Business is Good with Chris Cooper

This November, join me for a 30-day GOLDEN HOUR Challenge to grow your business!To participate:Commit to participating in our Facebook group (join here)Post "done!" under each daily GOLDEN HOUR CHALLENGE post when you've completed the work for the day!Connect with Chris Cooper:Website - https://businessisgood.com/

Why Get Rich_Chris Cooper discusses the motivations and challenges of gym owners, who often sacrifice higher-paying careers to pursue their passion despite low earnings. He argues that wealth creation is essential for personal and societal progress, emphasizing that wealth enables freedom, problem-solving, and opportunities for others. Cooper highlights the importance of entrepreneurship in driving economic growth and democracy, noting that wealth creation is necessary for job creation and tax generation. He advocates for building wealth to solve personal financial issues, compound wealth, create opportunities for others, and ultimately, to give back through philanthropy.Transcripthttps://otter.ai/u/gI_vGIJuGHfXY77z5D1AzbS4MD0?view=transcriptAction Items[ ] Develop the skill of making money.[ ] Aim to have a personal net worth of $20 million to be able to give away $1 million per year.OutlineWhy Gym Owners Aren't Interested in Becoming MillionairesChris Cooper discusses the low earnings in the fitness industry, with average wages for trainers at $28,000 and gym owners at $42,000, unchanged in recent years.Despite the low pay, gym owners often leave lucrative careers in banking, teaching, or firefighting to pursue their mission-driven work.Gym owners are willing to sacrifice personal financial stability to help others improve their lives, even going hungry to keep their gyms running.Chris Cooper emphasizes that gym owners are less interested in becoming millionaires due to their mission-driven mindset and the challenges of their profession.The Importance of Wealth and EntrepreneurshipChris Cooper argues that wealth creation is essential for prosperity and peace, driving our way of life and democracy.He explains that entrepreneurship, not government or unions, creates jobs and wealth, which in turn support the economy and democratic processes.Cooper highlights the historical context of wealth creation, noting that even 100 years ago, many Americans were still struggling with poverty and poor working conditions.He stresses that wealth creation is a fundamental driver of human progress, allowing for improvements in healthcare, education, and other essential services.Wealth as Freedom and TimeChris Cooper defines wealth as the freedom of resources and time, not just money, and explains that true wealth involves balancing both.He shares that solving money problems is crucial for entrepreneurs, as financial struggles can follow them home and impact their personal lives.Cooper provides a personal example of how solving money problems allowed him and his wife to afford Christmas presents and other necessities.He emphasizes that wealth solves many problems in Western society, such as access to clean water and child brides, though some issues like boredom and addiction are more complex.Compounding Wealth and Eliminating DebtChris Cooper explains how wealth compounds over time, using his own experience of paying off a mortgage in seven years instead of 25.He describes the snowball effect of eliminating debt, where extra money saved from debt repayment is applied to other debts, creating more financial freedom.Cooper shares a story of buying a car with cash, highlighting the long-term benefits of wealth compounding.He discusses the importance of setting up opportunities for others, such as creating jobs and investing in the future.Creating Opportunities for OthersChris Cooper argues that wealth creates opportunities for others, contrasting bureaucratic jobs with entrepreneurial jobs that add

why you want the hard timesDave tate: business is a battle of attritionwhat determines who lasts and who doesn't? the hard stuffnobody wanted covid lockdowns, but when they reopened there was far less competitionTadej Pogacar - I want the steepest, hardest climbs becuase they're the separatorwhen you ahve stafff quit - so do theywhen your rent goes up - so does theirsmaybe not the same day, but over the 3-year span, everything that happens to you will happen to your competitionThey might not survive itYou also don't have to create hardship by attacking them or running them down. They have enough. eVen if they don't show it, they're facing the same stuff you are. and many won't survivealso, you need the repsyou want to practice the hard stuff when the stakes are lowthere are reasons things tget hard. one is they're new. one is they're personal. one is the stakes are high.Break them apart. If the hardship you're going through is because you've never faced that problem before, get a mentor. Don't take advice from someone else who's never done it before.If it's hard because it's personal, get an objective perspective. don't ask your mom or your bff or your husband. ask a mentor.if it's hard because the stakes are high, you might need a different kind of mentor to help with perspective, but you still need a mentorAfter the trouble is over, you have two jobs:one - never repeat ittwo - learn what you can from it. You've heard the term 'if I win, I win, if I lose, I learn' - or some variation. But most people don't actually learn becaues they don't pick apart the elsson. They keep repeating the same mistakes. so here's how you do an AARConnect with Chris Cooper:Website - https://businessisgood.com/

Episode Summary:In this episode, we’re talking about how business owners—especially gym owners—often make the mistake of overcomplicating their businesses. It’s easy to add unnecessary options, details, and management layers, but that can slow down growth, create confusion, and reduce profit. Many of us became entrepreneurs to flex our creative muscles, but there’s a point where experimentation becomes a barrier to success. We’ll dive into why simplifying back to a minimum viable product (MVP) is essential for increasing profitability and reducing stress.Key Takeaways:How business owners complicate their businesses by adding unnecessary features.The importance of going back to a minimum viable product (MVP).Why every product you sell should be easy to explain and fulfill with minimal resources.How complexity takes you further away from product-market fit.Practical steps to simplify your business.Episode Outline:IntroductionToday’s topic: How overcomplicating your business is costing you time, money, and stress.Entrepreneurs often treat their business as a creative outlet, adding options or details that hurt growth.We’ll talk about how to get back to your core product and maximize profit by simplifying.Story 1: Back to Basics – Creating a Minimum Viable Product (MVP)A gym owner struggled with offering too many services, confusing clients.Solution: They stripped the business down to focus on 1:1 personal training, which was the highest-margin service.Result: Simplifying increased their revenue per client and reduced operational headaches.Problem: Complexity Hurts Product-Market FitAdding more services, features, or options may feel creative, but it confuses buyers and slows purchasing decisions.Imagine you’re starting from scratch—what is the one product that solves a clear problem?Your core offer should be easy to sell, easy to explain, and require minimal resources to deliver.Story 2: Unnecessary FeaturesExample of a business owner who kept adding services and packages, hoping to appeal to more clients.The result: More complexity, slower sales, and clients were unsure of what to choose.Lesson: Simplifying the offering brought more clarity and increased client retention.Avoiding Unnecessary Management LayersMany owners add managerial staff too early because they think it’s a sign of growth.This adds extra work for the owner (training, managing) and cuts into profit.Story 3: A gym owner added a layer of middle management that created bottlenecks and made decisions slower, instead of solving problems.The result: They ended up with more tasks on their plate and less profitability. Once they scaled back, their business ran smoother and profits increased.Practical Exercise: Designing Your MVPTake a step back and imagine you’re building your business from scratch.Ask yourself: What would the minimum viable product look like?It should solve one clear problem, be easy to explain, and maximize profitability without adding complexity.Tips on how to focus on the core offering, eliminate unnecessary layers, and create a more streamlined operation.Closing ThoughtsComplexity kills growth. Simplify your business down to what really matters: solving your clients’ problems.Reminder: The goal is to focus on what drives the most profit with...

This week, we're going to build entrepreneurial resilience: the ability to just keep going when things go wrong.Listen to this episode, and then visit the Daily Directives section at BusinessIsGood.com to complete daily exercises for resilience all week.I'm Chris Cooper, and today I'm discussing strategies for overcoming adversity in business. Setbacks are inevitable, but they can be managed by spreading them out over time and making them less impactful. I've found that taking a long-term view, recognizing small wins, and maintaining a practice mindset can prepare us for future challenges. It's also crucial to evolve and improve with clients, staff, or products, and to view departures as opportunities for growth. Every challenge is a stepping stone to greater opportunities, so it's essential to stay resilient and see setbacks as part of the journey.Understanding Adversity in EntrepreneurshipI kick off the podcast by emphasizing the importance of learning from mistakes and sharing those lessons with other entrepreneurs. I introduce the concept of "$13 days," those times when progress feels like a step backward. This is a normal part of the entrepreneurial journey. The goal is to spread out these backward steps over time, making them smaller and less catastrophic. I share a personal anecdote about my mentor asking me about the last significant setback, which highlights the importance of perspective.The Long View and Bright SpotsI advise taking a long-term view. Look back at past rough weeks, and you'll see that they happen less frequently and with less impact over time. I introduce "Bright Spots Fridays," where we reflect on our achievements to train our minds to focus on positive outcomes. Recognizing and celebrating small wins helps us stay resilient and better handle adversity. The purpose of Bright Spots Fridays isn't to brag; it's to acknowledge and learn from our successes.Practice and Preparation for Future ChallengesEvery challenge is practice for a bigger but similar challenge in the future. Each setback is a learning opportunity. I use the example of a staff member quitting as a rehearsal for handling more significant departures down the line. By preparing processes to prevent similar issues, we become better equipped to handle adversity with less impact. This cycle of audit and improvement is crucial for continuous growth and resilience.Client Relationships and Successful ExitsI talk about the natural end date for client relationships and how important it is to view client departures as a success rather than a failure. I share my criteria for a successful client exit, like the client continuing their fitness habit or achieving significant life changes. By focusing on the positive outcomes of client departures, we can feel more confident and prepared for future changes. This concept extends to our staff, products, and services, underscoring the importance of continuous improvement and evolution.Creating Opportunities Through AdversityI suggest seeing every challenge as an opportunity to create a seat at the table for something better. I share Emerson's quote, "Heartily no, when demigods go, the gods arrive," to illustrate how removing one challenge opens up space for a greater opportunity. Examples include replacing a damaged company car with a better one or using a staff departure to attract a more suitable candidate. I emphasize the importance of a linear approach to growth, where overcoming one challenge paves the way for the next opportunity.Top Tips for Working Through AdversityTo sum up, here are my top tips for working through adversity: take the long-term view, maintain a practice mindset, recognize that nothing lasts forever, and see challenges as opportunities. Count your wins, prepare for future...

Why founders don’t make moneyThey are product oriented -inventors not investors They quit too soon - in the product crew successful, they have done its jobThey failed to scale - They are irreplaceable in their business.Connect with Chris Cooper:Website - https://businessisgood.com/

I'm a product guy.I want to believe that if I keep making my product better, I'll make it more profitable.Unfortunately, that almost never works - we get caught in the Technician's Curse and never stop iterating on our product, tweaking it, improving it...and never having time to market it.But there are SOME ways that improving your product CAN make it more profitable:Being the best in class creates a huge advantage, because the best clients will ascend to your service (if they know about it.)Tactically, you can also try:Outcome-based pricing Pursuing greatness as a marketing strategy. Improving client retention by improving client outcomes.I walk through all of this on today's episode!Connect with Chris Cooper:Website - https://businessisgood.com/

Connect with Chris Cooper:Website - https://businessisgood.com/

Characteristics of Missionaries and MercenariesMissionaries:Purpose-Driven: Focused on the company’s vision and values, often motivated by making a meaningful impact.Long-Term Commitment: Likely to stay with the company through ups and downs, seeing their work as a calling or part of a larger mission.Team-Oriented: They prioritize collaboration and the overall success of the team over personal gain.Mercenaries:Outcome-Focused: Driven primarily by personal benefits such as compensation, bonuses, and other perks.Short-Term Commitment: Their loyalty is as long as the benefits last; they may quickly move on if a better offer appears.Individualistic: Tends to prioritize personal achievements and recognition over team success.2. Identifying Missionaries and Mercenaries in the WorkplaceMissionaries:Look for employees who advocate for the company’s values and are enthusiastic about company-wide goals and missions.They often go beyond their job descriptions to help colleagues and advance the organization’s objectives.Mercenaries:Identify those who frequently negotiate for higher pay or better titles without corresponding increases in their contribution to team goals.They may exhibit high performance but are less interested in collaborative projects unless these directly impact their personal targets.3. The Strategic Use of Mercenaries in BusinessWhen You’d Want a Mercenary:Special Projects: For short-term, high-impact projects where specific skills are crucial, and the commitment is finite.Scaling Operations: When rapid scaling is needed, mercenaries can accelerate growth given their focus on outcomes and deliverables.4. Encouraging Missionaries to ThriveStoking Up Missionaries:Align Roles with Passions: Ensure that their roles are closely aligned with what they are passionate about within the context of the company’s mission.Recognition and Empowerment: Recognize their contributions in meaningful ways and empower them with the autonomy to lead initiatives.Foster a Purpose-Driven Culture: Strengthen the company’s mission-oriented culture, making the collective mission a central part of daily business operations.If you want to join the conversation with other entrepreneurs, click here.Connect with Chris Cooper:Website - https://businessisgood.com/

 I get between 30 and 300 messages on FB every single day. Usually, I ask, "what are your goals for the business?" and the entrepreneur answers, "I need more clients." But in many ases, they have lots of clients, and that's not ht eproblem. They're chasing the wrong metric. In fact, they're chasing the hardest metric. They should be chasing profit. How do you get more profit and impove that metric? Getting more revenue and cutting unnecessary expenses. You improve those 2 metrics. How do you improve the revenue metric? More clients, maybe...or maybe more rev per client, or maybe less churn. You improve those 3 metrics (headcount, ARM and LEG) But what if you just improved one of those metrics right now? Like ARM? well, every client goes up $10/mo. If you have 100 clients, that's 1000 more/mo. So you improve revenue. Since that revenue doesn't come with additional expenses, the new revenue is all profit. Bingo - you've improved hte metric you actually want to improve. Now let's look at the alternative. You want to improve revenue so you increase client headcount. Well, more clients comes with some expenses: staff, equipment, etc. A good benchmark is that 44% of your revenue, per client, goes to staff. So you bring on 10 clients paying $100/mo...and you have to add coaches and equipment. So maybe about $550 goes to the bottom line. You've improved revenue by $1000, but profit by only $550. Obviously there are a lot of factors here. BUT the key is identifying the right metric to improve. Professionals can actually grow a lot faster by increasing the frequency and value of their services than by increasing their client count. This is where a mentor helps: You start with the end in mind. If your mentor is asking "why do you want that?" it's because they're trying to guide you to the endgame - the picture of success that you have in your head. You might not even have taken the time to craft this picture, which is why you're chasing the wrong metric. Or maybe you know where you want to go, but haven't 'considered all sides of the coin. THat's where a mentor can help too: they can show you the easiest ways to get to your goal once you have it. It's up to you to track these metrics. and when you become a very good business owner, you can identify these opportunities for yourself. Until then, though, if you think that 'more clients' = success, I'd seek an outside perspective.Connect with Chris Cooper:Website - https://businessisgood.com/

When most entrepreneurs get their business running smoothly, they turn their eyes to the next thing: the next level, the next opportunity, the next location, or the next big idea.This means they no longer spend all of their time caring for, feeding and protecting the Golden Goose. They might entrust its care to someone else...but that person doesn't have all of the context, experience or knowledge of the business owner.We call this "moving from Farmer phase to Tinker Phase". When you leave your farm in the hands of someone else and start tinkering, you have to mentor the new farmer. In this episode, I talk about the step that most successful founders skip: mentoring their team.I tell you why it's important, and how to do it step by step.If you want to join the conversation with other entrepreneurs, click here.Connect with Chris Cooper:Website - https://businessisgood.com/

Connect with Chris Cooper:Website - https://businessisgood.com/

Connect with Chris Cooper:Website - https://businessisgood.com/

No matter what kind of service business you own, you must carefully consider their first 3 visits into your service. These first 3 interactions set you up for long-term client retention...or early washout.Here's how to do it.Connect with Chris Cooper:Website - https://businessisgood.com/

Last week I shared the story of the Smokejumpers, and the horrible tragedy that happened in Mann Gulch, Montana in 1949. But as in all tragedies and all business setbacks, there's a lesson that we can learn and take from this. In this lesson, the foreman of the Smokejumpers--Wagg Dodge-- did something that seemed counterintuitive and didn't make sense to his team: he lit an escape fire. And this brave act ultimately saved his life, and it shares profound lessons for businesses facing their own kind of wildfires.Connect with Chris Cooper:Website - https://businessisgood.com/

In the annals of firefighting history, few events are as heartbreaking and instructive as the tragedy of the Smoke Jumpers in Mann Gulch. This group of elite wildland firefighters met their fate in a devastating fire in 1949, which claimed the lives of 13 brave souls. Their story is not only a poignant reminder of the hazards faced by firefighters but also serves as a metaphor for businesses navigating the treacherous landscapes of change and competition.Smoke Jumpers are specially trained firefighters who parachute into remote areas to combat wildfires. They are the first line of defense against some of the most dangerous fires in rural and wilderness areas. On that fateful day in August 1949, a team of 15 Smoke Jumpers descended into Mann Gulch in Montana to fight a fire that had erupted in the area. What seemed like a routine operation soon turned into a nightmare as the wind shifted unexpectedly, causing the fire to engulf the gulch at a breakneck speed.The tragedy was compounded by the terrain—a steep 70-degree slope that the firefighters had to climb to escape the rapidly advancing flames. Investigators later found that none of the fallen Smoke Jumpers had dropped their heavy gear; they perished with their packs intact, loaded with heavy saws, shovels, and poleaxes. It was speculated that had they discarded this burdensome equipment, some might have outrun the disaster.This tragic event underscores a crucial lesson: the importance of agility and the ability to let go of unnecessary weight when facing an existential threat. For businesses, especially those that have been around for decades, this can be a metaphor for shedding institutional baggage to stay relevant and competitive.Long-established companies often carry their own kind of heavy equipment in the form of outdated practices, legacy systems, and old ways of thinking that no longer serve their purpose. These can drag a company down, making it less nimble and unable to pivot quickly in response to market changes or technological advances. Like the Smoke Jumpers, companies might find themselves racing uphill against challenges that are exacerbated by the weight they carry.The first step in avoiding this fate is recognizing what constitutes unnecessary weight. This could be an inefficient process that consumes valuable resources, a product line that no longer meets customer needs, or policies that stifle innovation rather than foster it. Once identified, the difficult but necessary task of letting go must commence. This might mean restructurings, like streamlining operations, investing in new technologies, or overhauling management practices to enhance decision-making speed and efficacy.The lesson from Mann Gulch is clear: survival might depend on the ability to drop what’s heavy and run unencumbered towards safety. For businesses, this doesn’t just mean surviving but thriving—turning potential disasters into opportunities for growth and renewal.By learning from the past and being willing to adapt, businesses can navigate the uncertainties of the future more effectively. Just as the landscape of wildland firefighting has evolved since the Mann Gulch fire, so too must businesses evolve by shedding the institutional baggage that can hold them back. It’s a vital strategy for staying ahead of the curve and ensuring long-term success in an ever-changing world.Connect with Chris Cooper:Website - https://businessisgood.com/

Connect with Chris Cooper:Website - https://businessisgood.com/

Connect with Chris Cooper:Website - https://businessisgood.com/

BiG Podcast - Golden HourChris Cooper emphasizes the importance of dedicating an hour each day to growing one's business, citing the benefits of uninterrupted time for focus and consistency in practicing the 'golden hour.' He advises listeners to prioritize their mentor's tasks during this hour and highlights the ease of entering a state of focus with consistent practice.Action Items[ ] Block out a daily one hour "golden hour" time on your calendar to work on your business[ ] Visit Chris Cooper's website (businessesgood.com) and utilize the daily directives and resources provided[ ] Track your daily progress such as words written[ ] Spend 5 minutes each evening reflecting on your day's successesConnect with Chris Cooper:Website - https://businessisgood.com/

Connect with Chris Cooper:Website - https://businessisgood.com/