Entrepreneurship Tips — Leadership

First, you learn the difference between “there” (a place) and “their” possessive plural.  If you lack written skills, it will be easy to lose the respect of others that have them.  In fact, it could become a joke that prevents anyone from respecting you unless you work in the mafia.  I say this because this question was sent to me in writing, and this is a pretty common error that says your English/ written skills are bad.  Written skills are critical. You must be concise, unambiguous, clear and more. I just recently had a contractor set a Google AdWords budget at...

Absolutely, but that is not to say most people do not learn on the job. Teaching management is like teaching art, it is an art.  You can study and learn foundational principles, but practice is required to get good.  I recommend reading several books by Peter Drucker first. Especially The Daily Drucker. There is so much to the art of management that comes only with experience. But you will learn foundational principles and philosophy from these texts.  Key systems, for good management, include: A) A regular meeting and Management By Objectives process (MBO = specific goal setting).  Some call this...

  BEFORE After 3 Years   Revenue $20M, low profitability at < 10%   Four Locations, one failing Founder stressed with no real management team Growth rate: 15% CAGR Poor morale and recurring revenue with high employee turnover. Business Value: ~ $20 million   Revenue $40 million, high profitability at over 25% not including huge increase in enterprise value Six locations Founder has full team in place (done in first 6 months).  Less stress, more success and growth. CAGR: 40%-50%+ Morale improved greatly. Reduction in turn-over especially in senior positions. Offer to buy from Private equity firm for $60 million...

By Harvy Simkovits Are you starting the new year over-extended, over-committed, overwhelmed, and over-stressed in your business? Maybe you suffer from being under-leveraged as a leader! "Too much to do and not enough time" is a common mantra for most business owners. Too many demands and expectations from customers, employees, vendors (even consultants), not to mention your own family (who want a piece of your time), can throw off-kilter your well-intentioned New Year's business resolutions (those important "to-do's" you promised yourself in December to get to in January). Here are some thoughts to leverage yourself better (using yourself to your utmost capability, and better working through...

Giving Toothless Boards Some Bite  By Peter Cohen   Most directors are stuck in a system that makes it tough for them to protect shareholder interests. The author offers two solutions. The possibility of directors paying out of their own pockets for corporate misconduct occurring under their watch has been raised by three recent cases. On January, 18 Enron directors agreed to pay $168 million -- 10 of them spent $13 million of their own money -- to settle their portions of securities class-action suits. In February, a deal fell apart that would have had 10 former WorldCom directors settling...