Valuocity: A Fable for Business Owners and Managers

WARNING: Transformative reading!

Looking for a book that you can inhale in a day or less, that can transform the way that you lead and manage your business? Read Valuocity by Marc B. Cooper and Mark E. Silberg; read it today.

In the first chapter you meet an independent business owner; in this case, a dentist, but once he starts describing the problems in his business, which have been exacerbated by the economic downturn and recession, you’ll find yourself connecting with this book no matter what business you are in. If you are currently experiencing any of the following problems in your business, this book is for you:

• Fewer new clients coming in than before, and fewer new customers than you need to be profitable
• A slow down in service and/or retail sales, or less sales than you need to be profitable
• An ever-increasing need to ‘tighten your belt’ and cut expenses, hours or even employees in order to stay afloat
• Employees who appear unconcerned about acquiring new customers, keeping customers happy, or sales in general; employees who view their job as a paycheck rather than a calling
• Employees whose actions or performance indicates that they either don’t understand or don’t support the mission and vision of your business
• Employees who gossip or complain to 3rd parties rather than addressing other individuals (or even you, boss) directly
• Staff who subversively or even openly oppose implementation of improvements, change or ‘best practices’
• An “us against them” mentality when it comes to employees and management
• Employees who regularly excuse poor performance by turning the blame back on you, on co-workers, or other outside factors
• You find yourself working harder and harder, for less and less return
• Despite the example of hard work and long hours that you set, your employees do not follow suit
• A tendency in yourself to place blame for the problems in your business on your employees, on the economy, on a lack of ready money, or other external factors (ouch, that one hurts a little, doesn’t it?)

Do you see the current state of your business anywhere in this list?

The ‘hero’ of Valuocity finds himself confronted by his own misconceptions and by the need for change.  He voices very real fears and his own resistance when it comes to changing himself so that he can change his business; resistance that you will also see within yourself (or at least understand) and connect with.

If you opened a business because you know how to practice a trade or provide services to customers, and the real strength of your education and training is within the practice of your profession, it’s likely—and even understandable that there are gaps in your management skillset and style and that you are not fully acting like the business owner that you need to be in order to be profitable in such a way that you can sustain and grow your business, let alone build it to the point where you can sell it in order to retire or pass it on to heirs as part of your life’s legacy.

If you coach other managers or if your business has fledgling managers or managers who are struggling to lead, this could be a valuable and transformative resource for them, or as a training tool for employees who want to move into leadership roles.  

Read Valuocity. Inhale it, like I did yesterday, and begin to view your business like the owner you want to be—the owner you intended to be when you opened your own business.

Once you’ve read the first book, visit valuocity.org for tools relative to the concepts and even for a sneak peek at the second volume which speaks to the practical, real-world implementation of the concepts presented in the first book, including the need to confront and transform some of those employees who may bring value to your business, but who may be hurting your business at the present in some ways. Read it!!

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