Mary Marshall When people talk about “marketing,” they often get focused on one aspect, such as “branding.” However, marketing is so much more than that. There are literally more than a hundred different aspects of marketing and specialists in each. So it’s not just about the branding, … Read more
Yes, it’s that time of year when you drag out and dust off those pesky goals, the strategic plan and assess how it’s going. The companies that review every 90 days are much more likely to achieve their goals than those that don’t. Why do … Read more
I’ve talked a lot about how to create an intentional culture and why it’s important to the success of your business – aligning values, living them on a daily basis, and at the heart of it all, making your employees feel as if they are … Read more
This week I led a webinar for HR That Works called “How to Create an Intentional Culture,” (based on Chapter 2 of Putting Together the Entrepreneurial Puzzle). We did polling questions throughout the webinar with some interesting results. According to this group of HR professionals: … Read more
I thought about all the stories I have of leaders, including myself, who at one point or another behaved in a manner that was exhibiting very low EQ, (or emotional intelligence), and quickly realized that I had a lot of examples. Of course this speaks … Read more
This month’s chapter from “Putting Together the Entrepreneurial Puzzle” is Chapter 5, Human Resources, which can be a very misunderstood topic. Much like you would discuss and evaluate operational resources, financial resources, or manufacturing, the care and feeding of human resources is by far the … Read more
Succession, or exiting your business is one of the most difficult decisions you’ll ever make. So how do you know when the time is right? It’s likely not going to be when you think so one strategy is to always be ready for the conversation. … Read more
I saw something the other day that talked about the differences between a situational entrepreneur and a “true” entrepreneur. They defined a true entrepreneur as one who built something that grew into a large publically traded entity. I would venture to say that there are … Read more
Last week, the Wall Street Journal had a section devoted to HR with several good articles, but one in particular caught my attention – “The Inner Workings of the Executive Brain.” The author explained that much of what we believe about how good managers “think” … Read more
Hiring can be the most difficult aspect of running a business for most entrepreneurs. The hiring process is not clear, the onboarding non-existent, expectations rarely made clear, and the firing after it all goes wrong is the worst part of all. As with most anything, … Read more