Do you need to hire a PR firm as part of your B2B marketing plan?

Do you need to hire a PR firm as part of your B2B marketing plan?: PR is one of the most powerful tools in the B2B marketing tool kit. It’s rated the second most effective tool for driving brand awareness in the MarketingProfs report “ What Works in 2011......

How To Find Your Passion

How To Find Your Passion: What causes stress, both the personal kind (money woes, boss-hate, road-rage) and the societal kind (#OWS, congressional gridlock, volatile stock markets)? John Hagel has a theory about stress--and a solution.

The 7 Keys to Successful Failure

The 7 Keys to Successful Failure: Many people thinking of failure as the undesirable end of something they attempted, when really it is just the beginning.

Advisory board: what great managers do

Advisory board: what great managers do: Why you need an effective employee value proposition, what great sales managers do and why you shouldn’t try to time the M&A market

Managing Distraction at Work

Managing Distraction at Work

How to speak like a leader

How to speak like a leader: Public speaking skills can make or break your career—here's how to hone your skills.

Entrepreneurs and the hunt for good staff

Entrepreneurs and the hunt for good staff: How are entrepreneurs handling the hunt for good employees? A new national survey finds they’re widening search criteria and offering low-cost perks.

Building a valuable business

Building a valuable business: When Kathryn From bought into Toronto-based Bravado Designs, the maker of nursing lingerie was struggling—but she turned things around, big time.

Acquisitions: Buying a business

Acquisitions: Buying a business: Making an acquisition is a tricky business. The answers to these seven questions will tell you want you're really in for.

Business opportunity news you can use

Business opportunity news you can use: Because we’ve been too busy coping with a “global economic crisis” for the past year, we’re giving you a PROFIT update while we have the chance

How to Avoid Becoming a Person You Hate

How to Avoid Becoming a Person You Hate: I was so angry my whole body was shaking. I stared at Günther* with hate, my left hand in a fist and my right hand gripping a tennis racket as a weapon. I was ready to kill him.

Financing foreign sales

Financing foreign sales: Here's how to fund your next export order.

Five Keys to Managing an Unpredictable Boss

Five Keys to Managing an Unpredictable Boss: Wouldn’t it be nice if management theory actually worked in practice? Wouldn’t it be nice if you could follow the tenets of The New Leader's 100-Day Action Plan to get your strategic, operating, and organizational processes in place and let them run without interruption? Wouldn’t it be nice if your boss had perfect leadership skills and gave you clear direction and then never changed his or her mind?

5 slick ways to market your small business

5 slick ways to market your small business: If you want to grow your company in 2012, think a little bit different.

The 20 New Rules Of Money

The 20 New Rules Of Money: Markets have changed, and so should your investment strategy.

5 Tips To Make Money During Retirement

5 Tips To Make Money During Retirement: William Baldwin share tips on how to invest your money.

12 Remote Work Trends to Achieve (Not Just Predict)

12 Remote Work Trends to Achieve (Not Just Predict): During his closing remarks for the 2011 Society for Human Resources Management’s Strategy Conference, Don Tapscott, the author of the bestseller Wikinomics, said, “I believe that the future is something that must be achieved and not predicted.”

Great Ideas: How to avoid the top traps in hiring a leader

Great Ideas: How to avoid the top traps in hiring a leader: How often have you seen someone with great credentials and buzz land a top job, only to have people before long wonder, “Just what we were thinking?” James Citrin and Julie Hembrock Daum have in their decades as executive search specialists seen many firms make classic mistakes when hiring a CEO or leader of a key function such as HR, finance, marketing or technology.

What to Do When You Screw Up and Accept Less than You're Worth

What to Do When You Screw Up and Accept Less than You're Worth: We've all done it. We've settled on a price or a salary or made an agreement to do something, and when we come to our senses we think, "What the heck did I say yes to that for?"

Social media branding: Learning to fly

Social media branding: Learning to fly: A simple guide for any business making its first investment in social media—or wondering why it wasn't better the last time.

Find Gratitude Cues in Everyday Life

Find Gratitude Cues in Everyday Life: 2011 Happiness Challenge: For those of you following the 2011 Happiness Project Challenge, to make 2011 a happier year -- and even if you haven’t officially signed up for the challenge -- welcome! This month’s theme is Gratitude, and last week’s resolution was to Make the positive argument. Did you try that resolution? Did it boost your happiness?

Opportunity Guide 2012

Opportunity Guide 2012: Do you want to find new customers? Transform an existing business or launch a new one? PROFIT’s 16th annual Opportunity Guide has the top trends and hot markets on which to stake your success in 2012 and beyond.

Better ways to give

Better ways to give: Charitable requests can overwhelm your business. Here's how one entrepreneur improved the returns for both the donor and the recipients.

Is Your Cross-Sell Strategy Doomed?

Is Your Cross-Sell Strategy Doomed?: The Enterprise Council on Small Business (ECSB) conference in October featured some new research on the dynamics—and possibilities—of cross-selling among small and medium-sized businesses. Some of the results probably mirror what most of us have experienced in our 2012 planning: More than nine out of 10 companies plan to increase their emphasis on cross-selling in the coming year. This, despite the fact that the ROI of cross-selling continues to decline with almost two-thirds of the programs studied missing their goals.

Top 10 Small Business Predictions for 2012

Top 10 Small Business Predictions for 2012: Here is a collection of next year's top trends for marketing, retailing, service businesses, mobile, social media and more.

Before Launching, Organize Personal Finances

Before Launching, Organize Personal Finances: Aspiring entrepreneurs preparing to start businesses will find that savings, credit access, and credit scores matter more than market research and investor presentations

The Key to Creating More

The Key to Creating More: "Prosperity depends more on wanting what you have than having what you want."*

What Makes Someone a Great Product Manager at Google?

What Makes Someone a Great Product Manager at Google?: Edward Ho, Google Engineer

How to craft computer policies on personal emails and surfing

How to craft computer policies on personal emails and surfing: You want an effective computer-usage policy that won’t land you on the losing end of an employee-privacy lawsuit.

Sales meetings that don't suck

Sales meetings that don't suck: Consider a new approach that educates, motivates and never puts anyone to sleep.

5 Reasons That Hard Work Isn't Enough To Win In Your Work

5 Reasons That Hard Work Isn't Enough To Win In Your Work: In the current terrain of economic uncertainty, seeing and seizing new types of opportunity is the key to your success.   As such, working harder and trying to impress your boss with longer hours just isn’t enough.  In today’s workplace, you must make a commitment to manage 5 workplace engagement activities that will determine your ultimate success.

One Person You Could Add to Your Team to Change Your Bottom Line

One Person You Could Add to Your Team to Change Your Bottom Line:

There’s freedom in creativity–that’s why artists live there. They crave it; they feel like they drown without it. In this regard, entrepreneurs are little different — they want  freedom, too.

While discussing the difference between a franchisor and an entrepreneur in “Entrepreneurs Need Not Apply,” Joel Libava says:

“Entrepreneurs generally don’t do well with rules. Instead of following the rules, they tend to make their own.”

Is that true?

As a member of a community of small business owners, I see this creative need to invent and sometimes reinvent from the ground up. We do tend to develop our own rules, particularly if the original ones don’t make sense to us.

But if the rule works, why not follow it?

And what about hiring an entrepreneur to work in your business? 

Can you count on them? Is it a good or bad idea?

Ivana Taylor gives five reasons why you shouldn’t be afraid to hire an entrepreneur, including the fact that they often bring more attention to your business by way of their brand.

The partnership can be good for your business, but how you treat them matters. Serious entrepreneurs value innovation, need freedom and want results, as well as creativity. But how do you make the most of this relationship?

Ivana suggests that you design a solution that works for both sides — consider it “more like a merger or joint venture and explore the many creative ways that you can [craft] a relationship that’s a win-win for you, the entrepreneur and their customers.”

That is a shift in thinking, but since the right partnership can change your business, it’s worth the effort.

As Yvonne DiVita puts it, America’s got talent – are you tapping into it effectively?  She’s talking about a simple idea to help you make the most of the creative abilities on your team by providing an on-the-job outlet for that creativity. But her question (and play on the TV show) prompts me to consider all angles, all options, all relationships.

Putting creativity and entrepreneurs on your team is good for business. 

As small business owners wearing a manager’s hat at times, our goal in this case is twofold:

1. to hire people with integrity and the best ideas, because liars and cheats will rub you the wrong way no matter what; and


2. to target the creativity on your team by giving it a purpose, a focus and a definite outlet, because in business actions produce results.

Creativity inspires new action. Make room for it.

Image from EDHAR/Shutterstock

Stop Distracting Me!

Stop Distracting Me!: Are you finding it harder to stay focused at work these days?

Recognize a Winning Business Idea

Recognize a Winning Business Idea: To gauge future success, know how the concept will help the target market and whether it will fit into how those customers identify themselves

Return on Marketing Divestment: When Is It Time to Let Go?

Return on Marketing Divestment: When Is It Time to Let Go?: Marketers today need to prove ROI. But, too many focus only on the “return,” without paying close enough attention to where these returns originated, the “investment.” That’s unfortunate, because murky marketing spend is no longer acceptable –and even worse, it’s now a recipe for disaster. These days, a sound strategy is essential. Marketers must use technology and analytics to consistently track performance,  identify the most profitable channels and optimize the marketing mix to drive revenue.

Sales meetings that don't suck

Sales meetings that don't suck: Consider a new approach that educates, motivates and never puts anyone to sleep.

Five Essential Leadership Lessons For Women

Five Essential Leadership Lessons For Women: What leadership challenges do women face today? How have you forged a path to success? What advice would you give younger women who hope to become leaders in their fields?

Where to Find Overseas Buyers

Where to Find Overseas Buyers: To identify potential clients, attend trade shows and talk to trade groups. Paying for a service that compiles data from trade activity could also help

Why Companies Treat New Customers Better than Old Customers?

Why Companies Treat New Customers Better than Old Customers?:  

To Make Business Planning Less Daunting, Let's Call It Something Else

To Make Business Planning Less Daunting, Let's Call It Something Else: We need new vocabulary for business planning. Just don't call it a 'business plan.'

Top Ten Things Advisors Should Be Doing NOW!

Top Ten Things Advisors Should Be Doing NOW!: OK – the markets are trading like a yo yo, the news from abroad is depressing, and it’s getting harder and harder to feel optimistic (despite the arrival of the holidays). So, what should you do? Here are some ideas to help you survive and thrive:

Five Simple Rules for Building a Blockbuster Brand

Five Simple Rules for Building a Blockbuster Brand: The entrepreneurs behind Fresh cosmetics share the roadmap they followed in creating a successful brand from scratch.

Who to Follow on Twitter for Innovative Business Ideas

Who to Follow on Twitter for Innovative Business Ideas: Here are five resources for helping you channel your inner innovator.

What Your Business Can Learn From Apple's Battle with Samsung

What Your Business Can Learn From Apple's Battle with Samsung: If you think a competitor copied your patented products or services, here are some ways to stand in the way of their efforts.

Great Ideas: The 5 keys to effective employee evaluations

Great Ideas: The 5 keys to effective employee evaluations: In most firms, managers and staffers alike dread annual employee evaluations. That’s because the goals of these meetings are often unclear. Many feel as though such exercises have no real bearing on individual compensation, job performance and/or overall company outputs.

An 18 Minute Plan for Managing Your Day

An 18 Minute Plan for Managing Your Day: Yesterday started with the best of intentions. I walked into my office in the morning with a vague sense of what I wanted to accomplish. Then I sat down, turned on my computer, and checked my email. Two hours later, after fighting several fires, solving other people's problems, and dealing with whatever happened to be thrown at me through my computer and phone, I could hardly remember what I had set out to accomplish when I first turned on my computer. I'd been ambushed. And I know better.

5 Ways To Make a Killer First Impression

5 Ways To Make a Killer First Impression: Most people will judge you within the first second of meeting you and their opinion will most likely never change. Making a good first impression is incredibly important, because you only get one shot at it.

Do You Know How To Mix Happiness And Business?

Do You Know How To Mix Happiness And Business?: Stop Believing These 3 Myths

The 3 Things That Steve Jobs Taught Us About Creative Leadership

The 3 Things That Steve Jobs Taught Us About Creative Leadership: For Jobs creativity was about knowing what you want, applying intuition, and keeping it simple. And maybe his genius is in how deceptively uncomplicated it seems. Yet at the end his approach to creative leadership required raising the bar remarkably high, inspiring others to do the impossible, and an almost unwavering ability to focus.

Mentoring and Movements: How Leaders Are Made

Mentoring and Movements: How Leaders Are Made: When it comes to movements -- when it comes to life -- being a mentor is just as important and being mentored

How To Turn Down A Promotion (Without Losing Your Job)

How To Turn Down A Promotion (Without Losing Your Job): “From one organization to another, passing on a promotion might go perfectly well or you could find yourself put to pasture.”

Great Ideas: 4 ways to thrill your customers

Great Ideas: 4 ways to thrill your customers: The standard steps that entrepreneurs take to launch or fortify a business—such as lining up financing and writing a marketing plan—are crucial.

How to Negotiate a Year-End Raise

How to Negotiate a Year-End Raise: When Stuart Diamond worked as a reporter at The New York Times in the 1980s, he used to approach his boss toward the end of every year and pose a general query about how the boss thought he had been doing. Then after getting a favorable response, he would ask ...

Alternative financing: How to get big bucks for your startup

Alternative financing: How to get big bucks for your startup: Just got denied a bank loan? Don't get mad. Get creative. Our panel of entrepreneurs gives seven alternative financing tips to bootstrap your business.

Learn From The Pros: 10 Tricks To Project Authority

Learn From The Pros: 10 Tricks To Project Authority

Seven Ways to Tame An Office Tyrant

Seven Ways to Tame An Office Tyrant: This is a guest post by Lynn Taylor, a career coach and author of the book Tame Your Terrible Office Tyrant (John Wiley & Sons).

One Simple Step to Higher Earnings

One Simple Step to Higher Earnings: A few months ago, I was flipping through the Wall Street Journal, when 5 words practically slapped  me in the face.  I can’t remember what the article was about. But the phrase super-glued itself to my brain.

10 questions to ask before taking a promotion

10 questions to ask before taking a promotion

The Impact of Eye Contact

The Impact of Eye Contact: You’re at a business event and the colleague you’ve been having an intense conversation with begins to shift her gaze from your face to look around the room. Ever wonder why that makes you feel as if she has stopped listening? You know it’s not logical. A person doesn’t have to look at you to hear you. People don’t listen with their eyes.

Zappos' Success Secrets

Zappos' Success Secrets: Author Carmine Gallo offers five principles for delivering customers and profits.

4 Ways To Improve Your Resume... (From a Recruiter)

4 Ways To Improve Your Resume... (From a Recruiter): Let’s face it: Your resume is the most valuable document of your professional life. Everyone from recent college graduates to experienced professionals will judged on this one piece of paper.

Does your marketing need some space?

Does your marketing need some space?: Step back and see what makes sense from the market’s perspective.

Do You Have Clutter Mentality?

Do You Have Clutter Mentality?: One thing I've noticed about happiness: for me, and for most people, outer order contributes to inner calm. More than it should. In the scope of a happy life, a messy desk or an overstuffed coat closet is a trivial thing, yet I find -- and I hear from other people that they agree -- that getting rid of clutter gives a disproportionate boost to happiness.

9 Ways to Boost Your Confidence at Work

9 Ways to Boost Your Confidence at Work: I recently started my own freelance writing business, so, in fact, I no longer answer to a “boss.”

Before You Hire Your First Employee

Before You Hire Your First Employee: First assess the implications of putting workers on payroll. Then limit future legal headaches by creating an employment policy

Final Cut: Words to Strike from Your Resume

Final Cut: Words to Strike from Your Resume: Before you add another bullet point to your resume, consider this: Crafting the perfect document isn’t always about what you add in—the best changes may lie in what you take out.

Five Components of BRAVE Leadership

Five Components of BRAVE Leadership: Leadership is about inspiring and enabling others to do their absolute best – together –to realize a meaningful and rewarding shared purpose. The strongest leaders take a BRAVE approach to every one of their New Leader’s 100-Day Action Plans by examining their organization’s behaviors, relationships, attitudes, values and environment.

4 Reasons Why Influence is the New Job Currency

4 Reasons Why Influence is the New Job Currency: “There are so many conversations taking place about careers, leadership and management that it’s hard to decide which one to be a part of.”   I hear this from people all of the time; especially those out of work who just don’t know what to believe or which voices to follow.   As we transition from a centralized to decentralized workplace, one thing is certain: you must be actively involved with conversations that will advance your career and your influence.   In today’s economy, influence is the new job currency and without it you are now more vulnerable than ever.

Why gratitude is good for business, year round

Why gratitude is good for business, year round: Instead of showing appreciation exclusively during the holidays, some businesses are building it into their day-to-day and reaping financial rewards on account of it.

How to Bootstrap Your Business

How to Bootstrap Your Business: Starting up a business is a full-time job. So how do you manage it when you already have a full-time job? Here's how a few entrepreneurs juggled both to payoff.

A Key Ingredient to Successful Movement Marketing

A Key Ingredient to Successful Movement Marketing

How to Sell to Grocery Giants Wal-Mart and Whole Foods

How to Sell to Grocery Giants Wal-Mart and Whole Foods: Here are seven concrete suggestions on getting your products onto the shelves of major grocers.

The First Rule of Building a Business

The First Rule of Building a Business

Richard Branson on How to Avoid Common Startup Mistakes

Richard Branson on How to Avoid Common Startup Mistakes: The celebrated British business mogul shares what he's learned on his entrepreneurial journey.

Three Steps to Finding a Business Mentor

Three Steps to Finding a Business Mentor: Here's how to meet an experienced startup advisor and maximize the relationship.

Ten Tips To Clear Your Portfolio's Dead Weight

Ten Tips To Clear Your Portfolio's Dead Weight: Portfolio management involves risk management, but it might also take a little house cleaning to stay on track. Part of this process involves mentally preparing yourself for great profits. Having the right mindset can begin with a few steps. The following 10 actions are designed to clear out the...

Ten Career Lessons from the Top of the Masthead

Ten Career Lessons from the Top of the Masthead: A must read for all career women this week is Ken Auletta's profile of Jill Abramson, the first woman executive editor of the New York Times. There are so many lessons in this article for women who wish to break the glass ceiling, that I've reduced them to ten action

3 Money Steps Toward Joy This Holiday Season

3 Money Steps Toward Joy This Holiday Season: We’re all appalled. It’s not even Halloween, and the stores are teeming with Christmas. In Northern California, we’re still having 90 degree days, but if we walk into Target, there’s a winter wonderland inside. Few enjoy the early onset of the holidays. But the holidays are coming, and taking time now to make a holiday spending plan can guide you through the season and help alleviate money vagueness and fear. You’ll feel less stress and experience more joy by taking action now and following these three steps.

Five Things to Never Say to Your Direct Reports

Five Things to Never Say to Your Direct Reports

Startup Aims to Leverage Crowdsourcing in Product Development

Startup Aims to Leverage Crowdsourcing in Product Development: C.J. Kettler's online crowdsourcing venture, Genius Crowds, aims to move product ideas from the "light bulb" stage onto store shelves.

How to Really Listen

How to Really Listen: One morning, my wife Eleanor woke up, turned over, and said, "I am not looking forward to this day." I asked her why.

5 business books you can really use

5 business books you can really use: Tired of reading the same old advice? Here are a few books that can actually help you run your business.

Innovation is About Execution, Despite the Myths

Innovation is About Execution, Despite the Myths: Most people think innovation is all about ideas, when in fact it is more about delivery, people, and process. Entrepreneurs looking to innovate need to understand the execution challenge if they expect their startup to carve out a profitable niche in the marketplace, and keep innovating to build and maintain a sustainable competitive advantage.

Want To Save Serious Cash? Focus On The Big Stuff First

Want To Save Serious Cash? Focus On The Big Stuff First: This post provided by SavingsAccounts.com. How many times have you heard your friends or coworkers talk about cutting back and saving more money? And how many times have you heard them follow this with grand plans to quit buying overpriced coffee or start packing a lunch everyday? While these ...

Startup Success Fast Track

Startup Success Fast Track: How today's business owners are building thriving companies

Quiz: Do You Have What It Takes to Be an Entrepreneur?

Quiz: Do You Have What It Takes to Be an Entrepreneur?: If you're thinking about starting a business, it's time for some personal assessment. Take this informal quiz to see how your personality compares with the popular profile of today's successful entrepreneurs.

6 Personal Traits Will Accelerate Your Influence at Work

6 Personal Traits Will Accelerate Your Influence at Work: “They just don’t understand me!”   This is one of the most popular excuses from employees that are having trouble creating impact and influence in the workplace.    In fact, most employees whosay that are just tired of a workplace culture that does not encourage them to share their individuality.

Money-Saving Websites

Money-Saving Websites

Do What You Love! How to Identify and Pursue Your Passions

Do What You Love! How to Identify and Pursue Your Passions: I spent nearly 15 years working in nonprofit management, mostly in fundraising and marketing. I was good at it—people told me so all the time. It came easily to me, paid the bills, and was a very comfortable career path.

Avoid These 4 Critical Mistakes During Open Enrollment

Avoid These 4 Critical Mistakes During Open Enrollment: In the world of personal finance, we are often told what we should do. Alas, with the seemingly endless number of positive steps you can take, that approach can sometimes leave you feeling overwhelmed.

Six Tax-Wise Ways To Reduce Your Legal Bills

Six Tax-Wise Ways To Reduce Your Legal Bills: No one likes paying legal fees, but tax rules can reduce your legal bills.  Here’s how.

Are You Ready to Seize Your Big Opportunity?

Are You Ready to Seize Your Big Opportunity?: Even in challenging economic times like these, dynamic institutions are reinventing themselves and positioning themselves to prosper in a rapidly changing world. Even in stressful times like these, innovative and deeply passionate individuals are leading change and looking for ways to seize an opportunity that will propel their organizations forward.

How to Tell an Employee to Stop Dressing Provocatively

How to Tell an Employee to Stop Dressing Provocatively: First, review your company's dress code with management. Then meet with the individual and communicate your request honestly.

Better ways to network

Better ways to network: Successful executives share their best advice on sparking, cultivating and sustaining profitable business relationships

How To Improve Your Writing

How To Improve Your Writing: There’s a lot of advice out there on being a better writer (some of it is pretty funny, intentional or otherwise), but the focus always seems to be on how best to inhabit the writerly identity and not how to, you know, actually get better at the underlying task. It’s like an article on getting rich that only tells you how to order champagne with élan, but doesn’t mention anything about how to make money in the first place.

Are you making enough of the right decisions, fast enough?

Are you making enough of the right decisions, fast enough?: Effective decision-making systems are core to successful business strategy execution.

Three Financial Guesstimates Every Business Plan Needs

Three Financial Guesstimates Every Business Plan Needs: Not a numbers person? Our columnist explains the fundamentals of financial projections that should go into your business plan.

How To Predict Your Competitor's Next Moves

How To Predict Your Competitor's Next Moves: By Leonard M. Fuld

3 Mistakes That Block Career Bliss (and My 52 Biggest Mistakes)

3 Mistakes That Block Career Bliss (and My 52 Biggest Mistakes): Serving as a career coach and trainer, I see thousands of professionals making the same mistakes, over and over, not knowing how to reverse their negative patterns.  These mistakes are common but highly destructive, and can lead to your waking up in midlife scratching your head about how you arrived in a career you hate (that hates you back).
I have to admit that I’ve made many of these mistakes myself, and then some (for more about my story, check out Breakdown Breakthrough).  Last year, I was speaking with a new friend, Justin Krane, about my career trajectory, and he asked if I’d share my top ten business mistakes.  That got me thinking…
I decided then to come clean with My 52 Mistakes in life and work.  (Here’s the original list).  A quick word about “mistakes” – I believe it’s important to openly share our mistakes – not so that we can beat ourselves up about how we’ve blown it, but to heal, learn and grow.  And to remind you that you’re not alone in the mistakes you’ve made.
As I review My 52 Mistakes now and distill them down to their essence, I see three fundamental missteps people take that keep them from the experience of fulfillment, success and satisfaction they long for.    
The 3 Biggest Mistakes People Make… 
1. Waiting and waiting for a miracle, and resisting what is
In our culture and society, it seems we have confused dogged individualistic determination with an inability to face reality.  Many of us have been suckered into believing the myth, “Build It and They Will Come” – the idea that if we believe in something hard enough, it simply must come to pass.  Well, it’s not true.  That behavior is what author Maria Nemeth in her great book The Energy of Money calls “metafizzling.”  I’m sorry folks, but we’re not in control of everything that happens to us. 

Avoiding the Seven Deadly Mistakes in Business

Avoiding the Seven Deadly Mistakes in Business: Everybody makes mistakes. But it’s better if you can learn from other people’s mistakes before you make them, too. In a recent speech to entrepreneurs in Brant, Ont., I offered my take on......

Great Ideas: 3 simple paths to fearless public speaking

Great Ideas: 3 simple paths to fearless public speaking: There’s a reason many people would rather be in the casket than delivering the eulogy. Public speaking can fill even the most self-assured executive with dread. And even if you’ve been addressing large groups for years, chances are you’ll still feel a few butterflies before you take the podium.

7 Fees That You Should Always Negotiate

7 Fees That You Should Always Negotiate: Consumerism is an art, and with the right strategy, you can easily keep costs down. Beyond time-consuming activities like couponing, negotiating is a great place to start. (This gallery is based on information from the Investopedia story of the same name http://financialedge.investopedia.com/financial-edge/0711/7-Fees-That-You-Should-Always-Negotiate.aspx)

Steve Jobs' Six Rules of WOM and Buzz Marketing

Steve Jobs' Six Rules of WOM and Buzz Marketing: By now, some readers must have been getting tired of reading scores of stories and articles about Steve Jobs' legacy. However, no mater how much it is written and said about great men, and the lessons they left behind for the generations to come, it is never enough. Here, I want to add the six rules of Word-of-Mouth (WOM) and buzz that Steve Jobs applied successfully in promoting the Apple products:

The Key Trait Successful People Have, and How To Get It - Forbes

The Key Trait Successful People Have, and How To Get It - Forbes

A Fool-Proof B2B Marketing Recipe

A Fool-Proof B2B Marketing Recipe: For B2B marketing, it is the quality that counts, not the quantity.

The Top 5 Free Finance Apps

The Top 5 Free Finance Apps: The top five finance apps for your iPhone, iPad and iPod touch cover every angle of business and personal finance.   You can manage all of your bills in once place, check the latest prices of commodities, or control your stock portfolio with unbelievable immediacy and accuracy.

Startup Lessons from David Cohen and the TechStars

Startup Lessons from David Cohen and the TechStars: Though the TechStars program lasts three months, participants say the entrepreneurship lessons will stick with them forever. Here's a snapshot of what they learned.

The Myth of the Business Plan

The Myth of the Business Plan: Don't fall prey to analysis by paralysis. Writing a business plan isn't all it's cracked up to be. If you're agonizing over a written plan, your time might be better spent talking to potential customers.

How to Run a Meeting

How to Run a Meeting: Dr. Nadine Katz goes to a lot of meetings. Some of them last so long the participants have to order in food or switch rooms. About nine years ago Katz, who is senior associate dean, professor and director of medical education in the department of obstetrics, gynecology and women's health at

10 Experts Share 10 Tips: Looking Great at the Office

10 Experts Share 10 Tips: Looking Great at the Office: When it comes to personal branding, the outer you reflects the inner you. Putting care and thought into your style will help you stand out in all the right ways.
For some expert advice in this arena, I approached 10 leaders in the beauty and fashion worlds and asked them each for one tip for looking your best at the office:
1. “I love to see a woman go to work in a dress that can take her from day to evening so that she looks appropriate in the office, but can head straight out for a night on the town.”

Four Common Startup Money Mistakes

Four Common Startup Money Mistakes: Good financial management is key to startup success. You can get your business off to a sound start if you can avoid these money traps.

How to Turn the Fear of Failure into a Business Growth Strategy

How to Turn the Fear of Failure into a Business Growth Strategy: Will the Great Recession ever be over? Recent news from the Federal Reserve and the stock market make the answer uncertain. This economic environment makes the mistakes of failing and its consequences even scarier. But, facing failure can actually be a business growth strategy for a promising company, by letting go of the past and taking an action that leads to another chance at success.

Three Questions to Answer Before You Write a Business Plan

Three Questions to Answer Before You Write a Business Plan: Before you can map out a business plan, you have to make some basic decisions about the direction that you want your company to take.

Five Questions Your Business Plan Must Answer

Five Questions Your Business Plan Must Answer: Business plans don't have to be a lengthy ordeal. But you're more likely to get off to a good start if you think through critical questions about how you'll make money and run the show.

What Is Charisma? Body Language Quick Takes #9

What Is Charisma? Body Language Quick Takes #9: Charisma is not what you think it is.  It’s not a God-given gift that you either have or you don’t.  It’s rather something you can learn, something you can turn on or off at will once you understand how it works.

How to Prepare Yourself for Startup Success

How to Prepare Yourself for Startup Success: Preparation is key to success as a young entrepreneur. Consider this practical advice before you begin.

Five Simple Tips to Make Co-Working Work for Your Business

Five Simple Tips to Make Co-Working Work for Your Business: Is a co-working space right for your business? Here are some tips on how to make coworking a nicer experience for you and your suitemates.

Lessons Learned from Scary Business Mistakes

Lessons Learned from Scary Business Mistakes: Young entrepreneurs often share common stumbles. Here are three tips to avoid making the same startup mistakes.

The Five Key Traits of Empowered CMOs

The Five Key Traits of Empowered CMOs: Marketers are beginning to adapt to the realities of today’s empowered customer. Armed with high-tech mobile devices and backed by legions in their social networks, there’s no doubt that consumers now can flex their buying muscle in new ways. They can gather product information, read reviews, comparison shop, solicit opinions, ask for customer service and eventually, buy –all whenever and wherever they choose to do so.

How Business Owners Counter Online Slander

How Business Owners Counter Online Slander: Push falsehoods down in search results by creating more content about the company. To fight off an attack, ask sites to remove false comments

How to Turn the Fear of Failure into a Business Growth Strategy

How to Turn the Fear of Failure into a Business Growth Strategy: Will the Great Recession ever be over? Recent news from the Federal Reserve and the stock market make the answer uncertain. This economic environment makes the mistakes of failing and its consequences even scarier. But, facing failure can actually be a business growth strategy for a promising company, by letting go of the past and taking an action that leads to another chance at success.

10 Myths About Social Networking For Business

10 Myths About Social Networking For Business: Common misconceptions and what to do about them.

10 Quotes From Bill Hewlett and David Packard That Every Executive Should Read

10 Quotes From Bill Hewlett and David Packard That Every Executive Should Read: Below are 10 quotes from Bill Hewlett and David Packard that I have posted near my desk.

The 3 Cs of a great B2B marketing strategy

The 3 Cs of a great B2B marketing strategy: Thinking about your company, customers and competitors can give you a huge edge

Great Ideas: Three keys to guiding your company through any change

Great Ideas: Three keys to guiding your company through any change: Three keys to guiding your company through any change

The Definitive Guide To Selling More Of Anything Online

The Definitive Guide To Selling More Of Anything Online: The web has done wonders for shrinking sales and marketing budgets. But we are a long way from getting the most out our e-commerce efforts. What follows will help.

Using Social Media To Leap From Startup To Established Business

Using Social Media To Leap From Startup To Established Business: There are an estimated 27 million plus small businesses in the U.S. alone. If you’re one of those startups, you know how tough it is to get your message out about the innovative work you’re doing and the products, services or technology you’re producing. Your very success depends on getting the word out to the right target audience who need your solution and making sure you stand out from the crowd.

Five Things Every Small Business Should Know About Public Relations

Five Things Every Small Business Should Know About Public Relations: Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn are great, but the basics of public relations remain.  You still need coherent messages, valuable networks and great stories.  Here are five must-haves for successful PR.

Six Tips On Collecting Meaningful Customer Feedback

Six Tips On Collecting Meaningful Customer Feedback: Collecting useful customer feedback is a critical business need that most small businesses do poorly, because they don’t organize their data collection, and rarely focus on gathering information they can actually use to make business decisions. Here are a few hints on how collect good data better:

Serve, don't sell: Making the most of Twitter

Serve, don't sell: Making the most of Twitter: Six easy steps to put Twitter to work for your business

Nine Ways Employers Screw Up Hiring

Nine Ways Employers Screw Up Hiring: Honesty tests, "Must know Excel," "Where do you see yourself in five years?" and all the other nonsense that bedevils the hiring process

Nine Ways To Build Customer Loyalty

Nine Ways To Build Customer Loyalty: Loyal customers spend more, provide free word of mouth promotion and visit more often.  Yet small businesses often focus on chasing new customers as a way to improve the bottom line.  Here are ten simple ways to increase loyalty and build profits.

Planning: "You become what you think about"

Planning: "You become what you think about": Are you planning for success or failure?

8 Simple Ways To Drive More Traffic to Your Website

8 Simple Ways To Drive More Traffic to Your Website: Website traffic isn’t one of those elusive goals that only the big companies can achieve. It’s entirely possible for a small business to generate impressive traffic, which can ultimately lead to bigger revenues. Following are some simple strategies to boost your visibility online.

Three New Answers to the Question: What is Leadership?

Three New Answers to the Question: What is Leadership?: What are the new requirements of leaders in an economy that's transforming before our eyes?

7 Ways To Financially Empower Your Kids

7 Ways To Financially Empower Your Kids: In the last 20 years, the American childhood experience has undergone dramatic changes. Thanks to technology, we see new opportunities for learning, developing and innovating. Take tablets, smartphones, video games and laptops for instance. Even the youngest of today's adults didn't have these types of gadgets until they were older.

How To Boost Your Confidence At Work

How To Boost Your Confidence At Work: All high achievers have two attributes in common. The one you hear about is their self-confidence--the inner sense they can overcome challenges more often than not. What is often forgotten (or ignored) is that most people who enjoy self-confidence were once plagued by fears born of imagined or actual inadequacies. The

The Four Cs Of Effective Client Communications

The Four Cs Of Effective Client Communications: In today’s fast-paced world, where news travels faster then ever before, people demand and expect information when they want it and how they want it. If you don’t provide it to them, either someone else will or they will find it themselves.

Gifts for horrible bosses

Gifts for horrible bosses: Monday is National Bosses Day. Other than a swift kick to the rear end, what do you give a horrible boss? Here are five gifts that will keep your boss's butt safe and you, hopefully, still gainfully employed.

Lessons I Learned from Interviewing Over A Thousand Financial Planners

Lessons I Learned from Interviewing Over A Thousand Financial Planners: Over the years, I’ve personally interviewed over a thousand financial planners as part of our recruiting process at Financial Finesse.

Six Tricks To Make Coupons Work For You

Six Tricks To Make Coupons Work For You:
You probably think that coupons save you money, and if you use them correctly, you're right. However, stores and manufacturers issue coupons to increase their total sales, which means that if you aren't careful, you can end up overspending when you shop with coupons. Coupons expose consumers to additional advertising,

What hit me? Your risk-management primer

What hit me? Your risk-management primer: Trouble comes in bunches. Better to be ready now than when the pressure's on.

What’s your B2B marketing mandate?

What’s your B2B marketing mandate?: Simplify your marketing into three critical customer phases for better results

How to Take a New Product from Just an Idea to a Business

How to Take a New Product from Just an Idea to a Business: Scott Hamlin, the founder of the innovative upcycling company Looptworks, shares his views on the importance of knowing who your customers will be, how you're going to distribute your product and what makes it meaningful and different.

Lessons in Startup Survival from the Downturn

Lessons in Startup Survival from the Downturn: Startups large and small have sprung from downturns. Here's how they've managed.

Interview Body Language Mistakes That Can Cost You The Job

Interview Body Language Mistakes That Can Cost You The Job: Your perfectly manicured résumé, flawless cover letter and brilliant responses to tough interview questions might make you a strong job candidate?but forget to smile, slouch in your chair or fail to make eye contact during the interview, and you could be out of the running.

Stephen R. Covey Revisits The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

Stephen R. Covey Revisits The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: I caught up with Stephen R. Covey to have him reflect on his worldwide bestseller, The 7 Habits of Highly Successful People, over two decades later. First written in 1989, it has now sold over twenty million copies in 38 languages! Dr. Covey has been recognized as one of Time Magazine's 25 Most Influential Americans. He is the co-founder and vice chairman of FranklinCovey, the leading global professional services firm with offices in 123 countries. He is also the author of The 8th Habit and his forthcoming book is called "The 3rd Alternative: Solving Life's Most Difficult Problems." It will be released on October 4th. In this interview, he reviews and emphasizes many of the points made in his book and it is truly inspirational and timeless advice.

10 Tips To Improve Family Office Investing

10 Tips To Improve Family Office Investing: Wealthy individuals and family offices have, generally through hard work and sometimes just plain luck, been blessed with financial success. Yet contrary to popular belief, they often are not nearly as successful when it comes to investing their money. When I first began working with the wealthy (as opposed to my pension fund clients) I was surprised to find that they were so prone to make, shall we say, less-than-optimal investment decisions. I presumed that given their extensive capabilities and resources, these investors were relatively astute in investment matters. Not necessarily.

How to Estimate Startup Costs

How to Estimate Startup Costs: Get an idea of how much money you'll need by creating three quick lists and making a few educated guesses.

3 Bad Team-Building Exercises For Businesses

3 Bad Team-Building Exercises For Businesses: There may be no I in team but that doesn't mean that "I" will still want to participate.

Is Your Culture Too Nice?

Is Your Culture Too Nice?: Do you avoid conflict? If you do, you're not alone. Conflict avoidance is one of the most common characteristics of corporate cultures. At the same time it is one of the most pernicious and dangerous sources of unintentional complexity in organizational life.

Want a Simple Way to Double or Triple Your Own Productivity? Here's How.

Want a Simple Way to Double or Triple Your Own Productivity? Here's How.: Very few of us are as productive as we could be. We want to be focused with laser-like precision on critical tasks and make the best, most efficient use of our time.  Instead, we get distracted by coworkers, lost in our Inboxes, and too absorbed by unimportant aspects of a single project when we?d be better off turning our attention to other things.

A Business Plan Tool That Helps Size Up Your Odds of Success

A Business Plan Tool That Helps Size Up Your Odds of Success: Enloop pushes the emotional clouds out of the startup process to give entrepreneurs a clear view of their business plan.

5 Easy Ways To Fight The Urge To Splurge

5 Easy Ways To Fight The Urge To Splurge

Pivot or Persevere? The Key to Startup Success

Pivot or Persevere? The Key to Startup Success: Perseverance can be overrated as an entrepreneurial trait. Knowing when to change course to test out a new approach might be even more important.

How to Score on the Entrepreneur Likability Scale

How to Score on the Entrepreneur Likability Scale: You don?t have to be likeable to everyone to be a great entrepreneur, just to the people who count. Of course, we can all point to apparent exceptions, like Ted Turner or Larry Ellison, who are sometimes seen as lions, downright predators, or even jerks. Yet I?m told that even these guys are considered quite likable by an intimate group of business and personal associates.

Five Hidden Fees To Watch For On Vacation

Five Hidden Fees To Watch For On Vacation:
As summer vacations end and the kids go back to school, resorts, hotels and airlines gear up to promote fall deals. Known as a "shoulder" season that follows the busy summer months, fall can be a great time to take advantage of cooler temperatures and travel bargains. But before you

Should you trust your gut? Testing your decision-making instincts

Should you trust your gut? Testing your decision-making instincts: Do you know when you should trust your gut instinct when making a decision? Learn quick tests you can use to find out if you should trust your gut.

Top 10 Financial Tips For Starting A Family

Top 10 Financial Tips For Starting A Family

How to Network Your Way to World-Class Mentors and Teachers: The Thiel Fellowship Lecture, Part 3

How to Network Your Way to World-Class Mentors and Teachers: The Thiel Fellowship Lecture, Part 3: So we just learned now about giving advice. The next thing you can give, and always be giving, is connections. This is huge, huge, huge, huge.

How to Network Your Way to World-Class Mentors and Teachers: The Thiel Fellowship Lecture, Part 2

How to Network Your Way to World-Class Mentors and Teachers: The Thiel Fellowship Lecture, Part 2: There are two main things you have to give people you'd like to connect with and bring into your network. The first thing that all of us have to give is advice. Now, again, this might sound a little funny. You're looking to this person to get advice, so why would you give them advice?  What would you have to give?

How to Network Your Way to World-Class Mentors and Teachers: The Thiel Fellowship Lecture, Part 1

How to Network Your Way to World-Class Mentors and Teachers: The Thiel Fellowship Lecture, Part 1: In 2010, PayPal cofounder and first outside Facebook investor Peter Thiel made waves when he announced the Thiel Fellowship, a program to pay twenty people under the age of twenty $100,000 each to leave formal schooling and learn in the real world, not in the classroom.

Credit Card Alternatives if You Have Bad Credit

Credit Card Alternatives if You Have Bad Credit:
Although it's harder to get credit than it was a few years ago, it's still possible to get a credit card if you've stumbled financially. Here are three alternatives if you've been turned down for traditional credit cards: Subprime Credit Cards These cards are marketed to people with

7 Lessons To Learn From A Market Downturn

7 Lessons To Learn From A Market Downturn: You can never really understand investing until you weather a market downturn. The valuable lessons learned can help you through the bad times and can be applied to your portfolio when the economy recovers. Listed below are some common investor experiences during tough economic times and the lessons each investor can come away with after surviving the events. (To learn more, read "Market Problems? Blame Investors.")

5 creative ways for a small business to save

5 creative ways for a small business to save: You can't control the economy, but you can control what you spend on your company.

10 Ways a Bad Credit Score Can Hurt You

10 Ways a Bad Credit Score Can Hurt You

Want a Home-Based Job? Expert Tips To Help

Want a Home-Based Job? Expert Tips To Help: There’s a certain appeal to working from home, particularly if you’re starting a second career, or kicking off a “working in retirement” sideline.

How to Hold Effective Talent Conversations

How to Hold Effective Talent Conversations: By Roland Smith and Michael Campbell

Planning For A Second Career

Planning For A Second Career: The most successful career switchers take years to learn new skills, network and prepare financially. Here's how to plan for a second career.

Two Quick Financial Moves Small Business Should Make in this Slow Economy

Two Quick Financial Moves Small Business Should Make in this Slow Economy: As a small business owner, it?s hard not to notice the headlines of high government debt, low-interest rates, and of course, the slow-moving economy.  So what moves can put you in a better position to prosper in these times as well as over the next five years? Following are a few quick and easy ones you can knock-down right away.

How To Pick A Financial Advisor

How To Pick A Financial Advisor: The trick is to find good help that creates added value.

WOW Your Way to Better Results!

WOW Your Way to Better Results!: How many times have you had this happen within the past year?

Ten Tips For Getting A Fair Price On A Home

Ten Tips For Getting A Fair Price On A Home: Real estate prices have fallen from their peak, but there are ways to save even more when making the big purchase.

Small Business: What To Do Before The Hurricane Hits The Fan

Small Business: What To Do Before The Hurricane Hits The Fan: Five steps small business owners should take before disaster blows in.

The 48-Hour Startup

The 48-Hour Startup: Garage48, a series of weekend workshops for entrepreneurs, helps ambitious techies launch a venture by Sunday night

Top 5 Mistakes Job Hunters Make

Top 5 Mistakes Job Hunters Make:
The job search game has changed quite a bit over the past decade; applications are now processed online, and social media accounts are becoming just as valuable in reviewing applicants as the actual resume. Before you presume that the old rules don't apply, however, check out these classic errors that could

3 Surprising Facts About Self-Control

3 Surprising Facts About Self-Control: Many of the goals we have the most trouble reaching have one thing in common: the need to resist temptation.  Trying to ignore the powerful allure of the forbidden cigarette, doughnut, or latest budget-blowing buying impulse requires willpower.  You might expect very successful people, who presumably have boatloads of willpower, to be particularly good at not giving in.  But if anything, they seem to be even more susceptible to temptation than the rest of us.   Quick ? name a famous or powerful person that doesn?t have a well-known weakness for something.   I?ll wait.

How Compelling Is Your Leadership Product

How Compelling Is Your Leadership Product: What is a leader? A mentor once told me a leader is someone who can find others who will follow him (or her).

How To Have Fewer, Better Meetings

How To Have Fewer, Better Meetings: Meetings can be the bane of corporate life. Senior leaders and managers typically spend more than half their time in meetings. In one survey, a whopping 85 percent of executives said they were dissatisfied with the efficiency and effectiveness of meetings at their companies.

When Mentors Matter More Than Money

When Mentors Matter More Than Money: More public and private entities are supporting formal mentorship programs that pair startups with seasoned entrepreneurs

The Five Effective Habits of Innovation Leaders: A New Perspective

The Five Effective Habits of Innovation Leaders: A New Perspective: Last week when Forbes published the list of 100 most innovative companies, an appraisal of innovative leaders came in the pack. Professors Dyer, Gregersen and Christiansen, all eminent in the field of innovation, researched those companies to find out what made their leaders tick - or more to the point what made them tick in innovative ways. What does the analysis reveal?

Why Failure May Be Your Key to Marketing Success

Why Failure May Be Your Key to Marketing Success: Master motivator Zig Ziglar once said, ?Failure is a detour, not a dead-end street.?

Tech Startup Secrets of Bill Campbell, Coach of Silicon Valley

Tech Startup Secrets of Bill Campbell, Coach of Silicon Valley:
Few people are as important to the signature companies of Silicon Valley, from Apple to Google, as Bill Campbell. The former Apple and Intuit executive has long spent his time essentially serving as the coach for the most promising tech startups in the Valley (and beyond). He doesn't often speak publicly, so I wanted to hear what he had to say in a rare onstage interview at online publishing network AlwaysOn's Silicon Valley Innovation Summit today. Here are some of the highlights of the interview with Michael Moe, CEO of GSV Asset Management, including some interesting tidbits about the genesis of Google+, what he thinks of some of the Valley's leading figures, and what Campbell considers his best investment (and it's not a tech company).

Eight Ways To Improve Your Credit Score

Eight Ways To Improve Your Credit Score: A few simple steps can put you on the path to creditworthiness--or prevent you from falling off.

10 Toughest Interview Questions: Answered

10 Toughest Interview Questions: Answered: Here, the 10 toughest (but most telling) interview questions, and best of all?how to answer them.

10 Steps To Happiness At Work

10 Steps To Happiness At Work:
Here's a pop quiz for anyone who's miserable at work. Which action has the biggest chance of improving your happiness? (A) Getting a promotion, (B) seeing your professional nemesis move to the Mongolia office, (C) focusing on the positive aspects of your job and trying to ignore the negative or

A Simple Way To Increase Your Nest Egg

A Simple Way To Increase Your Nest Egg: Many workers have the option to remove their money from potentially high-cost workplace retirement plans before retirement.

How To Know When It Is Time To Leave Your Job

How To Know When It Is Time To Leave Your Job: By Caroline Ghosn

Eight Steps For Addressing the IT Management Crisis

Eight Steps For Addressing the IT Management Crisis: On Monday, I presented the argument that IT is facing accelerating challenges that are going to cause a crisis. (See ?The Coming Crisis of IT Management?.) The problem is that the informal way that IT has been managed cannot keep up with the pace of change, increased complexity, and loss of control now facing most IT departments. The IT monopoly is over. CIOs and IT managers are not trained in more sophisticated techniques that treat IT like a business and can adapt to the loss of control. When they are, they lack the tools to implement them. Getting more management resources is going to be a tough sell. The worst part of this is that fighting the battle to keep things from slipping into chaos leaves no time for technologists to exhibit the leadership in applying new technology to help implement strategy.

Bad Waiter Advice Doesn't Have To Ruin Your Business Meal

Bad Waiter Advice Doesn't Have To Ruin Your Business Meal: In these dog days of summer, when business is a bit slower, air conditioning is welcome, and summer?s bounty makes the specials on the menu still more enticing, many of us are meeting up with clients and colleagues we haven?t seen in some time to have the kind of relaxed, no-agenda dinner that allows creativity to flow.

Amazon's 4 Keys to Spectacular Revenue Growth

Amazon's 4 Keys to Spectacular Revenue Growth: Revenue growth is a beautiful thing.

Premature Aging Signs You Shouldn't Overlook

Premature Aging Signs You Shouldn't Overlook:
Sonja Morgan, cast member of Bravo reality series The Real Housewives of New York City, has always considered herself relatively healthy. She takes care of herself, does yoga and eats well. But at age 47, she saw the signs of age creeping up: Dry skin, cravings for salty snacks, irritability

A Survival Map in the Age of Product Recalls

A Survival Map in the Age of Product Recalls: If 2007 was the Year of the Recall, welcome to the Decade of the Recall.

3 Powerful Skills You Must Have to Succeed in Sales

3 Powerful Skills You Must Have to Succeed in Sales: by Sharon Michaels

How To Give A Great Speech

How To Give A Great Speech: Steve Jobs' 2005 commencement address at Stanford University has been viewed more than 4 million times on YouTube. Six years after he delivered it, a text version still flies around the Web. The speech is as powerful for its message--stay hungry, stay foolish--as it is for its structure and delivery. "Today I want to tell you three stories from my life," says Jobs. "That's it. No big deal. Just three stories." And with that, viewers (and readers) are hooked.

How to Delegate Like Donald Trump

How to Delegate Like Donald Trump: Image via Wikipedia
Sometimes the simple stuff is the most powerful.

With Great Startups It's All About The Execution

With Great Startups It's All About The Execution: A startup begins with a great idea, but all too often, that?s where it ends. Ideas have to be implemented well to get the desired results. Good implementation requires a plan, and a good plan and good operational decisions come from good people. That?s why investors invest in entrepreneurs, rather than ideas.

How To Force Yourself To Be Creative

How To Force Yourself To Be Creative: Sometimes (okay a lot of the time), the life of a creative is less about inspiration and more about needing to get x done so that y can happen. In many cases, x equals producing something (a story, a pitch, a design, an order of 2000 butterfly magnets) and y equals getting paid and/or feeling like less of a freelance fraud. So, what happens when you need to be creative under pressure? Can you force yourself to produce when a muse is the furthest thing from your mind? Yes. Here's how:

10 Steps to an Effective Apology

10 Steps to an Effective Apology: Just last week, Joe Nocera writing for the New York Times apologized for calling the Republican side of the aisle "terrorists." Yesterday, I apologized here for posting an untrue story about the Indiana Corner's Office  - based on the Defense of Marriage Act - refusing to release to her lesbian partner the body of a woman killed in the recent tragic stage collapse.

Ten Signs You're Depressed But Don't Know It

Ten Signs You're Depressed But Don't Know It: It's a subtle, debilitating and increasingly rampant affliction. Here's how to detect it and let the healing begin.

10 Ways That Being More Positive Improves Your Career (and Your Life)

10 Ways That Being More Positive Improves Your Career (and Your Life)

How to grow your sales faster than the economy

How to grow your sales faster than the economy: Three new books explain how to swipe market share from rivals, why some brands stand out, and the sneaky tricks great marketers use.

Six Sneaky Ways Coupons Make You Spend More

Six Sneaky Ways Coupons Make You Spend More: Consumers are using more coupons than they did before the recession, and 37.4% are using them "to stretch a limited grocery budget out of necessity," according to NCH Marketing Inc.'s "2010 Annual Consumer Survey".

The One Skill They Don't Teach You in B-School

The One Skill They Don't Teach You in B-School: An MBA from the most prestigious business school in the world will not help you overcome poor communication skills.  That?s why I enjoy giving presentations to business students who have transformative ideas but need to develop their communication skills (here?s a 20-minute excerpt from a presentation I recently delivered at the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley).

10 Things to do After you Lose your Job.

10 Things to do After you Lose your Job.: Part Two of a Survivor?s Guide to your own Personal Black Swan Moment

Tips for Payroll Outsourcing

Tips for Payroll Outsourcing: Does your business use an outside payroll service?  Are you thinking of using one?

6 Ways To Give Family And Friends Financial Aid

6 Ways To Give Family And Friends Financial Aid: Between the stock market roller coaster and the announcement of massive layoffs at corporate giants like Bank of America, HSBC, Merck and Pfizer, those "lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer" that Nat King Cole sang about disappointed a lot of people this year. As Fall approaches, plenty of folks are wondering how they're going to pay their bills.

Tips for Payroll Outsourcing

Tips for Payroll Outsourcing: Does your business use an outside payroll service?  Are you thinking of using one?

Three Ways to Think Big and Start Small

Three Ways to Think Big and Start Small: Taking the plunge into entrepreneurship is simultaneously exhilarating and paralyzing. If you?re like most entrepreneurs you?ve been living and breathing your business idea for what feels like forever, growing its potential in your head with each passing moment. And despite the anticipation and excitement, when the time comes for action, you feel stuck. Where do you even begin? How do you go about building an empire, changing an industry, or creating a legendary business?

Three Questions that Help Me Live a Fulfilling Life

Three Questions that Help Me Live a Fulfilling Life: I am on a plane with my wife Eleanor as we fly back from our once-a-year-without-children vacation. It was, for us, the perfect week. After years of planning vacations, we've finally figured out how to reliably create a meaningful, fun, fulfilling week.

What Do You Need for a Commercial Loan?

What Do You Need for a Commercial Loan?: Working with financial professionals across America, Sageworks has learned what business owners must do if they want to compete for a commercial loan.

10 Ways to Add Sizzle to Your Online Marketing

10 Ways to Add Sizzle to Your Online Marketing: These days every new entrepreneur understands that an innovative product or service is necessary, but not sufficient, to start a business. You have to build a web presence with marketing content to get visibility above the 50 million other new websites created every year, and attract the customers you need. But most entrepreneurs don?t know where to start.

Ten Myths About Social Networking For Business

Ten Myths About Social Networking For Business: Common misconceptions and what to do about them.

10 Common Money Wasters

10 Common Money Wasters

8 Telltale Signs of a Good or Bad Job Candidate

8 Telltale Signs of a Good or Bad Job Candidate: I've interviewed hundreds of job candidates over the years and have witnessed some of the best and worst behavior that has instantly affected a person's chances of getting the job.  Based on my experience talking to folks for open positions -- from entry to senior level -- here are some telltale signs that someone will make a good or bad hire.

Creating an Idea Culture

Creating an Idea Culture: Dave Trott is a legend and an advertising hero of the old school (not Don Draper old school). He has an uncanny knack of getting to the heart of the matter in a really engaging way. He writes that 89 percent of advertising is never noticed or remembered.

How to Build Credibility as a Young Entrepreneur

How to Build Credibility as a Young Entrepreneur: Five steps to make your business a success when experience is not on your side.

Get Clear On Winning: It's Personal!

Get Clear On Winning: It's Personal!: Last month I had the opportunity to speak at Microsoft?s annual Worldwide Partner Conference. As one of the featured business session speakers, I addressed a lively audience on two of my favorite subjects: the importance of getting clear on winning, and engaging employees in reaching the organization?s destination.

Driving Principles: Insights from Successful Entrepreneurs

Driving Principles: Insights from Successful Entrepreneurs: Looking for inspiration? You'll get it from the stories of these entrepreneurs who have turned challenges into opportunity.

How Do I Cut Through the Noise on Social Media?

How Do I Cut Through the Noise on Social Media?: Starr Hall on how to identify and research your target audience on social sites.

Does Your Home Business Need Insurance?

Does Your Home Business Need Insurance?: Here's a look at the most common types of coverage for home-based companies and what make sense for your business.

How to Connect Powerfully With People Using Body Language

How to Connect Powerfully With People Using Body Language: Body language -- good or bad -- can make or break a meeting, a conversation, a presentation.  Here's how to use it to connect powerfully with other people.  The podcast is just under 7 minutes and it's based on my book Trust Me:  Four Steps to Authenticity and Charisma.  Enjoy!

How to Handle a Horrible Boss

How to Handle a Horrible Boss:

Video

KRON TV interviewed me on the body language of horrible bosses -- and what you can do about it. I'd love to hear from you. How have you handled a horrible boss?

Five Overlooked Legal Mistakes Entrepreneurs Make

Five Overlooked Legal Mistakes Entrepreneurs Make: When starting a business, details can get lost in the excitement of a new venture. Here are the top legal mistakes unwittingly made by new business owners -- and how to avoid them.

Zig Ziglar's Tips on Becoming Successful in Life

Zig Ziglar's Tips on Becoming Successful in Life: I recently spoke to Zig Ziglar, a motivational teacher and trainer who has traveled the world over, delivering his messages of humor, hope, and encouragement. As a talented author and speaker, his international appeal has transcended every color, culture, and career. Recognized by his peers as the quintessential motivational genius of our times, Zig Ziglar's unique delivery style and powerful messages have earned him many honors, and today he is considered one of the most versatile authorities on the science of human potential. 10 of his 28  books have been on the best-seller lists, and his titles have been translated into more than 38 languages and dialects. In this interview, he explains which sales tactics work most effectively, how to become a motivational speaker, and more.

How Unbeatable Is Your Resume? Q&A With Resume Expert Tony Beshara

How Unbeatable Is Your Resume? Q&A With Resume Expert Tony Beshara: I receive questions almost every week asking for tips on résumé writing so I decided to turn to one of the top recruiters in the United States for a discussion on how to build a résumé that will get you noticed, help you get interviews, and ultimately, get you hired.

How Small Businesses Can Reach Mom's Wallet

How Small Businesses Can Reach Mom's Wallet: The poor economy changed families' spending habits. Astute companies can use the shift to pick up new customers

Small Business Lessons from the Hottest Retailers

Small Business Lessons from the Hottest Retailers: Here's how some retailers managed to thrive despite the nation's economic malaise.

Startups, Avoid 10 Common Million-Dollar Mistakes

Startups, Avoid 10 Common Million-Dollar Mistakes: It?s a well-accepted axiom in the investor community that entrepreneurs learn more from their failures than their successes. Thus a well-explained startup failure often can actually improve your odds of funding in the next go-round. Yet, there is no doubt that the best strategy is to learn from someone else?s mistakes, so you can enjoy the millions that someone else lost in learning.

Build a Website That Drives More Business

Build a Website That Drives More Business: First, determine what your business does best, then develop a strategy for a site that will show clients why they should hire you, rather than your competition

7 Tips For A Better Retirement

7 Tips For A Better Retirement: What retirees can do now for a better retirement later.

When Buying a Shelf Corporation Doesn't Pay

When Buying a Shelf Corporation Doesn't Pay: As states streamline incorporation times, these business structures aren't necessary for most entrepreneurs seeking to start companies, consultants say

How to Divorce-Proof Your Company

How to Divorce-Proof Your Company: If your marriage is headed toward a breakup, these seven strategies can help protect your business if you end up in divorce court.

Three Tips to Start a Consulting Business

Three Tips to Start a Consulting Business: Ready to use your industry expertise to strike out on your own? Consider these tactics to get your business off to a successful start.

Why Letting Yourself Make Mistakes Means Making Fewer of Them

Why Letting Yourself Make Mistakes Means Making Fewer of Them: Think back to the last time your boss assigned you a new project or task at work, or the last time you tried to tackle something really difficult in your personal life.  How did it feel?  I?m guessing scary, right?

Sales: How to educate your clients

Sales: How to educate your clients: Chances are, you’ve got your firm’s value proposition down cold. You know the benefits that set you apart from the competition, and you know why you’re unique in the marketplace. But do you know how to make your customers understand that?

How NOT to Manage a Crisis

How NOT to Manage a Crisis
In the past three months, Representatives David Wu (D-Oregon) and Anthony Weiner (D-New York) were forced to resign their congressional seats for inappropriate sexual behavior. Although each man had a different form of misconduct, each of them had two factors in common that provide a striking lesson in crisis management:

How To Get A Job When You Don't Know Anyone

How To Get A Job When You Don't Know Anyone: Despite having more than a few people put in a word for me over the years, it turns out that every full-time job I?ve ever gotten has had zero to do with networking, having connections, knowing someone who knows someone, etc.  These non-networked jobs have included:

How to Build Brand Loyalty in a Digital Marketplace

How to Build Brand Loyalty in a Digital Marketplace
Cultivating, and then nurturing, brand loyalty have always been top priorities for marketers.

Are You Wasting Money on Management Training?

Are You Wasting Money on Management Training?
Most everyone would agree that the training and development of managers is a critical component of success for organizations ? especially if you believe that a stronger leadership team makes a competitive difference. Yet despite its importance, when times are tough, management training and development budgets are among the first to be cut as we saw during the financial crisis.  More often than not the reason behind this apparent contradiction is the lack of a clear connection between training and results. Without this connection, cost-conscious executives at best view management development as a "nice" but discretionary expense and at worst as unnecessary time off.

Great Ideas: Are you too smart to start a successful business?

Great Ideas: Are you too smart to start a successful business?: If you’re super smart, then logically you’d be the best possible candidate to launch a company, right? Maybe not. Investment banker and business strategist Carol Roth argues that you’ll probably find it harder to succeed than someone with less brainpower would

Ten E-mail Habits that Send Wrong Message

Ten E-mail Habits that Send Wrong Message

Selling Your Business 101

Selling Your Business 101: How to prepare so you’ll get the highest price when you sell your firm

5 Tips For Using Credit Cards Abroad

5 Tips For Using Credit Cards Abroad If you travel much outside the United States, it pays to be choosy about which credit cards you use abroad. Here are five key things to know about using credit cards in foreign countries. 1. Watch out for credit card foreign transaction fees. Don't be ...

How to Communicate Powerfully

How to Communicate Powerfully: In this, the 3rd podcast in the series from Trust Me: Four Steps to Authenticity and Charisma, I focus on the 4 steps of the title -- how to align your body language and content for effective communication.  The podcast lasts about 5 minutes.  Enjoy!

Advice From The Most Innovative Leaders

Advice From The Most Innovative Leaders

Ten Ways to Recession Proof Your Career

Ten Ways to Recession Proof Your Career: Beyond compensation and job security, there are lots of other reasons why mommas should encourage their babies to grow up to be...

How To Have A More Positive Relationship With Your Aging Parent

How To Have A More Positive Relationship With Your Aging Parent:
If you have ever dealt with a difficult aging parent this is for you.

Anticipate Your Company's Biggest Hurdles

Anticipate Your Company's Biggest Hurdles: By preparing for obstacles such as low cash reserves, high customer acquisition costs, and burnout, your business can improve it's chance of surviving

How To Effectively Investigate A Stock

How To Effectively Investigate A Stock

26 Lessons from a 26 Year Old CEO

26 Lessons from a 26 Year Old CEO:
On April 25th I turned 26, and a few weeks later my web marketing agency turned two. What started as a single person mini-business, has turned into a 27 person global web marketing firm in just two short years. I?ve been immensely grateful for the opportunities life has presented me with. And, as I look forward to the future, it would only be fair to look back as well.

Creativity Sells.

Creativity Sells.:
Things I hear:

Do You Have A Fear Of Selling?

Do You Have A Fear Of Selling?:
5 Important Questions To Ask Yourself

Fix your meetings. Now.

Fix your meetings. Now.: "Meetings don't have to be tedious. Try this format for better results."

Four Morals From MySpace's Fall

Four Morals From MySpace's Fall: "

What can we learn from the disintegration of MySpace ? just five years ago a media darling and now in the tech industry?s dustbin?  It would be easy to blame the fall on inept management, except that the company?s leaders clearly were not dumb.  Rather, the seeds of demise were"

Thank You Adobe. My Bank Account Will Soon Be Grateful.

Thank You Adobe. My Bank Account Will Soon Be Grateful.: "
Small business owners are certainly unique in many different ways.  But there is one thing that we all have in common.  We hate late-paying customers and despise those who stiff us.  Ask any retired business owner you meet.  He might not be able to remember the names of all his grandchildren.  But he will, with pinpoint accuracy, list every single one of those customers who stiffed him over the past forty years.    This is a fact."

A Launch With Content Will Rocket Startup Growth

A Launch With Content Will Rocket Startup Growth:
Your marketing launch is the most important element of startup success these days, to get customer attention in this world of information overload. Yet it is the one element that too many entrepreneurs focus on only as an afterthought. Everyone assumes their product or service is so great that ?word-of-mouth? will carry the day for them."

Learning To Love Change In The Workplace

Learning To Love Change In The Workplace: "I heard once that the Chinese character for the word “change” was a combination of two other characters: chaos and opportunity. Now, don’t quote me on this. I have no idea of if it’s correct. But in theory, it makes sense."

How to Give Back Most Effectively

How to Give Back Most Effectively: "A conversation with Tom Tierney, Chairman and co-founder of Bridgespan."

CloudFlare Makes The Web Faster, Safer

CloudFlare Makes The Web Faster, Safer: "If you have a web site two of your biggest problems are that it's too slow and it's too vulnerable to attacks from computer geeks with ill intent. Attacks against web sites including PBS, CIA, Sony and Nintendo, have made web site owners cringe at the thought of knowing they’re never safe. Wouldn't it be nice if there was an inexpensive way to solve those twin problems?"

The Ins and Outs of Workplace Burnout

The Ins and Outs of Workplace Burnout: "As almost everyone who’s had a career knows, burnout can be a real bear. And research shows it’s becoming more commonplace these days. But what many may not know is that there are actually three different types of burnout from which one can suffer. Fortunately, researchers have just discovered the risk factors for each. Knowing how burnout works can prevent it from happening, or help you “de-burn,” if it’s already set in. Organizational psychologist Richard Wexler helps us key in."

How Do You Change An Organizational Culture?

How Do You Change An Organizational Culture?: "
Changing an organization?s culture is one of the most difficult leadership challenges. That?s because an organization?s culture comprises an interlocking set of goals, roles, processes, values, communications practices, attitudes and assumptions."

Five Strategies For Outperforming In A Rough Economy

Five Strategies For Outperforming In A Rough Economy: "Written By Craig Doud"

Selling Your Business? Taxes Are Key

Selling Your Business? Taxes Are Key: "Business owners often talk of selling out to retire, move away, capitalize on a hot market or simply do something else.  Right now, sales of small businesses are up.  And sales mean taxes.  See Sales of Small Firms Are Up.  Big or small, if you have a business, taxes should influence---or even control---how you sell.  "

When Your Bank Won't Make a Business Loan

When Your Bank Won't Make a Business Loan: "Study alternative financing sources such as angel investing groups, crowdfunding sites, and microfinance organizations, then prepare to prove you're worth betting on"

Ten Business Tips From Kenyan Multi-Millionaire Chris Kirubi

Ten Business Tips From Kenyan Multi-Millionaire Chris Kirubi: "
Chris Kirubi is a complex man. One of Africa?s richest and most successful businessmen, he?s that rare blend of Donald Trump, Jeffrey Sachs, Richard Branson and American music star DJ Khaled, in African skin. In business, he?s got the cunning and clout of Trump, the economic intellect of Sachs, the rebellion of Branson, and the musical inclinations of hip-hop act DJ Khaled."

Five Communication Mistakes That Are Holding You Back

Five Communication Mistakes That Are Holding You Back: "There's just something about communications that's harder than it should be."

Six Traps That Wreck Established Businesses

Six Traps That Wreck Established Businesses: "Longevity in business can leave owners complacent, unprepared, and misaligned with their personal goals. Here's how to avoid the key dangers success can bring"

How You Can Outsmart Your Brain In Work, Love & Life

How You Can Outsmart Your Brain In Work, Love & Life: "by Margie Warrell"

Ten Things They Don't Tell You In Business School

Ten Things They Don't Tell You In Business School: "

Listen up, budding Masters Of The Universe, and all those who dream of walking their path to wealth, power and spacious summer homes. At many business schools, boot-camp week--where the unwashed get a taste of debits, credits and such--starts in less than a month. After that, and just beneath the throb"

Networking is a Business Best Practice

Networking is a Business Best Practice: "Having moved his law practice to Chicago in 1896, Paul J. Harris missed the friendly relationships he knew growing up in a small Vermont town."

10 Challenges in Sustainability: Lessons from Seventh Generation

10 Challenges in Sustainability: Lessons from Seventh Generation: "“Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is a continuum rather than a definition. It is constantly evolving and changing in context, and that’s how responsibility should be viewed.”"