What Do You Want From Your Business?

I’ve spoken at length about “how” to start a business. That is, after all, the primary focus of this blog. But one thing I haven’t really spoken about is “why.” Not why you want to start your own business in the first place of course, that speaks for itself, but why you are starting this particular business? While there are any number of explanations, it’s my feeling that they all boil down to two specific (and very simple) reasons. You either want to create a job for yourself (and potentially others), or you want to build up a business…

Train Yourself To Train Your Team

Experience, as they say, is what you get immediately after you need it. No doubt you’ve experienced this unfortunate truth many times in your life; I certainly have. That’s the beauty of training. It allows us to learn from the mistakes of others, rather than having to make our own (not that any teenager in the world is going to believe that).

Fortunately for us both, we live in a world built on knowledge.  That makes finding and disseminating information easy, for you and for your team. Your role, then, is more that of a curator. As you acquire knowledge…

Increasing Productivity

Whether you’re struggling with being productive, or a productive person who wants to increase that productivity still further, there are a few simple tricks and techniques I’ve picked up over the years to get my mind on track and get down to business. It’s easy to procrastinate (and I’ve heard it said that the things you spend your time doing when you procrastinate are the things you should try to pursue as a career) but at the end of the day, you need to have your work done.

This is especially true when you’re working for yourself. It’s both a…

The Self-Organizing Team

When you’re a leader, you’ve got a lot on your plate. Some things simply need to be taken care of by you, rather than delegated or outsourced. Naturally, that means that the less attention you’re spending on management, the more you have left for other things. But how do you give your team the guidance they need without over attention?

The answer is building a culture that focuses on your core mission, follows a few essential and clear rules, and attracts a like-minded team. For example, if you have a clear vision of your mission, and can articulate…

Scalability

We talked on Monday about the need to build your company out so that you’re doing more earning, and less working. One of the most important factors to consider when choosing a business venture that will quickly get you where you want to be is the notion of scalability.

Originally an electronics term, scalability is the capacity of a system to handle increased traffic – to “scale up,”  so to speak. It’s easy to see how the term came to be applied to business as well. And what an important term it is! In a business…