9 Strategies to Avoid Business Partnership Purgatory
Partnerships are one of the most important – and messiest – parts of business. Right now, I am working with clients who:
1: Are building a great partnership
2: Are trying to get out of bad partnership
3: Have narrowly escaped a seemingly good partnership gone bad
In my own experience, I was the majority owner in a partnership at Information Experts (with my husband). With Successful Culture, I am contemplating bringing in a partner.
To grow beyond a solopreneurship, a business owner often needs to enlist the help of a partner. There are many reasons for this including:
Ten Questions to Ask to Determine if Your Customers and Employees Really Understand Your Company
Business owners live and breathe their company missions. Often, their business identity plays a significant role in their personal identity. Naturally, they can effortlessly explain what their company does, why it exists, what it stands for, and where it is going.
This is not often the case with employees or customers.
Here are two sets of questions to help you determine if your two most important stakeholder groups – your employees and your customers – really understand your company.
Strengthen the Body, Strengthen the Mind, Strengthen the Outcome
I’ve been a hard core fitness enthusiast ever since I was 15, when I saw Linda Hamilton in The Terminator. I learned then that physical strength is not only beautiful; it is also essential to feeling confident and capable in all aspects of your life.
Executing on a dream or vision to build a business is one of the most mentally challenging endeavors a person will ever pursue. Every day, we are faced with nonbelievers, seemingly insurmountable challenges, and 101 reasons to quit. But still we persevere.
Four Steps to Diffusing a Customer Disagreement
A client called me last week to coach her through a delicate situation with a customer. Her customer had entered into a legal agreement, and at the last minute, wanted to change the terms of the agreement without consent from the other party. This would have jeopardized the entire transaction. Furthermore, her customer insisted that she had told my client about her decision prior to signing the contract (which was not true). My client was on the hook to talk her customer out of a really bad decision, even though her mind was made up.
Four Easy Ways to Get Excited About Prospecting!
I coach a lot of small business CEOs with BIG visions. Visions of tremendous growth. Visions of huge impacts. Visions of organizations with amazing cultures. Visions of….delegating the prospecting to other people.
Four Steps to a Successful 360-Degree Hiring Process
A client asked me, “Marissa, should I involve my other employees in the interviewing process?” My answer was an enthusiastic YES. From the intern to the executive, the CEO should never unilaterally own a hiring decision.
4 Ways to Stretch Your Time & Money Through a Multi-Platform Marketing Strategy (And an Entrepreneur’s Super-Food)
The two scarcest resources that small businesses have are time and money. They lack the financial cushion and manpower that larger companies have to grow. At the same time, customers are overwhelmed with work & information, are time-starved, and have ADD. These three things get in the way of building trust, loyalty, and recurring revenues with customers.
Want Great Customer Relationships? Know Your Deal-Breakers! Six Questions to Help You
I came across an article in The Providence Journal last month, when we were in Rhode Island for a family event. The article advised readers to identify their dating “deal-breakers” before jumping into the online dating world. The idea of “deal-breakers” came up again last week during a client coaching session, but this time I was discussing them in the context of customer relationships.
Building Employee Relationship Equity: Three Steps to a Great Weekly Huddle
One of the most rewarding aspects of working with small businesses is seeing them grow. Growth usually translates into new hires. For many of my clients, we’ve created processes and strategies to lay a foundation built on transparent communication, clearly defined goals, and aligned expectations.
One of the most effective actions a company can implement is the weekly huddle. This time together ensures that all employees (and other valuable team members) are kicking off the week in complete unison. It is a time for the CEO to communicate weekly goals and expectations, and to learn from direct reports what employees have on their agenda.
This is a high-level meeting, and is a two-way dialogue so that all attendees know that their contributions matter, and that their voices are heard. These touch-points create positive energy for the week, and build relationship equity among the team members.
Double Vision Versus Tunnel Vision: Which One Do You Have?
Vision without execution is just hallucination.
“Vision without action is a daydream. Action without vision is a nightmare.”
“The very essence of leadership is that you have a vision. It’s got to be a vision you articulate clearly and forcefully on every occasion.”
“The future belongs to those who see possibilities before they become obvious.”
Vision and leadership are two sides of the same coin. One can’t lead if they don’t know where they are going. I’m often asked how a leader can develop “vision.” There’s no simple answer.
