Limping Financial Results: Affecting Your Business And Your Life? |  |
- Limping Financial Results: Affecting Your Business And Your Life?
- Rod Kurtz’s Advice to Would-Be Entrepreneurs: Take the First Step
- Our Latest List of Small Business Contests and Awards
- DEMO Launches Angel Alley to Help Startups Get Funded
- “Yes To The Mess” Inspires Leadership Amid Business Chaos
| Limping Financial Results: Affecting Your Business And Your Life? Posted: 02 Sep 2012 01:00 PM PDT There is a continual stream of decisions that every small business owner makes. And every single one of them has an impact on the financial results your business creates for you.
Just a few of these things include:
Decisions like these may seem just like ordinary business decisions that need to be made. However, they are anything but ordinary. These types of decisions are a double-edge sword for you – full of risk at the same time they are full of potential. Full of risk because they determine how much profit and cash flow your business creates for you. And full of potential because they give you the power to combine them in ways that can create truly amazing financial results. If you're like the vast majority of small business owners, however, you aren't on either edge of that double-edged sword. You probably find yourself in the middle – not creating destructive financial results, but not creating great ones either. The chances are really good that instead of either of those extremes you are suffering from what is perhaps the most painful business malady out there – LFR. LFR is a term that stands for what I call "Limping Financial Results." LFR is the frustrating and emotionally draining situation where you manage to create financial results that just allow you to "get by." Financial results that allow you to keep your doors open, pay yourself something, and make any loan repayments as they are needed. I call that state of business LFR because it's a lot like if you have a sore ankle or leg. You hobble and limp along, managing to get where you're going – eventually. But it's slow, awkward and painful while you're doing it. When it comes to creating financial results, it's much better to be like a well-trained runner. Effortlessly using full strides to get where you want to go with grace, speed, and confidence. The key to getting your business into that state is to get rid of LFR from your business. You can relax. Because getting rid of LFR isn't really all that hard. Once you've become aware of the fact that it is affecting you, your business, and your financial results, there is a proven series of steps that you can take to destroy it. And by following these steps you will remove LFR from your life, and replace it with the ability to confidently start creating financial results that will make you proud. There are seven steps to destroying LFR if it is present in your business:
Don't worry about the details of each of these seven steps right now. In upcoming articles, we're going to cover each of these steps so you can learn what, exactly, you need to do each step of the way toward removing LFR from your life. Financially Limping Photo via Shutterstock From Small Business Trends |
| Rod Kurtz’s Advice to Would-Be Entrepreneurs: Take the First Step Posted: 02 Sep 2012 11:00 AM PDT
After working for Inc. Magazine, BusinessWeek, AOL and Huffington Post as a journalist or editor, Rod now works with a variety of organizations as a media consultant, to help foster an ongoing conversation about entrepreneurship. After interviewing and writing about entrepreneurs, he’s got a pretty good handle on what it takes to succeed:
What’s Not to Love? Rod found inspiration in the small businesses he wrote about:
He says small businesses create jobs, invent new products, re-invent industries — all on their own terms. And coming from a family of entrepreneurs, he always knew it was inevitable that he, too, would become one. From Traditional to Digital Kurtz sees technology as being a major game-changer for small business and something that’s made his new endeavor as a media consultant possible. Technology has, he says, transformed industries and spawned new others, which opens up his access to media:
Judging the Influencers Rod was honored as a Small Business Influencer last year and this year, he served as a judge:
Editor's Note: This article is one of a series of interviews of key players in the Small Business Influencer Awards. From Small Business Trends |
| Our Latest List of Small Business Contests and Awards Posted: 02 Sep 2012 09:30 AM PDT Here’s our latest roundup of contests, awards and competitions — specifically for small businesses. Find one to participate in. Enter. And get financial rewards or just recognition (we know you need that!). -
Dell has launched a $100 million Innovators Credit Fund, with the purpose of helping entrepreneurs "maximize potential for innovation, speed to market and job creation." The credit fund will offer both funding and technology resources with IT support, depending on what each start-up needs. To be eligible, you must have already received some angel funding or venture capital before you can apply. Start-ups can get up to 10% of its current funding or up to $150,000 with limited credit terms. See website for details and application.
Toshiba, Intel and Staples have teamed up to help small businesses share their stories and win thousands of dollars in new technology. Throughout 2012, they will award $10,000 technology makeovers to American businesses and free Intel-powered Ultrabooks to the people who support them. Categories include Powering Knowledge, Powering Innovation, Powering Service, Powering Products, and Powering Good. See website for details and entry guidelines.
Pitney Bowes, working with the Stamford Innovation Center, has launched an Entrepreneurial Competition to create connections with promising entrepreneurs and startups and to explore new business opportunities built upon Pitney Bowes technologies and capabilities. Winners receive one year of free office space and internet access in our Pitney Bowes WHQ in Stamford, CT, plus an introduction and access to our partner, the Stamford Innovation Center, along with their mentoring and coaching services for PB Entrepreneurial Competition companies.
To enter, share a few brief thoughts about why you love serving your customers and your community.
To enter, contestants must email a photo in jpeg format to stapler@ofminc.com with a short description of how they make sure their stapler stays at their desk—whether it's attaching it to a chain made out of rubber bands and paper clips, writing their name on it with white correction fluid, or some other creative idea. Brought to you by OFM and Swingline, first prize is an OFM desk of your choice and a red Swingline stapler.
The annual Entrepreneurship Hall of Fame celebrates the College of Business Administration’s ongoing commitment to entrepreneurship and honors alumni who not only are successful entrepreneurs but who also have contributed significantly to the entrepreneurial business community. The Entrepreneurship Hall of Fame was established in 1999 to recognize Florida International University alumni who have achieved distinction as founders and builders of new business enterprises.
To be eligible for consideration, companies must meet the following criteria:
The 2012-2013 MillerCoors Urban Entrepreneurs Series (MUES) business plan competition is now open and accepting entries. Since 1999, MillerCoors has invested more than $1.7 million in the dreams of entrepreneurs. This year brings new opportunities for entrepreneurs like you. Enter your business plan for a chance to vie for a $50,000 business grant and potentially become a MillerCoors supplier.
Do you have a great idea for an Infusionsoft App, integration or plug-in that will enhance the Infusionsoft user experience? Then you have a shot at being crowned the Kick Apps Champion in the Battle of the Apps 2013. First prize is $10,000. See website for details.
Shopify has teamed up with four world-class entrepreneurs to
The list of awards and competitions is brought to you by Small Business Trends and Smallbiztechnology.com. To find more small business events, contests and awards, visit our Small Business Events Calendar. Please note: The descriptions provided here are for convenience only and are NOT the official rules. ALWAYS read official rules carefully at the site holding the competition, contest or award. From Small Business Trends |
| DEMO Launches Angel Alley to Help Startups Get Funded Posted: 02 Sep 2012 08:00 AM PDT For new entrepreneurs and startups, securing that first bit of funding needed to really get your project off the ground can seem like an impossible task. Without the right connections and opportunities, lack of funding can ensure that a great idea never comes to fruition, particularly for those in the tech industry.
A new program is aiming to help these new ideas seek out the funding they need to get off the ground. The DEMO Conference announced a new sponsor program for startups this week called "Angel Alley." The program is intended for startups without any professional angel investors who could use help gaining an audience with investors attracted by the DEMO Conference. Interested entrepreneurs and startups must apply online by September 7, 2012 and then a team of judges will select 30 companies to deliver their pitches to a panel of startup founders and venture capitalists in mid September. Then the top ten companies selected will attend the DEMO Conference in October to participate in the Angel Alley program. The ten winning companies will be given tables in the main pavilion at DEMO, where they can show off their ideas and hard work to potential investors and the rest of the attendees at the conference. One of the startups will even be selected to present an Alpha-Pitch. The audience at DEMO will choose the winning company. Throughout the past 22 years, DEMO says that more than 1,500 companies and 20,000 technologies have launched. DEMO's website has a long list of companies and products that were introduced at the DEMO conference and are now widely used, including Adobe Acrobat, TiVo, Leapfrog, and even Skype's first implementation for mobile handsets. DEMO will take place October 1-3, 2012 at the Hyatt Regency in Silicon Valley. The conference focuses on emerging technologies and new product innovations. From Small Business Trends |
| “Yes To The Mess” Inspires Leadership Amid Business Chaos Posted: 02 Sep 2012 06:00 AM PDT
You know that mess. A mess of marketing and financial mischief in an organization that gives business owners heartburn and headaches. All business experiences the struggle of establishing an organized system to serve customers and clients efficiently, especially when growth is occurring. In his book, Barrett offers how business should embrace uncertainty to make creative leadership and value decisions. An accomplished jazz pianist who has led his own trios and quartets and traveled extensively with the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra, Barrett is Professor of Management and Global Public Policy at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California. I learned about the book through reviewing some of the Harvard Business Press releases, was curious on what Barrett wrote, and requested a copy. Jazz is well known for its improvisation, and Barrett wastes no time in connecting jazz asthetic to making the most of organizational uncertainty. Being improvisional means more than dealing an off-the-cuff answer to an immediate question. It means to be constantly learning and developing methodologies that help businesses adopt in an evolving world.
Ongoing learning also means facing "Goofs on YouTube" and copycat competitors as a part of accepting some mess to get the essence of business success. Cue the Twitter backlashes of McDonalds #McStories and the #NBCFail Olympic coverage along with the recent Apple-Samsung legal struggle, and you can easily imagine what Barrett means. Barrett suggests that a business' reactions are not just to address the mess, but to collaborate and to apply innovation for lasting results:
But can a small business apply this experimentation? Business development can be at a premium for small business resources. More clear examples may help those readers who seek raw, "here's-whacha-gotta-do" suggestions. But Barrett's summaries behind his thesis blend well to inform which capabilities a small organization can imagine being best developed. One example is in his comment on technology and how teams can interact:
This is what made me enjoy how the book framed what Barrett calls "learning and disciplined innovation." The descriptions not only eases the reader into imagining Barrett's points, but also the places in which implementation seem plausible. Examples include making a concerted effort to unlearn old habits quickly, and develop the right activity that builds an organization:
Jazz has always been an art form that blends structure with learning as you go. So it is no wonder that Yes to the Mess has a playful tone – dare I say there’s a ton of fun in this business book? Yes To The Mess’s accessibility in applying jazz-influenced creativity as business food for thought is no doubt an off shoot from its author's subject matter. Direct ideas may come from other books on more specific topics such as finance and marketing. But hey leave those details to the squares! If you are problem solving for your organization or team and have an imaginative personality, you'll feel like a cool cat from reading this book. From Small Business Trends |
Rod Kurtz (
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