Tips for Success from Room to Read

This is a short article from Erin Ganju, co-founder of Room to Read, a global non profit organization but her points apply to for profit business as well. Short and to the point.

Enjoy

How Many Times Have I Had this Disscusion with Budding Entreperneurs

This is an interview from an entreprenuer who is succeeding but has some lessons learned about what it takes to start a business. Quick read but valuable info if you are thinking of taking the plunge.

3 Steps To Help Get Your Leadership Groove On

Good article on leadership from a unique perspective. Jazz!!

How to find your on line community

I was just having this conversation with a client on how important it is to know your on line community and saw this article. Four very good points and a short article. Worth the read.

The 3 Things that Motivate Employees

One of the most common issues that business leaders have is the question of how to engage and motivate their people. This is an interesting article that brings some out of the box thinking to this question.

Jay Steinfeld - October 6, 2010

If you want to motivate your folks, throw away the carrot and stick. Here are the three things that really fuel your employees' drive at work.

New Small Business Jobs Act

Read this post from the White House Blog to get the details on this new legislation. It might effect your business.

Great Ideas to Improve Your OnLine Presence

This is a great resource from the HubSpot Blog. It list the 60 ideas that social media experts came up with to increase on line presence. You can also get the audio file and a transcript. Worth a look.

Make the Best First Impression

We've heard over and over how important the first impression can be. Here is an excellent article from the Harvard Business Review blog that give us some examples of how to make the best first impression regardless of the medium.

Old Spice's Teachable Moment for Content Marketing

This is a great article that makes the point that in social media it's all about content.

Do You Feel Like You're on a Roller Coaster?

You've heard the expression that things are constantly changing. Well if ever that were true it is true now in the business world. Reassessing your target markets, your products, your staff and your processes is essential in the current economy. Indeed I was talking with someone today on the importance of improving the customer experience if you want to build your pool of prospective clients or even keep the clients you have. Now is the time to focus on business performance and growth and create a plan to move your company forward. So how do we do that? Kathy and I are working on a program to guide business leaders through this process and develop actionable plans to address their specific challenges. More on this later but check our blog regularly if this is of interest to you.

What's Holding Women Back?

Kathy and I have a special interest in seeing women in business succeed. Why not, we are both women who have extensive and varied experiences in our careers. Like most business women we could talk or write for hours about the things we have experienced. It's true that all things are still not equal for men and women in business but this article from The New York Times Small Business post speaks to a theory that Kathy and I have held for a long time. In many cases women are their own worst enemy. The beliefs held by many women indeed holds them back. Beliefs that need to be changed.

Read this article and chime in on this topic. What do you think? Come follow our blog http://growthmindset.blogspot.com/ and let's have some conversations.

The Six Traits of a Successful Small Business Owner

This is a very interesting report on the traits of people that are successful as entrepreneurs. Check it out.

52 Questions To Ask When Hiring A Social Media Company

As we all try to get a better understanding of Social Marketing, I found this article by Lisa Barone to be very useful. A number of our clients are looking to out source their social media activities and this is a great primer to help them work through the decision making process. I hope you find it helpful.

The Value of Repeat Business

Here is a great article from Brad Sugars, founder of ActionCOACH, on the mathmatics of repeat customers. Worth the read.

What Small Business Owners Need to Know Now About the Health Care Tax Credit

Worth Reading to make sure you are up to date on what is available immediately from the Heath Care Package.

What successful transformations share: McKinsey Global Survey results

When organizational transformations succeed, managers typically pay attention to “people issues,” especially fostering collaboration among leaders and employees and building capabilities.

MARCH 2010

Source: Organization Practice

Over years of research and client work, we’ve identified a few tactics that help drive successful transformational change—any large-scale change, such as going from good to great performance, cutting costs, or turning around a crisis. These tactics include setting clear, aspirational targets; creating a clear structure; maintaining energy and involvement throughout the organization; and exercising strong leadership.In this latest survey of executives from around the world,we’ve dug into just how companies apply some of these tactics. We found that a few approaches in each area are most tightly correlated with successful transformations of both short-term performance and long-term corporate effectiveness, or “health.” In addition, the approaches most used by successful companies tend to complement and reinforce one another.

The survey asked executives about types of transformations (what types their companies had undertaken and why), goals for the transformation (what the goals were, how they were defined, and how successfully they were met), and implementation (how companies structured and carried out the transformation).

By looking at the approaches used by companies that executives describe as most successful in transforming themselves, we found evidence suggesting the importance of engaging employees collaboratively throughout the company and throughout the transformation journey. Another major theme was the importance of building capabilities—particularly leadership capabilities—to maintain long-term organizational health. In addition, a focus on strengths and achievements, not just problems, throughout the entire transformation process is strongly tied to success.

19 Tips for Driving Traffic to your Blog

A pretty good set of tips for your bloggers out there to build traffic.

Great article on the power of your story

I talk to clients all the time about the effectiveness of telling the story. What makes them unique and stand out from the competition. This is a great article that makes the point.

How to Advertise on Facebook

This is a pretty interesting article from Inc. Magazine about making your social media ads stand out. The cost of these ads are pretty reasonable but if there is no return you still aren't getting value for your money. Enjoy

The 2010 New Year Checklist for Your Business

Here are some great ideas for you to ponder for 2010. Some are low cost marketing ideas and others are ways to improve results. Kathy and I are always looking for additional ideas from others that we can share and these are some good one. Enjoy