Rick Sapio: Designer and Lead Instructor of BusinessFinishingSchool.com

Rick Sapio has made a life out of operating successful businesses. He has been the founder of more than 20 businesses and worked in the investment industry after he graduated from university. Through his decades of work as a successful business creator and operator, Richard Sapio developed and applied 12 principles that he calls his "12 Foundational Principles of Business."

Richard Sapio teaches these 12 principles in the first year of his business program called Business Finishing School. The program is a four year-long program with the first year taking a month to focus on a principle. Richard Sapio breaks down the months' work into modules. The first twelve are:

Values-Based Decision Making

Life and Business "Catalyzing Statement: and Management-by-Objectives”

Using Rhythms to Amplify Time and Success

New Profit Paradigm

Business Entity Structure to Leverage Long-Term Wealth

Lessons from the Billionaire Mind

The Battleship Principle

Simplicity on the Far Side of Complexity

Rules-Based Business Decisions

How to Consistently Hire and Attract Talent

The Stop Doing List

Lifelong Investing Success

Richard Sapio has used these 12 principles repeatedly in his own life. One of the business passions Rick Sapio had was taking struggling or failing businesses and turning them around. He made these successful "turnarounds" utilizing these principles. Richard Sapio hopes that with a true understanding developed through Business Finishing School, other entrepreneurs will be able to apply them just as successfully.

In addition to the regular coursework and video lessons, Richard Sapio hosts his "Live Business-Mastery Intensive Boot camp" in Dallas, Texas. The boot camp allows Richard Sapio to meet his student base in person while delving into the core principles of the Business Finishing School program. The boot camp also allows entrepreneurs to meet with other entrepreneurs to share their success and share their stories.

Finishing School for Chiropractors and Rick Sapio

Rick Sapio is not a chiropractor but a tried and true business professional. He understands that doctors may be skilled in their specialty, but that doesn't mean they are particularly business savvy. To operate a successful chiropractic office, Richard Sapio knows business skills are needed.

With a colleague, Richard Sapio created the Chiro Business Finishing School as a mirror to his traditional Business Finishing School. Richard Sapio hopes to help chiropractors enjoy the business end of their practice by helping them understand the principles of business and economics. Even if they love their work, without a properly running office, patients won't be driven to return.

Rick Sapio was drawn to create the chiropractic-focused school as a result of his business relationship with Dr. Gentempo. It is Dr. Gentempo who is experienced in the field of chiropractic work, but the true genius behind the principles of running a business lies in Richard Sapio.

Since he was a teenager, Rick Sapio had a mind for creating and running a business. He started his own bicycle repair shop when he was 13. At age 20, after graduating from Rutgers University, he began working in the investment industry where he became the firm’s youngest partner. Still in his twenties, Richard Sapio traded distressed securities and led more than $100 million in transactions in just one year.

When he turned 30, Richard Sapio created his own holding company where he has made over 75 investments in fewer than 20 years. He has invested in many public and private businesses including health care and real estate. For two years, Rick Sapio was President of the Dallas Chapter of Entrepreneurs Organization and a five-time Chairman of MIT's "Gathering of Titans" program. Richard Sapio has been a guest presenter multiple times, including speaking at Parker University in January of 2013 as well as TEDx in Milan, Italy in February of 2013.

Short Bio of Rick Sapio

Richard Sapio has been founding companies since he was a teenager. After the passing of his father at age 13, Rick Sapio founded his own bicycle repair shop. Jumping in a path of successful business creation and management, Richard Sapio has founded over 20 companies.

Rick Sapio appreciates the many business owners who run successful companies without formal business school education or training. Rick Sapio graduated from Rutgers University and worked in the investment industry where he traded distressed securities. His talent for business was immediately recognized and within a short period of time, and he became the youngest partner at his firm. Richard Sapio was still in his twenties when he led more than $100 million in transactions a year.

By the time he was 30, Richard Sapio created a holding company. His holding company made more than 75 investments in 20 years and includes a range of businesses in both the private, public, and real estate sectors. Richard Sapio's holding company has more than 30 direct and indirect holdings and invests in health care and medical device investments.

Two companies created by Rick Sapio, in addition to other business leaders, include his online training program called Business Finishing School and Chiro Business Finishing School. One is for business entrepreneurs while the other one focuses on chiropractors. Richard Sapio helps professionally-minded individuals taking his business course with the "12 Foundational Principles of Business" that Richard Sapio has focused his own business practice on. They are his tools for success.

Now, Rick Sapio continues to lead his Business Finishing School as course designer and lead instructor. He has been invited as a guest speaker several times, including the Parker Seminars in Las Vegas in January of 2013. In February of 2013, Richard Sapio was a guest speaker at TEDx in Milan, Italy. He shares his tips for success and as a business crash course seminar.

Businesses Started by Rick Sapio

Rick Sapio has already left a legacy for himself in the business world. His work history is quite impressive, with his first company started as a young teenager at just the age thirteen. The first company Richard Sapio created was a bicycle repair shop. That was the catalyst for what would be a lifelong passion for business and business success.

Rick Sapio understands the business world. He sees an eye for what needs to be created or what is missing and fills that hole. That is why Richard Sapio has founded more than 20 companies. In addition to successfully starting businesses, Richard Sapio is successful at investing as well. For a time he worked in the investment industry, where he became a partner of the firm.

Rick Sapio created a holding company when he turned 30. Through the holding company, Richard Sapio took interest in a variety of businesses with over 50 investments in 20 years. Rick Sapio is talented for turning around struggling or failing businesses. Using his 12 business principles, Richard Sapio has turned around several mid-sized companies in just a few years. He then took "The 12 Foundational Principles of Business" and used them for the creation of Business Finishing School.

The Business Finishing School is different from a business school; through the training program, Richard Sapio and others delve to the core of what makes a business successful. The values of business are what he tries to impress upon his students. Richard Sapio argues that even though methods and procedures are important, it is the foundation of the method that is important.

Rick Sapio developed the program to help entrepreneurs like himself. Navigating business can be hard with so much competition, but Richard Sapio wants people to exceed even their own expectations. He shares his knowledge through his training program and as a guest speaker at conferences.

Entrepreneur Rick Sapio Promotes Family Placemats

When people see Rick Sapio, they probably think successful businessman, young entrepreneur, or intelligent investor. Not many people may see his family-inspired creativity. Yet Richard Sapio has founded more than twenty companies, with one of his most recent creations being a website called Family Placemat.

This website is simple. Guests can design their own placemats to set at the table, use one of the four downloadable examples Richard Sapio has on the site, customize it, and print it out. Rick Sapio's idea to create a site for family placemats was a result of the actions he took with his own family.

As a devoted family man, Rick Sapio printed and laminated his own family placemats. The idea was spread by friends who created their own. Richard Sapio then decided to share the simple idea with others online. Thus Family Placemat was born online. The homemade placemats were created by Richard Sapio in order to fully engage his family come mealtime.

Originally, the Sapio's family placemats were created to reinforce their family values. Businessman Richard Sapio saw the placemats also as an opportunity to reinforce the importance of family meals and family bonding. Richard Sapio recognizes families have alternating schedules but through his own experience, the use of these customized placemats reminded the family of their bonds and strengthened the family relationship.

The mission of Family Placemat is "By strengthening families, we strengthen the world." Richard Sapio made the site as simple to use as possible and gave ideas for what could be included on the placemats. He includes examples like images of the family, values, rules, goals, or more. The use and free examples provided on the website help Rick Sapio to share his own values of family while encouraging others to follow in his footsteps. Richard Sapio believes keeping family bonds strong is important.

Family Placemats Created by Rick Sapio

Many things are important to Rick Sapio. He wants people to be successful in their careers, he wants to take good care of his family by supporting them, and he wants to help keep families strong. Richard Sapio is not a family therapist but he is a strong advocate for maintaining strong familial ties. His hope of strengthening family bonds can be seen with just a simple glance online.

Rick Sapio is an entrepreneur multiple times over. One of his newest family creations is called Family Placemat. The mission of the website is to strengthen families and in essence, strengthen the world. Richard Sapio knows dinner time and meal times are great opportunities for the entire family to sit down and appreciate one another, so the placements available at Family Placemats offer a variety of text options or images including: family history, values, rules, goals, and other customizations.

Rick Sapio's site allows customers to use different styles and content in order to print their own family-specific placemats. The idea, expanded to the greater community, had actually started as a practice within his own household. Richard Sapio would sit down at each meal with his family with these family placemats in place. After friends followed suit, Richard Sapio decided it would be easy to help others design their own placemats online.

Rick Sapio's Family Placemat site has four examples available for download. There is also a "how to make your own," link providing directions on site users interested in creating their own family-specific placemats. To make things a little easier, Richard Sapio even provides helpful tips to users such as using an 11 by 18 card stock. Rick Sapio's tip is to use the heaviest cardstock your computer can handle. Lastly, Rick Sapio tells people to get their printed placemats laminated. Otherwise they won't last

Rick Sapio’s Purpose 2.0 Speech in Milan, Italy: How Companies, Entities, Families, and Governments Can Positively Transform Their Future

By starting, running, observing, buying and selling businesses, over a long career, Richard Sapio has noticed that recently, the Mission Statement, Vision Statement, and Purpose Statement have not been fulfilling on there promise to put everyone on the same page in a business.  Rick believes that a new “statement” is needed to accelerate growth, align stakeholders, and produce results.  This new statement does all of the above.  It’s called “The Catalyzing Statement^TM” and it’s designed to catalyzed action in all important stakeholders in a business, whether they are customers, suppliers, employees, shareholders, community, or planet.

When you consider the blizzard of information that we are inundated with on a daily basis, from text message to social media hits, to email to news, etc. it’s no wonder that we are not engaging our  clients, and other stakeholders in our causes.  Rick Sapio says, “We need to wake them up from their media buzz, and a well-crafted Catalyzing Statement can do that.”

When you look back in history at some of the great catalyzing statement, you can see how forward looking they are.  Examples like Volvo’s: We build the safest cars in the world, catalyzed them to become a giant in the global automobile business from very humble beginnings.  Or, FedEx’s beginning advertisements in the 1970s, “When it absolutely has to be there overnight.”  FedEx now has more than 250,000 employees.  Richard Sapio believes that all of that growth, from zero employees, was because of that compelling catalyzing statement.

If you look into the political realm, you’ll discover John F. Kennedy’s speech in 1962, in which he declared, “We will send a man to the moon and return him safely to earth.”  This speech catalyzed more than 100,000 people to take action to create material and machinery that never existed before in history and to accomplish one of the most difficult tasks in human history.

There are dozens of examples of good catalyzing statements, but as you think about creating your own, for your personal life, or you business, consider first starting with you purpose; then linking your purpose to a goal.  For example, with Microsoft, Bill Gates’ purpose was to create a large software company.  But, then, for expediency, he decided to create a more compelling phrase, which ultimately changed history.  That phrase, was in Rick Sapio’s mind a catalyzing statement, which was, “A computer on every desktop.”  That catalyzed action in the world’s best programmers to step forth, get excited, and have a hand in changing the world.  So, you can see how a well-crafted catalyzing statement can change the future.