Let's assume for the moment that you have a positively differentiated product or service – something people find preferable enough to go out of their way to buy. The next question:

How will your potential customers find out about your product or service?

Direct sales? Telemarketing? Pay per click? Mass media? Direct mail? Word of mouth? Lots of choices, all with unavoidable costs. Too often we don't think through the operational and financial challenges of expanding our sales past the low hanging fruit. What works for picking the low hanging fruit might not be enough for breaking through the Barrier.

Peter Drucker once said,

"Most of what we call management consists of making it difficult for people to get their work done."

Which, of course, is about the opposite of what managers should be doing. Here are two quick "secrets" of management success:

1) Make sure your people are doing work they find meaningful and satisfying.

Without quoting all the research (and there is a ton of it), just know that intrinsic motivation trumps any external device, process or practice ever invented by man. When the work itself is meaningful and satisfying, the manager's need to motivate slips silently away.

2) Do everything you can to help your people make progress.

Managers don't get paid for what they do, they get paid for what their people do, so this makes perfect sense. And if you believe happy people are productive people, consider what Teresa Amabile and Steven Kramer wrote in the Harvard Business Review:

"When we compared people's best days with their worst, the most important differentiator was being able to make progress in the work."

The right people want to do great work. The right managers help them do it.

In a post entitled, "Why Every Business Has the Apple iPhone Problem", John Sviokla said this:

"Imagine an iPhone that had easy, cheap, standard, memory upgrades. The easier it is to upgrade, change, and improve the product – the more likely it is that people will adopt it, make it better, and an entire ecosystem of products and services can grow up around it. But since its founding, Apple does a great job of launching the first product and then refusing to open up to achieve market dominance."

In my opinion, Mr. Sviokla has missed the point, which is: Apple does a great job of making products that absolutely kick butt! Would letting random people muck about with iTunes really give us a better music buying experience? I don't think so.

Just because open source works in some places (and often quite well), it doesn't mean that every business must adhere to that strategy. There is seldom only one way to succeed. But a certain way to fail is to try to be all things to all people. Steve Jobs gets that, apparently John Sviokla does not.

Yesterday I suggested it might be necessary to make an entrepreneurial hire to break through the Barrier. That's true, but I might have gotten a little ahead of myself. The prerequisite to the entrepreneurial hire is probably the entrepreneurial fire – as in termination, not passion.

Most small businesses grow kind of helter skelter – there usually isn't a master structure and staffing plan. As a result, a lot of us end up hiring to put out a fire. When the fire is extinguished we're left with a person who may or may not fit perfectly going forward.

So before we make another hire, we need to scrutinize the function and performance of every single person on our payroll. We need to ask ourselves two questions:

1) Is every function (task) being performed absolutely vital to our success?

2) Is the performance of the person in every position as good as it needs to be?

Not everyone who receives a paycheck is advancing the cause of your company. Much of the "work" undertaken on a daily basis isn't vital to your success. In fact, there's a real possibility that some of the people you employ and some of their "work" is actually getting in the way of your success.

Eliminating non-vital tasks and under-performing people is a foundation for breaking through the Barrier.

When a business owner takes some time to think about his or her business, a harsh reality often presents itself: The business just doesn't have the horses to jump the Barrier. There isn't enough time and/or talent to produce enough more and/or to sell enough more to get to the next level. Which leaves three options:

1. Throw in the towel

3. Make an entrepreneurial hire

Starting a business is an act of faith. Making a key entrepreneurial hire is a second, more profound, act of faith. You can't afford another salary. The consequences of a bad hire are likely disastrous. And yet, it's quite possibly the only way forward.

What are you going to do?

The last few days I've been suggesting that business owners carve out some time to do some thinking and planning about how to grow past the hero with helpers structure. Growing a small business usually requires effective answers to two critical questions:

How Do We Sell More and/or How Do We Produce More?

Clearly, there are myriad questions underlying these two – but these questions are almost always the crux of the growth issue. I know these are obvious questions. But again, do you have good answers? If so, are you acting on the answers? And, do all of your people know what to do and where you're going?

Some 80% of all businesses in America haven't broken through the Barrier. So even though the questions might be obvious, the answers are not easy.

I just bought a Kindle from Amazon. Haven't had a chance to use it much yet. But Seth Godin has a thoughtful, brilliant post about the device and the world of books. Check it out.

When I suggested yesterday that owners trying to break through the Million Dollar Barrier should exit the day to day crush for a period of thought and reflection, I heard a lot of, "Where do I find the time?".

And the answer is: I don't know.

But here's what I do know – the question every business owner must ask himself or herself is:

What's the best use of my time right now?

If the most important thing in your life is to break through the Barrier, what's the best use of your time right now? What will most contribute to that objective? I'd suggest NOTHING is more important than carving out some time away from the day to day craziness so you can think and plan.

When my son was in grade school, he was taught a safety precaution called Stop, Drop & Roll. If his clothes ever caught fire, he was trained to the stop running, drop to the ground and roll to smother the flames. That's also pretty good advice if you're trying to break through the Million Dollar Barrier.

As I mentioned in yesterday's post, the vast majority of business owners are operating in the hero with helpers structure. In this structure, owners are usually overwhelmed with their responsibilities for delivering the product or service AND their responsibilities for running the business (personnel, finance, purchasing, real estate, etc.)

It's a tough spot.

To get out of the tough spot requires a fundamental shift. And determining exactly what that shift involves takes some careful thought and reflection. Neither of which is possible in the crush of day to day activity most owners are living with. So, let's apply the lesson from grade school.

Stop what you're doing – for a couple of hours, at least, but hopefully for a day or more. Drop your responsibilities for this very brief period of time – or even better, drop those responsibilities in someone else's lap. And then, let your thoughts roll.

Figure out how your company can produce more or sell more WITHOUT you working more. The key is to expand your company's capacity, not your personal capacity. That's how you break through the Barrier.

As I mentioned in my first post on the Million Dollar Barrier, the vast majority of all companies never exceed a million dollars in sales. Sometimes that's because the product or service just isn't remarkable enough for people to go out of their way to buy it. Other times it's because the structure of the business restricts growth.

Often, a person with a trade, craft or particular expertise decides to start a business. If things go well, the business owner begins to hire some other folks to help him or her. Usually the hired folks play only supporting roles. That works just fine for a while. But at some point (almost always under a million dollars in sales) the owner can't produce any more of the product or service no matter how many helpers he or she has, no matter how heroically he or she toils.

A hero with helpers isn't a structure that works very well for breaking through the Million Dollar Barrier. For a business to break through, the owner has to stop practicing the trade, craft or expertise and start developing the capacity of other people in the business to provide the core product or service. That's a huge leap, one that only a fraction of business owners are willing or capable of making.

Someone snarked at me about yesterday's post. Their point was: It's not exactly breaking news that a successful product or service is different in some way that matters to the customer. That couldn't be more true. And yet ...

Is your product or service clearly and remarkably better than your competitor's, right now? Are large numbers of customers going out of their way to buy from you, right now?

Most truthful people are saying, "Well, no ..." and quite a few are saying, "Yeah, but ..." Here's the thing: Just because it's obvious doesn't mean we see it. That thought is not original to me. The Stoic philosopher, Lucius Anneus Seneca said this:

"Whatever is good for us should be discussed often and frequently brought to mind, so that it may be not just familiar to us, but also ready for use."

The idea of differentiation needs to be ready for use. If you want to break through the Million Dollar Barrier, get busy on differentiating your product or service.

Yesterday I posted about how undifferentiated products and services are key components of the Million Dollar Barrier. I wrote from experience, not from theory.

In 1990 I started a video production business from scratch. No clients, no prospects. A desk and a telephone in a spare bedroom. Eventually, that business provided a living, some years quite a good living. But one thing always plagued me:

I couldn't tell prospects why we were better than our competitors, because truth be told, we weren't any better.

We did fine work. But so did a couple dozen other video production companies in our home town. Until we changed the very nature of our business, until we could clearly and concisely explain how we were different and why it mattered, we simply couldn't break through the Million Dollar Barrier.

And it wasn't enough for us to be able to tell our clients and prospects how we were different. Our clients and prospects had to be able to tell their friends and associates how we were different.

Why is the Million Dollar Barrier so formidable?

I suspect that are a number of reasons. Maybe the most prevalent is that the product or service sold by most companies isn't remarkable enough for anyone to go out of their way to get it. You go to the dry cleaner, sandwich shop or bank because it's in the path you travel regularly. Would you invest an extra half hour to spend your money with THAT dry cleaner, sandwich shop or bank? My guess is no.

There are so many fundamentally undifferentiated dry cleaners, sandwich shops and banks that it just wouldn't make sense to spend an extra half hour to do business with any particular one of them. If your business is undifferentiated from your competitors, your market potential is limited to the people who happen by.

The same concept holds true for B2B products and services. There are plenty of places to buy office supplies, accounting services, printing, etc. Most of them hard to tell apart. If it's convenient for someone to buy your office supplies, accounting services or printing, some people probably will. But no one will go out of their way to buy from you unless there's a compelling reason – unless you offer something that they want that they can't get somewhere else.

The Million Dollar Barrier is built, at least in part, with undifferentiated products and services.

My work brings me into contact with a large number of small business owners and entrepreneurs. I never cease to learn from and be inspired by these remarkable people. Generally, conversation with these folks revolves around growing the business.

One of the things I've noticed is that lots and lots of businesses seem to get stuck in roughly the same place. That place is around a million dollars in revenue and/or about 10, maybe 12, employees. In fact, there are approximately six million firms in the United States that have employees (another 20 million firms exist without employees). Almost five million of those six million firms have fewer than 10 employees. About the same number have revenues of less than a million bucks.

Clearly, there's a significant barrier for a business to grow past about 10 employees and about a million dollars in sales. These are very rough numbers and they vary by industry, company, etc. But that doesn't change the reality, which is: At a certain point, the owner's charisma, sales ability, passion, talent or whatever just isn't enough to keep the business growing.

Now, that may be just fine with the owner. But often, the fruits of a small business are simply not worth the risk, effort and aggravation involved in running that business. About 500,000 small business owners decide to throw in the towel every year. I'm not talking about bankruptcies (depending on the the year there are between 20,000 and 40,000 business bankruptcies) I'm talking about just closing it up and walking away.

That's a lot of heartbreak and job loss because we can't find a dependable way to get through, over or around The Barrier. Let's think on this.

I'm a big fan of Mavericks at Work by Bill Taylor and Polly LaBarre. Recently, I discovered Bill's Blog on Harvard Business Publishing.

His post about 37 Signals (creators of BaseCamp) and his post about the employment practices of online shoe seller, Zappos are both must reads. Check them out.

The numbers are in. Claims of discrimination, sexual harassment and retaliation went up by double digits from 2006 to 2007. Monetary relief was up 26%. The cost of defending a claim now averages $125,000.

This is serious business. It should be addressed at the highest levels of every company. There are some obvious steps: Establish strong policies and procedures to prevent discrimination. Make sure every single person adheres to these policies and procedures. Train everyone, every year. (Full Disclosure: Our company produces training to prevent discrimination and sexual harassment.) If there is a complaint, take immediate action.

You do these things to protect your company. But more importantly, you do these things to protect your people. Leaders have a responsibility to make sure every person has a fair chance to succeed. That's impossible if the workplace is dangerous or threatening.

When the Democratic nomination process started, I was more or less in the Hilary camp. My impression was that she was a smart, capable woman and would probably be a competent President. Last night I watched what should have been her concession speech.

Instead of a concession speech, I witnessed a display of narcissism seldom seen, even in politics. In his book, The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership, John Maxwell quotes his friend, Gerald Brooks:

"When you become a leader, you lose the right to think about yourself."

Senator Clinton spoke of service, and commitment to her party and the American people. But it seemed clear to me she was thinking only of herself. Our country needs a leader. What we saw last night was the opposite of leadership.

On my way to Book Expo last week, I read Presentation Zen by Garr Reynolds. During the next three days I sat through about a dozen presentations – all using Power Point. While the content of the presentations was generally quite good, the Power Point decks just sucked out loud. Every single one of them.

If you use Power Point or Keynote, please read Garr's book. It's a different approach, but it's not impossible, or even that tough to do. Whatever the objectives of your presentation, I promise those objectives will be be served by the principles and techniques in Presentation Zen

I spent last week at The Writer's Conference and Book Expo in Los Angeles. During the week I was reminded of the impact that solitude and smart people can have on a business.

Most of the leaders I know are busy, hard-working people. They have a tendency to wade in and muscle through even the most daunting of challenges. Their intensity and energy serve them well – most of the time. But many of these folks (including me) are a little reticent about carving out time for reflection, they're hesitant to invest time in any activity that isn't directly related to a specific and urgent business outcome.

And their businesses suffer as a result. Last week I took advantage of some white space – some time away from the normal busyness of our business. And I listened intently to some very smart people. I invested four days. I don't think I could have made a better investment.