As the new year approaches, My virtual desk is as messy as ever. Usually every two or three days I make time to clean it up because I routinely am working on what feels like 5 different things at the same time. I keep telling myself its not going to happen again and I am going to work in a more organized fashion and then at some point it just goes straight down hill. For me it is almost always when I am digging for images or taking a lot of pictures for work or writing a lot. But I need…
Author: Lisa Canning
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We are newly forming industry, entrepreneurship is. And we are mostly still comprised of white gazelles. That’s where all industries are born. With exceptionalism. And with that kind of exceptionalism comes an elitist mentality. One that was required for that high achiever to reach and achieve breakthroughs and create new knowledge through discovery. It is this elitist portion of our entrepreneurial society that needs to be making a whole lot more small investments into entrepreneurs to get our industry humming. And if not them, then those who can afford to kick in a few bucks and invest in their communities.…
Sales are the lifeblood of a company. The main artery to keep the blood flowing is repeat business and referrals. It takes a lot of effort or sometimes a little blind, very good, luck to land a client who trusts you enough to give you their money. And when you can meet their expectations its all good. But what do we do when you don’t? Step 1: Admit first to yourself what part you played in their disappointment. Did you take an order for something you cannot deliver? Was the service not at the level the client expected? Did you completely miss what they asked…
“The only strategy that is guaranteed to fail is not taking risks.” ~ Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook Fueling growth for your business can without a doubt be a super challenging risk-filled experience. From financing new products to making sure you have the infrastructure to support more customers, locations, or employees, every aspect of increase in your business carries another investment of some sort. Responsible growth for your company means protecting against the unknown in all that you do. Why shouldn’t that include protecting against risks inherent with hiring more staff, adding more locations, or increasing your budget and needing access to…
If you want to build a scalable business, you won’t be doing it alone. A diverse team that works well together is critical. Finding a set of human beings you can work with on a daily basis, with a diverse set of thinking skills, who fit into all the various roles you need in your business is not just ‘nice to have’ but key to your success. Great ideas with burning opportunities are everywhere in search of a dream team. Team Chemistry is Key Finding the right people where together your chemistry produces something greater than the sum of the parts, is…
Life is short. The choices we make have a ripple affect in other areas of our lives. When we spend more time at work, we have less time for family, friends and activities we enjoy. And over time, those who enjoy spending time with us, if we continue to not be available, spend their time elsewhere and come to expect us to not be available for them. And while the love of the mission we are on, that results in the work, may be the reason we choose to spend all our time at it, what happens when it continuously…
For those of you who invest in us, or study us, or just ‘find us interesting’ to hang around with, as entrepreneurs we share some traits as a group in common: We are obsessive. We are curious. Way more curious than most of our friends about lots of things. We are risk takers. And we are relentless. How well we use these intrinsic human characteristics, combined with our instincts, determines, in large part, how successful we are realizing our visions for ‘world change’ of one kind or another. And while these traits might define us as entrepreneurs, they are human traits that transcend business…
Discipline. It’s a word that makes 1 percenters; defines lives that become successful; and determines usually who thrives. It takes a lot of it to achieve wealth, power and some fame for you and your family. Equally, it takes a-lot, if you want to do a-lot-of-good in this world. Assuming wealth, power, fame or doing good is at the heart of your motivation, your going to need to muster some sustainable discipline to realize it. So you better be pretty excited about whatever it is that is going to get you there. But for some reason the word discipline has always made me instantly associate…
Friends, as a founder I am proud to have participated in this report. This is important work that Startup Genome is doing. If you care about changing our world for the better, and believe entrepreneurship is the fastest route there, check out the 2017 Global Startup Ecosystem Report by Startup Genome. It’s long- 151 pages- but most of you, I am sure, are good speed reading skimmers. Worth your time friends. We are in this world together and need to do better at working together if we ever expect to change it. Below is the opening from the report. You will…
It’s been one of those weeks. I have been dealing with trying to break down what I call ‘Makers Arrogance’. I am not sure, honestly, if it is even possible to do. I have run into it on numerous occasions and found it largely impenetrable. But I am not giving up on all of you just yet. Although you have given me cause to. I am just as stubborn- but less narrow minded- than you. (insert my smiling face.) You see makers- technologists- software creators- coders-clarinet makers- often share a trait in common. They think because they have a technical…
