Dog Died, Marriage in Trouble; Five-Year Turnaround; Trillion Dollar Biz; Feb 10 Sydney

Dear ScaleUps, 

Hope it’s been a productive and purposeful week. Here are some insights/opportunities to help you outlearn/outthink the competition.

After 10 years in business, our tutoring company, SurePrep Learning goes under after the elimination of a federal tutoring program. We are forced to lay off 22 beloved team members. My mom passes away. Our dog dies in a tragic accident. We have marital issues at home. I am hanging on by a thread.
	The Rest of David Dodge’s Turnaround Story Below

Latest ScaleUp News --
2020 is the Year of the Trillion Dollar Space Economy; Meetings That Make a Difference; California’s Gig Economy Law – this news and more at ScaleUps.com, your one-stop weekly update.

ScaleUp Summit Feb 10 Sydney, Australia --
More info below, but first…

Top 5 Biz Books to Prepare for 2020 --
Our ScaleUps.com servers had problems over the holidays and the link to my Top 5 Biz Books list was inaccessible – so trying it again. If you haven’t read all five, have each executive team member pick one, read, and share.

A Five-Year Turnaround – Better Than Fiction --
David Dodge, CEO of CodaKid and EO Arizona member, opens up in this EdSurge article about the struggles he suffered, and lessons learned, in pivoting his business – lessons for all of us as we scale. It’s a very quick read – 2 minutes – as he bulletpoints his learnings via a timeline. After going broke and almost losing his marriage in 2014, today he and his wife have launched their 50^th online course serving students from 90+ countries. Please read and reflect.

Too Much Money? --
If you only take 20 seconds to read David Dodge’s “Reflections” at the end of the above article, he notes:

Ironically, the cash infusion we received from the SBA brought us closer to going under than at any other time in our history. We got away from our habit of frugality and began focusing on how to spend money rather than how to operate profitably.

Frugality is a crucial value for most businesses. Take an hour and review your monthly expenses -- particularly all the recurring expenses hitting your credit cards and billings and see which ones are truly necessary and/or can be reduced.

Change the Name of Your Company and Double Revenue? (Scaling Up Case) --
The name of your company matters!  Green Light Events based in Dublin, Ireland had the opportunity to produce events for Google, Facebook, etc. but found their name didn’t resonate with their market. So with the help of branding firm The Pudding (also Scaling Up fans), they changed it to Cogs & Marvel (emphasizing their ability to execute and wow) and supported it with the right color palette and web presence – and revenues jumped from $22 million to over $50 million. This ScaleUps.com article details the process and reasoning – worth 1 minute to read. Then seriously contemplate changing the name of your firm.

Profit Share vs. Market Share --
It’s better to own the bulk of the profit within an industry, than own market share. With just 15% market share, the latest Apple numbers show they are capturing 66% of industry profits and 32% of the overall handset revenue. And Apple has a great company name. Who are the most profitable customers – go after them and leave the rest to the competition! Thank you Scaling Up coach Bill Gallagher for pointing me to these updated numbers.

Pipeline was named one of Time Magazine's Best Inventions of 2019 --
Congratulations to Katica Roy, founder and CEO of Pipeline, who keynoted our last ScaleUp Summit.  Her software platform for employers that both identifies and analyzes bias in the workplace received “Special Mention” in Time Magazine’s Best Inventions of 2019.

Australian Scale Up Summit | February 10, 2020 | ICC Sydney
I’m very excited to be heading to Sydney in a month to keynote the Sydney Scale Up Summit!  Joining me on stage will be Australian Scaling Up entrepreneurs; including Glen Richards and Naomi Simson of Shark Tank fame, as well as Anna Samios, an entrepreneur in her own right and a certified Scaling Up coach. This is your rare chance to learn directly from Scaling Up practitioners/leaders in your region and connect with business growth peers and Scaling Up (Rockefeller Habits 2.0) users. More details here https://bit.ly/2P7sN5o

CEO-BOOTCAMP: spend 3.5 days with Verne, serial entrepreneur John Ratliff, and 6 other CEOs in a beautiful retreat setting, addressing the constraints holding back you, your business, and your industry. Jan 14 - 17; Mar 10 - 13; Jul 21 - 24; Aug 18 - 21, 2020.

ORDER a BOX of 20 SCALING UP BOOKS --
Want to save 50% over the price on Amazon? Go to this link. 

EXITING: Looking to sell the business in the next 18 to 36 months? Want to avoid the traps many sellers fall into with today's buyers? You can download the white paper Seven Traps Sophisticated Buyers Deploy Against Unwary Sellers from align5 advisors here

Write Your Own Book --
Whether you want to make it to the bestseller lists or just sell a lot more of your goods or services, with a profound competitive edge over the competition, Book The Business: How to Make BIG Money With Your Book Without Selling a Single Copy is for you!

Request your free copy of this ground-breaking book at advantagefamily.com/scalingup.

COACHING:

Have you ever wondered if working with a coach might accelerate your company's growth, exponentially? Do you have what it takes to move the dial from good to great? The Scaling Up team is prepared to support you. We have helped 40,000 other organizations over the past 30+ years, in scaling up their organizations through coaching, workshops, online training and more.

We would like to offer you a complimentary, personal follow-up from our Scaling Up team to share how we can support you in scaling your organization.

YES! I WOULD LIKE TO LEARN MORE ABOUT COACHING & RECEIVE A COMPLIMENTARY FOLLOW-UP (CLICK HERE)

For questions or more information contact us at coaching@scalingup.com

TECHNOLOGY:

Execute Scaling Up Faster and Drive Accountability -- Drive Execution with Scaling Up Scoreboard, the official software tool for implementing Scaling Up – available online and in a mobile app. The technology behind Scaling Up Scoreboard is proven to help you achieve 3.5x more goals. Learn more at https://scalingup.com/software/ - on your computer, tablet or phone.

Better Book Club -- What's your team reading? Increase your books read per team member. Easy, Proven, and in the Cloud at http://www.BetterBookClub.com.