The Pocket MBA

Set yourself up for business success with this pocket-sized playbook

Packed with research, stories, and practical tools you can apply immediately, The Pocket MBA is an essential handbook for taking your business and your leadership to the next level. From mansplaining to motherhood, women face unique challenges when it comes to running a successful business. But whatever challenges you personally face, The Pocket MBA shares the insightful tips and strategies that will give you a head-start as a leader, manager, and owner.

In four accessible parts, you’ll uncover the key components for a rock-solid team and a booming business. Whether you’re going it on your own or you’re working with a franchise, you’ll learn effective ways to:

• Lead yourself: Learn how to align your leadership with your values, and how to ground and centre yourself so that you can respond more effectively to challenges.
• Lead your team: Get tips for recruiting and coaching staff so you can forge a happy, motivated, high-performing team of employees (who want to stick with you!).
• Lead your clients: Learn the framework that will keep your clients happy and returning again and again—generating more positive reviews and word-of-mouth.
• Lead your business: Discover practical models and metrics for assessing your ideas and making those critical business decisions.

Perfect for busy women in any industry, The Pocket MBA is a short and sweet playbook that will help you grow your business into a thriving, profitable enterprise.

Foreword ix

About the Author xiii

Introduction xv

Part I: Leading Yourself 1

1 Leadership mindset 5

2 VACAS leadership styles 19

3 Understanding your brain for effective leadership 39

4 SCARE: An organisational neuroscience leadership model 55

Case Study: Janine Allis and Boost Juice 72 Top Tips: Leading Yourself 77

Part II: Leading Your People 81

5 Recruiting staff and developing high performance 87

6 Development and coaching models 105

Case Study: Natalie Brennan and Muffin Break 116

Top Tips: Leading Your People 119

Part III: Leading Your Customers 123

7 Setting your business apart 127

8 The Sustainable Competitive Advantage framework 143

Case Study: Z Energy 155 Top Tips: Leading Your Customers 160

Part IV: Leading Your Business 163

9 Strategic models for business and finance 169

Case Study: Strong Pilates 180

Top Tips: Leading Your Business 184

Conclusion 187

References and further reading 191

Case study resource list 193

Index 197

JODI COTTLE, MBA, is an award-winning entrepreneur and small-business owner. She currently operates a high-performing business within the world’s largest aesthetics franchise network, Laser Clinics Australia. She earned her Master of Business Administration at the University of Auckland in New Zealand.

THE ESSENTIAL COLLECTION OF PROVEN MODELS AND FRAMEWORKS TO HELP YOU ADVANCE YOUR CAREER AND BUSINESS

In The Pocket MBA: A Woman’s Playbook for Succeeding in Business, award-winning small-business owner and entrepreneur Jodi Cottle has created an indispensable reference to help take your business and your leadership to the next level. From mansplaining to motherhood, women face unique challenges when it comes to business. Packed with research, stories and practical tools, The Pocket MBA gives you everything you need to take charge with confidence and successfully supercharge your career and business.

In four accessible parts, you’ll discover the key components of building a rock-solid team and a sustainable business, whether you’re going it on your own or operating a franchise. You’ll learn effective ways to manage yourself and lead your team, resulting in a happy, motivated and high-performing work culture. And you’ll learn how to increase your clients and structure your business soundly as you grow it into a thriving—and profitable—enterprise.

A practical, no-nonsense roadmap to extraordinary professional success, The Pocket MBA belongs in the libraries of busy female professionals, leaders, executives, entrepreneurs and founders everywhere.