Now is the Time to Fix Your Interviewing Process

The current economic downturn creates both threats and opportunities with respect to hiring quality staff. On the one hand, logic suggests that the pool of employees is larger and so the number of potential great hires is larger. On the other hand, most companies are doing their best to keep their best.
 
If your recruiting process is aimed at the “top of the field,” these obviously great candidates are the hardest to find and the most expensive to hire.

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How Can You Get the Credit You Need?

 
The Wall Street Journal reports that “small businesses are turning to angel investors, suppliers and personal credit cards as the financial crisis spreads to Main Street and access to commercial bank loans becomes more restricted.”
 
Mike Flynn, Shareholder of American Chartered Bank and a member of PAC discussed credit access with a diverse group of Chicagoland small business presidents, CEOs, and owners.
 
The good news, according to Mike, is that banks are open for business. Banks can grow only if they lend. Small and mid-sized businesses can get credit, but they need to know how to talk to their bankers. 

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Use Paid Search to Build Sales

This entry continues my report about liQuidprint president Mike Montgomery’s excellent presentation to PAC members at our latest Speaker Event.
 
Paid search is another way to attract a prospective customer’s attention. Pay per Click (PPC) is an online marketing and advertising formula, where the business does not pay a fee to place an ad, but rather pays only when a visitor actually “clicks” on the ad and visits the website.

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Search Engine Marketing for Small Businesses

Mike Montgomery, president of liQuidprint, a well-regarded website design and consulting firm, gave a great presentation to PAC members and guests at our latest Speaker Event. 
 
Mike told us, “People who are running businesses are trying to find your product or service. And one way they are doing this is through Internet searches.”

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Energy Independence In Our Time?

I'm a Baby Boomer who well remembers the oil embargos of the 1970's. Back then, it made no sense to me that we were so dependent on other countries for a basic natural resource that is a necessary raw material for our ecomony. Since then, I've believed that it is the biggest failure of my generation to not have figured this out.

I hope you will think about this major public policy issue. At least one of these three themes must certainly resonate with you:

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Can "Green" Energy Practices Pay Off?

I recently spent a morning with Phil Baugh, a Chicago real estate developer whose latest project is the Green Exchange, a unique business center and professional community.

The Green Exchange is aimed at entrepreneurs looking to grow sustainable businesses –companies that promote sustainable products and services or support those that do.

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The Leader's Passion

Yesterday, I had the good fortune of spending a couple of hours with Dan Hayes, President of HealthCall, a first-stage company that is revolutionizing how information is exchanged between healthcare professionals and the chronically ill.

During our time together, Dan spoke very little about the economic benefit of his service to his customers, and he said nothing about the value potential of his company's stock to his next group of investors. All Dan wanted to talk about was how his system helps the chronically ill.

Dan's passion is typical of entrepreneurs. In fact, the Leader's Passion is often a company's major asset.

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Use Your Value Proposition to Align Your Business

We hear all the time from small business presidents and owners who are frustrated by the inability of their companies to deliver. On a bad day, customers are dissatisfied, prospects balk at committing to business, execution is sloppy, and employees are unhappy.

Sometimes this is because the Cubs blew the playoffs – again.

But most times, the problem is that your business processes are not aligned with your business goals, and neither is aligned with your customers’ wants. In short, instead of a seamless profit machine, you have a dysfunctional business.

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You talkin' to me?

Over the last 30 days, I've had the pleasure of attending 3 events that highlighted terrific new entrepreneurial companies or technologies that might result in terrific entrepreneurial companies -- Northwestern University's Applied Research Day, the University of Chicago's Alternative Energy Forum, and our own PAC Cum Laude Forum, where several budding companies presented their exciting business propositions to a group of investors.

The commonality of the presenters at all 3 events struck me and reinforced a common trait I see in most businesses. That is, they, and we, are all fluent in articulating the technical benefits of what we do, but they, and we, do not speak to our audience.

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Welcome, Champion of Human Advancement!

Innovation drives human achievement. From the wheel to the internal combustion engine to the fuel-cell, from the vacuum tube to the transistor to the microprocessor, and from the Magna Carta to the Bill of Rights, any advancement you can think of started with a creative thought or idea.

Innovation thrives-indeed, it flourishes-in a free society, and, in a free society, the champion of innovation is the entrepreneur. If you've found your way to this blog, you likely have an entrepreneurial streak in you. Maybe you have nothing more than an idea, or maybe you lead a company with hundreds of employees. Wherever you are on the entrepreneurial spectrum, you are a Champion of Human Advancement.

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