Sitting across the table from me in our conference room were two entrepreneurs. They walked into our firm with a new product, an excellent product in fact, looking for a strategy and guidance to successfully market it. Let me paint a picture for you. These entrepreneurs are bootstrapping their launch. They’re taking a gigantic leap [...]
“John is one of our vendors.” The thought of hearing that gives me shivers, and it makes me cringe. For anyone who has a product or service to share, the “V” word can sting. Being a vendor puts you in a pool with all the other vendors. The peddlers, the hawkers, and the dealers. You [...]
Every once in awhile, a specific theme gets brought up multiple times in the course of just a few days. Usually, after about the third time that this happens, I shift from thinking it might be a coincidence to knowing it’s something I should be paying closer attention to. Here’s the concept that has come [...]
Last week, on the Fourth of July, I ran the Firecracker 5K in Excelsior, MN. The combination of the course, the people, and the day’s festivities make this a summer favorite. A couple of miles into the race though, I was reminded of the power of preparation. Here’s what I ended up pondering during my [...]
It’s easy to walk into a room filled with strangers and fall into the trap of judging books by their covers. I’ve had it happen at networking events, and it happened to me a few weeks ago. It reminded me in a matter of moments of the consequences of making assumptions, especially in business. Here [...]
I had some drive time last week here in the Twin Cities and was blown away by James Altucher’s podcast interview with Home Depot co-founder Ken Langone. There were so many great moments captured in this podcast, but the most impactful thoughts focused on the relationship between sales and the customer. As Ken shared, “The [...]
As a small business owner, I learn new things every day. Some of them come from observation, some of them come from experience and some from my mistakes. The vast majority of the things I learn though, come from my relationships with other business owners. It's when I connect with other businesses that I learn [...]
