Do you write marketing plans? Anyone can write one—as long as you use the executive summary format. Here are the five questions you need to ask yourself and your team in order to design it:

1. What’s the urgent problem?
2. What’s the unique solution?
3. Why am I stuck? Why are we stuck?
4. What’s the process?
5. What’s the first physical action we’re going to take to get from problem to solution?

To learn more about the process and each question, [Read more...]

Having great talent on your team can really make a big difference in your company. Most entrepreneurs don’t spend enough time on the single, most important activity that can boost the overall productivity of the company: having a strong hiring process. 

I don’t have an HR department, and I have very little time to interview. If you’re like me, you can follow the following three tips:

Tip #1: Prequalify 80% of the time. Promote 20% of the time. The nice thing about this method is that it’s nearly automatic. I don’t have to spend a lot of the time narrowing the initial list down. 

Tip #2:Send interested candidates to a 24-hour recorded message of yourself speaking. it’s another filter that you can use to narrow down the candidates. I want absolute certainty that this job is the right fit for them before they even talk to me.
[Read more...]