How To Make A Stagnant Profit Center Grow
“To most men, experience is like the stern lights of a ship, which illumine only the track it has passed.” – Samuel Taylor Coleridge (Table Talk, 1835) Test your CEO acumen: What do you do with a good but stagnant profit center? For several years now, sales have been the…
READ MOREBody Language: Don’t Be Deaf To Shouting
Body language experts say the two most important clues to the way someone thinks of you are the way he positions his heart and his feet. Someone who likes you will tend to position his heart (i.e., his chest) toward your chest. So if your boss/colleague habitually stands and sits…
READ MOREPeripatetic Managing: Does It Really Work?
Do you walk around the office? Some management experts think doing so is a critically important business skill. Others warn against it. In “Seven Habits of Highly Successful Executives,” Steven Covey makes suggestions for limiting and avoiding casual chats around the office. In Covey’s view, these are unnecessary and often…
READ MOREGet Those Monkeys Off Your Back!
Yesterday, we talked about the problem with “monkeys”: If you are not careful, colleagues and subordinates will try get the monkeys perched on their backs to leap onto yours. Be alert for this kind of “reverse delegation.” The smart manager, William Oncken, author of “Monkey Business,” argues, makes sure he…
READ MOREAre You A Victim of “Monkey Business”?
“Troubles hurt the most when they prove self-inflicted.” – Sophocles (Oedipus the King, c. 430 B.C.) In his book “Monkey Business,” William Oncken describes this all-too-common — but easily fixed — problem that most managers run into: It’s 10 o’clock Monday morning. You are walking down the hall on your…
READ MOREHow Do You Handle The Whiners?
“Every man supposes himself not to be fully understood or appreciated.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson (Journals, 1840) In the early part of my career, I spent countless hours ensnarled in the following kind of situation: A manager would come into my office and start to complain about something. The moment…
READ MOREResume Dedicated
Dear Early to Rise Reader, I’m writing you a quick note this morning to tell you about what could be a very good way for you to make a significant part-time income, beginning almost immediately. It’s a pretty simple business that just about anyone can do … and the nice…
READ MOREHow “The Four P’s” Can Help You Land A Better Job
“It is the bold man who every time does best, at home or abroad.” – Homer (The Odyssey, 9th century B.C.) Today, I’m going to show you how to apply one of the most-important rules of sales copy — something we call “the Four P’s” — to help you…
READ MOREA Simple Way To Make Your Children Wealthy
“There is nothing like dream to create the future. Utopia today, flesh and blood tomorrow.” – Victor Hugo (Les Miserables, 1862) Did you know that your children can easily acquire substantial wealth by the time they have to pay the bills for their own families? How much? Starting with less…
READ MORELet Your Best Customers Do What They Want: Buy More!
In most businesses, the 80/20 rule applies to just about everything — including the question “Who gives us our bottom line?” In other words, there is a good chance that fewer than 20% of your customers are giving you more than 80% of your profits. This is so because repeat…
READ MOREWhat’s Wrong With Nepotism?
The toughest and most important part of building a business is finding great employees. When you take the regular paths — help-wanted ads and interviews — you end up hiring a lot of disappointing people. I recently spent weeks trying to find someone to fill a part-time position. After a…
READ MOREMust You Be Cutthroat To Succeed In Business?
A young man who is beginning what I hope will be a long and profitable career in business said this to me recently: “But isn’t that the way you HAVE to be in business? Like ruthless and all?” He is climbing up the ladder of success with the grease of…
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