How a Peer Group Transformed My Life & Business

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Acceleration Partners Most Effective Global Agency Award - London

The path to successful entrepreneurship is never straight and narrow, but I think the tipping point for many company founders comes when business as usual just isn't working anymore. To grow, to expand—maybe even just to say alive—means radical change.

For me, that moment came in 2011. I was running a small affiliate marketing company, Acceleration Partners, doing almost everything myself, and close to burning out. Though the company had just reached $1 million in sales, I was at a critical inflection point. Should I keep my business the same size and simply make a good living? Or, should I focus on building something bigger that could have more enterprise value and impact?

I was torn.

I told people and myself that I really didn’t want to have to manage people or deal with the bureaucracy that inevitably comes with more headcount and processes. I liked being entrepreneurial, I enjoyed having flexibility, and I wanted to focus on outcomes for my clients and be paid on performance. But, while all of this was true, I also harbored some doubts about my own ability to lead and take my business to the next level.

Fortunately, around that time, I joined the Entrepreneurs’ Organization, a nonprofit leadership group, and began sharing my business challenges and opportunities with fellow CEOs. Sharing my personal doubts and fears—and finding others who could share their life lessons—opened my eyes to how much I could learn from those on the road ahead of me and enabled me to face my challenges head-on. I ultimately decided to get out of my comfort zone and try to grow my business.

I brought on a No. 2 and began to focus on creating a business I would want to come to every day. My goal for Acceleration Partners was to find a better way—no more business as usual. So, I committed early to challenging accepted principals around hiring, compensation, remote work, and employees' departures. I wanted my company to be about merit, performance, and shared values.

Six years later, Acceleration Partners has a full management team, and I have fired myself from every position that is not making the best use of my time and energy. I have hired smart people, coached them, and gotten out of their way. Our annual revenues have surpassed $10 million—with no outside funding. Outside of my main business, I am a father of three and an author and speaker on performance marketing, company culture, and business growth. I also recently published my first book, Performance Partnerships, an in-depth look at the affiliate marketing industry (I’ll be writing about the mixed reputation of affiliate marketing in a future post), and I am in the process of completing my second book, due to be released next year.

This has been possible because I took some good advice and spent the majority of my time on company culture and strategy. My team and I embraced and operationalized a deep set of core values, created a vivid long-term vision, developed a world-class hiring process, and implemented other operational systems that have allowed us to scale. We also decided to try and change the way people leave companies through a program we call Mindful Transition(more on this in a future post, too).

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http://ift.tt/2kFQd5X

Acceleration Partners Most Effective Global Agency Award - London

The path to successful entrepreneurship is never straight and narrow, but I think the tipping point for many company founders comes when business as usual just isn't working anymore. To grow, to expand—maybe even just to say alive—means radical change.

For me, that moment came in 2011. I was running a small affiliate marketing company, Acceleration Partners, doing almost everything myself, and close to burning out. Though the company had just reached $1 million in sales, I was at a critical inflection point. Should I keep my business the same size and simply make a good living? Or, should I focus on building something bigger that could have more enterprise value and impact?

I was torn.

I told people and myself that I really didn’t want to have to manage people or deal with the bureaucracy that inevitably comes with more headcount and processes. I liked being entrepreneurial, I enjoyed having flexibility, and I wanted to focus on outcomes for my clients and be paid on performance. But, while all of this was true, I also harbored some doubts about my own ability to lead and take my business to the next level.

Fortunately, around that time, I joined the Entrepreneurs’ Organization, a nonprofit leadership group, and began sharing my business challenges and opportunities with fellow CEOs. Sharing my personal doubts and fears—and finding others who could share their life lessons—opened my eyes to how much I could learn from those on the road ahead of me and enabled me to face my challenges head-on. I ultimately decided to get out of my comfort zone and try to grow my business.

I brought on a No. 2 and began to focus on creating a business I would want to come to every day. My goal for Acceleration Partners was to find a better way—no more business as usual. So, I committed early to challenging accepted principals around hiring, compensation, remote work, and employees' departures. I wanted my company to be about merit, performance, and shared values.

Six years later, Acceleration Partners has a full management team, and I have fired myself from every position that is not making the best use of my time and energy. I have hired smart people, coached them, and gotten out of their way. Our annual revenues have surpassed $10 million—with no outside funding. Outside of my main business, I am a father of three and an author and speaker on performance marketing, company culture, and business growth. I also recently published my first book, Performance Partnerships, an in-depth look at the affiliate marketing industry (I’ll be writing about the mixed reputation of affiliate marketing in a future post), and I am in the process of completing my second book, due to be released next year.

This has been possible because I took some good advice and spent the majority of my time on company culture and strategy. My team and I embraced and operationalized a deep set of core values, created a vivid long-term vision, developed a world-class hiring process, and implemented other operational systems that have allowed us to scale. We also decided to try and change the way people leave companies through a program we call Mindful Transition(more on this in a future post, too).

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