When Less Is More

When it comes to running a successful business, the things you do matter. But perhaps just as important are the things we decide not to do. Identifying what activities to put in each category helps productivity, efficiency, and overall effectiveness.
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Always Keep Your Promises

To develop a strong brand, you have to get customers to know your value proposition. They should know what makes you different from your competitors. But it’s not enough for them to just know what you say makes you different; they should know from seeing you fulfill your promises.
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Why We Miss Our Goals

Tell me if this scenario sounds familiar. You know exactly what you want to do. You have it all figured out. And then somewhere along the line, something happens. You’re not even sure what it was—all you know is the end result: whatever it was you were planning, it didn’t get done.
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Keeping the Entrepreneurial Spirit Alive

As any business ages and grows, it will change. You don’t always do things the same way you did as a startup. The quest for innovation and new approaches to problems often gradually give way to a focus on incremental improvements and doing what you’ve always done, just a little bit better. This problem is part of what is widely known as The Innovator’s Dilemma, after the title of the book by Harvard professor Clayton Christensen.
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Building an Information Security Plan

Do you know what sensitive data your company has, or what you are doing to protect it? An Information Security Plan is a document outlining all this information in a clear way so that everyone in your organization understands potential risks, precautions, and protocols for data breaches.
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Encourage Independent Thinking

Encouraging independent thinking among your team members will generate new ideas and give everyone a stake in your business’s success. To make it happen, you must be willing to listen and engage with everyone, taking advantage of the different experiences and perspectives of your team members.
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Caution in Hiring: One Bad Apple Can Spoil the Bunch

Your corporate culture is only as strong as the people you put on your team. And when you have just a few employees, each one is even more important. When it comes time to hire, make sure to look at how potential employees fit with your culture just as much as you look at skills and experience.
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Bad News Doesn’t Get Better with Age

Small business owners have to deal with reality. You cannot solve a problem by ignoring it. Bad news will not get better with age. An open culture means being open to honest feedback of any kind, whether positive or negative. Mistakes are ok, but you have to recognize them and move on.
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Don’t Fall in Love with Your Ideas

Being excited about your idea is a good thing, but you need to stay objective about it. Remember that for every idea that works out and turns into a great success, there are many others that don’t. It takes a lot of strength to move on, but sometimes you have to do it.
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To Succeed, You Must Be Willing to Fail

It’s not use to be afraid of failing. Everyone fails. The difference is how you respond to adversity and failure. Successful people get up, think about what happened, identify ways to get better, and use that knowledge to succeed the next time. Do you see failure as an obstacle, or an opportunity?
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