There are things in life that are inevitable, love, death, taxes and the failure of a business. Knowing that doesn’t make the pain any easier to deal with so if you are facing the decision of when to quit and when to hang on, I have four pearls of wisdom (ahem, at least in my mind) for you to consider. Did you give it your best shot? Hindsight is 20/20 and when making the … [Read more...]
Where’s the help?
In every city across the country scores of small businesses are encouraged to seek help at small business development centers, with SCORE counselors and attend small business workshops put on by their local economic development office, but where is the help? Routinely I’ve heard that the advice given was generic and general and really didn’t help them run their business once … [Read more...]
Sexy Business
As women in the business world we often have to navigate through a variety of unspoken rules, so I am bringing one out in the open and giving you my take on why I think it should be broken. Flirting with limits can be a great asset but does it have a place in the business world? Being nice has its advantages Now I can be as ugly as the next person, but most of the … [Read more...]
Finding Your Customers
As entrepreneurs many of us realize that we aren't salesmen, so we hire business development managers to find our customers. The thing is though as CEO's we are the best business development managers available. We know this company inside and out and we know what the company can do, so even if you have a business development manager here are a few tips for developing new … [Read more...]
The Myth of Talented Applicants
Yesterday I had the wonderful experience of attending a STEM collaboration workshop and the one question that kept running through my mind was, is it really a lack of talented applicants or are small businesses just inept at using technology to help us recruit the right people? Here are the three things that stuck. Talent is a Myth Talent is subjective at best and if … [Read more...]
JC Penney: The Aftermath
When JC Penney introduced their new pricing plan, I had reservations about the long-term success. Apparently I was right on target with everyone else, so as the retail giant gears up to revise the strategy here is what fellow entrepreneurs can learn. A confusing strategy is a bad strategy Anything that requires multiple explanations should be … [Read more...]
The Church of Business
Starting a business is optimism incarnate and we have all had that moment when the question” what are you working on now?” seems to be an indictment of our failure as an entrepreneur. I’ve noticed that there are some silver linings when warm leads dry up and you have to roll your sleeves up to stay in business. You learn what you are made of Failure isn’t for everybody … [Read more...]
Dealing with Difficult Personalities
Leadership is one of those jobs that no matter how good the pay, it is never enough for the amount of personality issues you deal with. Well this morning as I had the honor of dealing with a difficult personality, I managed to garner a few nuggets of wisdom. Remember they have a point While this nugget is hard to swallow when the difficult personality has decided to … [Read more...]
Questions of Greatness
Many people think that entrepreneurs have delusions of grandeur, but the truth is that many of us are running on fear. The fear that we may fail, the fear that we may be a success or the fear that we may find out that entrepreneurship is not for us. As I was going over the usual suspects for an article topic this morning, it dawned on me that there are specific … [Read more...]
What Leadership Knows Matters
Last night in a conversation on a treadmill, a friend was rehashing her take on management and questioning why certain efforts were made with no regard to cost, effort and effect. It was an interesting conversation and as a business owner it was nice to see the other side of the table. As owners we sometimes forget how much our decisions influence our staff, so here are the … [Read more...]