What’s the Real Problem?
When you spend your days looking for ways to help business owners grow their enterprises, you are always on the look-out for useful tidbits of information, common recurrent problems, and case studies that reveal insights. Here is an important item that has hit my radar screen multiple times this week (and it’s only Wednesday) that reveals a lesson all business owners should consider. It started on Monday when a vendor mentioned that he had recently noticed he was ‘losing money’ by allowing his clients to pay their invoices via Paypal. Later that day I visited a local deli for lunch and was greeted by a newly posted sign on the cash register stating that they now required a minimum purchase of $7.50 for credit/debit card purchases. Then last night on one of the network editions of the evening news there was a story about merchants who have minimum charge policies for credit or debit transactions (despite the fact that this violates their terms of service for their merchant accounts). Don’t get me wrong, Read more
Life Changing Reads
Last week I referred to the recommended book as "life changing’ and suggested that there were fewer than a dozen books to which I would apply that label. A number of people e-mailed and asked me to share some of the others. Here are five of my favorite life changing books…books that I have read multiple times, shared often, and learned a great deal from. Read more
It Takes More than an Idea
It’s no surprise that I am huge fan of the ideation process…every entrepreneur, business owner/manager, and independent professional should regularly invest time and energy in creating ideas, thinking them through, and taking action to implement those that will have the highest pay-offs. But it takes more than just an idea to create impact, Read more
Two Tools You Can Use to Get Results
Few things are more valuable than tools that increase your effectiveness, and few things are more difficult than sorting through the myriad options available. Let me share a couple of tools that I strongly recommend to help you narrow your search: For improving your effectiveness in communicating your ideas to others… THINKATURE.com – Ever wished that you had a white board available when you were trying to explain something to someone on the phone? How about a way to share ideas over the internet Read more
The 4-Hour Workweek
Every once in a while a book comes along that shakesyour world a bit, and for me this one did exactly that. Though at first the title seemed a tad bizarre to me, once I delved into the message the revelations began to emerge and I realized that this is indeed one of those ‘life changing’ books that comes along only once in a while.
Please understand that I don’t use the term life changing lightly…I can think of less than a dozen books that I have read in my lifetime that merit the label. Read more
Think Strategically — Putting It All Into Perspective
Something crossed my desk this morning that reminded me of the power of perspective. It came from one of my favorite newsletters…Michael Bungay Stanier’s Outside the Lines. You can view his current issue here: http://www.boxofcrayons.biz
Serve Customers by Keeping them Informed
Chances are most people would agree with the following statement: Few things are more frustrating than being in a situtation where you have little or no control over the outcome, AND where you have no idea what is going on, whether any progress is being made, or if your waiting will never end. But every day in businesses around the globe Read more
the dip
It’s no secret that I am a big fan of Seth Godin’s work. He tells it like it is, gives you ideas you can use, and challenges you do what matters. This brief treatise is no exception
Godin begins with a simple, but powerful, premise…during the growth of any business or the evolution of any career a period will be encountered where progress slows and it requires much more effort to push through to the next level. Next he demonstrates how the reaction to ‘the dip’ either leads to becoming the best in the world Read more
Your Weekly Videos — Take XII
Here are this week’s clips… Enjoy! Read more
Get Results with Better Questions
Are you asking good questions? No, that is not a rhetorical inquiry. I really want you to think about the quality of the questions you ask and how you could improve them, because when you ask better questions you get better results. It’s that simple. Here are five quick tips to help you ask better questions: 1. Do your homework. Before asking someone else to provide you with the answer, take time to do some research on your own. Read more
