If you are a business owner or manage teams have you thought about what you will do for growth of your business and team this year? After reading a book titled Bluefishing by Steve Sims, the following resonated and might with you.
If you are a business owner, one of the challenges is ensuring continuity of communications from leaders to the team and clients. A content messaging challenge for many business owners that I have worked with is having only team members (or outsourcing partners) write all the content for the company.
As the year of 2016 comes to a close and you are perhaps doing a bit of self- reflecting, ask yourself: did you DARE yourself with action or just dream about it? I wonder how many new entrepreneurs started to launch their ideas into a real business with sales as I wrote about December, 2015.
Build momentum into 2017 by asking your top 3 customers what it would take to get an incremental increase in business within your specialty. Ask about what your competitors are doing and how you can assist for a small percentage of increased business.
As the business world has evolved to more discussions around the health benefits of standing with the stand up desk station and sitting in front of the computer classified as the âNew Smokingâ, have you considered how standing up can help your presentations, writing and sales results, beyond the health benefits? âNew research from Texas A&M University showed a 46% increase in worker productivity by standing up.â, IIE Transactions on Occupational Ergonomics and Human Factors. They looked at two control groups for 6 months and productivity was measured by how many successful calls each group made from stand up desks vs. sitting.
One of the ongoing challenges many founders will face at some point is the dreaded capital raise beyond friends and family. I have not met many entrepreneursâ who actually enjoy the idea of going out to the market and asking for money. This year has been a typical year for us evaluating over 100 capital raise deals and most will never get funded for one specific reason â the PASSION is not directed to what matters most â EXECUTION.
The Branding Pyramid and 21 Brand Monitoring Ideas
In the past two weeks, three close colleagues in the âbigâ corporate world sent the dreaded email to me â âWayne, I wanted to reach out to see how you might be able to help with my next job search and contacts as my job was just eliminated?â Their roles were Chief Financial Officer, Chief Marketing Officer and VP Sales (Pharma, Manufacturing and Banking industries). Downsizing, slow business growth and wage costs were the reasons for their new job searches.
With the changing marketplace that seems to move in multiple directions by the minute in our 24/7 consumer driven marketplace, considering career insurance just like any other insurance should be part of your life risk management plan. Career insurance comes down to having a contingency plan and specific additional income stream(s), (3-6 months of emergency cash on hand as well) to protect in the event of a loss of employment. Donât get caught in a panic state, in the event of a job loss. Consider the pros and cons of a side business that â you ownâ, compared to your employer owning you. Jack Welchâs famous quote states it perfectly, âControl Your Own Destiny or Someone Else Willâ.
Recently, I was speaking with a good friend who was considering leaving his long-term employer (financial services industry) and starting a business around his life passion of wine. He has become quite the expert in the space and has a unique idea centered on education and an online inventory platform. From a 10,000-foot viewpoint his concept appears to offer value to the market and he has a following of fans that love his content within this wide space of the wine industry.