What’s The Key To Executing Your Plan?
“Now you’ve done it,” Ray Zinn, the CEO of Micrel, said to me. Then Ray got up, straightened his tie and started walking out the door. Before he left, he said, “I don’t ever want to have another meeting like this again.” I had been at Zinn’s company for about 90 days as the new…
What Titles Should You Give Your Technical Team?
I was fortunate to be involved with one of the most successful companies ever formed in the chip industry, Maxim Integrated Products. Maxim grew to over $2 billion/year in revenue, with net margins approaching 40%. It was a cash machine. [Do you want to grow your business? Maybe I can help. Click here.] The company…
What Should Your Salary Be When You’re Just Starting?
“I need to make $60,000,” “Mary”, the CEO, said to me. “Is that too much for me to make?” Do you want to grow your business? Maybe I can help. Click here. “Maybe. Maybe not,” I replied. “I can’t just give you a yes or no answer. You have to walk through some steps. “There’s…
What Should You Never Do When You Start A Business?
My wife and I were going through old videos the other day, and we stumbled upon this video of Avery’s fourth birthday party at our house. I invited Nancy and her son Ethan to the party. Nancy used to work for me a couple years before that. [Do you want to grow your business? Maybe…
Is There A Right Way For You To Fire Someone?
There’s a great story in Ben Horowitz’s book, “The Hard Thing About Hard Things”, that I can really relate to. In the book, Horowitz’s company, Opsware, was going to IPO. At the same time, they were going to perform a layoff. [Do you want to grow your business? Maybe I can help. Click here.] Horowitz…
Adding Your Co-Founders To Your Board Is A Bad Idea
The doorbell rang. It was my co-founder, “Jim”. He was a few minutes early for our planning meeting with my other co-founder, “John.” [Do you want to grow your business? Maybe I can help. Click here.] I opened up the door to my house, and I smiled and said, “Hi Jim”. Jim looked like he…
Why Your Best Employees Quit And How You Can Fix It
Our company was rapidly growing, and we needed to hire a new customer service person. That’s when we hired “Cyndi.” Do you want to grow your business? Maybe I can help. Click here. And Cyndi was great. She worked hard, her attitude was great, and she consistently left the office at 7PM or later. Suddenly…
What Do You Do When You Get A Term Sheet?
“I believe this term sheet explodes like a pumpkin at 5PM. Here’s my number. Call me before then if you’re interested in accepting my terms,” “Raul”, our potential new investor, said to me. I had just spent the last thirty minutes trying to negotiate with Raul. Raul reacted the same way to every suggestion I…
5 Fatal Decisions You Don’t Want To Make
I walked into the office space, and there was no one there. It was just a bunch of empty cubicles. The space was dimly lit, and the ceilings were low. Do you want to grow your business? Maybe I can help. Click here. “My god, this space is depressing,” I said to my co-founder, “Randy”.…
How Does A Lack Of Funding Affect Your Company?
“Brett, we’re going to need to shutdown our advertising,” Tina, our controller, said to me. “We need to preserve our cash until we get more funding. Look at the cash flow (statement).” [Do you want to grow your business? Maybe I can help. Click here.] Tina and I were reviewing what we needed to do…