Over 30 years of business insight in one place.
I've been a business owner for over 30 years. I was a remote CEO starting in 1993. I've been a coach helping other owners learn from my mistakes since 1995. Since 2006 I've been posting, writing, making videos and tools for my clients. In my semi-retirement I'm putting all that stuff here in a (mostly) organized fashion for free.
HR
How to Use a Careers Page
November 6, 2020
Put a Careers link on your website. . This is one way you can get the word out when you're hiring. Putting ads out is nice but most jobs get filled by people who know people. The good ones aren't…
Growth & Plans
Scenario planning
October 24, 2020
Scenario Planning is a tool to use to plan for an uncertain future. Usually we plan based on the past and we have some ability to predict the future within a range of possibilities. But when the future is unlikely…
HR
Hiring Professionals
October 23, 2020
I have a client who needs a new CPA. . Part of the reason is technical. They are in a narrow niche of the construction industry but have a general purpose CPA. They need someone with the experience to answer…
CEO Skills
How to Scale Your Company
October 15, 2020
Learn the 3 things a company needs to do and how the CEO function can systemize the company to do them better. Why functions with an output are a better way to think about your company than jobs. 0:16 CEO…
Productivity
Time Blocking
August 1, 2020
Time Blocking is a useful technique when you find the urgent is overwhelming the important. It’s based on the concept that you give every hour of your work day a specific task. Here’s how to do it. Make a list…
CEO Mindset
The Stockdale Paradox – When to be Positive and Negative at the Same Time
April 10, 2020
The paradox is named after James Stockdale who was a POW in Vietnam for over seven years – much of it in solitary. What he found was that his fellow prisoners who broke mentally and ultimately died in prison were…
Growth & Plans
Scenario Planning – How To Plan for an Uncertain Future
April 8, 2020
Uncertain future? That’s us. . We can’t extrapolate from other pandemics because with current medical technology and global transportation, this one is so different. We can’t look to other recessions because this one is caused by a health crisis not…
Owners
This is not (only) a Financial Crisis
March 25, 2020
As bad as they are, we’ve dealt with recessions before. This is different. This is three kinds of crises that build on each other. A health crisis. There’s a war on and the virus is trying to kill us all.…
Personal
Thinking About The Pandemic
March 21, 2020
Here are some things to consider about our situation on a less tactical level. Getting up out of the weeds might be a relief to some. Scott Galloway ponders how we want to be remembered, years after the crisis, shares…
Personal
Doing Business in a Pandemic Part 2
March 19, 2020
I have no idea how many parts this will have but I wanted to get this out quickly so I didn't take time to think up a better title. Part 1 is here. . Read this before 11 am EDT…
Personal
Doing Business in a Pandemic
March 15, 2020
I wrote this a post about this yesterday and deleted it last night. It seemed too normal. Nothing about these times is normal. . Just like you, I’ve never been in this situation before. But here are some thoughts. Change…
Growth & Plans
Time Skeleton – A Great Year End Planning Tool
December 5, 2019
One of the major tradeoffs in life is between the short term and the long term. Another way to think about it is the tradeoff between the urgent (usually short term) and the important (usually longer term). If we devote…
Management
How to Delegate Well
November 7, 2019
A manager gets work done through other people. This is impossible without delegating. But delegating is a skill that must be learned. There are three things to communicate in order to delegate well. I said communicate, not broadcast. That means…
Management
One on One Meetings
October 23, 2019
What? These are one-on-one meetings that you have with each of your direct reports on a regular basis. . Why? These are not status updates - not about the work. They are more important (and less urgent) than that. The…
Company View, Organizational Design
What Changes as Your Company Grows
February 19, 2019
That's a question as well as a headline. I'd love to hear, in the comments below, what's changing for you as your company grows. Here are some things I've noticed in my companies and those of my clients. Even if…
CEO Mindset
Why 2 Hours a Week is Enough
January 14, 2019
Can I speak honestly? You're probably not functioning as a full-time CEO right now. I know that you are a CEO full time, but that's not everything you do. John Chester of Wild Apple Graphics in Vermont, had a business…
CEO Skills, Organizational Design
Systems Are How Your Company Scales
January 14, 2019
At one extreme, a company is like a one-man band. You do everything. But at the other extreme it's like a symphony orchestra where the conductor doesn't make any of the music the audience has paid to hear. Just like…
Business Model
A Business Model is How You Make Money
January 14, 2019
In the 1950s Xerox invented a way to make dry copies without wet, smelly chemicals. But that’s not what made them successful. They became one of the largest, most profitable companies on the planet because of another innovation. The copier…
Growth & Plans
Taking Your Company Through Puberty
March 10, 2017
Scot MacTaggart of Pitchwerks had me in for a podcast. We talked for about an hour and his crew edited down the best 30 minutes. Listen Here.