If you want your company to be able to move from a moderate level of success to an extraordinary level of success, you need to start thinking in processes. Most entrepreneurs succeed in the early stages because they have a “just do it” mentality. That mentality is still important, but it’s also important to add […]
One of the biggest strategic decisions many businesses have to make is whether to hire in house or outsource. There are many departments that this choice applies to. Should your order takers be in house or in a call center? What about support? Fulfillment? Tech and IT? When should you outsource your work to an […]
Once you’ve reached a certain point of success in your business, you’ll more or less max out the amount of profit you can make from your current product line. In order to continue to grow, you need to create new products or explore new markets. What’s the process for doing this? ==> Start by Extending […]
One of the keys to good working relationships with outsourcers is to have clear agreements. These agreements should cover just about any possible disagreement that could come up over the course of your working relationship. Here are a few things that your agreements or negotiations should cover. ==> Payment Terms Generally you should avoid paying […]
If a project you’re working on is off course, what can you do to correct it? Perhaps the product just isn’t working at all. Perhaps you’re way over budget. Perhaps things are taking longer than they should. Whatever the case may be, if your project is off course, now is the time to steer it […]
Having great tools will help make managing projects a whole lot easier. Having the right tools will enable you to share files seamlessly, communicate easily, reduce down time and increase accountability. Here are a few tools that small businesses can benefit from when it comes to project management. ==> Basecamp Basecamp is one of the […]
Basecamp is one of the most popular project management tools on the planet. It was first developed by 37Signals in 2004 for their own internal use, but quickly took off as more and more people adopted it. The popular “Ruby on Rails” programming framework was built originally in order to program Basecamp. For the small […]
How many numbers or metrics should you be looking at on a daily basis? In any business, there are literally dozens or even hundreds of numbers you could look at. The answer is simple: One. Your business should revolve around just one core metric. Of course, you should still regularly examine all the other metrics […]
In Jim Collins’ bestselling business book “Good to Great,” he talks about a critically important concept for planning and executing on business strategies. He calls this concept the “flywheel.” It’s a visual illustration of the fact that most companies aren’t built from one moment of brilliance, but from the accumulation of effort over time. A […]
Many business owners make the mistake of just jumping feet first into projects, without taking the time to define a project. A poorly defined project is usually either destined to fail, or take up far more time and resources than necessary. Defining your project doesn’t take long, but has a big impact on your chances […]
