Putting Together a Winning Game Plan for Your Small Business
Turning lessons learned on the football field into small business success
By Drew Bledsoe
Former NFL QB and Owner of Doubleback Winery
The average career span for NFL players is less than four years, making “retirement” and career changes at a young age inevitable, and leading many into the business world. I was lucky enough to beat the odds, playing 14 years in the NFL before retiring in 2007, when I was in my mid-30s. At that time, while my career on the football field ended, I had already begun a new one as the small business owner after buying a piece of vineyard land several years earlier in hopes of one day opening a winery.
My wife Maura and I have had a passion for wine for many years, so when planning for “retirement” became a reality in my early-30s, the wine business became a very attractive choice.
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Transitioning from Entrepreneur to Business Leader
By Ian Lamont - Senior Consultant & Principal
The Lamont Group (TLG)
Almost everyone has made this statement "One day, I would like to have my own business!" Especially this last decade, when home based and small business ventures have become prevalent, young children to senior citizens have been uttering these words, with great enthusiasm and fervor.
But saying these words and actually becoming an entrepreneur is a big step. Going from being an entrepreneur, opening a business, to becoming a successful business owner, where you are the business leader is the biggest step.
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Knowing What You Don’t Know
By Ian Lamont - Senior Consultant & Principal
Putting ego and pride before wisdom happens with managers. It does not happen with leaders and it is those leaders who run successful businesses and organizations.
These leaders have learned that one of the biggest performance barriers has nothing to do with weak sales, sloppy strategic planning or lackluster employees. It’s an individual hurdle every professional faces: knowing and admitting what you don’t know.
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Goals- How to Establish and Achieve Them
By Ian Lamont
The most important quality you can develop for lifelong personal and professional success is the habit of establishing and achieving your goals, plans and ideas. .
As a business strategist, leadership/motivational teacher and speaker I am often asked about the best practices in goal setting. While some of the idiosyncrasies in goal setting are specific to the individual, there are integral steps for establishing and achieving goals and for living a successful personal and professional life as a result.
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