When I was getting started with my own business I maxim that I heard often was, “Hire slow, fire fast.” At first I heard it as, “Be slow to add costs to your business, but if things turn south, be quick to cut costs.” But as I’ve spent more time hiring and leading teams I’ve…
Once your priorities are clear, getting your calendar to align with those priorities is the next step to getting your work done. One way to start reshaping your calendar is to wipe the slate clean and create a template for an ideal week. By starting with a blank slate, you can schedule your most important…
Things with this new client have been going along great. You had an excellent strategy session and laid out a whole marketing plan for them. They were bought in – now you are into implementation. The work you’re doing for them looks terrific, right on track. Then the phone rings. The client wants to go…
I started life as an engineer, designing aerospace control systems. When we would start to design a new system, the first question we’d ask is, “If this project fails, what happened?” We’d look for the riskiest, most uncertain part of the problem and try to solve that part first. If we could solve the hardest…
On Saturday, I gave you the assignment to think about, “What would I do if I didn’t need the money?” Did you do that? What did you come up with? Now that you have some goals that hopefully don’t involve starting another business, let’s think about how we could include some of those goals in…
What if, at some time in the future, your dreams of business success come true? Imagine you’ve got a successful business that brings in good money. What more do you want out of life? What goals do you have, or would you have, if your money needs were taken care of? Because there’s got to…
Either because the client wasn’t clear, or your team didn’t perform, you end up behind the eight-ball looking to rescue a project that’s already behind budget with a possibility of a disappointed client. You might feel like you need to put in some extra time or get the team to work extra hard on something…
Would you rather have a thousand leads or ten good leads? How about a hundred candidates for your open position, or two perfect candidates? Do you want to create fifty logos for your customer’s rebrand or one great one? In each of these cases, the answer is easy – no one wants quantity; we want quality….
You’ve got an underperforming team member, and it’s been bugging you for a while. Maybe you’ve addressed it with her, and perhaps you’ve just been hinting around, but it’s gotten to the point where you need to do something about it. If you don’t, it’s hard to see how they are a part of your…
Life is short. You’ve got limited time to make the impact you want to make on the world, or your industry, or your family. You can’t afford to spend time chasing money. First you serve, then you earn. If you want to maximize the impact you make, and earn good money, chase the impact and…