Last week I attended HubSpot's 2013 Inbound Conference in Boston, MA. I learned so many things that my head is still spinning, but I think that the biggest takeaway from the week for me was this simple statement (that hit me like a ton of bricks driving back at 1:30am from Dayton), Marketing is the Science [...]
If you won a free 30 day vacation to Fiji, could you leave tonight? 99.9% of business owners would have to pass up this vacation of a lifetime simply because their organization is too dependent upon them for survival. Owning your own business is a high stakes game, and with great risk shouldn’t you also receive [...]
As business owners and managers, we are always searching for ways to improve our business. But too often, we spend an enormous amount of time putting out the fire of the day or hour and not focusing on what matters. All of our knee-jerk reactions to the things we don’t want in our business end up [...]
In our lives we all struggle with achieving our goals. Sometimes we are not specific enough, it "took too long", or the goals were completely unrealistic. SMART goals are the best way to create goals that are achievable. Whether you are setting a goal for yourself, you employees, or your finances be sure to be SMART. SMART is [...]
1. What are the leading Key Performance Indicators (KPI) in this business? Many CEO’s try to manage their business by only reviewing their P&L. This is a disaster in the making, it would be akin to driving coast to coast looking in the rear view mirror. In this fast paced world, you need to be nimble [...]
We live in a time where information is at our fingertips like never before. The question up for debate is whether access to all of this information is a blessing or a curse. Currently, many business owners spend more time trying to determine what data to measure rather than actually analyzing and acting upon it. Many [...]
"To reach a port, we must sail—Sail, not tie at anchor—Sail, not drift." ~ Franklin Roosevelt Where is your business? Are you at anchor, adrift, or sailing? If you’re sailing, do you have a port in mind? How you will recognize it when you get there? Does your “crew” know where they’re headed? Do they understand [...]
A monthly sales chart, when utilized properly, will tell you how your monthly sales stack up to other months within the time period. Tracking your sales numbers is a great way to evaluate how seasonality affects your sales numbers. However, they are not an especially good way to track the welfare of your business as a [...]