I Can’t Help You, Figure it Out!

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I’m almost done reading Wisemans’s book “Multipliers”. In the seventh chapter, the author talks about how certain leaders invest in their people. I know I should be investing in my people, but how? According to Wiseman, it’s very similar to how venture capitalists invest in various businesses. A trap that I find myself falling into is that of problem solver. When an issue arises and mangers ask me for a solution, I solve the problem. This in itself is a problem. When I solve the problem, it robs my managers the opportunity to solve it. I can think back to a time when I was working as an analytical chemist. I worked for an environmental testing laboratory. We analyzed contaminated Read more [...]

Logic of Addition vs. Multiplication

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I’m about halfway through Wiseman’s book; “Multipliers” and the book is really challenging some of my thinking (which is always a good thing). Basically the book describes how leaders can become “multipliers” instead of “diminishers”. Multipliers bring the best out of the people they lead and according to research these leaders get more than 100% out of their people. This is really interesting to me at the owner of a start-up. I am trying to provide our service for less cost. Do more with less and increase our profitability. According to Wiseman, this can be done and she sites many real word examples. Her point is made clear when she contrasts the logic of addition with the logic Read more [...]

Personal Goals for April 2011

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I've thinking about goals lately. At Astonish Results, I require all our managers to submit quarterly goals. I use what's called a "business alignment template" to help facilitate the process. This template makes sure that all the goals are SMART (specific, measurable, actionable, realistic and timely). You download the template by going here. I recently got away with my wife for a weekend. I love going to bookstores. I love to learn and what better place to find some new ideas. I sort of had a mini epiphany. There is so much for me to learn. So much I can learn. All I need to do is be purposeful about learning. So, what I thought I would do is post some of my personal goals for everyone to Read more [...]

What an Amazing Week at Astonish Results!

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This has been an amazing week at Astonish. I continue to learn more and more about what it takes to run a successful company. I love to learn. It's part of my DNA. I love to read about business and when I read something that confirms that we're going in the right direction, it motivates me. We have a great team here. I really cannot say enough about them. Each have their own strengths and it really makes my job easier and more fun. I can't wait to get up everyday and head into work. I've got two incredible partners, Adam and Tim. Both are uniquely gifted to do what they do. I feel that as a partner, my responsibility is to lift up and help my partners be even more effective than they already Read more [...]

Where are Your Marketing Dollars Going?

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I’m reading another great book, “Data-Driven Marketing” by Mark Jeffery. In it, Jeffery cites some revealing stats. He looked at marketing budgets of hundreds of companies and found something really interesting. He defined different buckets or categories as to where each company’s marketing dollars were going. Here are the buckets: Lead Generation Branding and awareness Customer Relationships Shaping Markets Infrastructure What’s interesting about his findings was that the leaders (those companies that had better results) spent more money on their infrastructure and creating systems that allowed them to market more effectively. The point here is that businesses that were short-term Read more [...]

The Astonish Results Start-Up Culture

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Lately I’ve been thinking about the Astonish Results culture and what makes it special. Astonish is a start-up. We began back in 2006, focused on the mortgage industry, then changed our focus on insurance and have been growing like crazy ever since. According to a great article by Greg Gottesman. There are three reasons why a start-up is successful: -          Team -          Timing -          Product I can honestly say (and the numbers don’t lie) that we have all three. So what are the characteristics of a great start-up (Astonish included)? Here’s my top 8 list. Quickly changing and evolving At Astonish, things are always changing and always evolving. Read more [...]

Where Have all the Software Engineers Gone?

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At Astonish Results, we’ve been having a tough time hiring the people we need for our business. We need talented software engineers to develop and maintain our products. We need people that understand programming, but can also think critically. We need folks that understand our business. We’ve been posting jobs and searching the normal channels to find the employees we need. It’s been incredibly difficult to find these people and the people we do find, tend to either have too little experience or want a boat load of money (even when they can’t even program in the language that we want them to – C#, .net etc). This is what is happening in the employment economy these days. If you’re Read more [...]

Small Business Financial Models – Key to Success

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I've had the opportunity recently to do some small business consulting. Like many small businesses, this small biz was looking for more effective ways to market itself. We began with the obvious online channels - a website and blog. We began a search engine marketing campaign using Google Adwords to get a feel for what keywords his ideal customer was typing into Google to find him. As we began looking at the metrics ( the number of clicks or visitors driven to his website, the conversion rate of his website, his closing ratio etc), I realized there were deeper issues. "How much does it cost you to service this customer", I asked? He didn't know. Our conversation then migrated into a discussion Read more [...]

Are You A “2 in 1″ Leader?

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In a recent HBR blog post the author introduced the concept of "2 in 1" leadership. " brilliant leaders who have one foot in tomorrow and the other firmly on top of today's issues. " This got me thinking both about my business as well as the companies we work with. It can be really easy to get bogged down in the day to day operation of your business, especially in the current economic environment. Many businesses are just trying to "survive". I would submit that all businesses must have "2 in 1" leadership. What does the future look like for your company? I'm not suggesting you become a fortune teller, but that you begin the regular discipline of looking at the future and performing focused thinking Read more [...]

The Latest Small Business Challenge – Social Media

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It’s becoming increasingly difficult to own and operate a small business these days. The first punishing blow to small business has been the erosion of their custom base ushered in by the internet. If you’re a small business owner, your potential customers and your current customers have access to information about the products and services you provide. This access to knowledge has caused a seismic shift over the past decade. While it’s been great for the consumer, the small business owner has seen the traditional methods of customer acquisition and retention affected. As a small business owner you must to deal with this reality and adjust accordingly. Every small business needs Read more [...]