When you push a meeting, you are letting someone cut in line. Make sure it is worth it.
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When approaching a problem or assessing a new idea, we think of all the ways that something can go wrong, blow up in our faces, or just plain fail. We are too busy trying to predict doom to even see that there is a path to success. It turns out, when we change the question from "Can we...?" to "How do we...?" nothing is impossible. Things can be difficult, inadvisable, or even unreasonable but not impossible. Don't wait for the next crisis to shift your mindset--start now.
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The hardest part of planning for the long-term is seeing past the giant dollar sign directly in front of your face. It's huge. It's right there. It says everything is going just fine. It is also blocking your view of the cliff just ahead. COVID's business impact shows us why this is important.
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Weeding out the square pegs for your round hole is only the beginning.
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For our inaugural Ask An Entrepreneur, I spoke to my good friend Shannon Gail Clemonds owner/operator of Shannon Gail. Shannon Gail is a Chicago-based event planning firm producing 90+ weddings and events per year locally and across the United States. The team is comprised of a unique blend of business and event professionals with backgrounds in finance, marketing, design, venue management, hospitality, and catering and prides itself on being the go-to expert in all areas of event production. In its 10 years of business, the company has continued to set the bar for event management standards and has built an impressive resume of corporate and social clientele.
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Listening, and being responsive, to customer feedback is an integral part of any business. That is not a surprise (or if it is, there are other things you should be reading before this blog). However, what isn’t talked about very often is which customers should not always have their advice heeded. Business leaders need to be careful which customers they listen to. The squeaky wheel gets the grease… The silent wheel writes online reviews. *
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I can hear the eyes rolling now. How can a complicated system of surveys—developed at a time when tight rolled jeans, permed hair, and BUM equipment sweaters were in style—possibly help an agile 201x startup stay agile? Well, it can’t. However, the final capability rating is a quick way to evaluate any part of any company on the fly.
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Growth is a result. It is not a goal. Growth can be used as a benchmark to determine if a goal is achieved but it should not be a standalone goal.
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