We all know that it’s hard to grow a business — if it were easy, everyone would be doing it. But just how hard is it? 80% of all businesses have no staff; they are just the entrepreneur and nothing more. If you’ve hired someone, you are already in the top 20% of US businesses! Only…
So you know you need to get help to get this annoying project off your plate and finished, but you think it’s going to take too long to find a VA, or a student to do it for you. So you end up doing it yourself. There are companies who have leaped into this gap…
I clearly remember the moment I decided to hire a virtual assistant (VA). As my business started growing, I realized that more clients meant more work to get done! Pretty soon, I was so busy that I was missing emails and failing to get back to people because I just never had the time. I…
In a recent survey I did of over 100 business owners I asked this question: What’s your biggest business challenge? More than 50% of respondents answered, “Obtaining New Customers.” Not only was it chosen by a majority of responses, but it was also the most chosen answer by owners of every sized business, big,…
In our last conversation, we talked about how there’s no shortcut to good hiring. If you want to find rare talent, you have to develop a robust pool of candidates and screen for the best people. But there is one way to do some of that work before you have a need so that you…
When you need to add a critical member to your team, whether because you’ve grown, or because you had a team member quit, the situation can feel desperate. Everyone feels overworked, especially you, the business owner. You are not just doing your job, but at least part of the job you need to hire for,…
In our last email, I asked you what you’d do if one of our best employees quits. The most common reply that I got was to try to win Nadir back, for example: “What can we do to keep you on the team?” ~ Frank McClung “Nadir, are you absolutely sure about this? Is there…
Recruiting great creative talent is hard. The best, most talented creatives are always in demand and have their choice of where to go work. Good creatives have high standards! They aren’t going to work just anywhere. If you need top creative talent, you need to build a culture that allows them to do great work. …
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…
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. Here’s my version of this story focused primarily on B2B service businesses. See if you see any of your own experiences in it. Baby startup Once upon…