7 Chicago Small Business Consulting Firms That Can Fuel Your Success
Running a business is so rewarding, but it can also be tremendously stressful and lonely. Business owners get so caught up in the day-to-day of the business that we struggle to see the big picture. We’re not sure why sales have stagnated, why we can’t seem to take a vacation, why we’re still second-guessing every decision, or why things just aren’t progressing as they should. That’s where getting some outside advice and input makes all the difference. Consultants can help you see what’s going right and what’s going wrong and give you personalized solutions to fix it. But even once you’ve decided to get some help, there’s still one hurdle to jump: deciding which firm is right for your … [Read more...]
Small Business Hiring Process: 4 fool-proof steps to make your hiring process more successful
I have listened to hundreds of business owners, and managers tell their hiring horror stories. One manager confided in me “of the hundreds of people I have hired, I can count my good hires on one hand.” An executive shared with me that he has given up trying to hire people and now he just hires a lot of people—believing that the bad ones will eventually be terminated, leaving only good employees. I remember asking a former boss how he hired people, and he told me, “you can never really know who you’ve hired until they’ve worked here for a few months. Every new hire is a crapshoot.” You can hear the comparisons between hiring and gambling. Most hiring managers tell me that the hiring … [Read more...]
“Is this your best work?”
I recently read a story about an editor who worked on a book manuscript. She finished editing it and turned it in to the publisher, who paid her the agreed-upon fee. Later she found out that the publisher chose not to publish the book and she was crestfallen. “All that work for nothing,” she said. But of course it wasn’t for nothing; she got paid her normal fee. So why was she so disappointed? I bet this very situation plays itself out in your business, too. Maybe you don’t publish books, but I’ll bet your team members write reports, develop presentations or proposals and turn them into you only to have you rewrite them, edit over them or not even use them. Yes, they get paid for that … [Read more...]
Why is my business growth stuck? Natural barriers to growth in the business lifecycle.
Just like children, businesses grow through predictable phases. We start life as baby startups, then progress to raging growth companies, before settling into a more stable “adult” phase. But as we cross each of those growth stages things change -- and if we don't change with them our growth can get stuck. Here’s my version of this story (based mainly on the growth of B2B service businesses). Baby startup Once upon a time, you had an idea. It wasn’t your first idea, you’ve had many business ideas, but this one came at a time when you were feeling particularly frustrated (or desperate) and needed a change. So you started working on your idea, and before you knew it, you were in business … [Read more...]
Beyond Salary: How to Build a Winning Executive Compensation Strategy
Executive compensation can be a hard topic to tackle, especially for startups and other growing companies that need to attract experienced talent on a smaller budget. What you may not know is that base salary is the smallest component of executive compensation, generally outweighed by incentive pay. That is good news for growing companies with smaller margins; your creativity will be rewarded. It's common for executive compensation to be structured to reward actual results. That means you can get top talent with a lower upfront investment, as long as you compensate executives fairly for their contributions to your company's growth. Generally, this compensation will reward short-term … [Read more...]
How To Raise Prices Without Losing Clients in your Small Business
No matter how great the work is, and how much fun you are having – nothing can thwart a business owner’s enthusiasm like being broke. It’s no fun lying to your vendors about when you can pay them. It’s no fun worrying all night about covering payroll. When you work night and day, night and day, only to realize that the money that just came in the door is about to go right out ... you start to think, “Take this job and shove it!” Too bad there’s no boss to say that to! So what’s the answer? Well, most of the business owners I meet that are in this situation think they need MORE business, “If I just had five more clients...” If you had five more clients you’d be working 20 hours a day and … [Read more...]
7 signs that you may be headed for business owner burnout
The stereotype of a business owner is the ever optimistic ball of energy who’s working hard, playing hard and enjoying life; and I meet a fair number of business owners who fit that stereotype. Over the last couple of years though I’ve noticed that a growing number of the folks I’m meeting fit in a different category. They are still optimistic and full of ideas, but their energy is more muted, sometimes edgy. As I talk to them I notice that they’ve been fighting and clawing to get their business going for a number of years, and though they don’t really think about it—they’re tired—maybe even exhausted. On the outside they’ve still got the positive, optimistic vibe going, but on the inside … [Read more...]
Learning from Failure: Things don’t always work out perfectly…
“We learn wisdom from failure much more than from success. We often discover what will do by finding out what will not do; and probably he who never made a mistake never made a discovery.” ~ Samuel Smiles I was listening to Alex Blumberg interview Nina Jacobson on the podcast WithoutFail when she mentioned the idea of a failure resume. She said she was inspired by a professor who found that “failures sort of define who you are and what you’ve learned and how you’ve really sort of been impacted in many respects more than your successes do. And that owning those failures and embracing them is sort of a critical component to successful people.” That professor is Tina Seelig and she’s the ED … [Read more...]
More Ideas Than Time
I have more ideas than time! My team is so frustrated. We are loaded with good ideas—ideas that will make us money! But we can't even get the work done to execute on the services we already have going! When my team sees me roll in with another "great idea" their eyes shoot daggers at me. How do I decide what we should execute on, and what we should delay? Should we just work harder? What do I do with these ideas we can't get to? When a business is just starting out, the most important question that a business owner is asking (and they ask it a lot) is "Will this thing GO? Can we survive?". When you're facing survival, trying everything is a rational strategy. You don't really know … [Read more...]
How Great CEOs Spend Their Time
Freedom makes a huge requirement of every human being. With freedom comes responsibility. ~Eleanor Roosevelt One of the best things about being a business owner is FREEDOM. In any given moment, I’m the only one that I have to answer to. My time is my own and I use it as I like. One of the worst things about being a business owner is FREEDOM. There is no one to tell me what to do! I am 100% responsible for how I use my time! (And I’m frequently disappointed in myself…) This paradox is like a tiger stalking around the back of my brain. It keeps me up at night. Am I doing a good job? How would I know…? So when I saw that Michael Porter published an extensive study called The Leader’s … [Read more...]
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