Assessing value can be one of the toughest challenges facing any business. Bring small business folks together for a conversation, and the topics of rates and handling negotiations routinely come up. Pricing is often in the eye of the buyer—budget, need, demand, and...
Your work is all around you. The reality in this age of spidered content and 24/7 WiFi is that other people can find out a lot about you really fast. And this holds true whether you're online a little--or a lot. Heck, I bet even people who live "off the grid" are...
Is your business structured the right way? There are legal, tax, and liability implications to how your business is structured. Not just the legal structure (e.g., LLC or corporation), but also whether you have an operating agreement and how it's written. And what...
Anyone who has built a successful business knows that entrepreneurship involves more than just identifying a sellable product or hanging out a consulting shingle. It takes a business mind, long hours, lots of sweat equity—and a healthy dose of financial risk...
It's Labor Day in America. A day when, ironically, most of us get a rare day off from work. To celebrate Labor Day, here's a brief excerpt from "Every Blessed Day." It's an amazing poem from Philip Levine's award-winning What Work Is: Waiting at the corner he feels...
My latest column for IABC's CW Bulletin is out, and it is about time: how we claim it as business owners, and how we can manage it to keep ourselves from being overwhelmed or letting critical tasks and projects slip through the cracks. It can be a challenge for even...
This blog turns 2 today. It all started with a 74-word post about communications, business, and unique selling points. But the blog is here because of you -- my community. So in honor of our second anniversary, let's talk about you: Who are you? I know who some of...
There's a LinkedIn discussion going on right now in one of my groups about the books that have made you the person you are today. While I knew many people would cite inspiration texts, philosophers, and business gurus, I had to stop and think whether there were any...
For years I thought I was an accidental business owner. I mistakenly believed that I’d fallen into business ownership out of a determination to avoid bosses and office politics, which eventually led to an aha moment when I figured out that—yes!—I like the business of...
There's a scene in Robin Hood: Men in Tights when the merry band of men is trapped in a banquet hall. Prince John has just called in reinforcements: a seemingly invincible army of clanking armored men. Robin Hood looks for a moment, and then shoots an arrow at one....