. It happened in my driveway. Before then, I'll get to the driveway in a second, but before then, I was what I call diving for dollars. We were just trying to find money anywhere I could get. If you paid me to speak, I'd go speak. If I could get a book contract, I'd get a book contract.

I put out an online course, and people would buy the online course. Anything I could do, I would do. And that started getting very successful, true to the S-curve, the initial rise in the S-curve. And we got to about $3.5 million or something like that. People were loving my marketing framework, the StoryBrand framework. We were consulting with giant brands, Procter & Gamble, Ford Lincoln Group.

Even the NSA and the government we began consulting with. Everything was going really well. I had a mentor who is still a very good friend. His name is Bill. And Bill scaled up his company, his father's company, into the billions and then took some of that money and bought other small companies and was mentoring some of those CEOs. He didn't buy my company, but he was mentoring me nonetheless.

Well, about six years ago is when my business really experienced a transformational moment. It happened in my driveway. Before then, I'll get to the driveway in a second, but before then, I was what I call diving for dollars. We were just trying to find money anywhere I could get. If you paid me to speak, I'd go speak. If I could get a book contract, I'd get a book contract.

And I mentioned to him, I'd love for my business to get to $100 million. We were standing in my driveway after having met for a couple hours. And for the first time in my relationship with Bill, he just kind of looked at me a little bit puzzled. And I knew that the $100 million number was really big and he didn't think I was going to hit it.

That's the first time I'd ever seen that expression in him as he looked back at me. And I said, Bill, what's going on? He said, Don, in order to hit $100 million... you are going to have to, quote, professionalize your operation. That's what he said to me.

I put out an online course, and people would buy the online course. Anything I could do, I would do. And that started getting very successful, true to the S-curve, the initial rise in the S-curve. And we got to about $3.5 million or something like that. People were loving my marketing framework, the StoryBrand framework. We were consulting with giant brands, Procter & Gamble, Ford Lincoln Group.

Now, I'd never heard the phrase professionalize your operation before, but it rang absolutely true as it's ringing true to almost all of your listeners right now. What it said to me was, what Bill said to me basically was, you're making it up. You're making it up as you go along. And he also said this.

Even the NSA and the government we began consulting with. Everything was going really well. I had a mentor who is still a very good friend. His name is Bill. And Bill scaled up his company, his father's company, into the billions and then took some of that money and bought other small companies and was mentoring some of those CEOs. He didn't buy my company, but he was mentoring me nonetheless.

He said, Don, if you leave this company, the company is going to go down because you haven't installed the systems and processes necessary for somebody else to come and buy this company and run it. Right. And that rang so true to me that I spent the next about three to four years figuring out what the systems and processes needed to be and how the company needed to run.

And I mentioned to him, I'd love for my business to get to $100 million. We were standing in my driveway after having met for a couple hours. And for the first time in my relationship with Bill, he just kind of looked at me a little bit puzzled. And I knew that the hundred million dollar number was really big and he didn't think I was going to hit it.

And the framework that I came up with is actually really simple. And that's kind of what was missing in the market. Everything was very complicated. It took more time to sort of professionalize your operations through other systems than it did to actually build your company. You spent more time working on your company than you did catering to clients, which doesn't work. You lose money that way.

That's the first time I'd ever seen that expression in him as he looked back at me. And I said, Bill, what's going on? He said, Don, in order to hit a hundred million dollars, you are going to have to, quote, professionalize your operation. That's what he said to me.

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