Leadership and Management
What Should You Look For In A Mentor?
“I want you to meet with Dave,” Mike, the managing partner of the VC fund I was interviewing at to be an Entrepreneur in Residence (EIR) said. “He does most of our semiconductor investments, so it’s important for the two of you to meet.” [Do you want to grow your business? Maybe I can help. Click…
Read MoreWhy Saying “No” Might Be The Key To Growing Your Business
We were in a meeting with an outside business consultant. I was bored stiff and I just want the meeting to end. Do you want to grow your business? Maybe I can help. Click here. Then, the consultant asked a question to our sales managers. The question was, “Who are your customers?” Ken, one of…
Read MoreWhat’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…
Read MoreWhat 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…
Read MoreWhat 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…
Read MoreWhat 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…
Read MoreIs 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…
Read MoreWhy 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…
Read More5 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”.…
Read MoreHow 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…
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