A lot of theories have been circulated for why small businesses aren’t hiring — the bank lending crunch, emotional nervousness about the economy, high taxes, low sales. This week, noted Case Western Reserve University professor Scott Shane weighed in with his theory: It’s all about the residential real-estate collapse. Shane gives several reasons why the [ Read More ]
In the downturn, many companies have scrambled to change what they do. They’re quickly added products or services, introduced multiple new versions, marketed to many new audiences. So maybe it’s time to ask — are you in over your head? Unfocused? Are you simply doing too much? Some businesses have taken the opposite tack in [ Read More ]
Bros. According to the Urban Dictionary, they’re young, white alpha males found most commonly in Southern California beach cities, they drive lifted trucks, wear tilted mesh hats and talk primarily about chicks and beer. So how could this ripped-up sector of society be beneficial to entrepreneurs? Well, it just so happens that frosted-tips aren’t [ Read More ]
The e-mail message was alarming and ominous: Thinking the above message must be spam, the folks at The Inn at Mount Snow in West Dover, VT, immediately logged onto their Facebook account, where they were promptly confronted by the following message at the top of their Page: Definitely not spam, and according a statement provided [ Read More ]
Shortly after I launched my web design firm in 1995, I did something my accountant told me was pretty crazy. I sold my house in Hollywood, Fla., moved to New York City, cashed in my mutual funds and put every dollar I had into a brownstone in Brooklyn Heights that I couldn’t afford on what [ Read More ]
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Managing Older Workers
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Pseudo Competition
Not every critic loved the 2009 film Duplicity, starring Julia Roberts and Clive Owen. The British newspaper The Telegraph complained of a lack of “any sexual charge” between the stars, and a plot whose complexity is “sometimes overdone.” Slate called it muddled, and quibbled that a film should make “actual narrative sense.” But seemingly everyone [ Read More ]
As a public speaker, I’m always looking for ways to engage my audience. One old trick — which I never use, precisely because it is so old — is to challenge executives and entrepreneurs to imagine their obituary in the New York Times. What impact did you have? What contribution did you make? What kind [ Read More ]
Here’s an idea for your next performance review: Do what the CEOs of Fortune 500 companies do for their annual evaluation by the board of directors — write a self-assessment that helps guide the conversation. What you write will be a valuable tool for the performance review and, even better, a custom guide for your [ Read More ]
Five years from now, will we look back on the dismal unemployment that we’re suffering on Labor Day 2010 and see this year as the good old days? Within today’s official unemployment statistics hides the true cost of decades of economic mismanagement: Historically unprecedented levels of unemployment and underemployment. The Great Recession that officially ended [ Read More ]