Archive for the ‘Finding Efficiencies’ Category
Entrepreneur Bear Traps
As your business grows, have you ever hoped, perhaps secretly, for some way to avoid those costly and time-consuming pitfalls that are a natural, but painful, part of your inevitable success? Well as it turns out, entrepreneurs just like you often confide in Robert and me a desperate need for practical ways to steer clear of common business hazards.
That’s why for BusinessCast #162, we sat down with Rick Spence to uncover today’s most common “entrepreneur bear traps” — those traps that snare even the most thoughtful, innovative, well-funded and profitable businesses.
Rick shares our passion for helping entrepreneurs achieve professional and personal success. For over 20 years, he has shared his observations and insights in many of North America’s most widely-read online and offline business publications. Together with Rick, we identify and tackle today’s “entrepreneur bear traps” in business strategy, marketing, operations, financing and human resources.
Listen to BusinessCast #162 and avoid some entrepreneur bear traps before they catch you off-guard.
Lessons from Retail
Every industry has important lessons for entrepreneurs — and one industry that often goes untapped, because of its complexity, is retail. That’s why for BusinessCast #159, we interview Lloyd Perlmutter — former Canadian President of retail giants including, The Gap, Banana Republic and Old Navy as well as EVP for Indigo Books and Music.
Lloyd cuts through the clutter associated with industry-specific dynamics and shares his insights about how the retail industry successfully tackles key business challenges such as integrating new technology, recruiting staff and harnessing the “customer mindset”. Listen to BusinessCast #159 and you’ll get some nuggets that you can use to ensure your business’ success — regardless of your industry.
Lloyd also shares his wisdom about the retail industry regularly on his blog: www.theretailthereapist.wordpress.com.
**Recommended event for business leaders/managers: Online Marketing Summit (in Houston on July 23).**
The BusinessCast Top 10 in 10
When we chat with North America’s business leaders, we’re always focused on identifying guiding principles and practical tactics that you, as an entrepreneur, can apply to enhance your own business success. But, our guests always have unique definitions of current success and predictions for future success.
That’s why for BusinessCast #158, we launch the first in a new series: “The BusinessCast Top 10 in 10“. In each BusinessCast Top 10 in 10, two of our guests answer 10 critical business questions in the span of just 10 minutes! For the first in this new series, we turn to two recent guests: Carl Yankowski — former CEO of Sony Electronics, Reebok and Palm as well as Steve Smith, former CEO & President of WestJet and Zip Air.
**Recommended Event for business leaders/managers: Online Marketing Summit (in Chicago on June 30).**
Navigating Smart Growth
Not all growth is equal, nor is it all good. That means a major challenge for leaders and managers is to manage “smart growth” — the kind of growth that leads to more efficiencies, more revenues and more successes. That’s why for BusinessCast #157, we sat down with Bruce Hunter who helps entrepreneurs across all industries identify and harness growth that makes sense for them and their businesses.
Bruce, a former VP & GM at Kraft, identifies common pain points that entrepreneurs face at one of the most critical stages of their business’ development. He also provides some insights for successfully addressing these challenges. Finally, he makes available a survey to help you determine, and potentially head-off, some of these natural growing pains. Managing growth is always a challenge but, listen to BusinessCast #157 and you’ll find yourself managing growth smarter.
Subscribe to the BusinessCast Podcast at iTunes
The Lean Enterprise: Improving the Performance of Your Work Processes
Six Sigma. Process Re-engineering. Continuous Improvement. Total Quality Management. Entrepreneurs have been hearing about these involved methodologies for years. And yet, many entrepreneurs are very successful without implementing any of these structured approaches for improving the performance of work processes and productivity. So, why should entrepreneurs care? We answer that question in BusinessCast #154 — The Lean Enterprise.
We sit down with Richard Shaw of the EnPower Group (enpowergroup.com) as he shares with us some guiding principles (and practical tips) that all entrepreneurs can apply for developing and honing “lean” work processes — i.e. those that are as productive as possible. Since every entrepreneur wants to minimize inefficiencies, lessons from BusinessCast #154 are business essentials.
**UPCOMING EVENT FOR ENTREPRENEURS**: MarketingSherpa and MarketingExperiments are hosting a series of one-day seminars across North America. Check out the Online Marketing ROI conference (coming to Toronto in June) where you can also win an iPad.
Subscribe to the BusinessCast Podcast at iTunes