I help small business owners 2X their profits in 12 months without feeling overwhelmed and lost.

Founder | Investor | Managing/Operating Partner | Fractional COO for low and mid-market SMBs. I have bought, sold, and invested in the growth of 160+ businesses. I now help service-business owners streamline operations, grow profits, integrate AI-powered solutions, and build real value - so they can create scalable businesses, create real wealth, and empower others. Want me to help you grow your business? Click the link in my bio or shoot me a DM to get started.

Evan Gove

This is the #1 reason 99% of businesses never pass $5M/yr in revenue.

Founder dependency. 

Solution: 

Document, Automate (AI-enabled), Iterate (repeat), and hire great people to support your systems. 

If you are not good at the above, start by hiring someone who is.

Documentation is boring. 

But boring scales. 

Fastest way to onboard more team members? 

Documentation. 

Fastest way to remove yourself from 90% of day-to-day processes in your business? 

Documentation. 

Fastest way to increase the enterprise value of your business? 

Documentation. 

Do the boring work, and reap the rewards.

Once you understand this about money, you will always have plenty of it. 

Money follows attention. 

Not aimlessly though. 

Intentionally. 

In order for people to buy from you, they must know about you. 

Once they know about you, they need to know you can help them fix a problem. 

Once they are in your ecosystem, you need to stay relevant and top of mind. 

So how does this turn into money? 

Simple. 

Give value to get attention. 

Give value to keep attention. 

Ask for your audience to choose you to solve their problem. 

Give value while solving their problem. 

Repeat.

"I want to take care of my people" 

Great.

Then do this... 👇🏼

Set clear standards for what success looks like in your business. 

Set clear and measurable outcomes each person is responsible for. 

Equip and enable each team member with proper resources for their role. 

Clearly communicate when someone is underperforming. 

Give them a plan for improvement, and hold them accountable. 

If they still do not improve...

Offboard them immediately. 

This will do two things for you. 

Eliminate underperforming team members dragging your business down. 

Free up resources and create motivation for those who are the driving force behind your growth. 

Remember, taking care of your people sometimes means getting rid of those who are not a good fit. 

Underperformers do not like to work with high achievers, and vice versa. 

You will be doing everyone a favor (and what is best for your business).

A lot of business owners have forgotten the primary purpose of their business.

TO MAKE MONEY. 

Say what you want about the altruistic reasons you are in business for. 

If you are not making money, you cannot help anyone (even yourself).

“That’s not my job”

OR

“I will figure out how to solve this problem”

Which would you rather hear from your team?

If you want a top performing team, get rid of anyone who responds with the first statement.

Selling your business does not have to be a terrible and painful experience. 

But you must do these things first 👇🏼

Document all of your systems. 

No investor is going to pay top dollar for a company without documentation. 

Professional management in place. 

If your business cannot run without you, it is a job. Investors buy assets, not jobs.

Clean books. 

Investors want to see strong cash flow. Make it easy for them by keeping clean books that show where the money comes and goes. 

Strong customer relationships/reviews. 

Your business is significantly more valuable if you have a strong customer base. Focus on your customers and you will make a lot more on your exit. 

Build your network. 

Don't wait until you are ready to sell your business to start talking to investors, brokers, etc. Often your investor network will tell you what they are looking to buy and what is valuable to them. Use this information to your advantage. 

Do your own due diligence. 

Make sure you are knowledgeable on the process you are getting involved in. Find a mentor, a business transaction attorney, a solid tax accountant, and a CPA who understands Mergers and Acquisitions (or is accredited in business valuation). 

With the right team, tools, and systems in place you can sell well. 

Thinking about exiting your company in the next 3-5 years? 

Let's talk. 

Shoot me a DM or leave a comment on this post.

Business growth only has two directions…

Up or down. 

This also means:

If your business is not growing.

It’s shrinking. 

Make sure you know which direction you’re going.

The best and worst part of any business…

Is people.

If you run a traditional service-based business, you should follow this equation: 

Revenue > expenses = good (profitable) business

If you don't, you end up with this...

Revenue < expenses = bad (unprofitable) financial anchor

Don't make business more complicated than it has to be. 

Make more money than it costs you to get and service customers and you are winning the game.

It’s not that you don’t have time. 

It’s that you don’t make the right priorities. 

I used to be terribly inefficient and had a low capacity for getting things done. 

My priority? 

I didn’t have any. 

Then I chose to make priorities. 

At the top? 

First, learning how to prioritize.

Second, learning how to be more efficient. 

Then, learning how to leverage. 

Now I do 15x what old me could do, more efficiently, and at higher quality. 

We all have the same amount of time…

Prioritize accordingly.

Business mastery starts with the ability to learn... and it never stops.

Want to make more money? 

Provide more value to the marketplace. 

Don’t overcomplicate it.

Without these, your business will fail. 

👇🏼

Aligned Expectations + Accountability 

Enable your team to succeed from day one by providing clear expectations. Clarity is King. 

Hold them to the standards that you aligned on from the start. Without this, culture will flop and your team will backslide. 

Not sure where to start? 

Do this. 

Create clear role descriptions and have a meeting with each team member to create clarity around what is expected of them in their role. 

Create clear Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for their role to define what success looks like. 

Give them the tools and training needed to successfully obtain their KPIs. 

Have clearly defined accountability measures (rewards when achieved, hard conversations and consequences when not achieved). 

A lack of accountability hurts your company and the person who needs accountability. 

Do yourself and your team a huge favor by setting the expectations and keeping everyone accountable.... early and often.

Communication -> Alignment -> Clarity 

This is the essential path for getting the most out of any relationship.

Most individuals and organizations struggle so much with the first, they never get to the next two.

There is only one thing that leads to success in business… 

Speed of implementing learnings. 

The fear of failure and setbacks slow down many. 

The same fears stop most from even trying. 

The ones who understand the process know failure is inevitable. 

Those who have mastered the process know this:

Failure = learning opportunity

Learning opportunity = opportunity to adjust

Opportunity to adjust = another attempt at success

Potential success × Speed of (fail → learn → shoot) repeated = eventual success

That’s all you need 👆🏼

This week, think long and hard to yourself…

Could this meeting be a memo? 

Could this 1,248 word email have been an internal voice note?

Could I be clearer in how I communicate with others? 

As a leader, your job is to communicate as effectively and efficiently as possible. 

When you do so, you improve everyone’s lives (especially yours).

Destructive incompetence.

The silent killer of many SMBs. 

Many business owners tolerate incompetence far too long. 

Reality is, incompetent teams kill far more businesses than any market shift or competitors ever will.

#competentpeopleonly

The best time to make changes in your business is now. 

Small decisions?

Think for 30-60 seconds. Decide. Act.

Big decisions? 

Think on it for 30-60 minutes. Decide. Act.

Major, life-altering, universe splitting decisions?

Think on it for a few hours…

Sleep on it. 

First thing the next day. Decide. Act. 

It is a lot easier to redirect with momentum than it is at a stand still.

Trust, but verify…

If you delegate something to someone, they are responsible. 

But, you are accountable. 

Always follow through and train your team to do the same.

taplio