Mike's Blog

Bet On The Jockey And The Horse

Bet On The Jockey

Bet on the jockey, not the horse. That’s what they say. And they are wrong – ish. Betting on the jockey just means you have someone with a history of drive, focus and experience. The problem is even the world’s best jockey riding a gimp horse will still lose. The jockey can guide a horse [...]

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Don’t Have Any Regrets In Life

Have No Regrets

I have regrets. It seems like yesterday that I was in college (Go Hokies!). I remember high school so vividly that I still think (and act) like I am in it. It feels that moments ago, I was swinging from the jungle gym and enjoying nap time during my kindergarten class. But that stuff is [...]

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How To Be Positive About Something Negative

frown to a smile

I am not sure if this applies to entrepreneurship as much as life itself, but here it goes.  I was at the gym yesterday, and the woman on the treadmill next to me was clearly cranking some Phillip Phillips in her headset. Her squeaky, ear warping, horrible voice was singing “cause I am going to [...]

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Why You Need To Ask Better Questions

Thinking Through Questions

As entrepreneurs, we ask ourselves questions all the time – how we can get more customers, how we can get more money, or how even how we can get more expenses to qualify as a legitimate tax deductions (come on, we’ve all done it). But when it comes to asking ourselves questions, we would be [...]

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The Entrepreneurs Addiction: Top Line Growth

Top Line Revenue

When we focus on the top line, any sale is a good sale. Any paying client is a good client. Anything that makes money is everything we want. Top line addiction results in a single need: sell, sell, sell. Sell everything and sell anything. That’s a problem, since all sales are not the same. The [...]

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See It Through The Eyes Of A Client

The Eye

You Don’t Get It, Because You Don’t See It. You don’t really get it. Nor do I. Nor does any entrepreneur. We think we know what it takes to build buildings. To write books. To fix computers. To do what we do. Yet we don’t. You don’t get it because you make it. You don’t [...]

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What Passion Is Not

What Passion Is Not

I saw this billboard in New York City.  It totally misrepresents passion.  Passion is not the feature – what we do. Passion is in the benefit – why we do what we do.   A person isn’t passionate about supply chain management, but a person could be passionate about the benefits that supply chain management provides. [...]

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Marketing To Psychographics

The Thinker

Psychographics are used to define persons by their interests, immutable laws, attitudes and experience. Too often we market to demographics alone, the quantifiable parameters of persons such as sex, age and marital status. Marketers get trapped selling to what is going on outside (demographics), ignoring what is going on inside (psychographics). Just because your top [...]

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How To Break The Generic Label Trap

A broken record

Integrated Counsel Trumps Lawyer When you hear the word lawyer, what do you think? Costly. Paperwork. Stressful. Reserved. Antagonistic. When you hear integrated counsel, what do you think? Probably nothing comes to mind, since you never heard it before. If you are asking yourself what does that mean. . . I just broke the generic [...]

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15 Stupid Business Ideas, That Are Actually Super Smart

“Your idea is stupid.” Has anyone ever told you that your business idea won’t make it? That your idea is too odd, too unique or too different? That you need to stick with what is proven? Here is the dealio, your entrepreneurial success is almost exclusively determined by following your passion, servicing the living hell [...]

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How To Take Advantage Of Being A Micro-Enterprise

micro enterprise

How To Take Advantage Of Being A Micro-Enterprise If you’ve been calling yourself an entrepreneur, yet feeling more like a freelancer and less than a business owner, stop for minute. You may actually be a micro-enterprise. Okay, if you’re like most people, you may not even know for sure what a micro-enterprise is, or if [...]

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The 35 Ways To Find What Your Real Talent Is

Find Your Secret Talent

What are your secret, real talents?  Secret talents are those special skills you have that you may not use on a regular basis. Everybody has at least one secret talent. It doesn’t matter what your secret talent may be. What matters is that you know it’s there. The talent is yours to use as you [...]

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People Buy Experiences

People buy experiences

I don’t care if your business makes a product or delivers a service, at the end of the day, people buy experiences. That soap your company makes, may be delivering the experience of cleanliness.  Your competitor’s soap, assuming it is marketed differently, may sell the experience of wakefulness.  Another may sell the experience of confidence. The [...]

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7 Ways Bad Economies Are Good For Business

bad economy is good

7 Ways Bad Economies Are Good For Business I got the memo, but I chose not to attend any of the, “The economy sucks and my business is ruined,” pity parties people are throwing around me. I know all too well that economic issues have beaten businesses in this country with the ugly stick for [...]

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