)You’ve heard you are what you eat, well we believe that you are what you read. Teach a CEO presents lessons from our bookshelf on how you can improve and grow your venture. We have taken gems or nuggets from our library and provide them for CEO’s, startups, entrepreneurs and business owners.
The Art of Business
- Business is Art. To be as effective as you can be, you must articulate that it is you want, revise your plans as you go along, and track your results so that you know what needs to be revised and how, and so that you can better articulate what it is you want. (Business Is ART)
- Throwing off the shackles of choreography is necessary to stay relevant, but I willingness and desire to do so are not enough. You also have to have a plan for how to proceed once the shackles have been removed. It does no good to throw off the shackles only to stand there and wait for someone to slap them back on. it takes a willingness to explore in order to figure out how to throw off the shackles of choreography. You have to try applying old solutions to new problems. You have to apply new solutions to new problems. You have to try applying new solutions to old problems. But the important thing is to try to take calculated risks. (Business Is ART)
- Think about this in terms of your ability to focus. Studies have shown the most human beings can only effectively focus on two to not more than five things at a time. By the same logic the business. When a business or organization attempts to focus on too many things, all those things suffer. presentation to do more is greater because of our “instant” society, we want things done and we want them done now. But some things still take time. (Business Is ART)
- Without proper metrics, you can determine how to move forward. You can't be certain the suit will fit until you try it on and find that it doesn't. (Business Is ART)
- Andy Warhol said that good business is the best kind of art, and this is a great way to look at it too many times, business is presented as a science, scaring artist, be they painters, roofers, bakers, or plumbers, away from learning and exercising good business practices. Too many times, the notion of business as a science makes business leaders think that science, processes, methodology, and practices rule the day forgetting the artful aspects of the business. Business is both an art and a science, the most successful business leaders wear both hats ( or aprons) equally. (Business Is ART)
Feedback
- To be honest, giving ourselves effective, worthwhile feedback is probably impossible. But that doesn't mean it's a waste of time to try… As a good manager you are entombed to the individual nature of each of your direct reports are employees (and probably have a better than good sense of the nature of your colleagues and, especially, your own managers or supervisors). Understanding their nature -and that the people you manage are just that, people – their ambitions, hopes and dreams outside the company, as well as their career path, will provide invaluable as you begin revolutionizing your approach the feedback. (Feedback Revolution)
- Feedback doesn't exist in a vacuum. Every step of our feedback journey so far has involved both interior thought and reflection, and external observation and documentation. It has been a discipline, candid process, and until the moment you let the employee or colleague know that you have some feedback to offer, it is a process that takes place within your own thoughts and notes. (Feedback Revolution)
- In short, they staid, antiquated and ineffective, filed and forgotten performance review is best replaced with the dynamic and highly effective personal feedback, personally and individually crafted and delivered on an ongoing and near constant basis. In order to do that, we have to first rethink and in some ways reinvent what we think feedback is, and how we go about providing and receiving it. That's what the feedback Revolution is all about. (Feedback Revolution)
Scaling Lean
- I often see entrepreneurs come back with 10 commitments from friends, which is a good start, but not yet a repeatable production rate. The exercise isn't about just talking to 10 people once but building a system that you can repeatedly get tens of people interested in your product. (Scaling Lean)
- How did Facebook manage to win against bigger and better-funded competitors who had a huge head start? the answer colon Facebook one on strategy – not on and an original founding vision when inherently unfair advantage. why Facebook had a ballpark destination set by its closest rivals, the most impressive aspect of it story was how it wrote out the product in stages. (Scaling Lean)
- You don't need a lot of users to validate a business model. (Scaling Lean)
Starting a Successful Business
- These days, most people blend traditional and online techniques. You can meet new contacts the old-fashioned way, by getting involved in community organizations such as the Chamber of Commerce, or by attending business functions such as trade shows, and then follow up via LinkedIn and Facebook. Social functions – dinner invitations, book clubs golf outings, etc. – can lead to potential business any businesses use online networking to make contacts through mutual friends or former colleagues. (Start a Successful Business)
- Make it a point to surround yourself with smart people. There is a reason why the expression if you were the smartest person in the room, you're in the wrong room it can be especially true when talking about Trends and making sure your company involved with them. And easy way to connect with inform people Dash and to keep your post on where things are heading Dash is to attend industry conferences. And consider going to an advantage or conference in an industry outside of your own, as a way to detect opportunities on the periphery of your business. (Start a Successful Business)
- Communication is the real work of leadership. It Is a fundamental element of how leaders accomplish goals each and every day. You simply can't become a great leaders who you are a great communicator. Great communicators inspire people. They forge a connection with their followers that is real, emotional, and personal, regardless of any physical distance between them. Great communicators tell stories and paint verb verbal pictures so that everyone can understand not just where they're going but what it will look like and feel like when they get there. This inspires others to internalize the vision and make it their own. (Start a Successful Business)
Business Development in Consulting & Professional Services
- But what if you're not terribly gregarious by nature, more on the introverted side, and find building and nurturing relationships difficult? Many of us in the Professional Services fall into this camp. Consultants, accountants, engineers, and attorneys are cerebral by nature and not generally the life of the party. Does one's tendency towards introspection imply less future success at building a professional network according to our rainmakers, the answer is, “no.” There is not one personality type that is best when it comes to Business Development. The key is to be true to one's natural gifts. some professionals are really good at cold calls to individuals they think they can help. Some are strong thought leaders and enjoy writing about industrial industry trends. Some enjoy speaking at conferences and others enjoy meeting new friends at industrial industry social events. (How Clients Buy)
- And so few of us were trained and how to sell consulting and professional services. This is ironic. As a nation, we pride ourselves on being at the leading edge of business. We love showcasing technology companies at our business schools. And yet companies like Oracle, SAP, and Microsoft were built on effective sales forces in addition to great technology. Companies like Google and Facebook, while not as salesforce-intensive, are in the business of helping other businesses sell. (How Clients Buy)
- No matter what euphemisms we use to describe the process of connecting with those we wish to serve – business development, client development, or sales and marketing – there remains the truth and we need clients in order to be able to practice our professions. (How Clients Buy)
- In order for clients to buy from you, not only do they have to be aware you exist, but they also have to have a good sense of what you do. If they don't, they can't build a bridge from you to the problem they have now or might face in the future. Put another way, they won't remember you because you don't live in a box that has a strong access route to it. (How Clients Buy)
- Clients hire people that they know, respect, and trust, or who come highly recommended by a friend or colleague who they know, respect, and trust. This logic implies that the more people you know, the more opportunities you'll have for building respect and Trust. Rainmakers tend to know a lot of people, but it is not the number that matters–it is the quality of those relationships. (How Clients Buy)
CEO Bookshelf
Business Is ART: and science, gut instinct, hard work, and a certain amount of luck – Estimates say that as many as eight out of ten new businesses fail within the first eighteen months. More conservative estimates say that about half of new business start-ups are still in business four to five years later. In either case, the likelihood of business failure is very high. Studies prove that good planning practices more than double the chance of business success. Yet, the vast majority of small to medium sized businesses operate without a formal plan, and of those who do build a plan, only a handful carefully measure their targeted objectives and adjust their plans accordingly. Business Is ART provides business leaders with an easy-to-follow approach to business success. The book is intended for any business owner, executive or organizational leader, but is especially designed for the small to medium sized organization. Its purpose is to provide a simple process—with templates—that business and organizational leaders can follow, from the creation of a powerful vision, to strategic business plans, to performance metrics and back again in a continuous cycle of improvement. Created by Jon Umstead, and tested over a thirty year business career, the ART program shows business leaders how to successfully Articulate their vision, Revise their plans, and Track their progress. Umstead draws on personal anecdotes and experience, as well as wisdom from other business leaders, to create an engaging, accessible and empowering guide to business success.
Feedback Revolution: Building Relationships & Boosting Results – Feedback—timely, specific, two-way feedback is among the most effective communications tools we possess. And while we all possess the ability to master the art of giving effective feedback, most of us have not developed the skills necessary to do so. And we lack the skills because most of us don’t actually know what the elements of effective feedback are. Feedback Revolution was created to remedy that situation, and to remedy in an enjoyable, inviting and above all, practical way. The book was written to give you the tools you will need to create a feedback revolution in your organization. The purpose is to clear away the fog and misunderstandings that surround feedback as typically practiced and replace them with clarity, tools, and techniques for putting real feedback in place in your organization. Feedback Revolution rests upon experience, observation and research—every tip, tool or tactic presented has been tested in business and has demonstrated consistent effectiveness in the real world.
Scaling Lean: Mastering the Key Metrics for Startup Growth – Is your “big idea” worth pursuing? What if you could test your business model earlier in the process—before you’ve expended valuable time and resources? You’ve talked to customers. You’ve identified problems that need solving, and maybe even built a minimum viable product. But now there’s a second bridge to cross. How do you tell whether your idea represents a viable business? Do you really have to go through the whole cycle of development, failure, iteration, tweak, repeat? Scaling Lean offers an invaluable blueprint for modeling startup success. You’ll learn the essential metrics that measure the output of a working business model, give you the pulse of your company, communicate its health to investors, and enable you to make precise interventions when things go wrong. You’ll also learn how to:
· ballpark the viability of a business model using a simple five-minute back-of-the-envelope estimation.
· stop using current revenue as a measure of progress (it forces you to fly blind and, often, to overpromise to your shareholders) and instead embrace the metric of traction—which helps you identify the leading indicators for future business model growth.
· set progressive goals that set you up for exponential long-term success by implementing a staged 10X rollout strategy, like one employed by Facebook and Tesla.
· stop burying your breakthrough insights in failed experiments, but rather illuminate them using two-week LEAN sprints to quickly source, rank, and test ideas.
Ash Maurya, a serial entrepreneur and author of the startup cult classic Running Lean, pairs real-world examples of startups like Airbnb and Hubspot with techniques from the manufacturing world in this tactical handbook for scaling with maximum efficiency and efficacy. This is vital reading for any startup founder graduating from the incubator stage.
Start a Successful Business: Expert Advice to Take Your Startup from Idea to Empire (Inc. Magazine): Let Inc. help launch your dreams. Makers, doers, and dreamers-for decades they have turned to Inc. for help in getting their businesses off the ground. The publication's keen advice clarifies the process, while startup stories fuel aspirations and spark action. Warby Parker shook up the eyewear sector with its innovative, socially-conscious business model. Skullcandy tapped into the surfing, skateboarding, and hip-hop scenes-and built a standout audio brand. All along, Inc. was there, capturing triumphs, setbacks, and lessons learned. Now, Start a Successful Business gathers these important lessons into a single path-charting guide. From brainstorming to crowdfunding to building partnerships, the book walks new and aspiring founders through seven crucial stages: * Come up with a brilliant business idea * Select the best structure and strategy for your startup * Figure out funding * Get the word out-and get customers * Dig deep to discover their wants and needs * Become an exceptional leader * Prepare to go global Throughout, celebrated entrepreneurs share ideas that worked for them, including where Sarah Blakely got the inspiration for Spanx, how Elon Musk stays insanely productive, why Rent the Runway ditched the business plan, and how a hashtag accelerated Airbnb's success. With a fleet of trusted experts by your side, starting a business will be faster, less confusing-and a whole lot more fun.
How Clients Buy: A Practical Guide to Business Development for Consulting and Professional Services: The real-world guide to selling your services and bringing in business How Clients Buy is the much-needed guide to selling your services. If you're one of the millions of people whose skills are the ‘product,' you know that you cannot be successful unless you bring in clients. The problem is, you're trained to do your job—not sell it. No matter how great you may be at your actual role, you likely feel a bit lost, hesitant, or ‘behind' when it comes to courting clients, an unfamiliar territory where you're never quite sure of the line between under- and over-selling. This book comes to the rescue with real, practical advice for selling what you do. You'll have to unlearn everything you know about sales, but then you'll learn new skills that will help you make connections, develop rapport, create interest, earn trust, and turn prospects into clients.
Business development is critical to your personal success, and your skills in this area will dictate the course of your career. This invaluable guide gives you a set of real-world best practices that can help you become the rainmaker you want to be.
- Get the word out and make productive connections
- Drop the fear of self-promotion and advertise your accomplishments
- Earn potential clients' trust to build a lasting relationship
- Scrap the sales pitch in favor of honesty, positivity, and value
Working in the consulting and professional services fields comes with difficulties not encountered by those who sell tangible products. Services are often under-valued, and become among the first things to go when budgets get tight. It is now harder than ever to sell professional services, so your game must be on-point if you hope to out-compete the field. How Clients Buy shows you how to level up and start winning the client list of your dreams.