MATT THOMASWelcome to Entre-Propel. My name is Matt Thomas and I write the articles here at Entre-Propel.com to help entrepreneurs deal with the various emotional difficulties associated with running a business--lack of motivation, startup difficulties, dealing with failure, as well as many others. [read more...]
You have just passed a huge milestone in your business. What do you do next?
Don’t rest yet! There is still plenty for you to do. However, remember that there are also plenty of things NOT to do. [click to continue...]
Yes, yes. This is a rhetorical question. Of course trust is important in business!
With widespread uncertainty and distrust in the economy today, it is even more important that your company remains trustworthy.
However, if you hope to appear trustworthy to everyone, it is important that you actually are trustworthy to everyone. This includes your customers, suppliers, employees…even your competitors. [click to continue...]
Do you offer a service heavily reliant upon your relationship with your clients?
Are you having difficulty growing without needing to dedicate more of your own time?
Pretend you have an accounting or medical practice. For the most part, your clients do business with you because they trust you as a professional, and your business generally grows because of your relationship with your clients. [click to continue...]
The failure of these companies has created quite unprecedented conditions in the financial markets. There are a lot of buzzwords that we have been hearing as to why these companies have failed: debt, risk, sub-prime, greed and many, many others. But there is one key reason for this entire mess and it presents a valuable lesson for all of us entrepreneurs, managers and investors alike as to what to do and what not to do.
What is the true reason for this crisis? Its very simple: these businesses all had a short-term outlook. Allow me to explain: CEOs are under a tremendous amount of pressure from shareholders to generate stellar returns as quickly as possible. The board of directors, acting on behalf of the shareholders want a return and they want one now. They view returns on a quarterly basis, NOT a yearly basis. If there is a similar company generating even larger returns than this company, this company’s CEO is seen as doing a poor job. He/she will need to amend the company’s portfolio of assets to make sure that this company delivers like (or greater) returns. Otherwise, the CEO is fired. [click to continue...]
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