The Blog

Is great decision making in leadership underappreciated? You are not a great leader if your not a great decision-maker as that is one of your most critical roles deciding between two good choices determining which one is the best choice. I share with my staff as CEO I...

Is it important to plan around your business, not the competition? You better plan with your competition in mind as it is a critical component of any good business plan. What are you going to do better than your competition? Why are customers going to buy from you...

How important is decisiveness in our non-business and business lives? In business being decisive is a critical skill as you can’t always wait until the perfect time or when you have all the information you need. You make the best decision you can with the information...

How do companies determine who gets laid off? It depends how big the cuts are that need to be made but in most cases, you begin with people that are not essential to the operations. If you can live without them you let them go. Next, you try to lower the hours and or...

When do startup founders get paid? When the company is making a profit unless they have startup funding where a salary of some kind is agreed upon. But in most cases, the founder gets paid the least and last if they are smart putting profit back into growing the...

How can I win a negotiation without being nasty? Present a winning argument the same way a lawyer does in court. Present compelling facts in a likeable way. A great lawyer told me one time if the jury doesn’t like you it doesn’t matter what you say.

When startups at the very early stage raise millions of dollars, what does that kind of money typically go towards? Getting the company to scale (full speed with the maximum capability). It can also be used for proof of concept. The fact is it can be used for anything...

Is offering your services for free a good way to gain new clients? If so how long does free last for? It can be a good launch strategy assuming there is an understanding that if you do a great job they will pay you the full price at a given time. You can do a 30 day...

What are some of the tax issues that are important for a business to avoid? The biggest mistake small business owners make is doing their own payroll and using employee allotted money that should have been escrowed to be used for operating expenses believing you will...

Do people who start successful businesses on their own come up with all these detailed, structured business plans, or do they sketch out something much simpler? A business plan can be very simple and written out on a napkin or very complex. The business plan just...