Growing a business is hard

It’s more than hard. Sometimes it feels downright impossible.

Like trying to learn Russian while cleaning a toilet.

You get out of a meeting and you’ve got 18 voicemails waiting. One from an angry customer and another from the mission-critical vendor who wants to be paid, NOW. And, oh, your spouse needs your help with the kids, the back yard needs mowing, and the car has to go to the shop because something doesn’t sound right.

Starting and Building a Business Is Supposed to be Easy as Pie

It’s more than hard. Sometimes it feels impossible.

You had a recipe that you thought would work. You had the ingredients, you started. You knew exactly what to do. At some point, your recipe seemed off. So you have tried things and they haven't worked.

You feel alone. You can't ask for help. You are afraid you are in over your head.

Or you started your business, and it was pie for awhile. Then somehow, it outgrew you. Every time you solve one challenge, another bigger one comes along.

It's frustrating and exhausting.

You Need a Bigger Business Pie

More prospects, more sales, more predictable cash flow, a better staff or something else.

It looks so easy for everyone else. You're struggling and you don't know why or how to move forward.

That's where I come in. I can help you find the key ingredients to create that bigger business pie you know is possible.

We will work together to identify what you are baking, who you are baking for and how to get them to want to eat it.

So let's get into the kitchen and cook up the recipe to get you that bigger business pie.

Let's Satisfy Your Hunger with a Free Slice of Business Pie

Most of us want a sample before we buy a whole pie.

The same holds true for your business pie. It's your baby. Anyone can say they will help you.

It's a big step. You need to feel comfortable with this person, their philosophy and their style.

That's why I want you to try a slice of business pie out first.

These three options are among the most common small business owners face. Let's see what's possible with a little taste.

Select which one of these slices will help you now. Let's see if we're a fit, with no strings attached and no obligation.

Which Free Slice Do You Want to Taste?

Your Unique Recipe: Be like the great chefs who customize recipes so they are unique and memorable.

Mise En Place: Discover how mise en place can help solve your struggle to manage your time.

The Right Ratios: Become successful using the right ratios, which will dictate better results for your business.

Still Not Sure Which Slice to Try?

Take a free business assessment to help determine what sample will best satisfy your

ongoing hunger for a bigger business pie. I'll assess your results and offer some guidance.

Your Bigger Business Pie, Your Way

Let’s discuss what’s standing in the way of you building the bigger business pie you have always wanted.

I have worked with business owners in a wide range of industries, cooking up winning business recipes.

+ A 10-person insurance brokerage that sold for 12 times its annual revenue

+ An entrepreneur who has started three multi-million dollar businesses in less than two years each.

+ A tech company that has been courted by Apple

Let’s add you to my menu of small businesses grabbing a bigger business pie.

Still Not Ready to Dig In?

Bob The Business Baker has been helping small business owners cook their bigger business pies since 2010.

For the first couple of years as CEO of Bigger Pie Strategies, the recipes focused on marketing, with a heavy emphasis on leading the construction of the first websites for more than 80 small businesses. He also cooked marketing plans, press releases and other promotional materials, including books, seminars and videos.

After four years teaching undergraduate and graduate engineering students at Johns Hopkins University, he started baking up pies that focused on bigger business issues, including mindset, strategic planning, marketing, employee engagement and retention, and leadership.

In addition to speaking at conferences and writing two books, he has been a cohost of three podcasts, with topics ranging from soft skills to sales to being an effective entrepreneur.

Wherever you’re burning your pie...

More leads, sales, baking up big, big pies. You got it.

You won’t believe how easy it is to get your phone ringing with top-shelf, ready-to-buy prospects until you see our methods for yourself. It’s time to leave your competitors crying and begging for mercy.

Recruit winners instead of losers? We got you.

Only the very best hiring managers win the perpetual war for talent. You’ll join the ranks of elite recruiters when you learn how the top guns do it. It’s time to get the rock stars you deserve and let the rest work for the other guy.

Control your cash, put money away? Easy.

Smart business owners know how to control costs, forecast and manage cash, and grow profits. It’s time to control the flow of money through your business and build a nice large pile of cash in your bank account.

Get your business ready to sell big? Let’s roll.

Any business can be turned into a cash machine that runs without the daily involvement of the owner. It’s time to turn your staff into a team to run your business like they own it, so you can sell it to whomever and whenever you wish.

Skeptical?

Yeah, I get it.

With thousands of people offering business coaching and consulting on their “proprietary” ideas at ridiculous rates, I’m not surprised that you can’t be bothered. In fact, I’m surprised that you’re still reading...

What does the average business coach, consultant or trainer really know about running a business of their own, much less one like yours?

I couldn’t agree more. Good business success coaching is hard to find.

Most of it is nothing but repackaged and regurgitated common sense you can find on the business bookshelves at your local bookstore.

But not so with Bigger Pie Strategies. My goal is to cook up a winning recipe that helps you achieve your goals -- and more.

It's helping to uncover what you already know but cannot access, as well as best practices I have learned from my own experiences and helping other business leaders.

And it works.

Here's what some of my clients say.

"Bob Graham is like a Swiss Army knife for your business."

-- Brendan McAdams, founder of Expertscape and Kiinetics

“Bob helped me clarity that I want and need to do

to reach my business goals. His system and coaching made what seemed complicated so much easier and fun. He’s a wealth of information who is dedicated to helping executives accomplish big breakthroughs. I feel inspired and with much clearer direction

thanks to Bob!”

-- Dr. Dori Gatter, founder/CEO, Dori Gatter and Associates

"Bob is my business sherpa."

-- Eric Dexter, serial entrepreneur

I want to add you to my roster of successful business leaders.

Our Founder and CEO

Bob Graham has been working with business leaders and owners in everything from corporations and privately held firms, to partnerships and couple-owned entities.

He guides them to better use their time, talent and money to more easily and effectively achieve their goals and ultimately FREEDOM from the day-to-day struggles that take up so much of their energy and time.

Drawing on his past experience in journalism, marketing, teaching and guiding college students at all levels on business plan development, he provides owners with the focus necessary to achieve more with less effort.

Are You Buying Common Myths About Business Coaching Services?

Myth: Using business coaching services is a sign of weakness.

Fact: Some of the most successful people -- from Oprah to Tony Robbins to Tiger Woods -- rely on coaches to help them perform better.

They recognize that an outside perspective from an experienced business coach can influence their performance in profound ways. Small business owners tend to get wrapped up in the challenges of day-to-day operations; they rarely, if ever, have time to move from the tactical issues to planning for growth.

As a result, they remain mired in the business, never able to work on the business. Sound familiar?

Myth: A business coach can't know or understand your business issues.

Fact: Successful business coaches don't tell you what to do. They may make suggestions, but at all times they should support you as the small business owner making your own business decisions.

Effective business coaching services essentially hold up a mirror, allowing you to step out of your perspective to consider alternatives. Some alternatives may be ideal, some may need tweaking and some may not be worth additional consideration. However, each time you consider alternatives, it deepens both your understanding and resolve in accomplishing your objectives as a successful business owner.

In this way, business coaching can enable you to avoid common business problems and move more quickly toward your goals.

Myth: Business coaching should only come from someone in your industry.

Fact: Experienced business coaching involves helping small business owners avoid challenges and celebrate successes in their small business. Most of the issues you will address with your business coach will be universal to all small business owners.

When the situation involves an industry-specific challenge, having to explain the entire situation to an experienced business coach can have a powerful effect on your ability to understand the situation. Breaking it down to its essence and having to ponder and explain nuances often gives the small business owner the "a-ha moment" that enables them to move past the challenge.

Furthermore, the best business coach is able to bring lessons learned from other industries to the existing situation, thus giving the small business owner additional insight and resources.

Myth: You don't need a business coach. It's a waste of money

Fact: You probably have a business coach already. It might be a spouse or significant other, a good friend, an employee or someone else you put into the role of business advisor.

Here's the sad truth: You put them into the role of business coach, knowingly or unknowingly, and they cannot win. They don't know when to support you emotionally, when to advise you like a business coach, and what's best for you and your situation. They have enough concern for your feelings that they cannot objectively support you as a business advisor. You have put this person in a no-win situation.

An effective business coach builds a one-to-one coaching relationship that is focused primarily on your business in a way those other people cannot. That objectivity can be insightful and empowering, as a successful business coach doesn't tell you what you want to hear. They tell you what you need to hear in ways that you actually can hear and take action around.

Have you ever considered...

If you knew the answer to whatever business challenge you are facing today or this week or this month, you would have already solved it.

That you cannot solve it on your own points to the need for a business coach.

10 Benefits of Business Coaching

Successful small business owners recognize the many benefits of business coaching.

Here are 10 clear benefits that small business owner derive from an experience business coaching program:

Assistance with setting realistic business goals and objectives. An experienced business can guide you to set SMART goals that you can accomplish and provide you the accountability to meet milestones on the path toward achieving those objectives.

Improving your communications. Small business owners must talk to many different stakeholders, including employees (who may be from different age groups more and more), customers and vendors. Effective communication is critical to success, and as a business grows, it becomes more important and more difficult for an owner to communicate effectively.

Greater business productivity. Business coaching helps to identify areas of improvement and develop strategies that lead to improved productivity. In this difficult market for employees, becoming more efficient can mean the need for fewer employees.

Increased motivation and morale. An effective business coach can help motivate and improves morale through effective goal setting and facilitating an open and honest dialogue among all parties.

Better team collaboration. Business coaching helps to create a healthy and productive working environment by improving communication, delegation, leadership and collaboration among teams.

Enhance decision making. With the help of business coaching, individuals and teams consider additional perspectives that lead to better decisions. They also learn how to more quickly and skillfully respond to any changes in the business or industry.

An unbiased sounding board. Successful small business owners explore ideas before taking action. Other business owners opt to act rashly. A business coach can help you explore ideas more fully, challenge your thinking and provide additional perspectives that might not have been weighed otherwise.

Cost cutting. The best business coaches provide you with ways to cut costs by streamlining processes, changing vendors or refining work responsibilities. Finding effective ways to trim costs is a key function of a successful business coaching program.

Replacing the unintended business coach. Every small business owner has one or more people they go to when they need advice or a second opinion. Unfortunately, that person — a spouse, a significant other, an employee or friend — is thrust into the position of providing advice on something they aren’t well versed in. Even more worrisome is that the role of advisor gets in the way of their intended role as an emotional support person. A business coach replaces this person, allowing that relationship to flourish as it should, while improving your business.

Instilling more confidence. A business coach can help build confidence and empower the leader and employees to take on greater challenges and responsibilities. The business coach can help people uncover the lessons to learn from experiences so they can face the same situation with a new perspective next time.

If one or more of these benefits appeal to you, please schedule a time to discuss business coaching.

Learn More About Chef Bob

Executive Business Coach, Pie Cooker

Since 2010, as CEO of Bigger Pie Strategies, he helped hundreds of entrepreneurs, businesses and other entities bake a bigger business pie by increasing profits, empowering employees and improving efficiency. Guided an executive through new business launch, generating more than $3.2 million in sales in first year; guided mobile vehicle repair businesses‘ expansion into fleet management; created an improved online sales system to 4X sales with no more staff.

Business Book Author, Dynamic Speaker

Author of The Renegade Way (Mason-West Publishing House, 2021), exploring how we as Renegades can find and navigate our own unique pathway to success. Co-author of The 55 Soft Skills That Guide Employee and Organzational Success (Mason-West Publishing House, 2018). Proven speaker/trainer with clients including the National Institutes of Health, U.S. Collegiate IT Conference, McCormick & Co. and Johns
Hopkins University, The Think Group of 5-star restaurants.

College Professor, Business Plan Competition Head

Taught undergraduate and graduate marketing, consumer behavior, communications and business courses at Johns Hopkins University. Oversaw the annual Johns Hopkins University Business Plan Competition, drawing more than 80 teams from all of the JHU campuses, as well as other colleges. Previously taught journalism, English and business courses at Towson University, Goucher College and Strayer University.

Can Be Funny, So-So Golfer,

Not a Guitarist

A proven and time-tested master at wit (at least in his own mind), his humor has been characterized by some as “not funny at all,“ “not another dad joke,“ and “Really, you thought that was funny? Really?“ A great driving range swing that falls apart on the golf course, he shoots around 100 (on a good day), despite playing as often as possible.Owner of four guitars and a ukelele, he's know to struggle to play anything beyond the easiest of songs in a recognizable fashion.