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Disconnect Your Accounting Rhythms From The Annual Calendar

The “year” defines the amount of time it takes the Earth to make a full orbit around the sun. During this lengthy journey, we experience 4 seasons, 12 months, 365 days, 8,760 hours and 525,600 minutes. But what does our planet’s trek around the sun have to do with the accounting rhythm of your organization? The correct answer, unless you are a farmer, is: Nothing.

The calendar year is simply a construct made by humans to help explain and predict the seasons of our planet. It shouldn’t have as much impact on business as it does. Frequently I hear business leaders talk about their annual budget, or this year’s sales goal. Many bonuses and incentives are based on annual targets. But why should a sales goal be based on the amount of time it takes our planet to travel 92.96 million miles? They have no direct connection.

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Follow The Money – The Changing Demographics of the United States

“Follow the money” was made popular by the movie, “All The President’s Men.” The 1976 motion picture told the story of the Watergate scandal and President Nixon’s ultimate demise. Today, many investigations and political debates invoke this catchphrase. But the concept is also useful for thinking about your organization’s strategy. A crticial and often overlooked element of the target audience is their ability to purchase your product or service. Several imminent changes to the demographics of the U.S. may significantly impact your target audience.

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Recruiting Team Members During Full Employment

Business leaders enjoy the rising tide of a hot economy, but it also comes with unique challenges, including inflationary prices and a tight labor market. We are in the midst of the third-longest sustained expansion in the history of the U.S. economy. But we are also seeing dramatic demographic changes that are creating a shortage of skilled workers to hire.

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Advice For Aspiring Young Entrepreneurs

A common question I receive is, “How do I become an entrepreneur?” Or, “How do I start my own business?” My response to aspiring young entrepreneurs is counterintuitive – skip college. While there are many benefits and reasons to attain a degree from a university, they don’t always align with the needs of being an entrepreneur. And it’s not just aspiring entrepreneurs, more and more I’m hearing from business owners that college degrees are overrated.

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Is Your Business Lucky? Or Good? The Danger of a Growing Economy

It’s easy for a business to fall in love with a healthy, growing economy, like what we’ve been experiencing for the past nine years. But steady economic growth also creates a danger of overlooking the real reason why your business is growing. I recently facilitated a heated debate with an executive team of a fast-growth business. One of the partners shocked the room by stating, “Let’s face it, we’ve just been lucky the past few years. We’re in a great economy and we’re not performing as well as we should be.” It was an honest and sobering assessment that made the executive team realize that their recent growth was really the result of ‘a rising tide lifting all boats.’

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7 Ways To Run A Better Meeting

Do you ever recall a time during childhood when you thought, “I can’t wait to grow up and attend meetings for the rest of my life?” I know I didn’t have those thoughts as a kid, but the reality is that meetings are the necessary “evil” of business. Getting stuff done usually involves communication and planning, which leads to the need for meetings. Unfortunately, many organizations hold ineffective and often demoralizing meetings. The following are a collection of best practices to host better meetings based on years of attending and leading meetings.

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Lessons From Golf – Every Team Member Deserves A Coach

I have to admit that I have a serious affliction that affects almost every aspect of my life. I’m certain my health insurance company considers it a pre-existing condition. My disease is my addiction to the game of golf. And there’s no cure for it. (Which I’m okay with.) The reason I’m addicted to golf is that it’s a game that can’t be mastered. And I enjoy that it’s an individual challenge – it’s just me, alone on the golf course. I am ultimately responsible for every decision, every swing and every putt – good or bad.

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The First Step For Entrepreneurs To Make Better Decisions

I have always admired how an entrepreneur can take an idea and turn it into a business that delivers a valuable product or service. In many cases, they commit to delivering a product or service before they even know how they’re going to do it. It takes a lot of confidence, determination, and creativity to follow through on an idea.

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How Do You ‘Define’ Your Leadership?

The topic of “leadership” is one of the most common subjects by authors and speakers across many disciplines. In business, sports and politics, just to name a few areas, you can find a never-ending stream of ideas and concepts to improve your leadership skills. My own leadership journey has taken me in many different directions, but the path started in earnest when I heard the speaker, Warren Rustand, ask a simple question:

“How do you define leadership?”

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