Great Ideas for your Small Business: Create an Informal Advisory Board the largest companies in the world have all sorts of advisory boards, but entrepreneurs are often reluctant to ask outsiders for help. An advisory board made up of industry leaders, deep thinkers, cutting-edge colleagues, and experts can steer you and your company through the … Read more
Great Ideas for your Small Business: Say Goodbye to Corporate Life “i suddenly realized i was taking just as big a risk staying in my corporate job as I would if I left,” said Dairl Johnson, who was at the peak of his career and managing a product line with $1.5 billion in sales at … Read more
Great Ideas for your Small Business: Tell the Truth—It’s Critical this idea may seem obvious, but telling the truth is critical to business success. Being truthful helps hone your vision for the company. While you may be tempted to hype sales figures or inflate projections to make yourself feel better, don’t. These little untruths will … Read more
Great Ideas for your Small Business: Solicit a Quick “Yes” or “No” through the years, i’ve learned that a quick and honest “no” is as important as a “yes” in many, many business situations. While we all love to sign on a new client or make a huge sale, too much time is wasted in … Read more
Great Ideas for your Small Business: Turn to Spiritual Leaders and Science for Management Advice entrepreneurs looking for a new spin on management might want to read two provocative books: Moses on Management (Pocket Books, 2000), by Los Angeles–based Rabbi David Baron, and Leader- ship by the Book (William Morrow, 1999), by Ken Blanchard. In … Read more
Great Ideas for your Small Business: Hire a Great Lawyer when you’re starting a business, it’s natural to try to save money at every turn. But it doesn’t pay to scrimp when it comes to getting solid legal advice. Most business owners’ first encounter with legal forms comes with a DBA, which means “doing business … Read more
Great Ideas for your Small Business: Don’t Be Afraid to Recreate Your Business when anthony’s fish grotto dropped the zabaglione cake from its menu, Rick Ghio feared his dear, departed grandmother, Catherine, would send a lightning bolt down from heaven in protest. “But we were throwing away more cake than we were selling,” said Ghio … Read more
Great Ideas for your Small Business: Always Deal with Decision Makers the entrepreneur’s challenge is always to operate at the highest level possible; present proposals to the top decision maker, not the gatekeeper; elicit a prompt response; and move on quickly if the answer is “no.” Even when our company was based in the den … Read more
Great Small Business Ideas to Start: Decision making and the paradox of choice In this last section we consider how great ideas and decisions are made, how bad ones are avoided, and the one fact that unites them all—the human mind. The idea Paradoxically, the more choices you have, the tougher life can be. This … Read more
Great Small Business Ideas to Start: Developing knowledge and intellectual capital Developing intellectual capital is imperative, as knowledge is an asset and a source of power. As Lew Platt, former CEO of Hewlett-Packard, says: “If HP knew what it knows, we would be three times as profitable.” The idea Knowledge is the intellectual capital that … Read more
