Do Well

Jason Freedman has it right. He wrote a post recently about 42 Floors vacation policy – which consists of a mandatory two weeks of vacation on your first day. Wait, wha????? That’s right, they start paying you and ask you to show up two weeks later. The premise being that we don’t really take vacation…

People Have Money but Feel Glum—What Does That Mean for the Economy? from the WSJ. A great summary of the juxtaposition between the general malaise in consumer confidence which is contrast to all the strong metrics of the economy (hiring, unemployment, etc). How To Pass On Price Increases Without Alienating Customers – from Forbes Business Council. My favorite quote…

As corny as it sounds, I already have my dream business mentor: my father.  He runs a small family business in Rockford, IL. He makes metal parts, which is far from my traditional interests or ambitions. However, there’s commonality that I relish. He doesn’t have a love for formal financial statements; instead, he understands that…

As a child, we dream about being astronauts, our backyard tree house becomes an outpost in the Wild West fight between soldiers and Indians, and the only limit to what we can accomplish is chime of mom’s dinner bell (or text message). Somewhere along the way, we start becoming aware of our limitations: our intelligence,…

In addition to vacations and patriotic celebrations, July is one of the best business months. Sales may slump – but don’t let that interrupt my recipe for a successful July debrief. There are four easy steps to make the most of this mid-year oasis, and they are: Step 1: Review Annual Goals. Often we set massive…

During the first year of leading the Startup Leadership Program, we included the obligatory class on marketing. In the second year, we broke that down into acquiring buyers (entrepreneurial selling) and acquiring users (more akin to traditional marketing). We talked about SEO, retargeting of ads, and virality. It was good stuff, but somehow didn’t seem…