For smaller businesses, debt sometimes gets a bad rap. But for many businesses, access to a business line of credit may be not only necessary, but a smart move. Knowing how to select the right line of credit and manage it wisely, rather than managing everything on a cash basis, can help a successful small business become a larger successful business. Financing options can be … [More]
Let the Sales Team Sell!
All those sales tools, programs, seminars and meetings business owners think are helping could, in fact, be hurting both their sales team and their revenue gains. It may seem counterintuitive — the more tools we give them, the better — but most high-performing salespeople thrive from customer contact, not from meetings or reports. The key is to start somewhere; choosing one … [More]
The Experience Economy
Apple Stores, Disney, LEGO, Starbucks. Do these names conjure up images of mere goods and services, or do they evoke something more — something visceral? Welcome to the Experience Economy, where businesses must form unique connections in order to secure their customers' affections — and ensure their own economic vitality. This seminal book on experience innovation by Joe Pine … [More]
Strategizing Time
Time can be a very costly resource if used incorrectly. You know how it goes — the daily todo list gets bogged down by details, unexpected problems and time suckers that distract business from the bigger picture. Before the business owner realizes it, his eye has wandered away from more important activities that lead to profitability and growth. Another challenge is the … [More]
Chasing the Bright Side
Success is not born out of skill, school, where we’re from, who we know or what we scored on the SAT. None of us were born ready. But we are born with something more important than skills. We’re born with optimism — the initial seed for success. Optimism fuels the belief that you can be the one to create the good the world needs. But you’ve got to hone it. And practice it. And … [More]
Be Alert for Operational Inefficiencies
While company processes and procedures are necessary, some may be distracting a business’s employees from delivering on company goals. Operational inefficiencies waste time, cost money, reduce quality, and impact associates’ morale and even client/customer retention. Since there are so many places to look for operational inefficiencies, business owners should start by … [More]
What Business Owners Should Know about Lobbying
What do you picture when you think of a lobbyist? Perhaps an older gentleman, with a slick suit, power walking down a marble hallway in Washington, D.C., flanked by a team of big-money corporate executives congratulating each other on the deal they made on the golf course? Most people have a Hollywood idea of what lobbyists do; they have no idea what the day-to-day work of a … [More]
Success and Something Greater: Your Magic Key
In Think and Grow Rich – Success and Something Greater, authors Sharon Lechter (an In Business Magazine Lifetime Achievement Honoree in 2018) and Greg Reid once again join forces with the Napoleon Hill Foundation, including never-before-published original content from Napoleon Hill. In today’s world of instant news and social media, businesses, leaders and influencers must find … [More]
Thought-Leadership Podcast
“The Pitch Factor” is a thought-leadership podcast that explores the new rules of success from leaders who have launched movements, built groundbreaking companies, and gotten the world to listen. These days, delivering a successful pitch can be the difference between success and failure. With co-host Kathleen Harris, Cari Sommer brings her 20-plus years’ experience in helping … [More]
Shut Up and Listen!
This book will help aspiring entrepreneurs or people in business recognize what they’re doing right and what they’re doing wrong to operate their business, and help those just getting started to get set up for success. Tilman Fertitta, also known as the Billion Dollar Buyer, started his hospitality empire thirty years ago with just one restaurant. So he knows the challenges … [More]
Solve Problems from the Root
Juggling the demands of clients, suppliers, family – it’s easy to take the path of least resistance. It’s easier to not ask the hard questions and quickly “assume” what is needed. We may be surprised, however, if we ask more questions. And the result may go much further than the immediate sale or solution. As a business owner in a highly competitive industry, I am always … [More]
Agents of Organizational Change
There has always been a co-dependent relationship between program and portfolio management (PPM) and organizational change management (OCM). After all, projects are the agent of change, and change is required for enterprises to survive and thrive. Businesses need projects and programs to implement a strategic initiative, deliver a new service or bring a new product to … [More]
Negotiation: How to Defuse Tension and Mistrust
Most entrepreneurs enter a negotiation thinking they will be successful and are surprised when they fail to reach an agreement. We have found that, in order to negotiate productively, entrepreneurs or their agents need to learn how to defuse tension and mistrust right from the beginning. Implementing the following actions can be highly effective: Defuse Tension before It … [More]
Multilevel Marketing – Legal Pitfalls to Avoid
For decades, multilevel marketing has permeated not only the business landscape but the American home. From Tupperware to jewelry to dietary supplements, the concept is familiar and widely utilized to grow brands from the mom-and-pop level to national powerhouse. Essentially, a multilevel marketing business model is one in which the company sells products directly to the … [More]
Leading Loyalty
In business, if people merely like you, you’re in trouble. They need to love you! In Leading Loyalty, readers will learn how building loyalty and modeling great customer service behavior to develop frontline teams is the key to building raving fans. Winning customers’ their hearts will not only result in them purchasing more — that’s the company they’ll talk up to everyone they … [More]
The Enlightened Capitalists
Today’s business leaders are increasingly pressured by citizens, consumers and government officials to address urgent social and environmental issues. Although some corporate executives remain deaf to such calls, over the last two centuries, a handful of business leaders in America and Britain have attempted to create business organizations that were both profitable and … [More]
The Right It
The Law of Market Failure: Most new products will fail in the market, even if competently executed. Using his experience at Google, his remarkable success as an entrepreneur and consultant, and insights from his lectures at Stanford University and Google, Alberto Savoia offers an unparalleled approach to beating the beast that is market failure. Millions of people around the … [More]
Merger in Sight?
In November 2017, the United States Department of Justice filed an antitrust lawsuit to block AT&T’s $85-billion purchase of Time Warner. The lawsuit was eye-opening and sent significant ripples across legal and business landscapes. In particular, the suit showed an inclination of the federal government to block a large merger between two companies that were not direct … [More]
