As much as we want to be everything to everyone; life and business just do not work that way. Companies that succeed know they need to hone their focus on their vision. They translate this vision into a powerful mission statement. They realize that mission statements are more than pithy phrases or something to fill [...]
Most startups fail for one of the following reasons:
Poor Management Acumen
Many entrepreneurs start relatively early and consequently do not have a lot of management experience under their belt. Often they are technical experts and lack business acumen, and either cannot or will not bring in the resources necessary for success. This one is key, because [...]
I saw this great post on the blog called Conversation Agent – “7 Keys to Social Branding”. The post struck me because I thought it full of common sense. Not everyone understands or appreciates social branding or social media, but what the author, Tamsen McMahon, talks about is helping the customer understand your company, and this could [...]
I ‘ve walked by this sign more times than I can count and I finally had to take a picture. I know from talking to the manager’s that their desire is, understandably, to sign clients to a one year membership. However, they do not have too many takers – most clients are selecting the six [...]
I’ve seen this scenario, and it drives me bonkers.
Two people pitch their ideas to insert appropriate decision maker: upper management, venture capitalists, city council, and if you could put them on mute and study the ideas objectively you would see that one is clearly superior. The problem is that on more than one occasion, [...]
How many of you start the day with over 300 new emails in your inbox and know more will follow? How many find this method of communication productive? If you do, I am not one of you – I’d much rather be getting my hands dirty tackling the issues. For the bulk of those [...]
Many managers I’ve worked with reside at either end of the spectrum: They are either hands-off or the micromanager. The best managers I know understand that they cannot be locked into a single position, and rather move up and down the scale as the situation requires. They know for example, that when a team is [...]
I recently attended a panel on start-up funding, and while this information is mostly common sense, its always good to be reminded. So here’s a quick summary of my notes along with my own commentary thrown in.
Prepare, prepare, prepare
Be ready for the pitch, and remember you are making a sale, but at the end of [...]
KISS plays an important role (Keep It Simple Stupid)
You do not need many slides and they should be to the point. These slides will probably not fall into place but result from a lot of sweat and tears to get them down to their core message. This may be challenging as everyone is excited about [...]
Economic signals are telling us that the worse is over and we are pulling out of the recession. Before we forget the pain, I’m curious if there was any lessons learned that we’ll take with us as the economy starts to prosper?
Make those critical connections – Get to know the people now that can help [...]
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