“Business Execution” has been retired!!

by GeneralUncategorized

In 2009 I decided to brand my fledgling management consulting business as ‘Collaborative Xceleration’ with a focus on helping small business owners with ‘Excellent Execution’.  So, when I started my blog, it was with that same focus on execution in business, hence the blog title ‘Business Execution’.

After over a year without any posts, I am retiring the blog name ‘Business Execution’ and replacing it with ‘Think Plan Execute’ to reflect my broader interest in the full life-cycle of starting and running a small business.

Stay tuned for more information from ‘Think Plan Execute’.

No Time to Develop Process? Think Again!!

by with No Comment EntrepreneurExecutionProcessSmall Business

A number of years ago a new client responded to my question “can I see last year’s financials?” by handing me the check register for his business checking account.  Ignoring some other issues (many?), this is indicative, to me, of a problem that many individuals have when they start their business – they don’t put processes in place to ensure that what needs to be done is a) being done, and b) being done in a standard and repeatable manner.

So when should you develop and implement processes for your business?

Pivot!! Make Your Decisions Quickly

by with 4 Comments EntrepreneurExecutionGeneralPlanning & StrategySmall Business

Those of you that know me, or have been following my Business Execution blog, know that I am a big proponent of planning – both strategic and tactical.  So, how can I now be advising you to make your decisions quickly?  Doesn’t that fly-in-the-face of taking the time to think things through and plan?

Let me explain why I don’t think that it does, and why I believe that the speed of your decision making can be an accelerant to the growth of your business.  After all, I am as big a proponent of execution as I am of planning.

I’m a Square!!

by with One Comment EntrepreneurExecutionSmall Business

Yes, I admit it … but probably not in the way you are currently thinking.  The Square in my title is the credit card reader/application/service that I use for taking credit card payments – so maybe the title should be “I’m a Square user”!!

Earlier this week I was discussing with someone why I started my business and why my ‘focused market niche’ is in the entrepreneurial and small business space.  Square is an example of one of the market drivers behind my decision to start my own business.

Can money make you stupid?

by with No Comment EntrepreneurExecutionFundingPlanning & StrategySmall Business

Last week I talked about the new JOBS Act making “equity-based crowd funding” legal; and how I believe it is a good thing for startup funding.  So this week I thought I would talk about a potential pitfall for the entrepreneur from this “easy money”.  I’m ignoring any pitfalls that may be introduced by the act itself – until we see a draft of the regulations I think it is too soon to comment.

While I don’t have any “real data”, based on my own experience I would say that when you talk to people starting a business at least 80% of them come out with some statement along the lines of “if I can raise [insert number here], then all of our problems will be solved”.  Unfortunately for many of them, raising the amount of money they are targeting – or even twice as much – won’t help them succeed.