When choosing the type of company you want to operate, selecting from an area where you have previously worked or studied can be extremely advantageous. This can save you considerable time and will obviously hold more of your interest. Yet, if such an area does not offer the highest long-term financial gain, it may be [...]
The more obstacles there are in your industry, the more areas there are for you to master better and faster than the competition. This will place you even further in front of the pack. Were there fewer industry obstacles, competitors would have a better chance at stealing market share at your expense. Therefore, the challenges, [...]
Paradoxically, everything that is difficult in business is ultimately for the good because it is yet another obstacle for your competitor that you intend to overcome more effectively. In the quest to grow your businesses, you will constantly discover new, difficult, and unpredictable challenges. Whether you find those challenges to be blessings or curses is [...]
Like athletes in the Olympics, the people who train the hardest on one goal and prove to be the most adept will win, or at least get to share the top prizes. Others who can’t manage to get past the competition will be run off and knocked down. By maintaining your focus, distractions and detractors [...]
Since a lot of trouble tends to come from the inside, in today’s business climate, it may be wiser to hire people as subcontractors for some time before considering them as employees.
Competitors and insider stakeholders who doubt you and your abilities are predictable obstacles that every businessperson has to navigate. Other jealous, doubtful, or unmotivated people who are close to you personally or on the competitor’s side will constantly try to get in your way, break you down, or challenge you. Regardless, your job is to [...]
So long as you’ve been working harder and smarter and aligning yourself with good partners, employees and suppliers, you can survive at the expense of, or in cooperation with, all those who compete.
If your competitor is more adept than you are, she might be able to wipe out one of your profit centers. However, if you have spent many years growing and reinforcing several profit centers, then losing in one area will not make your competitor superior nor will it ultimately harm your business.
Intuitively, you should [...]
Once you’ve selected or invented a business idea, you should review it from many different angles. With this insight, you can create numerous small business tests in search of the most profitable. We suggest trying higher risk ideas with potentially high rewards along with those that are generally lower-risk, tried and true moneymakers.
This process [...]
The best ideas and the most sensible ideas are the ones that are not contrived. This is why people always say, “Why didn’t I think of that?”
In order to achieve a winning edge—the element that separates you from the rest of the pack and ensures your success in business—you will have to find ways [...]
