I love setting ambitious goals: I lived a lot of my life chasing goals, and it helped me make progress in my business. AND I’m now more cautious about investing myself too fully in chasing arbitrary numbers, achievements, and outcomes. I see them more as self-imposed goal posts that I move on myself more often…
We know that desperation has a “stench.” When we need to close a deal, the prospect can smell it, and it’s not attractive. So how do we approach prospects in a way where we can remain professional, where we keep our desperation and even excitement in check? How professionals sell You don’t see your doctor get…
Some of you read that subject line and thought, “Yeah, right! You don’t know my business!” But hang with me for a minute. Your business is a set of systems. You may have more (or fewer) systems – but you aren’t doing everything from scratch like you were on your first day of business. You…
Do you ever feel like you’re lost, like you’re off the path, not successful – things need to change now! What if that’s not true? For about 4 years, I pursued creating a resource library and community site for small business owners called Enmast.com. I poured time and attention into it, taking focus away from…
I used to believe that there were no do-overs in business. You only get one chance to make a first impression. You’ve got to nail it; get it right the first time. At least that’s what I believed! What if that’s wrong! But there are many times that I have a critical call with a…
“All businesses are loosely functioning disasters” ~Brent Beshore You spend all day looking at everything that’s wrong with your business… …and I spend all day seeing that everyone has a ton of things wrong with their business! (Seriously, no one’s business on the inside looks like it does on their website!) What are you doing…
For some, work is just a way to earn a living and build up savings until they retire. For others, ones who have found their life’s work, they don’t want to retire. Instead, they look for ways to keep working, keep making a difference, even past “retirement age.” If you are in the latter category,…
No person will make a great business who wants to do it all himself or get all the credit. – Andrew Carnegie I remember my first day as General Manager of M&S Systems. I called all my direct reports in for a staff meeting to try to understand the business. I immediately noticed that I…
I’m in the middle of a coaching call with an agency owner, and we’ve gotten down to the root of a problem that’s been plaguing him for a while. He now sees clearly what needs to be done, but it’s not going to be easy…he falls silent as he contemplates his choices. “I’m not sure…
Do you ever have a day that makes you want to give up? Looking back at the end of the day, maybe it would have been better if you’d just taken a day off. Sure, you’d have more to do on Monday, but at least you wouldn’t have all these messes to clean up! You…