How to Connect Your Startup With Development Capital

January 2012

When I started my own business I had essentially no capital. I had left a decent-paying job because I was fed up with the lack of appreciation and advancement at the company.

I knew that one of the best ways to meet my personal financial goals was to strike out on my own. I was going to take the world by storm and become the best payroll-service provider in the region. Did I mention I was broke?  Click here to read more...

5 Things To Consider When Sharing Your Story With The World

December 2011

I am an avid reader. Not just business books, but all types of books. One of my favorite books is The Tipping Point by Macolm Gladwell. He is such an easy read, yet has a detailed style and cadence to his writing that even the exhaustive research information and exquisitely crafted stories he tells are easily absorbed. He is a professional writer and has honed his craft over many years writing for various publications, including The New Yorker. Now you may not posses his penchant for prose or have his vast writing experience, but you may have the desire to be a writer. Don’t be discouraged; you just need to have a well thought out plan of action.  Click here to read more...



Information Overload: What Do You Really Need To Measure?

October 2011

My company recently hired a CFO to help us get a better handle on our financial situation. My business partner and I had been frustrated for a number of years because sometimes we were uncertain of what the numbers were really telling us. Part of the problem is that we have been fairly successful—the company grows every year and so do profits. Great, right? Only if you truly have a handle on what this means and have systems in place to ensure you are on a sustainable path. But with the never ending deluge of facts, figures and statistics, what do you actually need to see and how often do you need to see it? Click here to read more...



Excess Baggage: When It's Time To Leave That Difficult Employee Behind

August 2011

Hiring anyone during these challenging recessionary times can be risky to your bottom line for many reasons. The cost associated with recruiting, training, payroll and providing benefits is dramatically higher than it was just a few years ago. In a recent Career Builder survey, over 20 percent of small businesses stated they would be hiring in the second half of 2011; although that is good news, I can tell you from personal experience that sometimes relieving a difficult employee from duty may be just as advantageous as hiring a new star.

Years ago, we had a client service staff member at my payroll service company who was both intelligent and well spoken and did a solid job on her core responsibilities. The issue was that she did not play nice with others. Remember when you were young and there was always some neighborhood kid who was usually causing a ruckus and encouraging the good kids to join in? Well, employees can also cause this type of discord, if not more. There are various ways to deal with individuals like this to try to correct the issue, but they are not always effective in solving the problem.  Click here to read more...



The Power Of Millennials And How To Guide Them

July 2011

Working with the 20-something crowd is incredibly rewarding because you can have a tremendous impact on their outlook on career, life and desires. Shaped by a youth of instant gratification—compliments of today’s technology—many of the young adults entering today’s workforce have a different take on work and career than my generation. Quite frankly, it can be a challenge to bridge the gap to get the best from a set of society that is sometimes characterized as having a lack of ambition. Bridging that generational gap to find out what truly motivates the latest wave of college graduates is key to the growth of our struggling economy and future success as a nation.

“Millennials” grew up with technology at their fingertips in an era of instant gratification. For them, multitasking is second nature: they talk on the phone while updating their Facebook status and simultaneously typing a paper. Expression and acceptance are more important to this generation, and they have high expectations when entering the workplace. These qualities are often written off as entitlement and lack of ambition by employers who aren’t used to working with Generation Y, and these stereotypes certainly make it more difficult for the nearly 2.7 million recent college graduates to get their first professional job. Adding insult to injury is the very high unemployment rate and the staggeringly slow addition of jobs to our national workplace. We need this set of young professionals to lead the charge back to a prosperous economy.  Click here to read more...



Grit, Not Slick: The Tale Of 2 Sales Reps

May 2011

Many of my company’s large competitors are public companies that have been in the market for more than 25 years. They blazed a trail for smaller service providers and always appear to be on the cutting edge (or even bleeding edge) of what clients want in a payroll service provider. They have massive marketing budgets and equally large funds for training programs aimed at churning out highly-polished salespeople through a cookie-cutter machine. Each newly-minted salesperson appears better groomed than the previous one produced by this highly industrialized training mechanism. However, I’m not envious and I certainly don’t covet this sterile approach.

What I have determined in almost 20 years as a sales professional and business owner is that the big-company approach doesn’t always work for small business owners. I am not suggesting that you avoid an organized approach to training your modestly-sized sales team, but pumping out robots may not serve you well. Humans need to express themselves as individuals to truly be an integral and productive part of your team.  Click here to read more... 



The Napoleon Complex: Little Companies With Big Attitudes

March 2011

The memory of the launch of my payroll company remains very clear in my mind. The business was finally open, but there was just one problem: there were no clients who actually needed payrolls prepared. The equipment in the office was fancy—a new printer and a great little computer network. I even had one staff member. Does my mom count?

Nevertheless, the business was operating and ready to take on the giant payroll processors of the world. Armed with unbridled enthusiasm, I began guiding a fledgling venture on a path to conquer an industry—or at least a little segment.  Click here to read more...