Today we rid ourselves of one of the biggest leaches on our business. Not a client per se, but a third party who we had partnered with a while back. Initially the partnership seemed like a good idea because it had the potential to bring new clients to us (which it didn’t…any clients we got from this organization we had before partnering), bring in extra revenue (which it did…albeit marginally), and provide an opportunity... 

My business, Athletic Lab, has been open for almost a year now. Business has picked up slowly but steadily throughout the year. Overall, a little slower than my usual fatally optimistic expectations but growth is good nonetheless and we’ve moved beyond the proverbial tipping point that all businesses must reach before they either fail or succeed (we’re succeeding ). One thing that’s helped with current growth is that I... 

For the past couple months, I’ve been putting in 75 hour weeks at Athletic Lab. Days typically start at 6am (with the first training session at 7) and end around 7 or 8pm. Add to that about 10-12 hours between Saturday and Sunday. And 2-3 speaking engagements a month that take me out of town. The past two days have been 15 hour days and yesterday I didn’t see my daughter other than coming home to find her sleeping. So much for... 

If you don’t market your business who will? This is something I’ve learned over the past two years as I scrape and scramble to make my business thrive. Anyone that’s spent any time with me over the past 4 months would think that I only own shirts embroidered or printed with the company name and website. Likewise, I always have several business cards and brochures handy to give to the next potential customer. This is especially... 

Today is tax day.  Since 1955, April 15th has been the day that all working Americans need to file their tax returns. Yet for the second straight year I’ve had to file for an extension. And I’m not alone. Thousands of Americans do the same thing. And millions more don’t get there tax returns in the mail until the final day. It’s not like the date is a surprise or anything or there isn’t sufficient time to get... 

Dolly Parton ain’t got nothin’ on me. Well come to think of it she does have two pretty big things – a beautiful voice and a taste for country music…what did you think I was referring to? For the past 3 months I’ve had at least two days a week where I’ve been starting my day at 5am (for a 5:45 training session at Athletic Lab) and not leaving the training center until 9 (or later). We’re open 7 days... 

When it rains it pours. My mom used to say that when things got rough and there’s definitely some truth to the saying. The last 6 weeks it’s poured. First, I had the hard drive on my iMac fail, then 10 days later the 1 TB external hard drive that served as a partial backup to the iMac’s hard drive failed before I had a chance to back it up. This took with it 99% of my family pictures and the overwhelming majority of my presentations,... 

…than to be in Carolina. I just returned from teaching at another USATF coaching education school. This one was in Brooklyn, NY. NY is the state where I was born and I’ve spent about 2/3rds of my life there in several cities around the state. Having recently moved to the Triangle region of NC (via a 10 month stay in Ohio), my visit back to NY really gave me a deeper appreciation for where I am today. In NC, the weather’s nicer,... 

2 weeks ago I was able to meet up with 2 of my former athletes from West Point as they drove from Georgia to DC. Not too long before that a different set of athletes from West Point came up to visit us and get in a workout at Athletic Lab. Before that I met up with one of my team captains from the track team as he made an ungodly pilgrimage through North Carolina up to Alaska. Before that I met up with my old training partner, who only 3... 

In my previous blog post I mentioned some things I do to increase productivity. Of all of them the one that might be most easily picked up by others is making use of what might otherwise seem like wasted time. Just because you’re stuck in line at the DMV or airport, waiting to pick someone up or be picked up, or in grid locked traffic doesn’t mean the time has to be wasted. Find something productive to do. We’ve all got dozens of menial...