Why it pays to communicate with your employees

Why it pays to communicate with your employees: "Stephanie Vogler was nervous. It’s not that she didn’t talk to her 10 employees every day, but this time, she was doing a formal, companywide speech. “I’m terrified of speaking in public,” said Vogler, managing partner of The Cross Decor and Design, a Vancouver interior-design store."

Six Steps To Fighting Internet Rumors

Six Steps To Fighting Internet Rumors: "Last weekend, McDonald’s was the victim of an internet hoax that reverberated through social networks, especially Twitter. An old, false photo recirculated that suggested a McDonald’s corporate policy discriminatory to African-American customers. The photo spread like wildfire. People took to Twitter, outraged; “Seriously McDonalds” was a trending topic on Twitter on Sunday and into Monday, and McDonalds’ social media team was pressed into emergency service trying to put out the fire."

How to Activate Your Entrepreneurial Leadership

How to Activate Your Entrepreneurial Leadership: "I’ve often said that creating and building a business is not a one-man show, even though it usually springs from the mind and determination of one person – committees don’t start successful businesses. But taking an idea to a business success requires many people to work together effectively, and that requires entrepreneurial leadership."

Do You Want To Simplify Your Life? An Interview With Sam Davidson

Do You Want To Simplify Your Life? An Interview With Sam Davidson: "In 2004, over 50% of Americans were concerned about the amount of stress in their everyday lives."

5 Easy Ways To Fight The Urge To Splurge

5 Easy Ways To Fight The Urge To Splurge: "You've finally done it - a detailed, realistic budget. It's a crucial step toward financial freedom, and you should be proud. Nearly half of Americans don't even bother to create, let alone stick to, a budget. (From lawn care to summer fairs, expenses can skyrocket if you're not paying attention. Check out Save Money On Summer Bills.)"

The Top 6 Benefits Of Starting A Home-Based Business

The Top 6 Benefits Of Starting A Home-Based Business: " Home-based businesses are quickly becoming the fastest growing form of business start-ups. Growing your company out of your home allows for flexibility that is difficult when renting or buying office and warehouse space. Although working at home requires self-discipline, the benefits can be substantial - especially in the start-up years. (We provide six tips for creating a winning business in a losing economy. Check out Starting A Small Business In Tough Economic Times.)"

Dress for Success on Wall Street

Dress for Success on Wall Street: "Over at the Wall Street Journal's FINS career site, Julie Steinberg has written a helpful piece for the incoming first-year investment bank kids who want to dress for success."

Dad's Foolproof Car-Buying Tips (and Other Secrets of Life)

Dad's Foolproof Car-Buying Tips (and Other Secrets of Life): "Some Dads teach you how to tie your shoe, ride your bike, even how to parallel park. My Dad gave me the crash course on how to get anything I want in life, starting the day I bought my first car."

8 Careers Built On Relationships

8 Careers Built On Relationships: "If you've got outstanding relationship-building skills, or if you've mastered the art of networking, there are some careers that you might be particularly suited to. Careers that are built upon relationships require that employees are able to build and maintain a client base. Being personable, able to remember the fine details, and having the confidence to market yourself are all important aspects of these careers. If you're considering a career move that makes use of your keen interpersonal skills, be sure to consider the following jobs. (To help you with networking, read 4 Career Networking Tips That Work.)"

12 Ways To Beat Gas Prices Without Changing Your Car

12 Ways To Beat Gas Prices Without Changing Your Car: "With fuel costs soaring, try these tips to ease pain at the pump."

How To Make People Choose Right Over Wrong

How To Make People Choose Right Over Wrong: "It turns out it isn't very hard at all."

Cubicle Etiquette: Sights, Sounds and Smells

Cubicle Etiquette: Sights, Sounds and Smells: "What is covered in fabric, measures 6 feet by 6 feet, and allows complete access to sights, sounds, and smells of your co-workers?"

Successful Investing: Five Pearls of Wisdom

Successful Investing: Five Pearls of Wisdom: "Anyone that invests wants to do so successfully. Many books have been written on the subject. The newsstands are filled with magazines with hot tips on how to get rich. But the process of successful investing really isn’t that hard if you keep in mind five simple concepts."

Make Better Connections in Less Time

Make Better Connections in Less Time: "You know the classic business mantra: Networking is the key to your personal and professional success."

Five 'Thinking Traps' Entrepreneurs Should Avoid

Five 'Thinking Traps' Entrepreneurs Should Avoid: "The brains behind Idealab say logical inconsistencies such as "recency bias" can cloud the judgment of startup founders"

16 Things I Wish I Knew About Money When I Graduated College

16 Things I Wish I Knew About Money When I Graduated College: "If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them.
- Henry David Thoreau"

How to Build Awareness of Your Online Service

How to Build Awareness of Your Online Service: "To attract users to a new social network, prepare to show them why it beats the competition. Then determine where your consumers hang out online and reach out to them there"

Enchant and Engage More Customers With Social Media

Enchant and Engage More Customers With Social Media: "Marketing strategist Guy Kawasaki offers social media tips for small-business owners."

Five Rules for Bootstrapping Success

Five Rules for Bootstrapping Success: "Follow these tips to get your dream business off the ground without seeking outside investors."

From Paycheck to Pay Dirt: Blazing Your Own Trail As a Business Owner

From Paycheck to Pay Dirt: Blazing Your Own Trail As a Business Owner: "First-time business owners starting a venture in unfamiliar waters face a special set of challenges. Here are three who tackled them with success."

Fix a Strained Business Partnership Now

Fix a Strained Business Partnership Now: "First, understand the legal and tax implications of teaming up. Then discuss problems and goals and get an attorney to help put a partnership agreement in writing, experts say"

The $32,000 Startup

The $32,000 Startup: "In an age of outsourcing, starting an online business or improving an existing one means founders don't need technical skills or outside funding"

Five Critical Questions Your Business Plan Should Answer

Five Critical Questions Your Business Plan Should Answer: "Answering these questions periodically can help keep long-term goals in mind while you adjust your immediate steps and actions."

Why Traditional Employment Is Better Than Entrepreneurship

Why Traditional Employment Is Better Than Entrepreneurship: "I left a corporate job to launch my own business so you might believe that I’m a fierce advocate of entrepreneurship over traditional employment. Obviously I thought it was the right choice for me. However, I don’t think it’s the right choice for everyone. Yes, running your own business might lead to more money, more flexibility, and a chance to fulfill a passion. But an office environment offers camaraderie and resources that shouldn’t be overlooked. So it’s not a given that a business is “better” than a traditional job or that a business rather than a job is a better choice for you. So before you quit your job at Macy’s, Pfizer, or wherever you are, here are 5 reasons having a job trumps running a business:"

Diversity Management Is the Key to Growth: Make It Authentic

Diversity Management Is the Key to Growth: Make It Authentic: "Diversity management is the key to growth in today’s fiercely competitive global marketplace. No longer can America’s corporations hide behind their lack of cultural intelligence. Organizations that seek global market relevancy must embrace diversity – in how they think, act and innovate. Diversity can no longer just be about making the numbers, but rather how an organization treats its people authentically down to the roots of its business model. In today’s new workplace, diversity management is a time-sensitive business imperative."

Leadership: More On Saying No While Still Inspiring People

Leadership: More On Saying No While Still Inspiring People: "Saying “no” is one of the most important parts of any leader’s job. My recent article, “How to say no while also inspiring people”, suggested that there were only three right answers, none of which was using the word “no”."

Five Keys To Landing A Strategy Superstar

Five Keys To Landing A Strategy Superstar: "If you're a corporate leader eager to hire young, talented strategy analysts from the world's top strategy consulting firms, I have some bad news for you. Luring them will be harder now than it has been in at least a decade. Supply and demand are seriously misaligned, and, as with so many other things, the recession is to blame."

You Took A Risk And Failed. How To Bounce Back

You Took A Risk And Failed. How To Bounce Back: "Is there a risk that you’ve been talking yourself out of? That’s a question I often ask in my leadership workshops and one that creates quite a buzz in the room."

The Best Way To Innovation? - An Important Lesson from India

The Best Way To Innovation? - An Important Lesson from India: "VideoInnovation seems to be a prime directive at almost any firm I run into, regardless of industry.  How do you get more of it?  In these tough times the answer is no longer to throw money at it.  What we increasingly need is frugal innovation, what the Indians call Jugaad. It [...]"

Building a Business vs. Making a Living

Building a Business vs. Making a Living: "You need to comprehend financial basics to make your venture more than just a revenue stream, says Bill Hettinger. Learn how to read cash-flow statements and gauge your competitive position"

5 Ways to Make Your Time More Valuable

5 Ways to Make Your Time More Valuable: "It's obvious that different stretches of our time can be more or less valuable to us. For example, an hour in which our mind is sparkling and sharp, and coming up with brilliant ideas and insights, is usually more valuable to us than an hour in which we feel lethargic, dull-minded, or barely moping through life."

Organize and Streamline Your Home-Based Business

Organize and Streamline Your Home-Based Business: "To make self-employment work, experts suggest designating a workspace at home, sticking to a daily schedule, and using a time-management system"

Lean LaunchPad: A Crash Course in Startup Success

Lean LaunchPad: A Crash Course in Startup Success: "A new class created by serial entrepreneur Steve Blank puts a focus on testing ideas before jumping in."

Your Secret Public Speaking Weapon - Involving Your Audience

Your Secret Public Speaking Weapon - Involving Your Audience: "Every communication, and so every presentation, ultimately has to be 2-way to have integrity and to feel authentic. That means that you should involve your audiences in your presentations -- and not just at the end in Q and A. That's so 20th century! In this podcast, based on my book Give Your Speech, Change the World, I talk about 4 ways to involve your audience with real client examples for each. It lasts about 8 minutes. Enjoy!"

How to Get a Raise

How to Get a Raise: "One of my contracts is up, and I want a raise, but I feel like I'm not a good negotiator. Regardless, the contract is up, and it's now or never. I've read numerous articles detailing how women don't ask for raises, and I don't want to be one of those women. TIP #1: [...]"

10 Questions To See If You Need To Make A Career Move

10 Questions To See If You Need To Make A Career Move: "In a previous column, I wrote about how you can manage your career in just 5 minutes a day. Here are some questions that can be added to your 5-minute daily career habit. Take one question a day and reflect on your answer for no more than a few minutes. You might need to do some longer research based on the initial result you get. But hopefully, most of the time, your gut reaction to these questions will reaffirm that you are exactly where you need to be."

3 Words to Small Business Success: Easy, Fun and Popular

3 Words to Small Business Success: Easy, Fun and Popular: "What’s the attitude you show up to in your business each day?"

How To Say No At Work

How To Say No At Work: "When Beth Cronin started out as an associate at the law firm Trenam Kemker, she never once told a partner that she was too busy to do a project. Instead, she learned the right way to say no. "First, I developed a reputation as being earnest and hardworking," says Cronin. "Then I made sure to understand what the project entailed, when my manager needed it and whether I could realistically deliver high-quality work in the allotted amount of time. The way to handle a request is never just to say 'I'm too busy.'" Today she's co-chair of the litigation practice group at the firm, which has offices in St. Petersburg and Tampa, Fla."

Lose the Schmooze: Seven Ways to Make Networking Genuine

Lose the Schmooze: Seven Ways to Make Networking Genuine: "Every evening before bed, you glance at your iPhone’s calendar to see what tomorrow brings. Hoping for a calm, relaxing evening watching your favorite reality shows and sipping wine on the couch, you’re dismayed when you see in bright red text: “Networking Mixer, 7:30.” With a groan, you wonder what could’ve possibly possessed you to be so ambitious. You begin frantically running through excuses in your mind because, at the moment, nothing sounds more unappealing than to spend your limited free time having superficial conversations with total strangers and noshing on mediocre hors d’oeuvres."

How to Not Waste Your Life: Summary of The Startup Lessons Learned Conference

How to Not Waste Your Life: Summary of The Startup Lessons Learned Conference: "Stop wasting time. Every year hundreds of thousands of managers, entrepreneurs, engineers, and students waste countless hours and resources dreaming up big ideas about how to change the world. Big ideas are wonderful but then they waste oceans of energy building solutions and products no one wants. Yesterday morning, at the Startup Lessons Learned Conference in San Francisco, Eric Ries and a host of presenters talked about one approach to avoid all this waste: the Lean Startup."

How to Build Awareness of Your Online Service

How to Build Awareness of Your Online Service: "To attract users to a new social network, prepare to show them why it beats the competition. Then determine where your consumers hang out online and reach out to them there"

From Inspiration to Incorporated: Writing a Business Plan

From Inspiration to Incorporated: Writing a Business Plan: "When Sarah Prevette founded Upinion, her first start-up company, she admits that she “got caught up” in what she thought was an amazing idea:  a pop culture opinion-sharing website for teens.  “I thought it was going to be the next big thing,” she says.  “I thought people would just flock to it, and that certainly wasn’t the case.”"

Building the Team You Need to Drive Change

Building the Team You Need to Drive Change: "Major organizational change is not something that can be driven from the top down by the CEO alone. It requires a team of people powerful and accountable enough to give credibility to the fact that the change is essential. This team, which we call a guiding coalition, must have the right composition, level of trust, and a shared objective. The guiding coalition is different in every organization, but in the video below I explain what you should consider when building your own, and what kinds of people to look for to make it as powerful as possible.  "

Three Ways to Prepare for a Business Launch

Three Ways to Prepare for a Business Launch: "From showcasing expertise to soliciting feedback and offering free samples, consider these tested strategies for startup success."

5 Ways to Disaster Proof Your Finances

5 Ways to Disaster Proof Your Finances: "I’ve never experienced a tornado but I have experienced the earth shake violently under me during an earthquake in California and I felt, in an eerie way, like I was surfing on land.  Watching the news reports of the devastation of the tornadoes in the Midwest this past week made me appreciate the tremendous uncontrollable force of nature.  The devastation in Missouri was so sudden and overwhelming, it almost seems like it was pointless to prepare.  The emergency flashlight and the gallons of water stored in the basement just seem so minor in the wake of this disaster and it didn’t help the people whose homes were destroyed in an instant.  What we won’t see on the news are the people of the town quietly rebuilding their lives.  Those who have prepared financially will have a much easier time."

7 Ways To Save Time With Google

7 Ways To Save Time With Google: "Google made its name as a search engine. Then, with the advent of Gmail and Gchat, it made a huge splash in the email world with its popular, sleek interface."

Apple & The Halo Effect: Eight Valuable Team Practices

Apple & The Halo Effect: Eight Valuable Team Practices: "The Halo Effect is pervasive in business writing: a firm makes a lot of money in the marketplace and then writers rush to endow the firm with every kind of virtue and competence. The firm can do no wrong, until its profits falter and suddenly the same writers can see no virtue or competence in the very same firm. Cisco might be seen as an example of the phenomenon, and Google may be heading down this path. Phil Rosenzweig’s interesting book, The Halo Effect gives many examples.
Apple isn't perfect
As I have been commending Apple in these pages, am I succumbing to the Halo Effect?"

Five Leadership Lessons With A Gutsy Twist

Five Leadership Lessons With A Gutsy Twist: "By Sylvia Lafair"

Five Steps for Finding an Ideal Mentor

Five Steps for Finding an Ideal Mentor: "Here's how to nab the right mentor and get the most out of the relationship. Plus, five resources to help you start your search."

The First 3 Stages of Starting a Business

The First 3 Stages of Starting a Business: "Starting a business is a big deal—a big, exciting deal that comes with an endless to-do list and a steep learning curve. And as a new entrepreneur, it’s easy to get caught up in the process, overwhelmed by the details, and lose focus of the big picture. You can make a whole business out of setting up your business, but too much detailed planning can seriously get in the way of really getting started!"

Ron Conway's Data On What Makes Successful Entrepreneurs

Ron Conway's Data On What Makes Successful Entrepreneurs: "Ron Conway and David Lee of seed investing firm SV Angel have surveyed about 300 of their current and past portfolio companies and show some interesting data."

Ten Learning Steps from Entrepreneur to Manager

Ten Learning Steps from Entrepreneur to Manager: "Entrepreneurs often have formidable technical expertise, key to developing a new product or service, but a great naïveté in management skills. They run into difficulty when their business reaches the $1-2 million annual sales range, or their employee count exceeds 5-10. It’s here that entrepreneurs must shift their thinking from tactical and operational, to strategic and managerial."

Employee ownership: Smarter ways to share

Employee ownership: Smarter ways to share: "Employee ownership can deliver great returns — or be more trouble than it’s worth."

How to make Twitter work better for your business

How to make Twitter work better for your business: "Seven deadly tweeting sins you're probably committing."

Surveys: Tips for success

Surveys: Tips for success: "Badly executed surveys will give you reams of useless data. Follow these tips for a successful poll."

The 5 winning strategies of high-growth companies

The 5 winning strategies of high-growth companies: "Get bigger, faster by taking the same simple approaches that deliver superior returns for the PROFIT 200."

The new way to lead

The new way to lead: "In the past 20 years, nothing has changed as much in business as effective leadership. Do you exhibit its seven key traits?"

Great Ideas: 5 keys to better work/life balance

Great Ideas: 5 keys to better work/life balance: "Balancing your work and personal lives can seem like a goal that is highly appealing yet impossible to achieve. And perhaps perfect balance is, in fact, unattainable."

The right behaviours to help execute your strategy

The right behaviours to help execute your strategy: "Seven ways to sustain momentum and support the execution of your strategy."

Great Ideas: Top 3 ways to thrill your customers

Great Ideas: Top 3 ways to thrill your customers: "In today’s competitive business landscape, you’re bound to mediocrity if your customers merely like you."

Build successes by encouraging failures

Build successes by encouraging failures: "Don't view failure as an end. Instead, consider it one of the means to success."

Don't Overlook Customer Service Basics

Don't Overlook Customer Service Basics: "To compete with Web retailers, Micah Solomon recommends that small storefronts focus on first impressions, prepare scripts, and fulfill orders quickly"

How Pricing Can Power a Turnaround

How Pricing Can Power a Turnaround: "A small business overhauls its fee model to woo customers and make a comeback."

Three Metrics to Measure Sales and Marketing Alignment

Three Metrics to Measure Sales and Marketing Alignment: "Getting Sales and marketing to effectively team is the lament of just about every CEO. Achieving alignment goes beyond just getting these two groups to get along; growth depends on them working productively together. If sales and marketing are at odds it impacts the whole business, most notably revenue, customer satisfaction and company productivity. Add to that the reality that discord between these two groups damages the company's culture, it's easy to see why alignment is on the top of every CEO's agenda."

Seven Ways to Make Your Customers Love You

Seven Ways to Make Your Customers Love You: "With so much emphasis placed on finding customers today, business owners often lose sight of keeping the ones they have. Here are a few surefire ways to stem those losses."

Great Ideas: 3 keys to avoiding procrastination

Great Ideas: 3 keys to avoiding procrastination: "You’re not alone if you tend to procrastinate. In fact, 95% of us do, according to Piers Steel, a professor at the Haskayne School of Business in Calgary who specializes in motivation and procrastination."

Questions to Riddle Before You Start a Business

Questions to Riddle Before You Start a Business: "Determine how long you can survive with little income. Then set a time frame for turning your idea into a product or service people will pay for"

How To Go Global With Your Small Business

How To Go Global With Your Small Business: "The phrase “going global” is being tossed around almost as much as Charlie Sheen used to tweet #winning, but despite how pervasive the phrase has become, there are few small business owners who really understand what it actually takes."

5 Salary Negotiation Tips that Work!

5 Salary Negotiation Tips that Work!: "Once you’ve proven yourself well qualified for a job during the interview process, you have to start asking yourself the tough questions. Do you have a strong desire to work for this company? What if they don’t offer quite as much money as you’d like? Is there a way to ask for a higher salary without alienating the employer?"

Five Creativity Exercises to Find Your Passion

Five Creativity Exercises to Find Your Passion: "Want to start a business, but not sure what to pursue? Here's how to discover what you love."

Seven Signs of a Customer-Focused CEO

Seven Signs of a Customer-Focused CEO: "This is a guest post from James Slavet of venture firm Greylock Partners, an investor in LinkedIn, Pandora, Redfin and One Kings Lane. The author is on the board of Redfin."

Avoid international marketing mishaps

Avoid international marketing mishaps: "When it comes to approaching foreign markets, it's the little things that can trip you up."

Four tips to kick-start your B2B PR efforts

Four tips to kick-start your B2B PR efforts: "The trick to getting other people to tell your story for you is knowing whom to approach and what to say."

How Real-Time Marketing Technology Can Transform Your Business

How Real-Time Marketing Technology Can Transform Your Business: "Market research used to be a calming activity, like a relaxing game of golf. You would see some trend in the market and commission a survey or some other form of research. A couple of months or more would go by as you played a few more holes. Then you would get an answer. No rush. No hurry. No worry about how much the market changed between the time of your insight until the time you answered your question."

Great Ideas: 3 essentials for a winning website

Great Ideas: 3 essentials for a winning website: "Your website is likely your company’s most visible—and important—marketing tool. But is it turning people off? Recent statistics suggest that people will form an opinion of a website within seven seconds of visiting it; if they don’t like what they see, they’ll leave."

Top productivity tips for really busy people

Top productivity tips for really busy people: "Fast efficiency boosters you can put into practice today."

Six Keys to Managing Your Reputation on the Web

Six Keys to Managing Your Reputation on the Web: "Every startup fears that one angry and unfair customer who can jeopardize the business by a SCREAMING post on Ripoff Report, Yelp, or one of the hundreds of other consumer complaint and review sites on the Internet. Most entrepreneurs don’t even know how to keep track of what people are saying about them on the web, much less how to respond or remove it."

Presentation Flow: A Fluid Delivery Gets Results

Presentation Flow: A Fluid Delivery Gets Results: "Most of us don’t give business presentations for the fun of it. We present because there is a specific end goal-whether it’s winning a big account, receiving investor funding, or training internal staff. But you can’t achieve this goal unless you can successfully get your information across to the audience by convincing them that your solution is the right answer."

The "Vow"- and 7 questions to help you avoid using credit cards

The "Vow"- and 7 questions to help you avoid using credit cards: "At times I feel like I’ve taken a vow of sorts. And this vow guides me, irritates me and gives me amazing freedom, often all at the same time. This vow, this guiding principle if you will, allows me to live my life without a lot of financial guilt or confusion. It gives me the peace of mind to know I am slowly but surely building my future while living a balanced life in the present moment."

Seven Cringe-Worthy Business-Plan Mistakes

Seven Cringe-Worthy Business-Plan Mistakes: "Follow these tips to dodge some of the most common planning pitfalls."

Four Basic Things You Need To Know Before Buying A House

Four Basic Things You Need To Know Before Buying A House: "This post provided by Money-Rates.com."

Five mistaken beliefs business leaders have about innovation

Five mistaken beliefs business leaders have about innovation: "The vast majority of companies want to be innovative, coming up with new products, business models and better ways of doing things. However, innovation is not so easy to achieve. A CEO cannot just order it, and so it will be. You have to carefully manage an organization so that, over time, innovations will emerge. And CEOs often make a number of common mistakes, which hamper rather than induce such processes."

Leadership: How to say "no" while also inspiring people

Leadership: How to say "no" while also inspiring people: "Leadership is all about focusing energy on achieving an important goal. In achieving focus, leadership is implicitly saying “no” to all the other less-important things that might be attempted at this time. In this sense, “saying no” to trivia and distractions is the essence of leadership. For instance, Steve Jobs.
Steve Jobs says no many times
A big part of Steve Jobs’ success has been to shed all the good ideas that don’t make the final cut. Carmine Gallo in an interesting article, “Steve Jobs: Get Rid Of the Crappy Stuff” writes: “Editing also leads to great product designs and effective communications. According to Steve Jobs, ‘People think focus means saying yes to the thing you’ve got to focus on. But that’s not what it means at all. It means saying no to the hundred other good ideas that there are. You have to pick carefully. I’m actually as proud of the things we haven’t done as the things I have done. Innovation is saying ‘no’ to 1,000 things.’”"

The Innovation Secret: How to Repeatedly Innovate

The Innovation Secret: How to Repeatedly Innovate: "Most innovators don't know the secret of success. In my recent post, I quoted Bob Metcalfe, inventor of the Ethernet, when he stated that ““most successful entrepreneurs I’ve met have no idea about the reasons for their success. My success was a mystery to me then, and only a little less so now.” I asked the question: why does innovation see so hard. Let me explain a little now."

Every Entrepreneur Needs to Outwit the Devil

Every Entrepreneur Needs to Outwit the Devil: "“The devil in the details” is a quote that we have all heard, and clearly applies to startups, where success in the long run is all about execution. But for you as an entrepreneur trying to get started, the devil is really in your mind, where you must prevent drifting, and maintain that confidence, commitment, and passion, to achieve your business dream."

The 10 Ways to Future-Proof Your Career

The 10 Ways to Future-Proof Your Career: "With the publication of my new book The Shift: the future of work is already here - there has been much debate about what it really takes to craft a career that is likely to stand the test of time. In the book I talk a great deal about the [...]"

The Five Elements of the Best CSR Programs

The Five Elements of the Best CSR Programs: "This is a guest post written by Paul Klein, the founder of Impakt Corp., a Toronto-based advisory services firm that helps large companies align business and social outcomes."

Four Simple Ways to Find Customers

Four Simple Ways to Find Customers: "For new business owners, finding customers is job No. 1. Here's how to get the job done."

Three Metrics to Measure Sales and Marketing Alignment

Three Metrics to Measure Sales and Marketing Alignment: "Getting Sales and marketing to effectively team is the lament of just about every CEO. Achieving alignment goes beyond just getting these two groups to get along; growth depends on them working productively together. If sales and marketing are at odds it impacts the whole business, most notably revenue, customer satisfaction and company productivity. Add to that the reality that discord between these two groups damages the company's culture, it's easy to see why alignment is on the top of every CEO's agenda."

When Suze Orman Told Me to Abandon My Mortgage

When Suze Orman Told Me to Abandon My Mortgage: "Over the past two months, I've threatened to abandon my mortgage eleven times over such things as:"

Building a Culture of Trust -- Do Your Customers Trust You?

Building a Culture of Trust -- Do Your Customers Trust You?: "Over the last decade we’ve witnessed the downfall of many companies due to financial scandals and shady dealings (such as Enron and Arthur Anderson), watched citizens across America become enraged when it was exposed that financial institutions were handing out millions of dollars in management bonuses while they were in the middle of being bailed out by the government, and saw the resignation of the Siemens CEO due to contract bribery charges against the company. Why should women in business be concerned?"

Tips from the Trenches: Five Ways to Further Your Career

Tips from the Trenches: Five Ways to Further Your Career: "Over the last few months, my Be Your Own Best Publicist co-author Meryl Weinsaft Cooper and I have been asked to share our tips from the trenches at colleges such as Manhattan College, Montclair State, Rutgers (and soon Ithaca College) as well as to professional, creative and alumni organizations including Advertising Women of New York, New York Women in Communications and The Hired Guns."

7 Tips for Giving Effective Praise.

7 Tips for Giving Effective Praise.: "Gold-star junkie that I am, I was once grumbling to my mother about the fact that some extraordinarily praiseworthy effort on my part had gone unremarked. My mother wisely responded, "Most people probably don't get the appreciation they deserve." That's right, I realized -- for instance, my mother! Whom I certainly don't give enough praise for everything she does for me."

Workplace Phobias That Can Derail Your Career

Workplace Phobias That Can Derail Your Career: "Eleven noteworthy conditions that could seriously take a toll on a professional career."

Ten Tips For Better Business Writing

Ten Tips For Better Business Writing: "The growing ubiquity of e-mail means that everyone in business, from lords of finance to programmers who dream in code, needs to write intelligently. By using simple, clear, precise language--and following a few other basic writing rules--you can become a better communicator and improve the prospects for your career."

5 Reasons Why Entrepreneurs Should Hire Interns

5 Reasons Why Entrepreneurs Should Hire Interns: "They've got the same big smiles, shining eyes, and passion to work and represent your service just as much as you do. Think of the intern as mini-me. Whether you're an established start-up or a fledging small business on the rise, you will eventually begin to think about creating a team of professionals to work alongside you. While you will want to work with individuals that boast a healthy resume of experience, don't discredit the intern. Today, they're pulling their weight in unimaginable ways for small businesses and companies."

Business Lessons From A Nine-Year Old

Business Lessons From A Nine-Year Old: "Sometimes I think we make business much more complicated than it is. Just this past week, I was reminded of three key business practices that my nine-year old daughter, Katie, already knows:"

Dressing For Success While Office-Less

Dressing For Success While Office-Less: "If you ever wanted to know how to dress for the job, I recommend taking advice from Jack Donaghy."

What College Graduates Wish They Had Done Differently

What College Graduates Wish They Had Done Differently: "As the class of 2011 prepares to enter the workforce, they should know what their predecessors regret most. It turns out that seven out of 10 college graduates, ages 22 to 26, wish they had done more to prepare for the real world. A recent survey conducted by staffing firm Adecco [...]"

How to Survive Being Downsized

How to Survive Being Downsized: "This is the beginning of my third month as a Forbes blogger. Last month, I wrote a post about my first month as a Forbes blogger, "How to Become a Forbes Blogger." This is a post about my second month as a Forbes blogger."