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EXECUTIVE-TO-ENTREPRENEUR {E2E} COACHING

By Mitchell York

The E2E Party Has Moved!November 8

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After my WordPress account was hacked by someone who inserted a photo that I was not happy about, I have moved E2Ecoaching.com to its own place. So if you subscribe to this blog please go to E2ECoaching.com and subscribe there. Thanks!

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The Entrepreneurial Art of JoeOctober 16

I was in Grand Central station recently and stopped in for a latte at Joe. I love indy coffee houses in New York. I will go out of my way to avoid Starbucks. Joe was espresso done old-style. Nothing automatic. Baristas who know their beans. When I got home I looked up Joe on the web and found a pretty interesting company. Founder Jonathan Rubenstein was gracious enough to give the rest of us entrepreneurs some perspective on what it’s like to run four superb coffee houses in the world’s toughest market.

Tell us about your business. I would love to know how many coffees you serve a day, how many baristas you employ, what kind of growth you are seeing, the basic stuff like that.

We have four locations. On average, the shops serve about 600 customers a day and overall we serve about 3,200 cups of coffee per day. We currently employ 60 people, of which two-thirds are full-time. Fifty are baristas and 10 are support staff.
In the bible of entrepreneur books, The E-Myth, the author says that just because you love baking doesn’t mean you should open a bakery. Yet it appears you started Joe because of your love of coffee. Is that right, or w

Getting Employees to Think Like EntrepreneursOctober 7

The Wall Street Journal’s very informative Independent Street blog carried an item yesterday about getting employees to think like entrepreneurs. The keys are to: Organize them into small groups, share profits, embrace failure,  reward ideas and promote risk takers.
Those are all worthy ideas. But  they speak to the fact that employers tend to think “programs” when it comes to fostering an ownership mentality. The thinking goes: If we give incentives, share profits, write stories in the company newsletter about successful or unsuccessful ventures and make everyone a hero,  we’ll get ownership thinking.
A fundamental piece is missing: The top-down piece.

If owners want employees to think like them, they have to emotionally meet the employees where the employees are.  Workers will be more likely to think like owners if they have executive leaders who demonstrate compassion; who take workers’ feelings into consideration when making decisions; who express their feelings about people; who manage their own emotions well at work and project a strong but humanistic image. It is company leaders’ people skills that matter mos

Franchising After a Layoff: The Cure May be Worse than the DiseaseOctober 6

There’s a provocative post on one of StartupNation.com’s blogs. The title is,  “Out of Work? Consider Buying a Franchise.” The writer cites the downfall of Wachovia Bank and addresses the 5,000+ workers in Charlotte, NC, who have already lost their jobs.

The author writes, “When the unemployment rate is high and large corporations are downsizing, buying a franchise is typically a good alternative for someone with the entrepreneurial itch.”

Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

Buying a franchise isn’t good for an itch. In fact, franchising can make you want to scratch that itch until you have a huge rash. An infection. Gangrene. Amputation! You get the point.

When you get laid off (and I know whereof I speak, I was there once seven years ago courtesy of Ziff Davis Media), you may not be in the best psychological frame of mind. Your confidence is shaken, your routine disrupted. You’re disoriented. To distract yourself, you start Googling and clicking and, before you know it, you’re a franchisee. You’re still hurting from what happen

StartupNation Home-Based 100 ContestantOctober 4

When I’m not coaching, I’m a small business entrepreneur. I started the business in 2002, around the same time I started coaching. I had no idea that those two career paths would intersect. But now I coach executives who are, or want to become, entrepreneurs. I entered a contest sponsored by StartupNation and I think I have a shot at winning. So if you’re reading this, please click and vote for me!

Posted in Uncategorized   Tagged: entrepreneurship, Maui Wowi, StartupNation