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

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How To Find Your Passion

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The 7 Keys to Successful Failure

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Advisory board: what great managers do

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Managing Distraction at Work

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How to speak like a leader

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Entrepreneurs and the hunt for good staff

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Building a valuable business

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Acquisitions: Buying a business

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Business opportunity news you can use

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How to Avoid Becoming a Person You Hate

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Financing foreign sales

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Five Keys to Managing an Unpredictable Boss

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5 slick ways to market your small business

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The 20 New Rules Of Money

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5 Tips To Make Money During Retirement

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12 Remote Work Trends to Achieve (Not Just Predict)

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

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

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Social media branding: Learning to fly

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Find Gratitude Cues in Everyday Life

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Opportunity Guide 2012

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Better ways to give

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Is Your Cross-Sell Strategy Doomed?

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Top 10 Small Business Predictions for 2012

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Before Launching, Organize Personal Finances

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The Key to Creating More

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What Makes Someone a Great Product Manager at Google?

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How to craft computer policies on personal emails and surfing

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Sales meetings that don't suck

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

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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!

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Recognize a Winning Business Idea

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

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Sales meetings that don't suck

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Five Essential Leadership Lessons For Women

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Where to Find Overseas Buyers

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Why Companies Treat New Customers Better than Old Customers?

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

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Top Ten Things Advisors Should Be Doing NOW!

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Five Simple Rules for Building a Blockbuster Brand

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Who to Follow on Twitter for Innovative Business Ideas

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

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Great Ideas: The 5 keys to effective employee evaluations

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An 18 Minute Plan for Managing Your Day

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5 Ways To Make a Killer First Impression

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Do You Know How To Mix Happiness And Business?

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The 3 Things That Steve Jobs Taught Us About Creative Leadership

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Mentoring and Movements: How Leaders Are Made

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

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Great Ideas: 4 ways to thrill your customers

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How to Negotiate a Year-End Raise

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Alternative financing: How to get big bucks for your startup

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Learn From The Pros: 10 Tricks To Project Authority

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Seven Ways to Tame An Office Tyrant

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One Simple Step to Higher Earnings

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10 questions to ask before taking a promotion

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The Impact of Eye Contact

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Zappos' Success Secrets

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

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Does your marketing need some space?

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Do You Have Clutter Mentality?

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9 Ways to Boost Your Confidence at Work

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Before You Hire Your First Employee

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