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Professional Development , , , , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

Adopt an Adaptability Attitude

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In a business environment experiencing constant turbulence—from both the advantages and downsides associated with the growing use of Artificial Intelligence powered software tools, to political struggles both domestic and international, to marketplace volatility—adaptability has become a prized leadership attribute. Leaders who can exhibit agility, resilience and foresight when yet another upheaval approaches, showing they can lead, and will not be derailed, by the slings and arrows of instability and uncertainty, stand out among their peers and competitors. Adaptability and its pillars—agility, forethought and resilience— have become the foundation for business transformation, innovation and leadership.

Do you consider yourself able to own the fundamentals of adaptability when the ground beneath your feet starts quaking and you’re wondering what your next move should be? Are you are able to steer the ship when big waves are crashing and causing your Freelance entity to rock and roll? Are you able to decipher when you should stay the course and when a pivot seems the better option? The practical definition of adaptability in a business sense may need some clarification. According to Marlo Lyons, an executive, team and career coach who hosts the Work Unscripted podcast, recommends that leaders prepare for 2026 and beyond should:

1) Model change-ready leadership. Among the many disruptive events that have occurred since the mid-20th century, unexpected shifts in national and global business conditions or new technology may appear and gain traction—like mobile phones (Nokia) and music (Walkman)—that impact the way we live and work. The adaptable leader will display behavior that transforms panic into calm as s/he interprets change and unpredictability as manageable challenges rather than a business threat. The adaptable leader shifts into crisis management mode and is prepared to make sound, data-driven decisions that support responsive strategy development while sharing information and rallying team spirit to maintain trust and productivity. Lyons guides her coaching and leadership development clients to “look through the lenses of growth, transformation and risk and align with that perspective and show that you’re thinking like a leader, shift your language from protecting the past to shaping the future.” She points out that responses such as “This is how we’ve always done it” demonstrate a lack of adaptability; it’s a weak excuse and should be avoided by those who aspire to function as an adaptable, effective leader. Try some version of these inquiries—“What might we gain if we reimagine this?” or “What would this look like if we started from scratch today?” Leadership is demonstrated by asking questions that encourage resourcefulness, creativity, strategic thinking, future-proofing and adaptability.

2) Take data-driven risks, be accountable for outcomes.  The adaptable leader possess the emotional intelligence to balance risk-taking, accountability and empathy when the team is struggling from change fatigue and maybe fear as well. Demonstrating empathy means helping people process the discomfort of change and the unknown while maintaining momentum and keeping both hands on the wheel. A leader who doesn’t attempt to gaslight the team and models transparency by acknowledging that change is often unsettling but reassures team members that s/he is there to help everyone maintain equilibrium while traveling through the unknown, able to meet important deadlines and deliver on mission-critical projects—is the prototype of an adaptable leader. Adaptable leaders create psychological safety and encourage performance consistency. The mission of an adaptable leader is to support your people through uncertainty while continuing to hold them to expectations—high-quality work and timely delivery. Empathy keeps stakeholders and team members engaged and accountability keeps everyone moving forward. Leaders who can demonstrate both will earn trust, model EQ and show the team, clients and competitors that you operate as an adaptable leader.

3) Listen, learn and grow. With the rise of AI, leadgen automation and the powerful algorithms of quantum computing, especially when paired with AI, continuous learning in the form of professional development, self-directed and expert-led, is no longer optional. Leaders aspiring to maintain their skill set understand how emerging technologies will impact their teams and the overall organization.

Adaptability and learning agility have become the foundation for business transformation, innovation, and leadership—in a word, excellence. Strengthening and consistently demonstrating your adaptability is an ongoing professional development seminar—and a required course for those who’d like to function as successful leaders in 2026 and beyond. Lyons says that adaptability is linked to the following:

  • Agility

Agility is the ability to not only pivot quickly when priorities shift, but to also bring others along with you—like your team and other stakeholders. It is not always necessary to blindly agree with every suggestion made by superiors or key stakeholders. Agile thinking is a core component of being forward-thinking and viewing change as an opportunity for innovation.

  • Resilience

Resilience means that you’re able to maintain your composure under pressure. Resilience is a characteristic that supports objective thinking, creativity and your personal best performance—while you’re in the midst of an unexpected turbulent event. Leaders who find a calm focus are prepared to manage the situation, starting with the ability to direct their composure to creating psychological safety for those on their team. Subduing fear and panic, as you know, brings both short and long-term benefits, most notably the ability to contribute and work at their personal best along with you, and thus enhancing productivity and loyalty to both you individually and the company. It will pay to be transparent and acknowledge, rather than attempt to deny, the difficulty of the market and the company’s financial challenges and directed team members to focus on whatever it is they can control. A leader’s continuing steadiness will provide clarity and consistency that allowed their team to keep delivering results amid constant disruption.

  • Foresight

Foresight separates reactive, seat-of-the-pants managers from visionary leaders. A prime differentiator between the two is the willingness to recognize that looking beyond whatever performance metrics are observed in the present to anticipate what tomorrow’s challenges could be. More than staying on top of current company performance and studying market data, as well as paying attention to what key competitors are up to—are there any noticeable pivots?—detecting and studying early signs of instability, or significant change, is how to avoid being blindsided. You always want to be positioned to assess potential remedies (or opportunity) and develop the right strategy in response.

But foresight that pertains to market shifts is just part of the equation. Leaders also need to have foresight in technologies innovation and understand the benefits and outcomes that explain the why and wherefor of leveraging them. Leaders who continuously research and map future capability needs, and upskill their teams to understand how and when to use emerging technologies, will demonstrate the strategic foresight and enterprise readiness that illustrate adaptable leadership.

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: © Spencer Platt/Getty Images. Midtown Manhattan July 29, 2025.

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AI Agent, AI Assistant, or Chatbot?

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New technology continues to come at us fast and furious—wow, what can you do with it all? Does it overwhelm and make you want to hide in bed, under the covers? Maybe that’s not the worse response if it helps you to (eventually) feel safe and calm enough to check out a few things and get an idea of what may be useful for your organization. As it happens, you can consider three new technologies right now—well, two of them you’ve probably been using for a while, but you may not be aware of the full extent of their capabilities and how they’re able to bring operational efficiencies to your Freelance empire. About the third technology on the agenda you may have a vague idea at best and little to no experience using it. The three processes are connected in that they help you, the user, efficiently complete a number of administrative tasks that keep your business operations rolling. The level of functionality you’ll want, that is, the technology you may bring on board will, as expected, depend on what will serve your purpose.

Why AI Assistant?

If you’ve ever picked up your phone and asked Siri (iPhone) or Alexa (Samsung Galaxy, et al.) a question, you’ve used an AI assistant, also known as a virtual assistant, a type of AI-powered technology that can perform simple administrative tasks such as scheduling appointments, retrieving data, giving you directions to where you need to go and controlling smart home devices. AI assistants can also operate transportation systems, schedule calendar software and manage other types of systems that are designed to complete specific tasks. All you have to do is start talking or typing and give the prompt, the more specific the better. Your AI assistant is an intelligent application that understands natural language commands and you are able to use conversational prompts to initiate your tasks. Keep in mind that AI assistants are reactive, so you must request a task to be done.

The technological capability known as large language models (LLMs) specializes in text-related tasks and enables AI assistants to “understand” questions submitted by humans and will respond to those questions with relevant information, suggestions, or next step actions. Your AI assistant /virtual assistant can also help you simplify access to information, automate repetitive tasks and streamline complicated workflows. In business, AI assistants also perform basic data analysis that enables you to efficiently obtain insights that you can factor into decision-making.

Freelancers are happy to know that an AI assistant/virtual assistant can play a role in improving the customer experience you offer by providing real-time support across online chat, voice and email. AI assistants can manage common customer inquiries, guide users through self-service options and manage complex issues when necessary. Using natural language processing (NLP), they’ll answer questions, recommend products/services and help customers complete transactions quickly and accurately. AI assistants provide interactive support, adapt to user needs and learn from feedback and conversation history to enhance the quality of responses. Their 24/7 availability can substantively enhance customer satisfaction and reduce costs, most notably, staffing.

However, AI assistants have limitations. They require specific prompts to produce the best results and their capabilities are limited to predefined functions they have been equipped and trained to handle. For example, an AI assistant can use a spreadsheet to generate a table that compares “x versus y,” but cannot independently take action to create such a comparison without your prompt.

Furthermore, AI assistants do not necessarily have persistent memory and they do not inherently retain information from past user interactions. Some AI assistants can reference prior conversations within a session by storing relevant details in their context window or by using a feature that is called “memory” to recall selected information and use the stored info to improve future responses. In sum, Freelancers can think of an AI assistant as your virtual personal helper and an efficient support system for a busy Freelancer. 

Is AI Agent the way to go?

AI agent refers to a system or program that can independently complete tasks on behalf of users, or another system, by designing its own workflow and using available tools. The AI agent is more autonomous, connected and sophisticated than AI assistants and can encompass a wide range of functions beyond Natural Language Processing, such as decision-making, problem-solving, interacting with external environments and executing actions.

While the AI assistant requires users to provide prompts to initiate every action, AI agents can operate independently after an initial kick-off prompt. AI agents are proactive and able to work independently to achieve a specific goal by collaborating with your other technological tools. They evaluate assigned goals, break tasks into chunks and develop their own workflows to achieve specific objectives for you. AI agents are versatile and can be used for many tasks, from software design and IT automation to code-generation tools and interfacing with your chatbot or AI assistant to provide customer service that enhances the experience. Using advanced NLP from LLMs, AI agents understand and follow user prompts and have the ability to strategize their actions and determine when to call on external tools to complete tasks.

After your initial prompt, the AI agent is off to the races, working without further input and reducing the need for your involvement at every stage. Unlike AI assistants, which will suggest actions for you to review and approve, AI agents have the capability to independently reason, make decisions and problem-solve for you by using external data sets and tools. Their ability to surpass a purely chat-based framework enables proactive decision-making and learning, saving time by handling complex workflows on its own. 

  • Connectivity: AI agents are able to unify various capabilities into a single workflow, thereby eliminating bottlenecks that arise from disconnected systems. By integrating seamlessly with external applications, data sources and other AI models, the AI agent will enhance productivity while reducing friction between different components of a process.
  • Decision-making and action: AI agents go beyond chat to accomplish tasks on their own, based on a specific goal. They analyze problems, break them into chunks and plan next steps autonomously. This makes them effective for handling complex, ambiguous problems. Some AI agents can even demonstrate computer use, where an LLM can click, type and operate a computer to complete tasks.
  • Persistent memory and adaptive learning: Compared to AI assistants, AI agents have a greater capacity to learn. They store previous actions, conversations and experiences, enabling them to refine their approach over time. With persistent memory, AI agents can recall past interactions to improve future responses, while adaptive learning allows them to adjust their behavior based on feedback and outcomes. Because they integrate with external applications and tools, they can act on real-time data rather than relying solely on their initial training. Over repeated interactions, they become more efficient, sensitive to context and better aligned with your needs.
  • Task chaining: AI agents don’t complete tasks on its own; instead, it will they break complex workflows into smaller, manageable steps—chunks. AI agents identify the connections between tasks, which help ensure that each step logically flows into the next. This ability enables structured execution across multi-step processes and makes automation more dynamic.
  • Team play: AI agents often specialize in specific tasks—one may excel at fact-checking, while another is better at research. These agents can collaborate, forming teams that tackle complex challenges together.

AI agents take customer experience and customer support further by adapting to user behavior in real time. Unlike AI assistants, AI agents fully learn and improve interactions, whether it’s simulating job interviews or handling complex support issues autonomously. They work across websites, apps and Internet of Things devices such as smart watches, smart door locks and fitness trackers to create well executed and highly personalized user experiences. AI agents can improve task management and collaboration by interpreting user needs and assigning tasks to AI assistants, for example. Your AI assistant can use agent-generated data to create more intuitive outputs and enhance coordination.

The downside of AI assistants and AI agents

AI agents have a lot of promise and it’s all quite inspiring but–it’s all new and there can be the occasional system fail, as you might expect. There are risks and limitations with AI-powered technologies to consider. LLMs are susceptible to even the smallest prompt changes that can cause “hallucinations,” meaning that AI agents and AI assistants might fail if, for example, the underlying foundation model breaks. They may have trouble creating comprehensive plans, or may not logically analyze their findings. They sometimes get stuck in endless feedback loops.

Furthermore, because AI agents collaborate with external environments and tools, they must deal with the changes to those tools. Over time, those changes might cause the agent set up to break. AI assistants, however, do not use external tools, so the problem can be avoided.

Finally, for complex tasks, AI agents require a great deal of training and completing tasks might take a minute. On top of that, they can often be expensive. The technology is new and we are still in the early days of understanding and observing what AI agents can do. This future of AI might see nearly complete autonomy of AI technology but for now, human intervention is often still necessary to keep things on track.

Where does Chatbot fit?

By now, you’ve probably used a chatbot to get quick answers to basic questions you may have had about a purchase you wanted to make, like “Is curb side delivery available?” or “What are your store hours on Tuesdays?” A chatbot is a computer program that simulates human conversation with the system user. Not all chatbots are equipped with artificial intelligence (AI), but recent configurations increasingly use conversational AI techniques such as NLP to understand user questions and give responses to them.

The earliest chatbots were merely interactive FAQ programs that relied on a limited list of common questions and pre-programmed answers. Unable to interpret natural language, these FAQs generally required users to select from simple keywords and phrases to move the conversation forward. Such rudimentary chatbots are unable to process complex questions, nor answer simple questions that haven’t been predicted by the developers.

The next generation of chatbots with generative AI capabilities offer more desirable functionality with their understanding of common language and complex queries, their ability to adapt to a user’s style of conversation and use of “empathy” when answering user questions. That means FAQ chatbots no longer need to be pre-programmed with answers to predetermined questions; it’s easier and faster to use generative AI in combination with an organization’s’ knowledge base to automatically generate answers to a wider range of questions.

Conversational-style AI chatbots can process user questions or comments and generate a human-like response, but generative AI chatbots have raised the bar and can even generate new content to incorporate into responses. The new content can include high-quality text, images and sound based on the LLMs they are trained on. When supported by generative AI, the newest chatbots can recognize, summarize, translate, predict and create content in response to a user queries without the need for human interaction. Generative AI can bring a whole new world to old-school chatbots that often gave a rocky performance, to put it politely. But today’s generative AI chatbots can become a 24/7 customer service department that plays a key role in delivering the customer experience that fulfills customer expectations of your brand—and it can be a good fit.

Today’s chatbots can seamlessly manage customer interactions 24/7—and every task becomes a lesson that continuously improves the quality of future chatbot responses. A chatbot can provide a capable first responder and provide back-up support during busy seasons and peak hours, or offload tedious repetitive questions so that human (paid) employees can focus on more complex issues. Chatbots can help reduce the number of users requiring human assistance, while ensuring that businesses efficiently meet customer needs, even after business hours.

A chatbot can also eliminate long wait times for phone-based customer support, or even longer wait times for email, chat, or web-based support, because the system is always available immediately to however many users at once. That’s a great user experience that creates satisfied customers who are more likely to exhibit brand loyalty and give your company good word of mouth, repeat business and referrals.

Again, be advised that caution and due diligence must be conducted when using AI-powered technology, that also includes the generative AI chatbot, along with AI assistants and AI agents. Security risks such as data leaks sub-standard confidentiality and liability concerns, incomplete licensing of source data and uncertain privacy and compliance with international laws. With a lack of proper input data, there is the ongoing risk of “hallucinations,” that undermine the relevance or accuracy of responses that may result in the customer finding it necessary to abandon the technology, creating dashed expectations and an unsatisfactory experience.

When choosing a provider, ask questions to determine if the chatbot meets your deployment, scalability and security requirements. Many chatbots are delivered via the cloud to draw on learning and outcomes from other customer conversations, so if this requires an on-premises solution or a single tenant environment, the list of available providers is much shorter.

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: Electronic Superhighway Continental U.S., Alaska, Hawaii (1995) created by South Korean artist Nam June Paik (1935-2006)

Professional Development , , , , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

Summer Reading 2025

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Professional development is like getting regular exercise and maintaining a balanced diet—a gift you give to yourself as you strive to become a successful business owner. When thinking of professional development, conferences sponsored by professional associations or skills building courses held at a college may come to mind but think again—professional development is available in a variety formats. Among the most accessible and affordable methods to obtain professional development can be found in books.

Reading has traditionally played an important role in the development of successful business owners and leaders. When you open a book, a world of ideas, information and insights will be there to enlighten you. You’ll find lessons and experiences that can be critical to your growth as a business owner and leader, shared by authors who give first-person accounts of how they overcame challenges and found success. The books you read can teach you how to sharpen your business acumen and use your newfound proficiency to propel your business forward. The practical knowledge contained in a typical business-themed book can result in your discovery of actionable insights that can become competitive advantages, from refining your decision-making prowess to bolstering your effectiveness when working with teams.

In today’s fast-paced and endlessly-evolving business landscape, continuous education is not only beneficial, it’s essential; but in the age of information overload, it may be difficult to find time to read when you devote the majority of your time to operating your business. Furthermore, you may feel too overwhelmed by the process of researching and identifying topics that will be most useful or interesting to you—the business books genre is a wide field. With those realities in mind, I am happy to share with you a selection of books curated to appeal to Freelance consulting professionals and also business owners or leaders. I hope that one or more titles will interest you. First, here are suggestions that may help you find time to read this summer (and beyond!).

  • Schedule. Like scheduling time for any important task, specifying your reading time will help you choose a convenient time and make it easier to honor your commitment to professional development. Consider reading after dinner, to lend a “relax and unwind” vibe to your reading. You may find the 8:00 – 11:00 PM time slot, three or four nights a week, a great way to wrap up your day.
  • Formats. Especially if your commute is 45 minutes or longer, or your fitness routine is self-directed and not in a class format, consider listening to audio books and/or podcasts as your method to obtain professional development. When in transit or working out, insert your headphones and tune in to an interesting book or program that expands your knowledge, builds skills and enhances your performance as a business owner or leader.
  • Topics. There are many business-themed titles published each year, but it is inevitable that only a select few will appeal to you. Reading book reviews of titles that grab your attention—in the business section of your local newspaper, in the Wall Street Journal or other nationally known newspaper, in Kirkus Reviews , or Goodreads—to winnow potential reading choices as you discover and evaluate titles and authors that may appeal to you and maintain your motivation to read and learn. Below are 10 books to cue up on your Summer 2025 reading playlist.

Company of One: Why Staying Small Is the Next Big Thing for Business (2019) Paul Jarvis

Online-tech veteran Paul Jarvis, whose A-list clients include Microsoft and Mercedes Benz, describes the advantages of running a “company of one,” whether as an independent Freelance professional or as an autonomous, corporate employee. Jarvis has most emphatically not bought into the “grow or die” ethos and prefers instead to operate as a “lean and agile” entity. Jarvis explains how running your one-person shop enables you to both achieve a work-life balance that works for you and, just as importantly, enables you to avoid the need to navigate a potentially suffocating corporate hierarchy and sometimes poisonous office politics. In your little empire, you can work efficiently. Jarvis has learned that smart entrepreneurship isn’t about size—it’s about building a better business that works for you.

 Company of One details a refreshingly original business strategy that’s focused on a commitment to being better instead of bigger. Jarvis has discovered that staying small results in maintaining the freedom to pursue more meaningful pleasures in life as you avoid the headaches and complications that are inherent in traditional growth-oriented business. With this groundbreaking guide, you’ll learn how to set up your shop, determine your desired revenues, manage unexpected crises, keep your key clients happy and find self-fulfillment as you do.

Competing in the Age of AI (2020) Marco Iansiti and Karim R. Lakhani

Here’s a book that is an excellent resource for business owners and leaders whose organizations currently use, or are considering, Artificial Intelligence powered tools in their operations. The authors have produced a useful guide to the realities of doing business in today’s digital landscape and present actionable insights into how introducing AI-driven operating models can enable businesses to achieve scale and scope at an unprecedented rate.

Iansiti and Lakhani show how reinventing a business entity around data, analytics and AI removes centuries-old constraints on scale, scope and machine learning advantages that have traditionally restricted business growth. Recent examples of companies such as Amazon and Google demonstrate how AI-driven processes vastly improve the ability to scale, when compared to traditional data analytical processes, and allow massive scope increase, enabling companies to straddle industry boundaries and create powerful opportunities for machine learning—to drive ever more accurate, complex and sophisticated predictions that make business strategy becomes a new game.

The authors also outline the inherent risks associated with AI and offer recommendations for rethinking current operating models; they also examine the responsibilities that the introduction of AI requires of its users. Finally, Iansiti and Lakhani are transparent about the potential societal impact of AI and point out the potential for algorithmic bias, privacy concerns and cybersecurity threats, along with the need for responsible AI development and governance.

How To Talk To Anyone About Anything (2021) James W. Williams

James W. Williams has written a refreshingly honest, easy-to-follow guide to meeting and greeting and initiating conversations that’s tailor-made for an era when many meetings and even networking opportunities are regularly held in virtual format. As a result, the only avenue to connect with colleagues and attempt to parlay fleeting interactions into deeper connections is hobbled by a computer monitor. Engaging communication skills are increasingly recognized as a powerful and influential competency. 

While some are born with a silver-tongued gift of gab for many, communication aptitude must be developed and nurtured. Williams’ advice is likely to bolster the social acumen of even the most shy and introverted among us, the wallflowers who feel overwhelmed or uncomfortable when attempting to navigate business-slash-social gatherings. If you’ve ever felt awkward in the midst of a meet & greet, or unsure of what to say after an introduction has taken place, this book will show you how to access your communication potential and learn to become a confident conversationalist.

How to Talk to Anyone About Anything provides a user-friendly roadmap that will enable you to practice, grow and eventually shine in social and professional situations. Active listening, small talk and storytelling are situations that the author discusses, as is how to develop the fine art of appearing approachable to your fellow guests when you’re standing alone and wondering if you’ll talk with anyone. Readers will appreciate the many good examples that provide teachable moments and make this book ideal for professionals and social learners alike. Williams’ book is a great soft-skills business resource, that will be a great help to those who struggle with small talk, pitching to clients, or relationship-building within your team. The insights are perfect for occasions where first impressions and informal conversations can open the door to business-enhancing or career-building opportunities.

10X Is Easier Than 2X (2023) Dan Sullivan with Dr. Benjamin Hardy

Call this book a must-read for ambitious business leaders. When the mission is to level up business growth, here are insights that give an eye-opening perspective on how to achieve exponential, rather than incremental, growth. This no-nonsense read can give business leaders and owners actionable insights into scaling their businesses rapidly, leveraging technology and resources more effectively and positioning their entity to stay ahead—of the competition and customer tastes—in a rapidly evolving marketplace.

Businesses leaders often aim to achieve progress, for example, and may focus on doubling their results year over year. However, Sullivan and Hardy argue convincingly that aiming for tenfold growth is not only feasible but also more practical and rewarding. As they see it, going for 10x requires letting go of 80% of your current life and going all-in on the crucial 20% that’s relevant and high-impact.

Readers will find practical strategies and mindset shifts that inspire you to break through limitations and achieve exponential growth. The authors emphasize the power of thinking bigger, setting audacious goals and taking massive action. For business owners and leaders, this approach is invaluable as it encourages innovation, pushes boundaries and fosters a culture of continuous improvement.

Acting Up: Winning in Business and Life Using Down-Home Wisdom (2019) Janice Bryant Howroyd

“Never compromise who you are personally to become who you wish to be professionally” is the core message offered by author Janice Bryant Howroyd, who grew up in a family of 11 children. Here she discusses the principles and techniques that she used to build a multinational staffing agency. The author guides readers through questions of leadership, risk-taking, developing confidence and networking, among other topics.

Howroyd also emphasizes the significance of data-driven and strategic business decisions as she simultaneously encourages readers to take a holistic approach to making the most of both their professional and personal lives. The author addresses as well the topic of diversity from the perspective of a black female entrepreneur and urges readers not to define her by demographics. In sum, Howroyd shares in her book the values she lives by and continues to represent: that of a leader who works for good, for growth and for innovation, for her family values and for the same ideals upon which she founded her company—that success is transferrable.

The 1-Page Marketing Plan (2018) by Allan Dib

“The most common way small business owners decide on this (marketing and advertising) is by looking at large, successful competitors in their industry and mimicking what they’re doing. In reality, this is the fastest way to fail and I’m certain it’s responsible for the bulk of small business failures.” Now you know why this book is included in the reading list!

In The 1-Page Marketing Plan, serial entrepreneur and marketer Allan Dib reveals a marketing implementation revolution that makes creating a marketing plan uncomplicated and fast—it’s literally just a single page! By creating and implementing that one-page wonder, you’ll have an effective marketing plan that you can put into motion. Dib understands that small business owners (and Freelance professionals as well) trying to jumpstart their marketing often don’t have adequate resources—money, time, or expertise—provided by employees or Freelance consultants—that big businesses do. The author has devised a credible alternate path that shows how you can create a basic marketing plan to help steer your business in the right direction and, as Dib himself says, puts you on “the fastest path to money”.

Reset: How to Change What’s Not Working (2025) Dan Heath

Reset offers a guide to fixing what’s not working in your business operations—in systems and processes, organizations and companies and even in our daily lives. Author Dan Heath provides real-world stories and actionable insights that can empower you to create lasting change in your organization—and maybe in your life, as well.

What if you could somehow learn to unlock forward movement and achieve the progress that matters most to you, without the need for more resources—like money and connections? Heath shows how, with the same relationships you have and the same financial resources you can access, it is possible to reconfigure the circumstances and bring dramatically better outcomes to your life. Yesterday, you were stuck. Today, you can reset.

The author explores a framework for getting unstuck and making beneficial changes that matter. Heath says that the secret of success is to find the leverage points—places where a bit of effort can yield a disproportionate return. Do that and you can rearrange your resources and activate those pivotal points. Heath also points out that to even experience the feeling of progress can be a leverage point that can accelerate the arrival of the positive change you desire.

The 48 Hour Start-Up: From Idea to Launch in One Weekend (2016) Fraser Doherty

This can’t be done, you say? Well, author and serial entrepreneur and Scottish citizen Fraser Doherty MBE (who was awarded the honorific title Member of the Order of the British Empire for his achievements) begs to differ. In his book, Doherty provides actionable advice on how to identify and shape a viable business idea that is ready to launch in only two days. Doherty’s reasoning behind the 48-hour deadline is simple—he argues that prospective entrepreneurs (aka wantrepreneurs) spend too much time and energy obsessing over the “perfect idea”. The time they waste waiting for the “perfect idea” to appear is time that could be used refining and adapting that business idea for customers who could actually use it.

The book is helpful with the initial decisions that aspiring entrepreneurs must consider when starting a business. In his considerable experience, Doherty has found that launching a business does not have to involve complicated financial projections, elaborate presentations, or extraordinary innovation. A simple, well-executed idea is what it takes to launch and sustain a successful enterprise and Doherty has done it more than once—the first time while still in his teens. 

Doherty also emphasizes that before you invest significant time and resources, quickly reality-test your idea with potential customers and conduct basic market research. The process will help you gauge market demand for your product or service, assess your main competitors, identify and address potential problems early on and, in general, refine your product or service based on the uncensored feedback received from potential customers.

Good Strategy Bad Strategy (2011) Richard Rumelt

It is a given that developing and implementing strategy is the primary task of a leader—whether military leader, business leader, baseball manager, or tennis coach. The definition of a good strategy could be expressed as a specific and coherent response to—and approach for—overcoming the obstacles to progress. A good strategy works by harnessing and applying power where it will have the greatest effect. Yet, author Richard Rumelt asserts that there has been a growing and unfortunate tendency to equate Mom-and-apple-pie values, fluffy buzzwords, motivational slogans and financial goals with “strategy.”

Rumelt displays an astonishing grasp and integration of economics, finance, technology and history to expose and clarify the often-muddled thinking that is the foundation of too many so-called strategies and his book details a clear way to create and implement a powerful action-oriented strategies that will be effective in the real world.

The book helps readers to recognize and avoid the trap of bad strategy and guides them to adopt good, credible, action-oriented strategy that honestly acknowledges and responds to the challenges that businesses encounter. Rumelt cautions readers that strategy should not be equated with ambition, leadership, vision, or planning; rather, strategy is a coherent, action-backed plan supported by a rational argument.

Rumelt emphasizes that strategies are often confused with goals and visions and points out that a plan is what sets strategies apart from goals and gives you a clear idea of what is necessary to succeed. To evaluate and decide which strategies are suitable for your organization, the author says it is necessary to confirm whether you have the resources to implement your strategy and, in addition, ensure that your strategy fits with your current situation. The actions need to fit with your present circumstances and work together to give you the best possible advantage. After this, you’re well on your way to a faultless strategy implementation.

The Courage To Be Disliked (2018) Ichiro Kishimi and Fumitake Koga

Strictly speaking, this book is not a business book. One might consider it as an accelerator that gives the determination to push forward with a desire to launch a business entity or achieve other important goals. Kishimi and Koga present their book as a dialogue between an older philosopher and a young man. Over the course of five enlightening and thought-provoking conversations the philosopher, who happens to draw from the theories of Alfred Adler, a late 19th- and early 20th- century psychologist and thought leader in that discipline (along with Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung and B. Fred Skinner), explains to his pupil how each of us is able to determine our own life, free from the shackles of past experiences, doubts and the expectations of others. The wisdom that the philosopher reveals is deeply liberating and enables his pupil to develop the courage to change and to ignore the limitations that others, or even the pupil himself, may use to control him.

The result is a book that is both highly accessible and profound in its importance, yet it is not without controversy; certain of authors’ premises you may find shocking or, at least, unrealistic. Still, the book is, at its core, about reclaiming your power and using it to shape the life that is meaningful to you.

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: ©Beli_photos

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Rev Up Resilience To Ramp Up Productivity and Reduce Stress

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Is it my imagination, or has life become increasingly stressful year after year? In my experience, it feels as if navigating normal life (is there still such a thing?) and being productive in one’s occupation requires more effort than was necessary just a few years ago. The bar for success seems higher and the level of productivity (and luck, I might add) required to win the race is consequently higher.

Productivity is a multi-faceted function and we’ve examined how to maximize its application from technology, marketing and sales perspectives. Today, we’ll examine the impact of health on productivity and get ideas on how to do what must be done without damaging one’s physical or psychological well-being.

BTW, the American Psychological Association agrees with my observations. According to its 2023 Work in America survey, 77% of U.S. workers experienced job-related stress during the previous month and 57% reported negative outcomes as a result, including emotional exhaustion and lack of motivation that undermined their ability to do their best work. Stress and its usual byproducts, burnout and anxiety are also linked to the often-celebrated hustle culture, whose supporters brag about their marathon workdays and insist that the sacrifice is the price of admission for attaining a thriving business or career.

In the beginning hustle culture can be helpful and that pedal-to-the-metal work ethic will propel you toward your goal. But in the long-term, being a workaholic (that’s the old-school term) can cost you your health—and it might even undo the success you’ve attained. Lengthy periods of intense stress carry significant downsides, physical and psychological, including loss of energy, concentration and creativity—the building blocks of productivity that hustle culture is supposed to enhance. When you’re constantly in overdrive, the brain’s capacity to focus, exercise good judgment and perform other “executive” functions deteriorates. Related cognitive assets, notably decision-making, problem-solving and strategic thinking, can also weaken. The inevitable outcome is that productivity craters.

So how can you improve your capacity to be productive and enhance your executive cognitive functions along the way? It may sound counterintuitive to some, but when you’re not just determined, but also realistic, about achieving important goals, the first step is to step away from the hustle culture fad.

You may be convinced that hard work is the partner of ambition and to a great extent that is true, but pushing yourself to exhaustion is almost guaranteed to result in an assault on your physical and psychological well-being. Instead, you will be wise to regularly nurture and replenish your energy stores to cultivate resilience, minimize stress and bring about strength, focus and calm control. Reserve those hustle culture 12+ hour workdays for extreme circumstances, such as responding to an emergency or meeting an important deadline. Prioritizing your health can be treated as a strategic imperative—is it not your greatest resource when all is said and done?

Organize and prioritize

Managing time is central to facilitating productivity. Strategic time management minimizes stress because it gives you a road map for your day and the road map enables a sense of calm control that makes productivity flow. When you have too much on your plate and you’re putting out fires and everything is an emergency, the secret to navigating the chaos is to create a road map that prioritizes your tasks from the top down—most important to least important. If you’re unsure about which tasks are most urgent, confirm the consequences for late completion by checking deadlines, investigating the potential of missed opportunities, or incurring fines. Another idea is to consider the reward or risk of the task’s completion. For example, will completing this task provide increased revenue? Asking yourself these questions can help narrow down the true priorities on your to-do list.

Maximizing productivity and minimizing stress requires that you take ownership of your schedule and plan your time so that you can manage your workflow. Time management is the secret sauce that will make you feel in control and less stressed, no matter what kind of workload you’re dealing with. A realistic to-do list can be very helpful as well as empowering. Even if events conspire against you and you don’t quite complete your daily itinerary, you’ll know what you must do the next day, or later in the week. Best of all, you’ll be confidently on your path to improved productivity as you become more realistic about scheduling and estimating time commitments.

Once you’ve determined your priorities, you can assess what you can handle and begin to identify tasks that might be handed over to an expert. Bringing in reinforcements is a crucial step in successfully navigating chaos. Today’s business reality is that there are not infrequently too many to-do’s for one person to handle. Business leaders must learn to delegate to a team member or outsource to an outside expert.

Delegate/ outsource

If you’ve come to the realization that there aren’t enough hours in the day to get through your typical to-do list, it’s time to behave like a real leader and off-load some of the work. If you have employees, evaluate the feasibility of delegating certain tasks. If you are a Freelance soloprenuer, examine your budget and evaluate the feasibility of outsourcing certain tasks.

Outsourcing is the practice of delegating certain business functions to an external individual or agency with the goal of enabling the business owner and/or employees to focus on primary tasks and responsibilities. Outsourcing enables Freelance consultants and other business owners to devote time and talent to the organization’s core functions by selectively delegating certain tasks to a highly skilled external expert. Removing certain tasks from your plate will enable you to focus on projects that are core to your business, as it factors in that you may not have either the inclination or expertise to optimally complete certain tasks. Accepting your limitations, something we all would be wise to do, should allow you to both improve your productivity and also lower your stress level.

  • Choose the right tasks    You, team leader, are responsible for understanding and communicating the strategic, big picture view of the work.  Subcontractors and part-time help are responsible for their area of specialized skills.  You coordinate all tasks and ensure that milestones are met and the deliverables are provided within the project deadline and budget.
  • Provide resources and authority Ensure that that employees or outsourced help will have the resources—information, time, budget, equipment— and the authority to do what you’ve asked of them.  Don’t make them run to you whenever they need to take action.  Rather, empower them and let them apply their intelligence and creativity to making you look good.
  • Establish expectations Especially if you delegate to an employee, explain the goals of the task(s) and how it supports short or long-term plans.  Explain also how results of the work will be measured. Confirm that those who work for or with you understand their individual responsibilities and the collective goal. Make sure that the goals are SMART: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Timely.
  • Provide feedback and acknowledge success   Monitor performance and quickly correct any misunderstandings or problems. Find teachable moments and provide training or useful suggestions when needed.  Encourage and enable excellent work to keep people motivated and productivity high.  Employees or Freelance consultants you’ve hired will appreciate that you recognize and diplomatically call out superior work and will rectify weak performances with the proper coaching.
  • Relax and recharge The first ingredient in your productivity enhancement recipe is sleep. Inadequate sleep is epidemic these days and it is seriously detrimental to one’s health and ability to manage stress.  An unexpected outcome of sleep deprivation can be weight gain, which can be exacerbated by the release the stress hormone cortisol, which increases appetite.  When we are fatigued, our choice of foods is usually unhealthy and laden with sugar for an energy boost, or high fat, or salty.  The stage is then set for taking on unwanted pounds (and I’ve been there!). As you know, fatigue undermines creativity, judgment and decision-making, productivity and self-discipline.  Do what you can to get in those eight hours or so each night.  Getting enough sleep just might help you discover the energy to begin (or restart) a regimen of regular exercise. Exercise provides physical release and reduces tension and stress, calms and clears the mind, helps us to sleep better and even improves self-esteem. Exercise also improves the functioning of the immune system and in the process helps us to fight off certain diseases. You may play a sport, ride a bike, swim, walk, do aerobics, yoga, Pilates and/or lift weights. Experiment with different types of exercise to learn what you like and do it on a regular basis. 

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: © Ljupco for Getty Images

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Think, Plan, Do: How to Think and Act Strategically

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By now, I’m certain you’ve figured out that life is a game of chance that’s impacted by luck (good or bad) and planning (strategy or happenstance). You cannot really “make your own luck” (only lucky people think you can), but by thinking strategically and implementing your strategies, you’ll be able to influence certain variables that may tip the outcome in your favor.

Strategic thinking is an essential skill that promotes success both in the business world and in your personal life. Business owners and leaders rely on strategic thinking to make informed decisions and plan for the future, to promote innovation, respond to changes in the marketplace and recognize good opportunities. Strategic thinking depends on reliable information that you’ll analyze to identify the potential outcomes of a decision and ensure that decisions align with your company’s long-term goals. Strategic thinking can begin when you address three basic questions:

  • Where are you now in terms of achieving your preferred outcome (the goal, success)?
  • Where do you want to be (the preferred outcome)?
  • What actions will you take to bring about your preferred outcome?

Rich Horwath, author of the New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller Strategic: The Skill to Set Direction, Create Advantage and Achieve Executive Excellence (November 2023) and founder and CEO of the Strategic Thinking Institute, a strategy workshop facilitator where he is an executive coach and strategic advisor, defines strategic thinking as the ability to Think, Plan and Do. Horwath believes that strategic thinking leads to insights that allow us to recognize or create competitive advantages that lead to success. His coaching experience has shown him that strategic thinking can be learned, that we can assess our own strategic fitness level and apply the skill to create value for the business.

Acumen

Howath points to acumen, the way you think, as the basis of strategic thinking, along with context awareness, insight and innovation. Acumen gives you the ability to size up a situation, see the big picture and generate new ideas that move the organization from its current state to your preferred future. The components he assigns to acumen work in tandem and are what separate strategic thinkers from the rest:

  • Context awareness—informs your vision of the big picture and reflects your understanding of both your internal situation (culture, purpose, processes, guiding principles) and external situation (market trends, customer behavior, competitive landscape, business conditions). This awareness and perception informs your choices to allocate the resources you’ll use as your pursue your goals.
  • Insight —the ability to learn and draw conclusions, however preliminary, from current conditions and past experiences. This requires curiosity and an exploratory mindset. A key trait of strategic thinkers is their discipline to continuously record, categorize, share and reflect on insights.
  • Innovation —can occur when you focus your awareness and insights to create new value. It typically generated by the brainstorming or problem-solving involved in overcoming a challenge or obstacle.

To evaluate your acumen, ask yourself:

  • Do I regularly assess my business’s current situation, both from both the internal and external perspectives?
  • Do I share valuable insights with my team?
  • When problem-solving, do I stick to the tried-and-true, or do I look for new approaches?

Allocation

Howath sees allocation as how you plan. Strategic thinkers set goals, distribute resources, recognize the risk and tradeoffs when making decisions and create advantages that bring value. Where you invest your resources — time, talent and capital — is a primary driver of your effectiveness and it requires the following components:

  • Ability to focus resources: Resources are usually limited and should be used judiciously in service to achieving your goals. An effective strategy involves the ability to focus resources, confirming that resources are sufficient to produce the desired impact and confirming how the resource should be applied to achieve the desired effect.
  • Decision-making: Strategic thinkers generate and evaluate a range of viable alternatives. Since trade-offs are being made with each decision, they analyze the pros and cons of each alternative, as well as the level of acceptable risk.
  • Competitive advantage: A competitive advantage is created when the value created by your resources and actions exceeds the value that prospective customers assign to your competitors. Once an advantage is attained, strategic thinkers continue to refine it in order to stay ahead of the competition.

To evaluate whether you allocate effectively, ask yourself:

  1. Do I recognize when it’s time to redistribute resources from underperforming areas to projects that show more potential?
  2. Do I spend time on activities that align with my goals?
  3. How do I measure myself against the competitors?

Action

Action is what you do, that is, carrying out your plans. Preparing a business strategy is but one step; how you execute your strategies is pivotal to your success. Action requires the ability to collaborate with others and optimize your performance.

  • Execution involves using your resources to achieve your goal. It requires focus, discipline and follow-through, as well as monitoring to ensure interim results and a contingency plan to salvage a plan that fails to produce the expected result.

To assess your ability to take action, ask yourself:

  • When it comes time to implement a strategy, how prepared am I to take action?
  • Do I ask others what their goals are at the beginning of the conversation?
  • Do I easily get side-tracked by other obstacles along the way?

Merry Christmas and thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: Jackie Gleason as a fictional pool hustler in The Hustler (1961).

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Smart Choices and Good Decisions

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When you face a big decision whose outcome may significantly impact your business or life, what steps do you take, what routine do you follow, to help yourself do the right thing? Big decisions, especially, involve consequences and their after-effect can reverberate over the long-term. The decisions you make, delay, or avoid shape the path of your personal and/or professional life and for that reason, the ability to make effective decisions is a survival skill.

Business owners and leaders are called upon to make many decisions; most are routine, and some are high stakes, positioned to have significant impact on the direction and/or fate of the venture. It is therefore worthwhile to do whatever possible to develop skills and practices that support your decision-making proficiency. Below are practices that, unlike the whims of fortune, are within your control and can guide you along the path to decision-making success.

1. See the big picture

As you get ready to make the decision, be clear about what you expect the preferred outcome will mean for you and/or the business. Good decisions require awareness; the decision-making process fares best when you are attentive to the context in which it will be made, meaning key internal and external factors that can assist or impede your ability to choose the right path. Influencing factors are likely to include the competitive and economic climate in which your venture operates and in larger organizations, the level of support that stakeholders have for the initiative you are trying to advance.

2. Review desired outcomes

“Begin with the end in mind,” advises Stephen Covey, author of the phenomenal bestselling book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People (1989). Your decision-making process has a better chance of seeing a happy ending when the decision is motivated by a realistic purpose that you can clearly articulate and defend. It is essential that you understand what you want to achieve and why. It is also useful to decide the criteria you’ll use to define success. Before you commit to a decision, create a mental picture of what your company (or life) will look like once that proposed choice is in place—in the near term and 12 months later.

3. Consider different perspectives

Escape the trap of your inherent biases and invite different opinions to the decision-making. Start with the obvious—stakeholders and end-users who will live with the outcomes, along with those who will implement the decision. If you have a team, include its members in the process, for they surely bring to the table expertise and experiences that will enrich your understanding of the big picture, as well as factors that could influence its outcome. The unique viewpoints and wisdom of your team could possibly show you that don’t know what you don’t know!

4. Leverage relevant data and technology

In today’s digital age, there is every reason to turn to technology-supplied data to provide trustworthy insights that are grounded in objective information to guide your business decisions. Data-driven decisions are usually the most successful. You may have a history of making good decisions based on what your gut tells you, but you’ll be better served to allow (relevant) numbers to validate the power of your intuition.

There are numerous analytic values readily available to provide snapshots of company performance that decision-makers need to see. Your decision may benefit from a review and analysis of the number of qualified leads per month, industry benchmarks, annual sales of your products and services and/or the average dollar amount of new contracts signed per quarter.

5. Avoid analysis paralysis

While good data is essential, as is objective thinking and keeping the purpose of the decision in mind, it’s also important to realize when you have sufficient facts and figures to commit to a choice. It often makes sense to set a reasonable time frame for gathering information, and once you have enough in hand to make an informed choice, move forward.

Trust your judgment and remember that in most cases, all the information you’d like to have will not be available; nearly every decision is haunted by unknown factors. Boost your confidence by creating conditions that will promote effective decision-making when you align your decision with the vision, mission, guiding principles (values) and brand of your organization.

6. Overcome fear of failure

Risk is a factor in every decision because results are not always predictable. Along with good information, luck, timing and intuition are often credited with a decision’s success or failure. All leaders understand that unfortunately, not every decision will lead to a favorable outcome.

Instead of fearing failure, embrace it as a valuable learning experience when it occurs. Do a postmortem and analyze what went wrong; identify the root causes and determine how you can avoid similar pitfalls in the future. When the experience is applied correctly, failure strengthens resourcefulness and resilience and over time will eventually enhance your decision-making skills. A decision gone wrong is embarrassing and disappointing but push yourself to make lemonade from the lemons. You might find a way to fail-up!

7. Practice decision-making consistency

Consistency in decision-making is key to building trust and credibility among your team. If your choices waver based on mood or circumstance, it can create confusion and erode confidence. But you may instead find it helpful to revisit the same, or similar, criteria that were used for a decision whose outcome was especially positive.

If the approach you took, factors you considered and certain friends and mentors you consulted led to a successful outcome previously, those factors, adjusted to fit the question at hand, might be successfully applied to future decisions. Why not experiment? When you’re next faced with a big decision, apply some or all of the criteria you used to approach the question, choose and study the data and seek input from friends or family who have a history of giving you wise advice?

You may discover that it’s useful to evaluate, say, three to five qualifying questions first, then another three to five questions that are customized for your decision? A decision-making protocol that considers the same factors each time will bring objectivity, standardization and reliability to your priorities and judgment and help you avoid getting swept up in the emotional reactions of either reckless enthusiasm or panic.

8. Hone intuition through experience

Decision-making is often considered both an art and a science. It’s a competency that goes beyond algorithms and spreadsheets — it’s about accepting risk and seeking wisdom from data, lived experience, good advice and intuition. Furthermore, learning to recognize when it might be the most advantageous time to make a certain decision is another plus—- when you have the luxury of choosing the time to act, that is.

By adopting a big-picture perspective, leveraging diverse viewpoints and integrating data-driven insights, you will improve your decision-making skills. As you gain experience, your subconscious mind will develop a sense of pattern recognition, meaning you’ll remember what works and so you’ll do it again. Use this intuitive sense to guide you when data is unavailable or inconclusive.

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: Chess Grandmaster Pontus Carlsson (Colombia born, represents Sweden)) vs. International Master Espen Lie of Norway (R) in Malaga Spain, 2008

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The 5 Stages of Small Business Growth

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The question that everyone who’s ever launched a business has wanted an answer to is, what is the formula, the recipe, that when followed will result in a sustainably profitable enterprise? Furthermore, how does a business owner avoid the landmines that can tank the enterprise?

In 1983 Neil Churchill (1927-2010), former Professor Emeritus of of entrepreneurship at INSEAD in Fontainebleau, France and visiting professor at the Anderson School at UCLA and Virginia Lewis, a senior research associate at the Caruth Institute of Southern Methodist University, conducted an intriguing study that examined and (indirectly) answered the question. Specifically, Churchill and Lewis examined small businesses and, despite the obvious differences that distinguish every business and every entrepreneur or solopreneur who goes into business—B2B, B2C, products, services, business model, target markets, level of owner’s expertise, experience and funding— identified patterns of success and problems that typically occur in small businesses. Unfortunately, the two were not able to write the recipe for a secret sauce, but they did identify and categorize growth stages and difficulties that can arise in those growth stages, information that is actionable and highly valuable.

You might say that Churchill and Lewis created a map that can help you find the path to success for your business idea and also help you side-step common pitfalls. I’m happy to share a few take-aways from the study and provide the link to the original research. https://site-453261.mozfiles.com/files/453261/Harvard_Business_Review_-_The_5_Stages_Of_Small_Business_Growth.pdf

While every business venture is an unique entity, with some having potential for enormous profitability and (most) others that only sputter along, hobbled by obstacles that frequently include some combination of insufficient funding, an unrealistic business model, or a limited number of customers who are inclined to purchase its products and services, there are foundational similarities throughout the spectrum of possible outcomes. In a study of a range of business types ,one that documents which actions or circumstances encourage positive results and which lead to unfortunate outcomes, patterns become visible.

First, the research showed that all businesses evolve through identifiable stages in their life cycle. Second, it was discovered that certain successes, challenges and decisions that must be made are typically associated with the different life cycle growth stages. When business owners know what to expect throughout the business life cycle, they can prepare themselves and the company to maximize what is likely to go well, if only by skillfully navigating through what is likely to cause problems.

In other words, a company’s development stage determines the leadership and managerial skill and pivotal decisions that promote success and avoid problems. The type of business that you’re operating will influence which factors will eventually appear. An awareness of the development stage of the business, as well as the most logical future plans for that stage, enables business owners and managers to make informed choices and prepare themselves and the company for the inevitable challenges. Below are typical circumstances that pertain to business owners and the entity as the business life cycle adapts over time.

The four factors that relate to the business owner:

  1. Owner’s goals for himself /herself and for the business.
  2. Owner’s operational abilities in doing important jobs such as marketing, inventing, selling, producing and managing distribution.
  3. Owner’s managerial ability and willingness to delegate responsibility and to manage the activities of others.
  4. Owner’s strategic abilities for looking beyond the present and assessing the strengths and weaknesses of the company with his or her goals.

The four factors that relate to the business:

  1. Financial resources, including cash on hand and borrowing power.
  2. Personnel resources, financial prowess, quality of strategic relationships and other human capital, particularly at the management and staff levels.
  3. Systems resources, in terms of the degree of sophistication of both information and planning and control systems.
  4. Business resources, including customer relations, market share, supplier relations, manufacturing and distribution processes, technology and reputation, all of which give the company a position in its industry and market.

Stage I: Existence

Basic survival is the objective in the earliest stage of the company. The primary goals of the owner(s) are acquiring customers, delivering the product or service in a way that satisfies customers and providing pleasant and efficient customer service.

Other key objectives of the owner(s) are:

  • Doing what is necessary to make the entity become a viable business.
  • Successfully expanding beyond one or two important customers to a much broader customer base.
  • Having sufficient capital available to finance the considerable cash demands of the start-up phase.

At this fledgling stage, the owner does everything and if there are employees, the owner directly supervises them. Systems and formal planning are minimal to nonexistent. The company strategy is to survive. The owner is the business, s/he performs all important functions. Many early stage entities never gain sufficient customer base nor product/service demand to become viable. If that is the case, the owner is forced to close the business when the money runs out. Companies that are lucky enough to survive Stage I will graduate to Stage II entities.

Stage II: Survival.

Businesses that survive to enter Stage II can be considered viable. They’ve attracted enough customers to generate the necessary sales revenue and customers are satisfied with the products and/or services offered. The most likely problem that surfaces in the transition from Stage I to Stage II is the balance between revenues and expenses. The owners’ primary objectives are:

  • In the short run, generate enough cash to break even and cover the repair, renewal, or replacement of subscription software or other services and capital assets /equipment as they wear out or expire.
  • At a minimum, generate enough cash-flow to stay in business and finance growth to a size that is sufficiently large, given our industry and market niche, to earn an economic return on our assets and labor. In other words, can you make enough money to make staying in business make sense?

Additionally, the Stage II company may have a small number of employees, often supervised by a sales manager or a general foreman. Alternatively (or simultaneously), there may be outsourcing of certain functions—bookkeeping, accounting, HR. payroll, IT network management, for example. The business owner(s) remains in charge of major decisions and the foreman or sales manager may have limited decision-making authority. Survival of the business remains the overwhelming goal.

While in the Survival Stage, the enterprise may grow in size and profitability and graduate to Stage III. Or, as many companies do, it may remain in Stage II for some time, earning modest profits on invested time and capital. Such businesses may eventually close when the owner gives up or retires. “Mom and pop” stores are in this category, as are manufacturing businesses that cannot attract a buyer for their product or process sold as they hoped. Some of these marginal businesses have developed enough economic viability to eventually be sold, usually at a slight loss. Or the entity may fail completely.

Stage III: Success.

The decision facing owners at this stage is whether to leverage the company’s achievements and strategize to grow, or maintain the stable and profitable success that has been attained. Business is good and to handle more complex functions, the first professional staff members will be hired, often a controller in the office or a production manager, perhaps administrative or sales employees may be hired as well. Basic financial, marketing and production systems are in place. Planning in the form of operational budgets supports vital business strategies and action plans. The owner and, to a lesser extent, the company managers, are advised to monitor the performance of business strategies to maintain desired profit margin.

The question becomes, will the owner(s) decide to promote growth and pursue the attainment of a substage III-G company, or will the owner(s) completely or partially step away from intensive involvement in the company and transition to substage III-D company?

Substage III: Disengagement

In the Success-Disengagement substage, the company has attained economic viability, has a sufficient customer base and product-market penetration to reasonably ensure financial success and earning average to above-average profits. The company can remain at this stage almost indefinitely, as long as a catastrophic external event (like a pandemic shutdown of business?) doesn’t erode its customer base, or ineffective management and poor decision-making doesn’t diminish its competitive abilities.

When disengagement is the choice, it is often driven by a wish to start a new enterprise, or simply to (finally) participate in hobbies and other outside interests while maintaining the business as is. If the company can continue to navigate the inevitable business environment changes, the owner can either continue in substage III-D, sell the entity at a profit, or at some point elect to once again pursue a growth trajectory. For franchise holders, this last option would require the purchase of additional franchises locations.

Substage III: Growth

In the Success-Growth substage, the owner consolidates the company and utilizes its resources to stimulate accelerated growth, typically using accumulated business cash and borrowing the amount needed to finance growth. Maintaining optimal business profitability is key, so that it will not deplete cash (the lender will be looking). Having on board talented and dedicated company managers to meet the needs of the growing business is another must-do. This second task requires hiring managers with an eye to the company’s future rather than its current condition.

The right business systems should be in place to provide the operational needs that a larger entity will require as growth proceeds. Proper budgeting and the development and execution of strategic planning is critical. The owner(s) are intensely involved in all aspects of the company’s affairs, in contrast to the disengagement stage.

If the growth plan is successful, the III-G company proceeds to Stage IV Take-off. If the III-G company is unsuccessful, the missteps might be detected in time to make a smooth landing in substage III-D. If not, a return to Stage II Survival may be possible, in lieu of bankruptcy or a distress sale.

Stage IV: Take-off

In this stage the key problems are how to grow rapidly and how to finance that growth. The most important questions, then, are in the following areas:

Delegation. Can the owner(s) delegate responsibility to the appropriate staff or Freelance outside experts to improve the managerial effectiveness of a fast-growing and increasingly complex enterprise? Further, will the action be true delegation with controls on performance and a willingness to see mistakes made, or will it be abdication, as is so often the case?

Cash. Will there be enough to satisfy the great demands growth brings (often requiring a willingness on the owner’s part to tolerate a high debt-equity ratio) and a cash-flow that is not eroded by inadequate expense controls or ill-advised investments brought about by owner impatience?.

This is a pivotal period in a company’s life. If the owner rises to the challenges of a growing company, both financially and managerially, it can become a big business. If not, it can usually be sold—at a profit—provided the owner recognizes his or her limitations soon enough. Too often, those who bring the business to the Success Stage are unsuccessful in Stage IV, either because they try to grow too fast and run out of cash (the owner falls victim to the omnipotence syndrome), or are unable to delegate effectively enough to make the company work (the omniscience syndrome).

Stage V: Maturity The most important responsibilities the owner has at Stage V is to first, preserve and encourage the continuation of the substage III-G growth and second, to retain the advantages of small size, meaning a nimble response to the economic landscape and maintaining the owners’ entrepreneurial spirit.

The organization must install a management team and operational processes that will eliminate the inefficiencies that growth can produce and simultaneously professionalize the company operations by use of tools such as budgeting, strategic planning, staff training and standard cost management systems—and do this without inhibiting its entrepreneurial qualities.

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: Abdul and Aisha Tedros, owners of Oasis Coffee & Tea Shop in Phoenix, AZ, ranked #11 on the Yelp Top 100 coffee shops list in the U.S.and Canada.

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5 Ways to Keep Prospects on Your Website

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Persuading potential customers to visit your website is a big step. You have a shot at winning a customer, but first, you’ll need to do a few critical things right. Your objective is to supply the information that prospects want (and need) to become customers.

Your website must deliver—in clear, enthusiastic and reassuring language and images—that portray your products and/or services as effective, easy-to-use and eye-candy visible. Create a yellow brick road journey that moves webiste visitors through a trust-inspiring buyer’s journey that has a real Hollwood ending—a sale!

1. Landing page

No one wants to waste time trying to figure out what your company sells, how they can buy it or other essential information. If they don’t find what they’re looking for in what they feel is a reasonable amount of time it’s click and they’re out of there. Disappointed site visitors will leave you and find someone who makes it easy for them.

Think objectively about what you would want and need to see and learn about your products or services if you were searching for a solution. Your landing page should include the big picture basics of why your products and services make sense and it’s all got to be right there at eye level.

2. Decision-making info

Especially for B2B products and services, prospects will conduct extensive research and compare the offerings of two or more competitors before committing to buy. Make information about who you are and what you do easy to find. You can add more content to your website by starting a blog, adding more web pages and ensuring all the essential information a customer needs is there. Further, ensure your website is uncluttered and easy to read, so that prospective customers are drawn to keep browsing and reading your content.

3. Call-to-action

A single CTA on your landing per page, no matter how appealing, may not grab the attention of site visitors who do a quick scroll through your site as they search for specific info. Someone who might do business with you might skate by during a hasty tour of your site, no matter how bright and eye-catching your CTA. Be smart and proactive and include multiple calls to action.

Tie your CTAs to specific steps in the customer buying funnel—click to receive a case study that helps you understand how we help customers get the job done; click here for a 30 minute free consultation: get started with a one month free trial here.

4. Purposeful content

Include content that demonstrates your expertise because that’s the information that supports decision-making (in your favor!). A regularly published newsletter or blog, white papers and /or case studies, customer testimonials and articles about you and your your organization that appear in the press, including your hyper-local neighborhood publications are validations of your expertise. Everything that you post onto your website is there to be in service to persuading a prospect to become a customer. This is not about window dressing.

5. Trust and authenticity

The best way to combat distrust is to demonstrate your relevance, ability to do the job and authenticity. Personalizing your website with real photos and details. If you can’t afford to hire a professional photographer, take photos of your staff, office and products using what you have at your disposal — even if that’s just your cell phone camera (making sure that your photos are clear and not blurry). Adding personal details like photos of yourself as the owner, a street view of your location, etc. will elicit more trust from online shoppers.

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: Vogue Magazine Collections app for Apple iPad and iPhone

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6 Soft Skills You Need Now

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The behaviors known as soft skills continue to be highly valued in the workplace. Unlike technical, or “hard” skills, that encompass job functions, soft skills refer to the values and practices that shape your working style—-how you interact with clients and colleagues, how you manage your work and how you solve problems. Soft skills govern how you behave in different situations. They reveal who you are.

Technological innovations such as artificial intelligence and automation have made the execution of numerous mechanical or routine tasks faster, cheaper and more accurate and that saves time and money. However, the adoption of AI has contributed to the value of soft skills because the jobs that the machines cannot do are often dependent on soft skills.

Freelancers, who must present ourselves to prospective clients as not only possessing the hard skills required to get the job done, but also communicate that we’re good to work with—- resourceful, cooperative, dependable, pleasant—-are perhaps more explicitly in need of soft skills than are employees. It is now obvious that for Freelancers, soft skills such as emotional intelligence, adaptability, optimism, self-motivation and resilience are critical success factors. It is doubtful that you can build and sustain a successful venture without displaying your command of soft skills traits. Soft skills are also elements of your personal brand, BTW.

Of the many soft skills that Freelancers might cultivate, the following come to mind for me (and I’m sure that you, dear reader, can suggest several more):

  • Analytical ability
  • Creativity
  • Judgment
  • Communication
  • Organization
  • Teamwork

Analytical ability

Problem-solving starts with analyzing the issue you need to unravel, examine, evaluate and resolve. Looking beyond the surface to discover the root cause or motivators of the problem is usually necessary. Analyzing a dilemma can include a number of problem/solving skills, including:

  • Research
  • Forecasting
  • Historical analysis
  • Risk management

Creativity

The solution to a problem is not always obvious. Predicting what clients may want next is an ongoing puzzle. Out-of-the-box thinking and other points of view can be very beneficial as you search for a viable ideas and solutions.

  • Brainstorming
  • Editing
  • Design or presentation of products and services
  • Narratives

Judgment

Drawing from your life experiences is the most reliable way to develop good judgment because ideally, we learn from our experiences. As you navigate the personal and professional sectors of life, you’ll eventually learn how to consider the nature of a problem, understand what resources could be needed to bring about the solution and recognize what might go wrong along the way. The soft skills you’ll rely on will include:

  • Critical thinking
  • Decision-making
  • Collaboration

Communication

Communication is the foundation of problem- solving. Leaders (and managers) must be able to inspire, motivate, reassure, coach and constructively criticize. Being a good communicator also helps you to articulate your decisions and persuade your team to align and support your vision.

  • Active listening
  • Patience
  • Persuasion
  • Negotiation
  • Empathy
  • Building rapport
  • Public speaking
  • Body language
  • Verbal communication
  • Written communication

Organization

Once you’ve chosen a solution to a problem and communicated it to your team, you still have to create a process to carry out your plan. Organization skills help you implement the steps everyone needs to take, which can improve alignment and efficiency. Executing a strategy to achieve your solution requires a number of problem-solving, among them:

  • Prioritization
  • Initiative
  • Project management
  • Time management

Teamwork

Teamwork is essential to successfully collaborate with your colleagues. or your work partner or contact at a client’s firm. It’s necessary for brainstorming and exchanging ideas, delegating tasks and efficiently working toward a solution.

Even if your role is largely independent work, you still need teamwork to collaborate with colleagues in different departments and keep your goals on track. As a Freelancer, your role could involve interacting with multiple people. Make an effort to develop the skills that will make everyone want you on their team:

  • Collaboration
  • Delegation
  • Feedback, giving and receiving
  • Goal setting
  • Dependability
  • Prioritizing
  • Setting expectations
  • Assessing employee strengths and weaknesses
  • Setting expectations
  • Performance evaluation
  • Identifying outcomes
  • Trust
  • Respect

Thanks for reading,

Kim

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Go Agile

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Life brings change and it seems as if change occurs at a much faster pace these days. Then again, the same observation was probably made in the Middle Ages or even when the pharaohs ruled. The world continues to turn and every day is new and brings a unique set of circumstances. How we respond to fluctuating conditions has a big impact on our fortunes in life.

The ability to move quickly, whether to take advantage of goodies that unexpectedly appear or dodge something unpleasant, is a skill known as agility and it is worth cultivating. In business, the ability to incorporate agility into strategy, management and culture enables company leaders and team members to facilitate smart decisions that enable beneficial changes that can be instituted quickly and efficiently. This capability delivers a number of advantages, often making a business more competitive, sustainable and ultimately, more profitable. During periods of generally adverse business conditions, agility often makes the difference between keeping a business viable or presiding over its failure.

Benefits of an agile business 

  • Responding to new market conditions or competitors. Every business will at some point encounter a wily competitor or challenging market conditions. When agile practices are baked into your organization, the leadership team will be better prepared to adjust to evolving conditions. You expect change—you monitor the Key Performance Indicators, you pay attention to the competitive scene, you follow industry developments that help you anticipate what might impact your organization, for good or ill. You are accustomed to making decisions and changes to accommodate new realities. The agile business is resilient.
  • Solving and responding to problems. The pandemic shutdown has been Problem #1 for most of us. Hollowed out industries, disappearing clients, supply chain delays and difficulties in finding help thanks to the stimulus payments that have made staying home more profitable than working for some. These and other disruptions can prevent you from efficiently serving your customers. But leaders of agile businesses have been training like a prize fighter, giving the entity quick reflexes, effective offense and defense strategies and stamina to weather the storm. You’re able to recognize what may become a problem and proactively institute alternatives that will soften the blows and limit damage. The agile organization is prepared to defend itself and prevail. 

Tools of an agile business

  • A Robust data streams. Agility won’t help you unless your decisions and actions are based on 1.) objective data and 2.) you measure what it makes sense to measure. Accordingly, your first goal should be establishing credible and relevant streams of data for key aspects of your business. You should consistently measure your performance in every department, and across the entire business. Analyzing and interpreting the data will help you figure out which actions to take next.
  • Fast decision-making. Agile businesses are capable of making important decisions quickly. That capability requires both preparation and courage. If a problem arises, a quick decision can mitigate its impact. If a competitor emerges, your agile business may be able to pivot in a matter of weeks, instead of months. This usually means avoiding the development of slow, bureaucratic systems in favor of those that support decisiveness and action. Good data, especially in the form of well-chosen KPIs, is essential, as is the willingness to act on it.
  • Flexible systems. Flexibility is crucial for agility. If your technology infrastructure and operational workflows can’t accommodate rapid-fire changes or expansion, they’re not going to support agility.
  • Innovation. Your organization also needs a mechanism and encouragement for innovation. For agility to be effective, it needs to foster and support novel ideas, including ideas for new products and services.

Practices of an agile business

  • Encourage entrepreneurial thinking. If you’ve built a good team, you’ll be able to extend to them a degree of autonomy. Empower your employee in to develop a sense of ownership and behave as if a steward, a stakeholder, of the enterprise. Encourage them to solve their own problems and allow them to make their own decisions whenever possible. The more autonomy your employees have, the faster they’ll make decisions (and the more agile your business will become).
  • Foster clusters of small teams. Big, hierarchical organizations have some advantages, but they’re inherently unagile. Instead, it’s better to work closely together in small teams. Try to avoid becoming overly bureaucratized.
  • Avoid becoming too accustomed to anything. Don’t get too attached to anything in your business, including people, software, workflows and even the company culture. You need to remain flexible and willing to incorporate new ideas.
  • Cut whatever isn’t working. Whether it’s a new tactic or a strategy with a long history of producing results that at one time pushed the company forward, you need to be willing to cancel whatever isn’t working. If it doesn’t provide an objective benefit to your organization, get rid of the dead weight.
  • Check in regularly. You should have reliable metrics to inform you of your progress and check in with them regularly. While you’re at it, ask for feedback from your employees and ask how they think the organization could be made even more agile in the future.

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: Olga Korbut, superstar gymnast from Minsk, Belarus (formerly USSR) at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, (West) Germany. Korbut won four gold and two silver medals at the Games.