Tag: small business

How to Escape the Illusion of Time Management | AllBusiness Experts

~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

“Oh man, I have so much to do today. I really need to learn to manage my time better.”

It’s a story as old as time itself. We look at a big list of things we need to accomplish and start divvying up the amount of time we have to get them done. We slice it and dice it and manage every little bit of it. We fret about how much time is passing while we’re trying to get everything organized. We make lists and schedules and then fret about whether we are ahead or behind. We tend to call that “time management.”But believe me, it’s an illusion. There is no such thing as “time management.”

For one thing, “time management” implies that there is something controllable about the passage of time. Unless you’re an experimental physicist with a DeLorean and a flux capacitor, there really isn’t anything you can do about how many hours are in the day. Your job isn’t to manage time, it’s to manage priorities

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Do You Feel Pressure Or Do You Apply Pressure? | TechCrunch

~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

One obvious yet under-appreciated law of business physics is:

For any given company, the larger the company becomes, the more opportunities emerge to screw it up. 

Another obvious but not well-understood law:

The more screwed up your company, the more people will complain about it and blame you.

If we take these two together, it is easy to see that without intervention, the larger your company becomes, the more people will complain and blame you.

This seems simple enough, but CEOs often fail to understand the logic, become overwhelmed by the criticism, lose confidence in themselves, and decide that they are no longer capable of running their own companies. This can be tragic as I explained in “Why We Prefer Founding CEOs.”

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4 Questions You Must Answer About Ditching Your 9 to 5 | Inc.com

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I left the “security” of the 9-5 job world back in 2007. At that time, I was three years out of college and had a good job by other people’s standards, but found myself very unhappy. The people I worked with were fine. The work I was doing was fine. Everything was pretty much fine.

But I didn’t want fine.

In 2007, I took the leap from a normal job to co-found my first company. How I eventually talked myself into leaping came after answering a few questions:

If I stayed at the 9-5 job, what was the best case scenario?

I’d climb the fickle corporate ladder. I’d see incremental financial increases. Different words would be embossed on my business cards which only meant more responsibility and stress. I’d probably never be truly happy.

If I stayed at the 9-5 job, what was the worst case scenario?

I’d either work there for the next 30 years and be miserable or at some point I’d be let go, I’d have no income, I’d be scared, and I’d find some other mediocre 9-5 job. I’d definitely be unhappy.

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5 Questions To Ask Before Going Into Business With A Friend|Forbes

~ lmehit ~ Leave a comment

Pamela Skaist-Levy and Gela Nash-Taylor, co-presidents and co-founders of Juicy Couture became famous for their celebrated casual clothing line, which they went on to sell in 2013 for a whopping $195 million. Sure, their story of success has had its share of ups and downs—like any other business—but according to the best friends, the greatest decision they ever made was to go into business together. Noted Skaist-Levy, “You spend more time with a business partner than almost anyone…When you’re together, the highs are even higher and the lows don’t seem so bad.”diyvas-03

As great as this kind of 50/50 arrangement sounds, so many partnerships, especially among friends, don’t survive.  In fact if you research how to start a business with a friend, you’ll see that expert after expert likens business partnership to marriage: Are you willing to hang in there with this person through the celebrations and failures? The curveballs and the monotony? Can you accept that the little things about them that may annoy you now could only magnify under stress?

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House Votes To Make Small Business Tax Break Permanent | Forbes.com

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This week, the House voted to not only extend a tax break for small businesses but to make it permanent.The specific provision that the House advanced involves Section 179 of the Tax Code. Under Section 179, small businesses can immediately write off certain qualifying expenses as a deduction in one year rather than depreciating those costs over a number of years. The result is generally very tax favorable.

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Increase Revenue During Off-Peak Hours | Restaurant.org

~ lmehit ~ Leave a comment

The recent recession did more than adjust people’s spending habits – it also changed how and when they eat. The days of three strictly observed standard meals are now past. As a result, snacking and off-peak food service continue to emerge as growth opportunities for restaurants.

Because of financial tightening, more consumers have focused on deals and smaller purchases, including for their food. They’re ordering less during main meals – which can make them hungrier during the day. This makes them graze and snack more often, as well as eat during non-traditional hours.

According to Technomic’s 2012 Snacking Occasion Consumer Trend Report, 48% of consumers are snacking at least twice a day, up from 25% in 2010. As restaurants have adapted to this trend, their share of the snack market has increased from 17% in 2010 to 22% today.

Thirty-seven percent of consumers have broadened their definition of snack to include a wider variety of food and beverages. Sixty-two percent admitted that snacks are typically an impulse purchase as well.

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6 Insights From Tony Robbins That Will Change Your Sales Game | Entrepreneur.com

~ lmehit ~ Leave a comment

When it comes to helping people improve their lives there is nobody in the game with stronger credentials than Tony Robbins. The “Michael Jordan” of thought leaders, Tony has affected millions of people around the world through his performance coaching. And his words of wisdom has also had a huge impact in the business world.

Through his books, videos and presentations, Robbins provides insight into effective selling.

Here are the six lesssons entrepreneurs can learn from Robbins on the secret to successful selling.

Check out the Tips.

When It Makes Sense to Take a Private Jet | Entrepreneur.com

~ lmehit ~ Leave a comment

Marketing private jets as the affordable option might seem crazy, but a new fleet of charter jet operators are attempting to do just that in a push to ‘democratize’ luxury travel.

JetSuite, a private jet airline that charters flights on its fleet of Phenom 100s (which seat four passengers) and CJ3 jets (which seat six or seven), is making the hard sell that in many cases, flying private can be a cost-efficient option for business travel.

The argument has its merits. The company offers daily deals on empty flights to fill vacant seats. A recent one-way trip on a four-seater jet from San Jose to Las Vegas was listed at $536.43, 66 percent cheaper than what four commercial business class seats would cost.

JetSuite is simply one company in a crowded field looking to make flying private more accessible. JumpSeat operates like Airbnb, letting individuals who have already chartered a plane rent seats out to free-floaters, potentially saving flyers up to 50 percent, says the company. And then there’s Jumpjet, which operates more like a taxi-service, placing different groups of passengers who all share a destination on a single jet. The company says round trips on its private jets could cost as low as $450.

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