Why So Many Business Meetings Fail
A successful meeting — one in which good decisions get made and are then implemented — has four characteristics: 1. Openness: The outcome is not predetermined. The person running the meeting does not hog the podium. Everyone feels free to speak. 2. Candor: There is a willingness to discuss the…
READ MORECreate a Powerful, Memorable “Unique Selling Proposition”
‘Rosser Reeves introduced and defined the USP and its three components in his 1970 book “Reality in Advertising” . . . and the book is long out of print. I remember reading the three-point definition of a USP in Reeves’ book years ago, but when I went back to check…
READ MOREThe Customer Is – And Always Will Be – King
Leadership Strategies used the following story as an example to try to make a case that customers “aren’t always right”: “When Citizens Financial Group CEO Larry Fish heard that a customer had treated one of his tellers poorly, he called the customer and suggested that she close her account. Although…
READ MOREThree Things That Separate World-Class Investors
I have earned a reputation for being a good stock researcher — and a good stock picker. But I have told people for as long as I have been doing investment research that 90% of the money I actually make in the market is generated by how I buy stocks,…
READ MOREThe Richest Man in Babylon, Part 5
“A bag heavy with gold or a clay tablet carved with words of wisdom: If thou hadst thy choice, which wouldst thou choose?” That was the question Old Kalabab asked his students, wealth seekers who had come to ask his advice in George S. Clason’s classic parable “The Richest Man…
READ MORE“Living Proof” That Investing In Real Estate Can Help You Achieve Your Goals
The profits that can be made in property investing are so extraordinary that you might find them hard to believe. I know, because I used to think that way before I started actually learning about it and doing it. Intellectually, you might accept that it’s possible to buy a $100,000…
READ MOREThe Four-Letter Word That Gets EVERYBODY’S Attention
“I saw the word ‘free’ used effectively in an ad recently,” ETR’s editor Charlie Byrne told me. “Jimmy Buffett is coming to town, and there are MANY tickets for his concert being offered on eBay. If you look at the listings, you’ll see ‘Buffett Tickets for Sale!’ . . .…
READ MOREThe Richest Man in Babylon, Part 3
As we said on Tuesday, it’s almost impossible to build wealth unless you develop the habit of saving. And to do that, you have to “pay yourself first.” That’s what David Bach’s book “The Automatic Millionaire” is all about — and it is the lesson Bansir and Kobbi learned from…
READ MOREHow to Start a Successful Small Business – Right Now
Looking for another stream of income? How about a little business that you can start — almost instantly — for less than $100 and with 100 million customers ready and waiting? Ten years ago, it would have been an ignis fatuus; today, however, it’s a very real possibility. The breakthrough…
READ MOREYou Trust Your Employees? Why…or Why Not?
A certain Wharton Business School professor used to lecture students about trust. “People are basically trustworthy, honest, and loyal,” he argued. “If you treat them as such, they will act accordingly.” He retired from academe in 1993 and six years later entered the “real” world of business for the first…
READ MOREThe Myth of the Power of Teamwork
“The work of the individual still remains the spark that moves mankind ahead even more than teamwork.” – Igor Sikorsky Imagine if Keith Lockhart and the Boston Pops Orchestra rolled into Tanglewood this summer with flutists playing the violin parts. Or if the Green Bay Packers appointed Brett Favre to…
READ MOREAre You Getting Financially Flabby?
“Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.” – T.S. Eliot “That house would fit into the closet of the house I’m building now.” We were sitting in a car in a low-income neighborhood in Delray Beach, Florida, and Frank McKinney…
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