Leadership conference stresses important concept of working on the business

Army veteran Matthew “Griff” Griffin discusses his product, Combat Flip Flops, and value-based leadership during a Small Biz Florida podcast at the recent JMI Small Business Leadership Conference in Orlando.

The Florida Small Business Development Center at IRSC recently attended and worked the 10th Annual Jim Moran Institute Small Business Leadership Conference in Orlando. We attended the conference to hear exceptional speakers who discussed timely and important topics such as: design thinking, leadership skills, an intergenerational workforce, digital markets and surviving an economic crisis.

The conference also featured a number of motivational and inspirational speakers, including Army veteran Matthew “Griff” Griffin, co-founder and CEO of Combat Flip Flops, who kicked off the conference with a presentation on value-based leadership.

Through his experience at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, special operations, combat, business and Shark Tank, he provided insights on how to train and translate values as a business leader.

Amanda Brinkman spoke about the importance of communicating with customers. She is the creator, producer and host of the hit series Small Business Revolution, which streams on Hulu and Prime Video. Now in the sixth season, Brinkman and her team revitalize a different community’s main street through makeovers.

And finally, a session entitled Celebrating Failure — Realizing the Silver Lining in Small Business Fails celebrated failure as a mark of leadership and innovation in pushing the boundaries of what is possible and profitable. This session provided great value in examining mistakes and learning from failure as leaders move beyond the simple and easy.

It took being around smarter and savvier business people to learn and understand a simple but powerful concept in business — While most time is spent working in the business, some time must be spent working on the business. It is understandable that time is valuable and that the majority of that time needs to be spent working in the business — managing those critical day-to-day operations.

However, it is also important that a business owner and manager take some time to work on the business by attending seminars or workshops and networking with other business professionals. This time is where new ideas, innovation and best practices are discussed, shared and learned.

In a previous issue of Treasure Coast Business magazine, the editor’s letter discussed conducting a strategic planning session for one’s business — this important and valuable exercise of strategic planning is a great example of working on the business. It stressed using assistance and training resources across the Treasure Coast to develop and deploy programs.

From strategic planning and capstone courses to student interns and financial management training, IRSC, its school of business and the Florida SBDC at IRSC are ready to create innovative programs that allow the business owner to dedicate specific time to work on the business.

And if you would like to listen to some of the conference’s presentations, you can find them on Small Biz Florida, the podcast that is all things business across the state.

For more information on how the college and the Florida SBDC at IRSC can help you work on the business, send an email to fsbdc@irsc.edu or call Katie Muldoon at 772.336.6285.

See the original article in the print publication

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