The single best business tool you can ever use

Adapt tools to your needs, not your needs to the tools.  When you turn to the tools, start with the best one. The one tool that will solve problems and get you started on every project. The tool from which any other tool can be built.  A list.  Why lists are the single best business…

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Buying software is not a business goal

Photo by Alice Achterhof on Unsplash

When you want to build a table, you know it’s not enough to buy a hammer.  When you want to make pizza, you know it’s not enough to buy a pizza stone.  You know that buying the tools is not the same as creating the thing.  And yet so often, when people want to build…

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Why does a small business need a business plan?

…  It’s just that… It seems like a lot of work. Especially for a small business.  To spend all this time writing out a detailed plan for the next five years when you can’t even predict the next 5 months, let alone stop working for 2 weeks to complete a plan that will live at…

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How to hire all the worst people

Only hire people you’d want to go out and have a drink with.  Only hire people you wouldn’t spend time with when you’re not at work.  Always hire the smartest guy in the room.  Never hire the guy who has all the answers.  Hire people just like you.  Hire people nothing like you.  All of…

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Why your business doesn’t “run itself”

Because it is not alive.  Your business isn’t even a real thing. It’s just an idea.  Once people act on that idea and start doing the work, it moves from idea to business. It becomes a “thing”. A business needs people There are many articles written about how to create a business that runs itself. …

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We cannot solve the problems of the future

Because we don’t know what they will be.  Think of all the jobs that exist today but did not exist 20 years ago. Now imagine the other side of the coin: with all the new opportunities we couldn’t have predicted, think of all of the challenges that we won’t be able to predict.  We can’t…

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How to stay busy without losing your mind

A client recently told me that his favorite thing about working with me was the accountability it gave him. We created a new management plan, rolled it out to his employees, and then structured his management meetings.  While he enjoyed all this work, the knowledge of upcoming meetings with me, and knowing that the work…

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Why you should stop trying to be better

It’s a little bit like trying to be perfect. Trying to be better does not add value.  But wait: doesn’t better mean an improvement? Wouldn’t that automatically add value?  Yes and no.  Better is comparative to a previous version or an outside influence. Value is, remains, will always be, about the client.  Better and best…

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Decisions, decisions, decisions: start by saying no.

Decisions. What to eat for breakfast. How much coffee to have. Which route to take to work. What to listen to on the radio. What to do first. What to do later. When to take a break. Which shoes to wear.  Just some of the decisions we have to make within a few hours of…

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The ten minute business plan

Let me start by pointing out that you will not write a “Business Plan” – big B big P – in ten minutes. Not something an investor or a bank would accept.  But you can write a preliminary business plan – small b small p – in ten minutes.  And that business plan will be…

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