Posts by Charlie Byrne
How To Get A Dream Job With The Best Firm In Your Business
What are your chances of landing a dream job that more than 1,000 other people have applied for? You’d expect them to be somewhere around 1 in 1,000, right? Or maybe a little better … depending on your personal confidence level. But just two months ago, Scott Lindley not only beat those odds by getting…
Read MoreIt’s Your Turn Now
It’s only 11:15 a.m. in the morning, but six people have already dropped by the ETR offices to meet with Michael Masterson. I’m not sure if they’re here for a quick business discussion or just to say “hello.” But I know the names and I recognize the faces. Another thing I recognize is the cars…
Read MoreThe Portability Niche
Interested in starting a $125 million company? How about one that sells $365 million a year in products? It’s not impossible. Just take an everyday product and change it in one simple way. Make it portable. That’s what General Mills did when they took ordinary yogurt, packaged it in a tube, and called it “Go-Gurt.”…
Read MoreSimplify Your Life, Part 2
“Manifest plainness, embrace simplicity, reduce selfishness, have few desires.” – Lao Tzu When we left off on Friday, I said, “Just a few weeks ago, my wife and I decided that something need to change, because we didn’t want to live that way. [And what I meant by “that way,” was the way our friends…
Read MoreSimplify Your Life, Part 1
Judy and John are great friends of ours. Recently retired, they own a beautiful waterfront house in Maryland, a small condo in Florida where they “winter,” and a sailboat just large enough for the occasional cruise down to the Bahamas. They are kind and generous people, who lead a very rewarding and enviable life. But…
Read MoreGet the Best Tickets to Shows Before Anyone Else
I just scored some great tickets for a hot Broadway show — on Thanksgiving weekend, no less, the busiest time of the year on the Great White Way. I got them by using tracking software to automatically notify me when a website page changed. In this case, the site contained the “tickets now on sale”…
Read MoreHow to Ensure a Great Fourth of July Feast
The big July 4th weekend is upon us. For many, it means a trip to the shore and a nice seafood dinner at one of the many seaside restaurants that offer Maine lobster specials at this time of year. But wait. What’s going on here? It’s summer — and with a lot of people on…
Read MoreDetermining the Value of a Small Business
CB: Let’s start with the basic question: Is there an easy way to figure out a fair price to pay for an existing business? MM: Yes — but only if you have all the right information. What you’re talking about is a “business valuation” — and there’s a whole accounting industry built around doing this…
Read MoreFive Key Rules for Effective Writing
The biggest writing mistake novice writers make is thinking that it’s all about words, style, grammar, or cleverness. It’s not. It’s all about communicating good ideas . . . clearly. At a seminar I attended at Agora Publishing last month, I learned what one $110 million company knows about good writing. At the event, which…
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