Recently I have been meeting with various folks, weary of the lull in their current business or lack of work, who want advice on starting a new business as an alternative to continuing their current path (making their current business succeed or finding a job or consulting gig). 
I can understand their emotional state:   they are [...]

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What if there was a way for you to get your employees truly invested in your company making a profit and achieving your key goals? You just tell them what you’re trying to do and how you’re progressing, and they become rabid fans and supporters. Sound easy? Too good to be true? Well it actually [...]

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Of all the characteristics of success for CEOs, the most critical is their domain expertise –whether it is technology, retail, green/clean or bio-tech.  And that domain expertise should be specific to the product being built or the service being offered — software development, social media, SaaS, medical devices, bio fuels, and so on.
If the CEO does [...]

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You are standing over the brownies and strawberries at some networking function, and a likely candidate for interest in buying your product or investing in your company looks across the chocolate chip cookies, smiles, and says, “I’m Ron, CEO of Everything.com. What do you do?”
So, you get one sentence to state your unique value proposition [...]

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During my 25 years working with early stage technology CEOs, I have found myself referring to the make it- or break-it characteristics that lead a CEO to succeed or fail, separate from market conditions, capital conditions and other external factors, many of which cannot be controlled. 
So, rather than keep them to myself as an internal [...]

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Since I own a communications agency, you may question whether or not I condone such a practice. Believe it or not, I do. I have seen many small, entrepreneurial companies implement their own public relations programs initially. Then, as they grew, expanded, and sometimes went public, they required the outside assistance of an agency. So [...]

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I stepped into another world the other day – a place where there are no words for numbers higher than 3 or 4, a world with a simple god but no religion, with time but no calendars, a tribe with customs but no laws, a world of primitive peace, singing, dancing, storytelling and rational priorities. [...]

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Behaving with impeccable manners is one of your strongest strategies. It builds and sustains your reputation, which as an entrepreneur or a consultant is your most valued asset. Your reputation precedes you in all new introductions, with prospective clients, and with existing clients and colleagues who speak of you.
There is great power in excellent manners. [...]

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Building life long loyal customers is difficult and complex. But the measurement of it can be easy. Fred Reichheld says that it comes down to one question - what is your Net-Promoter Score?
A company’s Net Promoter Score (NPS) is based on the fundamental perspective that every company’s customers can be divided into three categories: Promoters, [...]

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The Chinese New Year arrived late this year, and fell on our Valentines Day, February 14th 2010. Year of the Metal Tiger, this day heralds, “For all affairs, great good luck!”
I have a long connection to Chinese culture (from early exposure to the iChing to building a company in Shanghai in the 1990s), and [...]

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