You know that awful feeling when a client is close to signing with you … but then they ghost you? You try phone calls, emails, text messages and DMs, but nothing works. So imagine if there was a way to restart the conversation? You’d make more sales, wouldn’t you? Former FBI hostage negotiator Chris Voss has [...]
Small business owners can learn a lot from Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. That’s one of the conclusions that comes from reading Brad Stone’s fascinating biography, The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon. Amazon began life in 1994 as a small business start-up; today, it’s one of the greatest companies in the history of [...]
If you’ve seen The Founder, you might be forgiven for thinking that Ray Kroc, the driving force behind the growth of McDonald’s, owed his success entirely to luck. The story the movie tells is this: Kroc was a bit of a loser One day, he happened to meet the McDonald brothers He was impressed by the [...]
If you want to read a book that will not only improve your business skills but also make you a better person, try How to Win Friends & Influence People. Dale Carnegie’s international bestseller, which was published in 1937, provides timeless advice on human behaviour. Carnegie’s insights will help you better understand your clients, suppliers, colleagues, [...]
The research is in: people who speak plain English are considered smarter than those who use corporate BS. In a nice coincidence, I discovered this research soon after reading a stupendously awful strategy statement from a company called CarrierBank*. “‘One CarrierBank’ is an integrated, customer-centric business model that enables customers to choose any of the Group’s [...]
Want to grow your small business? Then you need to dump your clients. That’s the message from Michael Port’s wonderful small business book, Book Yourself Solid. To clarify, Port isn’t advising you to dump all your clients – just your bad ones. The idea is that once your small business culls its soul-sucking clients, it will [...]
Your company needs a new chief executive so it decides to hire a hairy-chested alpha male. Big mistake. That’s one of the key lessons from the business classic Good to Great. The book’s researchers found that the best companies aren’t led by superhero chief executives who crave the spotlight. Instead, they’re led by quiet, humble people. [...]
