Thinking Aloud
Why Summer Is The Ideal Time To Grow Your Business
Summer is the perfect season to launch your dream business or ramp up your current one. Stacia Pierce, CEO of Ultimate Lifestyle Enterprises, offers a few reasons why.
How To Improve Customer Service? Hiring Is Just The Start.
If you want to improve customer service to the point that it becomes a competitive advantage, you have to hire great employees, says Micah Solomon, author of "High-Tech, High-Touch Customer Service: Inspire Timeless Loyalty in the Demanding New World of Social Commerce".
Time’s Up! What Do You Really Want?
The world would be a better place if marketers were totally up front and said “I’m selling windows today; are you buying?”, says John Baker, author of "The Asking Formula – Ask For What You Want And Get It".
The Myth Of The 20 Percent
Are you being fooled by the 20 percent? If you have any desire to write a book, start the next big blog, be a speaker, be on stage, etc… the answer is most likely yes, says Robert D. Smith, author of "20,000 Days and Counting: The Crash Course For Mastering Your Life Right Now".
You’re Not The Boss Of Me: Millennials
The Millennial generation is here. They feel entitled. They negotiate everything. And T. Scott Gross, author of "Invisible: How Millennials Are Changing the Way We Sell" says the new workplace needs to learn how to deal with them.
Be Your Own Customer Experience Consultant – By Trying Your Own Customer Experience
Micah Solomon, author of "High-Tech, High-Touch Customer Service" is always startled when businesses don’t work at finding out, firsthand, what it’s like to use their own service or product.
Businesses That Are Making A Play: Ten Great Gamified Sites And Apps
Few years ago, business gamification was practically unheard of. Today, that love of games is being leveraged by smart businesses to boost customer loyalty, employee performance, sales, growth, and more. Kris Duggan, coauthor of Business Gamification For Dummies, shares ten examples of successful gamification.
Seven Facts That Will Breathe Life Into Your Business
Just as there are facts of life that affect us personally, there are facts of business life that affect us as entrepreneurs. In honor of National Small Business Week, Bill McBean shares what he has learned over the course of a successful career to help you avoid common mistakes and steer your company in the direction you want it to go.
Let It Burn: For Apple, An Age-Old Analog Practice May Know Best
Melissa Thompson, CEO of Talk Session, shares her views on the recent Apple Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC).
5 Startup Lessons From MaryAnn Bekkedahl Of theSwizzle
After a successful $43 million fundraising round, MaryAnn Bekkedahl, co-founder and president of New York-based startup theSwizzle, shares some of the valuable lessons that helped her team get the edge.
Why Coordinated Adaptive Action Networks Are Replacing Teams
In our chaotic world, old-school teams are going the way of fax machines and desktop Rolodexes. What’s replacing them is a whole new animal — and Glenda Eoyang says we can use Adaptive Action to make these quick-coalescing, quick-dissolving groups work for us.
Five Tools That Will Help You Survive In The Concrete Jungle
Coach Micheal J. Burt and Colby B. Jubenville share five tools that will help you to create a reliable map to use while leading your tribe through the challenging landscape of the modern global economy.
14 Points To Consider When Structuring A Deal
JP James has been asked by more than one venture what he needs to consider whenever he put together a deal. He shares 14 points.
Three Key Questions To Ask Yourself After A So-So Service Experience
If you put up with customer service that’s just “okay,” it’s time to demand better. You deserve to be treated with honesty, competence, and caring, says Joseph Callaway — and he explains how to pinpoint the presence (and absence!) of these key service qualities.
Wild Kingdom: Seven Creatures Of The Concrete Jungle
Coach Micheal J. Burt and Colby B. Jubenville reveal seven types of individuals who might have difficulty adapting to the new global economy.
5 Reasons Why You Should Seek Rejection
Nearly 40 years ago, Robert D. Smith, author of “20,000 Days and Counting: The Crash Course For Mastering Your Life Right Now” learned the one business lesson that became the foundation of every success he's ever enjoyed. He shares that lesson with us.
Consumer Cloud File Sharing Steadily Edging Into Enterprise Space
Consumer-level cloud file storage and sharing solutions have been widely employed by the more tech-savvy professionals, whether it's with or without their IT departments' knowledge. Will enterprise versions balance functionality and security concerns?
Making Good Use Of The Competition
Should you give up if the competition is just too... competitive? Stacey Thompson argues there are ways you can take advantage of your rivals and inevitably come out ahead.
Lean In Or Get Out: 11 Tips For Using Your Expertise To Create A...
If you can’t lean in, get out? That’s what Vickie Milazzo recommends. She says women who are unhappy trudging up the corporate ladder should start their own businesses. She provides advice on how to use everything you’re really good at to bust out of the corporate world and start your own wickedly successful business.
3 Ways To Immediately Capture An Idea
Robert D. Smith, author of “20,000 Days and Counting: The Crash Course For Mastering Your Life Right Now” shares three things you need to do right away in order to get as much out of an idea that suddenly comes your way.
Practical Tips For Kicking Procrastination To The Curb
As startup founders or early team members, it’s easy to focus on the wrong tasks that only serve to waste precious time your startup can’t afford. Matt Boyd, co-founder of Sqwiggle.com, highlights some of these time-wasting distractions.
The “Art” of Business – What Entrepreneurs Can Learn From Artists
To be a successful entrepreneur in today's world, a person cannot achieve a high level of success without being creative, argues Yatin Patel.
Helping Startups And Small Businesses: A Good Idea From D.C. (Can You Believe It?)
A good idea coming from a bipartisan group of lawmakers that would do much to help innovative startup companies, the engine of U.S. economic growth and job creation, by allowing them to take advantage of the successful Research and Development (R&D) tax credit. alliantgroup National Managing Director Dean Zerbe shares more.
What If We Don’t Love Chaos? A Cheat Sheet For Those Not Of Generation...
It’s easy for an unfettered 20-something to embrace chaos, transience, and everything else the “GenFlux” mind-set implies. But what if your team is made up of fearful 40-somethings with mortgages? Glenda Eoyang and Royce Holladay offer reassurance that all us “reluctant fluxers” can adapt to (and even thrive in) a chaotic new world.
Go Live With The Whales
Have a big adventure. It is not an option or a good idea. It is a must. Your physical, mental and spiritual well-being is critical to growing your business, says Bruce Hodes, author of "Front Line Heroes".
Freud Would Build An App For that: Bringing Modern Tech To An Analog Practice
CEO of Talk Session, Melissa Thompson believes we are on the brink of amazing discoveries in neuroscience and impactful implications for mental healthcare treatment.
Making Green From Green
There are dozens, hundreds of ideas, large and small, that organizations can implement to positively impact the environment. Bruce Hodes, author of “Front Line Heroes“, shares why this needs doing.
Why Bother Being A “Good” CEO?
The world needs better men and women to lead and provide shining examples of humanity and excellence. Stacey Thompson argues why you can - and should - be one.
The Next Generation Of Funding For The Next Generation Of Entrepreneurs
Startups are hungry for credit, but banks and other financial institutions have never been stricter with their financing parameters. But the availability of other unconventional funding options is also increasing, says Ingrid Vanderveldt, Dell’s Entrepreneur-in-Residence.
The Lean In Alternative: Why Leaning Back Also Works For Women In Business
Sheryl Sandberg’s Lean In has received both high praise and disapproval from women. Whether you agree with everything she writes or not, says Vickie Milazzo, the core lesson that women should lean in and become leaders in the workplace is solid advice. But, she adds, in their rise to the top, women should also make an effort to lean back to help other women.