Reading List: Procrastinate on Purpose
Everything you know about time management is wrong, writes self-discipline strategist Rory Vaden in Procastinate on Purpose. OK, why? Because time management hinges on logical factors (checklists and calendars) without accounting for the emotional underpinnings (wanting to impress or needing to feel valued) that influence how we choose to spend our time. According to Vaden, […]
3 Steps for Crushing It in E-Commerce
If you’ve been running a successful retail business for years, eventually your sales might someday seem to hit a brick (and mortar) wall. And if you’ve been attracted by the allure of an online store—where the rent is cheap and the selling hours are 24/7—rest assured that it’s easy to get started and that the […]
Reading List: Getting to Yes with Yourself
The biggest impediment to a successful negotiation isn’t the person sitting on the other side of the desk or dinner table. It’s our human tendency to react in ways that ultimately undermine our interests, writes William Ury, co-founder of Harvard’s Program on Negotiation and co-author of the worldwide best-seller Getting To Yes. To illustrate the […]
Reading List: The Business Romantic
Businesses today need an infusion of wonder, enchantment and mystery, contends self-described business romantic Tim Leberecht, chief marketing officer of the global design and architecture firm NBBJ. In Leberecht’s lexicon, a business romantic “embraces hope as a strategy… delivers return-on-community, and develops, designs and implements ‘acts of significance,’ that restore… trust in business as the […]
Danger Stalked, but That Didn’t Stop Adam Walker from Swimming 7 Oceans
As Adam Walker waded into the Hawaiian surf, he felt supremely confident. An aspiring long-distance, open-water swimmer, he’d already mastered the bitterly cold English Channel, so the swim that lay ahead of him—the 26 miles of Pacific Ocean between Molokai and Oahu—should have been a piece of cake by comparison. “I thought, Let’s have some warm water […]
Reading List: How to Fly a Horse
“Creating is not magic; it’s work,” argues Kevin Ashton, a successful entrepreneur and co-founder of the Auto-ID Center at MIT. Ashton challenges what he calls the “creativity myth,” the belief that human inventiveness and ingenuity result from eureka moments of inspiration or genius. As proof he recounts a personal story. In 1997, while at Procter […]
How Well Do You Know Liam’s Lines?
In an acting career that has spanned almost four decades and more than 70 movies, Liam Neeson has played a lot of tough guys and uttered thousands of tough-guy lines. Here are some of the most memorable, along with a couple of the less-familiar. Can you match the macho dialogue to the movie? LINES 1. […]
Reading List: Meetings Matter
Meetings come in all shapes and sizes. Whether it’s a chance encounter, an informal get-together or an official gathering, the way you interact, react and handle the discussion majorly impacts the results. In his well-organized, thorough and sensible approach to the art of communication, consultant and conversational skills trainer Paul Axtell presents eight strategies that […]
3 Inventory Management Methods for Your Online Store
When merchants—even the little guys who run an Etsy or eBay store—sell products online, inventory is a key issue. Where do they store it? And how do they keep track of what’s running low and what’s not moving at all? The best option may largely hinge on the stage of the business, whether it’s a […]
Smart Ways to Engage Your Social Media Fans
As more small businesses take to Facebook to promote themselves, many have seen a decline in the number of fans their posts actually reach. Yet a study by social media marketing company Komfo found that engagement rates are actually increasing. Komfo’s study analyzing over 8,000 business pages worldwide from August 2013 to August 2014 discovered […]
Reading List: Work Simply
One-size-fits-all time-management programs don’t work, argues the founder of Working Simply, a leadership and productivity consultancy. These programs fail because they center on the belief that impaired productivity is the result of poor time allocation. Erroneous, says Carson Tate. According to her, the true culprit is our work strategies. She says the secret to accomplishing […]
How to Set Your 2015 Sales Target
I once saw the late Zig Ziglar tell an audience that he could teach each person to beat the world’s top archer. He followed by saying all he’d need to do is line them all up, show them how to pull back the bow and aim at their targets. And then he would blindfold the Olympic champ. […]