If you don’t want to be in your business alone forever, this class will help you identify future needs based on where you are and what you have available to you now. When we put planning off, we end up overworking ourselves and create a perfect storm for failed investments in teammates and technology. That’s because when we don’t prepare to be supported leaders from the beginning, we’re not creating space for help in the future. This makes finding adequate help more difficult and expensive later on because teammates, technology and coaches won’t have proper direction from you and you may unintentionally spend money, time and energy on processes, tools and learning tactics you never needed in the first place. Knowing how to be an executive leader of legacy will allow you to be confident as the final decision maker in your business. Before hiring help, you’ll also need to trust in yourself more than anyone else as the final decision maker for business-related decisions; this class helps you be sure you’re getting the best possible outcomes when you invest your time, energy and finances because you’re the leader of it all.

If you aren’t making a profit in your business yet, now is the best time for this class because you’ll learn how to measure your financial and hiring decisions (even if it’s a coach or mentor), so you can project the outcome of every risk you take before making the financial or time commitment. In fact, if you aren’t making a lot of money in your business, this means you have to be even more limited to what you spend, so practicing risk assessment and strategic planning are more crucial in your circumstances and will assure your investments are being spent well. Risk assessment will even help your personal life as you learn to lead with logic. This is especially helpful if you’ve ever had a pattern of giving the steering wheel to your emotions (like me).

If you don’t want to be a big, corporate brand, that’s okay! This class can help you be a better advocate for yourself in business which means being equipped with the same knowledge consultants and coaches have, so you can make better decisions for your business by yourself. More self-assurance in what you’re doing, why you’re doing it and how you’re doing it will allow you to finally feel content with your business choices, so you can better negotiate or say “no” to vendors and other opportunities that may seem helpful, but may not be aligned with your actual needs according to your business plan. This practical approach to decision making will allow you to form reasonable, data-based explanations for your business decisions, so you can spend less time in your head about why something “just felt off” and devote more time actually enjoying being your own boss! .

If you have an idea that can impact your community, it’s never too early to adopt the mindset of an executive leader.

Executive leadership will also help you become more focused, so what you learn in this class will overlap into your studies and your personal life.

The things you learn in this class aren’t taught in school (and I have yet to hear of a business school who offers a similar humanized approach to business), so now really is the time to adopt an executive leadership style if you can see yourself starting a business or non-profit at any time in your life.

Just because you are good at making money, doesn’t mean you were equipped to lead yourself or your team. I often see “successful” business owners who are run-down, disconnected from teammates or who struggle with providing a culture for your business that welcomes retention of teammates and customers. If you’re always “putting out fires”, that’s a clear sign that something in your leadership is not working. If something wasn’t broken, your time would be spent optimizing what is already working, so you can have happy employees and customers who are there in the long-run.

If you are retiring into a new life of simplicity as a farmer, a non-profit owner, a homesteader or even as a small business owner, this class can help, no matter what your age. Plus, your life experience will give value to everyone in the class since you may have questions that only arise from experience.