Does easy communication outweigh noisy distraction at the workplace? It’s nearly 20 years since I worked in an office with a door. Most of the time, that’s been my choice. Even as CEO, I preferred to be where I could see people and they could see me. I liked tuning into the company mood, pace, [...]
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Get Over It: Life Isn’t Fair
Squabbling over ‘fairness’ is a loser’s game. There’s a smarter way to fight back when the deck is stacked against you. “You don’t understand; these guys don’t play fair.” I heard this recently while on a coaching call with a construction firm trying to negotiate a seven-figure deal. I’ve heard versions of it countless times [...]
Your Product Is a Distraction
Be selective about when you show your product to customers, partners, team members, investors, and the like. This way, you’ll maintain control of the conversation. Magicians know all about the use of distractions. Flash something shiny over here, while they change something over there. Like lemmings we, the audience, stare at the flashiest thing in [...]
Greatest Living Entrepreneur Brackets: We Have A Winner
It’s Bill Gates. Of course. (Scroll down for the justification.) Login or Signup to fill in your bracket! Bill Gates Microsoft Oprah Winfrey Harpo ProductionsThere are lots of reasons that Oprah Winfrey might have won. Start with the obstacles she had to overcome. Her upbringing: She rose from the poverty of inner-city Milwaukee to become [...]
Weed Out Wannabes; Not Everyone Can Cut It At A Start-up
Nine ways to know if the job seeker you’re talking to has the personality, risk profile, and skill set for an entrepreneurial venture. They smile, they laugh on cue, and they have a rehearsed response for every conventional interview question. They profess to be entrepreneurs, but are they actually wantrapreneurs? A wantrepreneur is a well-intentioned [...]
4 Brilliant Video Marketing Campaigns
Having trouble dreaming up a new Web campaign for your product or service? Borrow some ideas from these viral videos. Marketing is all about capturing the attention of the masses. Since the masses are often on sites like YouTube and Facebook, these four innovative social media campaigns provide a good model for any business to [...]
Set Achievable Goals; You’ll Win
Here’s why, if you want to get to $500 million, you should set your goal at $450 million. I have a non-standard philosophy on goal setting. I believe that if you hire the right people (winners), they naturally want to succeed. Goals themselves are not motivators. Goals are a tool to help winners measure, improve, [...]
Integrate a Company You Acquire: 6 Steps
Merging a business into your own is like rebuilding a plane while in flight. Heres how to keep flying. Acquiring other companies can be a great strategy to grow your company. It can help expand your product, team, market share, revenue, or geographic presence. Having overseen a number of acquisitions in my career, I’ve learned [...]
Now’s a Good Time to Reward Employees
If the economy gets better and job prospects improve, you may need to offer more incentives to keep your best employees. I recently hosted SurePayroll’s version of the People’s Choice Awards, the SureChoice Awards. I gave employees titles like Best Utility Player, MVP, and my favorite, Best New Mistake. I dressed up in a tux [...]
Need an Idea for a Killer New Business? Try This.
DocStoc CEO Jason Nazar needed a new product idea that might help grow the business. He got it–in a week. Here’s how. About four years into running DocStoc, a website that offers small business tools and documents, founder Jason Nazar started thinking that his company could do more to meet his customers’ needs and grow [...]
