CEO Shares Time-Tested Tips for Building a Successful Business

Whether you’re building a business from scratch or looking for ways to increase productivity or profits, you can make changes that will make a difference now using the strategies outlined in Enforcer to Entrepreneur: Achieving Hockey Stick Growth in Life, Business, and Sports from former hockey pro turned CEO Jerry Rollins.

“I know there’s a process for everything. Nothing in business is mysterious or elusive and — as I discovered during my hockey career — most everything can be learned,” he writes.

Rollins’ journey to CEO didn’t begin with an Ivy League education. He was a high school dropout who spent four years as a professional hockey player. When he put away his sticks for the last time, he had to build a new career from scratch, cutting his business teeth as an entry level salesman, all the while emulating mentors and building a marketable knowledge base. He eventually rose to positions (in various companies) that included VP of sales, president and CEO. What he discovered was that he didn’t need to re-invent the wheel: successful business formulas already exist; it’s just a matter of identifying them and applying them.

Between the covers of Enforcer to Entrepreneur, he shares real stories about real companies that faced real challenges, with key concepts that have withstood the test of time, including systems used by the business elite to secure capital, avoid negative cash flow and overcome other occupational pitfalls.

Rollins also draws parallels between winning sports teams and successful companies, particularly when it comes to identifying winning talent, building great teams and developing effective playbooks — strategies to which he devotes entire chapters and outlines in detailed, easy-to-follow language.

He even addresses owners and CEOs who have met their financial goals and find themselves asking, Now what?, with candid tips to help them define success, work toward purpose and move from success to significance.

By studying extraordinary people to learn how they became the best in their fields, along with recording every stage of his own progress — including the mistakes — Rollins has created a playbook of proven strategies to help others on their own entrepreneurial journeys.

Author Jerry Rollins is the Co-Founder and Chairman of the Sage Executive Group, a Southern California based peer advisory group that helps CEOs, founders and executives achieve all around success by positively impacting their businesses, families and communities. The Group’s core philosophy in working with the region’s top executives is emphasizing strong values, encouraging business leaders to put people before profits, and learning to effectively balance business demands and responsibilities to family, community and health. Sage was born out of Rollins’ vision to provide a reliable platform for decision-makers to come together and connect with like-minded professionals to collaborate, learn and solve the most pressing issues.

His desire to coach and be coached began during his time as a professional hockey player for the World Hockey Association. Many of the values he cultivated as a professional athlete — focus, determination, perseverance and teamwork — carried over into his business career and helped him thrive in a highly competitive, results driven industry and gave him the motivation to achieve specific goals. Over the past 30 years, he has served as the CEO and Advisory Board member of multiple organizations and helped execute rapid market turnarounds, build top performance sales teams, accelerate revenues and implement highly successful exit strategies for founders. When not coaching executives, he enjoy readings — typically two to three books a week. He also loves cooking dinner for his wife and keeping fit by walking six miles every day.

For more information, please visit www.jerryrollins.com. Or connect with the author on social media at: https://www.facebook.com/jerry.rollins.3 or http://www.instagram.com/jr_sageone.