Seven Mistakes Businesses Make in Their First Year
The first year of business is exhilarating and overwhelming at the same time. You're excited about the potential and eager to prove your idea's worth. You may also be simultaneously anxious to be your boss and scared of leading the organization; your money is on the...
Strategic Delegation – How to Optimize Your Output and Profits
We all wish we had more hours in the day. Since that won’t happen, it is critical to make the best use of the hours we have. Delegation is key to maximizing results. You want to be productive and work toward your goals, not be overwhelmed by nonproductive activity....
Business by the Numbers: Financial Oversight
Internal Controls and Financial Oversight When it comes to growing your business, you can't afford to not understand the financial perspective of their business. Whether it is the day-to-day performance, budgets, taxes, or other aspects of accounting for your...
Check Your Priorities: Real World Lessons Learned
Many years ago (I won’t say how many), I had a new boss (we’ll call him “Kevin”). He was actually my supervisor’s boss. Kevin had spent most of his career in communication roles (he created presentations and documents to give to the board.) When Kevin came from a part...
Looking Inside the Gig Economy with GigSalad CEO/Founder Mark Steiner
If you are in the music industry or other creative endeavors (e.g., acting, speaking), then you have been living in a gig economy [1] for your entire career. Gigs have been around for centuries. However, the gig has come to a new level of visibility in recent years...
10 Elements of Successful Businesses
While every business has elements that are unique to it. Every successful business shares common characteristics with other successful businesses. Concept The first element of a successful business is a clear concept of what the business is and does. This concept is...
Customer Service – Keeping Commitments and Valuing Each Customer
This week a service provider demonstrated to me how important I was to her and her business. Let me share the story. I arrived for my appointment 20 minutes early and made myself comfortable on a bench outside her office suite. I could see through the glass wall that...
Open Door, Closed Mind: Listening Well and Making Informed Decisions
Have you ever worked for someone that proudly stated they had an "open door" policy? Was their door really open to new ideas, feedback, information, and issues? Or was the door physically open but the mind closed? Perhaps you work for someone that has an open door...
Networking: Relationship Building, Not Hard Pitch Selling
I have a developing list of bad behaviors in networking. It seems after every event I can add either an entirely new “don’t” or an innovative variant of the core list. Chumming – Method of “baiting” the water to entice sharks to take the bait and encourage feeding...
Is Franchising for You?
Many businesses consider franchising as a strategic method of expanding their operations and financial results. But how do you know if franchising is for you? Let’s start with the benefits of franchising: Building your team with quality, motivated people. Because of...
