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Every day, we have a thousand things pulling at our focus. And lately, we’re all feeling some extra energy killers. Here are some tips to maximize your potential.
Each day my inbox fills up with tales of disruption and heartbreak as businesses are thrashed about in the marketplace, some relocating, retooling, pivoting, or closing. There are also success stories to be told.
Entrepreneurs from different parts of the world face different challenges depending on where they are located and what type of business they are in.
New businesses are rarely profitable in the early stages. It might be months or even longer before a new venture can pay its owner a wage. In the meantime, how do you pay your personal bills?
After four decades as a small business owner, I use two main practices to keep my personal and business lives on-track: one is a personal goal setting template and the other is a feasibility process for assessing business ideas.
Who pays attention to Amazon’s ranking system? Well, authors do, at least this Indie Author does. I mean, what else is there to do when you can’t sleep past 4am and the world is under siege by the pandemic?
The covid-19 pandemic has done at least one positive thing for me—it inspired me to get on with writing and self-publishing a new book.
Mark Twain said, "Eat a live frog every morning, and nothing worse will happen to you the rest of the day."
Three years into my tree planting experience, I decided to bid on a large planting contract, over two million trees. I labored over a proposal right to the due date and then set out to hand-deliver it before the deadline.
A kayak trainer taught me a vital lesson.
Working for wages is unlikely to lead you to financial independence. If you were not born wealthy and haven’t secured a well-paying job, at some point you will find yourself thinking about cobbling together a business so you can start writing your own paychecks.
No matter how well-intentioned your business idea, things can go horribly wrong. When I vaulted into my first business in 1980, I hoped to be a successful, positive force for those around me, and an asset to my community. Seven years later, the day I declared bankruptcy, I felt crushed, enslaved, and worthless. Not the glory I’d envisioned.
So, you’ve gone to all the effort to get your venture off the ground and survived the start-up phase. Aside from the fact that you’re too busy to socialize much, or take holidays, your business appears to be thriving. In your circle of friends you might even be a bit of a hero.
Congratulations might be in order. In starting a business, you’ve achieved something that many people dream about but never do. But are things as rosy as they seem?
Watch out for these common business killers! Here is the second part of the series, with 4 more business killers.
The following article was first published at the RiskBuster blog on September 27, 2011. While most business owners are motivated to provide excellent customer service, problems creep into the workplace when the business starts to grow, requiring that the owner take on hired help. It should be the goal of every business to provide top-notch customer service for every person that comes through the door.
Cash is the lifeblood of a business. If you’ve ever tried to operate without it, you’ll know it’s not a lot of fun. The cash flow shortfall starts off quietly but doesn’t stay silent for long. It first raises its ugly head in the form of sluggishness in paying small bills, late filing of taxes, or delaying needed repairs and maintenance. More sinister indicators are failing to make payroll, falling behind on lease payments, or having equipment repossessed. Cash flow shortfall always makes the business owner busier, his time and energy devoted to dealing with angry stakeholders and humourless collectors. The final stages of cash starvation involve the joys of having major creditors and tax authorities lock up your bank account and being hogtied to the point that you can no longer serve customers.
As I ramp up to launch my newest book, Business Killers, I revisited the launch of my previous book, RiskBuster. The following article was published on November 9, 2009.
Wow! I can hardly believe we’re almost there! The RiskBuster eblast goes live at midnight tonight and we have an amazing team helping to get the word out. Britta, my sole overworked employee, began recruiting partners for the eblast a couple months ago and I’ve been burning the candle at both ends for the past few weeks as well.
Are we ready? Well, today will be a scramble, but I think we are.
Reinvention in the New Year
19-JAN-2022