Business Transformation posts, articles, and infographics

Friendliest States for Small Businesses? Idaho, Texas, Oklahoma and Utah

May 13, 2012 by Kay Bell
with 25 views

Small businesses are made the most welcome in Idaho, Texas, Oklahoma and Utah, according to a recent analysis by Thumbtack.com, in partnership with the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation.Those four states each got an A+ grade from small business owners and managers.Disappointing report cards went to California, Hawaii, Vermont and Rhode... [read more]

Engaging Your Macro Metric As a True Measure of Success

May 12, 2012 by John Jantsch
with 26 views

Business owners and marketers are told to measure and quantify everything. The problem is this practice alone can lead to false assumptions and a fixation on things that simply don’t matter that much. Are website visits, Facebook Likes, newsletter signups or even revenue the true measure of success for your business? Perhaps, but... [read more]

Five For Friday: May 11, 2012

May 11, 2012 by Greg Verdino
with 15 views

According to Forrester, it might be confusion, politics and the shock of the new. Get past that and you’re faced with a world of opportunity — to reinvent pieces of your business that haven’t traditionally been considered “marketing”, to rethink your approach to audiences and new markets, and to get creative in involving your customers in all sorts of innovation. This week’s Five For Friday is all about making change happen. [read more]

10 Different Ways to Grow Your Small Business

May 10, 2012 by Small Biz Bee
with 45 views

When it comes to ensuring the growth and development of a small or midsize business, the best way to keep the proverbial goose and golden eggs on your front is by executing certain efficacious strategies. [read more]

The Amazon Effect: Zuora, Citrix and the Acceleration of the Cloud Economy

May 7, 2012 by Brent Leary
with 55 views

When Amazon started making their infrastructure and IT processes available outside the company firewall in 2006 it was a tipping point of sorts for business consumerization of the cloud. Companies of all sizes leveraged a variety of Amazon Web Services to store data, stream video, run online stores and a ton of other things. And now today consumers and businesses alike are adjusting quite nicely to life in the clouds. [read more]

Social Business: Where It's Been & Where It's Going

May 7, 2012 by David Armano
with 74 views

Despite much of the chatter around "social business," the reality is that most organizations are currently dealing with the realities of social media and only a few truly recognize the potential of social business. Not unlike how digital media evolved into digital business—social business takes the foundation of social media and begins to build new economic models on top of it [read more]

Tolerance and Prosperity

May 6, 2012 by Fred Wilson
with 22 views

Yesterday, my partners and I invited Paul Romer over to USV for lunch. For those that don't know, Paul is a leading thinker in the world of economics and currently a Professor at NYU. It was a fascinating conversation. My favorite part of it was Paul's "lecture" on William Penn, early Pennsylvania, and the reaction to the growth of... [read more]

Peer-To-Peer Lending Keeps Growing

May 4, 2012 by Christine Rare
with 84 views

Being a method for financing big projects and undertakings, crowdfunding is all the rage nowadays, especially in artistic sphere. Peer-to-peer lending opens the opportunity for the borrowers to obtain loans straight from other people bypassing the banks. [read more]

6 Surprising Truths About Business Growth

May 4, 2012 by Daniel Kehrer
with 58 views

Basically, author Ed Hess argues that everything you know about business growth is probably wrong. Yikes! So how can you tell the difference between “good growth” and “bad growth”? Here are six surprising truths about what growth is really about: [read more]

ViDEO: The Art and Science of a Smart Business Proposal

May 3, 2012 by Nina Kaufman
with 23 views

In this segment of MSNBC’s Your Business, I talk about how NOT to give away the store, and ways to prevent your customers from doing an end-run around your business proposal by soliciting your vendors directly. [read more]

Transparency in Succession Planning: To Tell or Not To Tell?

May 2, 2012 by Dan McCarthy
with 56 views

I recently attended a talent management networking meeting hosting by PDI Ninth House. The two presenters had a packed agenda with over 50 slides to get through. While it was all good and interesting, the part that sparked the most questions and discussions was the section on "transparency". [read more]

Another Airline Merger

April 27, 2012 by Jonathan Salem Baskin
with 20 views

I may be dim, but I’m having deja vu all over again after reading that the unions of newly-bankrupt American Airlines would rather consider a merger with habitually-bankrupt US Airways than pursue a draconian business plan proposed by their own management. [read more]

Gorilla vs. Guerilla: How Smaller Businesses Can Win

April 15, 2012 by Tushar Mathur
with 86 views

If you are in a business where some of the competitors are much larger, you may be able to benefit from using guerilla tactics. As a guerrilla, we hide from our competitor; we do not try to crush them. I even go so far as to examine what they do well and let them do it. At the same time, I look for under-serviced markets and get to these markets fast. [read more]

Build a Strong Online Presence for Your Business Even on a Budget

April 12, 2012 by Small Biz Bee
with 47 views

To be or not to be part of the online world? I believe in 2012 we’re well past this question. Almost any former offline-on-purpose SME has moved towards the internet at some point. We are aware of the massive benefits it brings even to hyper local small businesses. [read more]

Alternative Business Financing: Community Ownership

April 10, 2012 by Becky McCray
with 68 views

Many small businesses can't qualify for a small business loan from a traditional local bank. A bad credit record disqualifies many. Lending standards have tightened. Some small towns are limited by local banks that don't support small business; others don't have locally-owned banks any more. The good news is that alternatives are available. We are profiling alternatives to traditional small business loans in this ongoing series on financing. [read more]

How to Keep Business Relationships Professional but Friendly

April 9, 2012 by Small Biz Bee
with 74 views

Successful businesses are built upon solid relationships. Good businesses also realize that they need to put boundaries on those relationships. It takes some practice to create friendly relations that also manage to remain professional. What are some ways to create the boundaries between being friendly and being friends with your business associates? [read more]

Twitch

April 9, 2012 by Seth Godin
with 26 views

If you're scouting for a first baseman, you should keep your eyes open for someone with good twitch skills. Insanely fast reflexes, the ability to snatch a ball out of the air, someone who might not be able to run a marathon but is insanely quick with no notice. [read more]

How Often Do Employees Of VC-backed Startups Get Stock Options?

April 4, 2012 by Brad Feld
with 47 views

Question: How often do venture-backed start-up employees (let’s say non-executives) get stock option grants? Besides the initial grant when they start, how often do “re-up” grants come? Should they be expected after further funding rounds? After significant accomplishments/promotions? Never? [read more]

How (and Why) to Map Your Company’s Digital Landscape: 4 Ways

March 30, 2012 by Tom Pick
with 44 views

With more than 90% of companies now using social media to find employees and 82% having a Facebook page, there’s no question that business use of social media has become commonplace. But “use” and “success” are two different things. [read more]

Bright Lights Project - Free Markets

March 30, 2012 by Jonathan Salem Baskin
with 23 views

As someone interested in brands, I like looking a bit outside the bubble of marketing campaigns to get a deeper understanding of image, identity, and reputation. I also just got back from a road trip in which I had to fill up my car’s gas tank a few times. This got me thinking about gas prices and the ideology of Free Markets. [read more]