One of the things I love about networking is the creative ways different groups have you interact with each other. For example, a group that I’ve been attending has started implementing what’s called the “One to One”. Here’s how it works. Everyone puts their business card into a basket. Then each person pulls out a card. The card you pulled out is the person you will have a … [Read more...]
Unstable Organizations Can’t Grow
Maslow's hierarchy of needs is a theory in psychology proposed by Abraham Maslow in his 1943 paper "A Theory of Human Motivation." It has become a foundational theory in psychology in terms of optimizing the human experience. To recap the theory, human beings must work their way up the pyramid of needs. If their physiological and safety needs aren’t met, they can’t embark on … [Read more...]
Business the Carmelo Anthony Way
Carmelo Anthony is supposedly toying with the idea of being a free agent, definitely a gutsy move for a Knicks player. Here’s why I think it’s the right move and how his thinking can help move your business to the next level. You have to assess your worth Carmelo likened his choice to an evaluation exercise. While this may not make sense to some, for me it’s a brilliant … [Read more...]
The Art of the Elevator
Guest post by Tania Zamorsky (learn more about the author at the end of the article) The “elevator pitch.” The phrase refers to one’s ability to summarize their brilliant idea or experience, for a captive audience, in the time it takes an elevator to descend to the lobby. Elevators aside, knowing how to sell yourself succinctly can also prove invaluable during interviews, … [Read more...]
Rethink the Value of Each Customer for Efficient Growth
Guest Post by Elizabeth Dillon of Digital Marketing NOW (Learn more about Elizabeth at the end of this post) Do you know how much your customers are worth? If not, you could be throwing away significant money on ineffective marketing initiatives. To maximize your marketing and, ultimately, your revenue, you must understand your customer’s lifetime value (CLV). The … [Read more...]
How to Improve Your Public Speaking Skills to Boost Your Business and Career
Public speaking is a skill that few people excel at without a lot of practice and training. However, public speaking is one of the best ways to indirectly promote yourself and your company. How do you improve your public speaking skills if you can't afford to hire a trainer to help you? Susan Dugdale of Write-out-loud.com offers a comprehensive speech evaluation process that … [Read more...]
Are proposals worth it?
As a professional services firm, I spend an awful lot of my time preparing and submitting proposals. They are time consuming, sometimes costly and not immediately effective. So why submit them? Well there are a million reasons against them, but here are my top 5 reasons for them. They introduce your company and your ability I am not a formal person, but I do know what I know … [Read more...]
Why are you important?
As we create our businesses more often than not we get caught up in the day to day firefighting strategies. What we don’t do because there isn’t enough time in the day, no one has figured out how to clone ourselves and/or we don’t see the immediate value is define a future strategy. It’s easy to spend so much time in our businesses that we don’t work on them, so here are a few … [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...]
To My Business With Love
This column has given me the venue to talk about a lot of the little quirks we face when running a small business, but I realize the one thing that I haven't fully addressed is the sometimes dysfunctional but always loving relationship I have with my business. Yes, I admit it. I am in a long-term relationship with my business, for better or worse. So SPC my love, here are the … [Read more...]