-By Adam Witmer-
Innovation. Everyone is talking about it. Everyone seems to know they need to innovate. And everyone seems to try to sell their innovation as a marketing pitch.
But the word “innovation" has become an over used buzz word. Even the president of the United States talked about small business innovation in one of his State of the Union addresses.
The problem is that the true meaning of the word has been lost because of the overuse of the word innovation.
Read MoreI believe in business systems. I have experienced time and time again how an effective system can create efficiencies and grow a business.
But I have also seen times where ineffective systems become an epic fail. As I travel throughout the United States, I often
Read MoreI’ve always been risk adverse. Two business degrees and over a decade of corporate work, I have been conditioned to avoid risk. But risk avoidance is also part of my personality. It is in my DNA.
So that is why I had to attempt the most challenging strategy I have ever tried.
Read MoreAs the new year is now upon us, resolutions are being made left and right. For entrepreneurs and business owners, many of these resolutions are actually business goals for the new year. And rightfully so as effective goals are one of the best ways to transform a business.
However, many businesses will not meet their goals in 2015 because of a few simple mistakes.
Here is my list of the 5 biggest mistakes businesses make in goal setting:
Read MoreAs 2014 has come to an end and we move into 2015, I can’t help but do two things: reflect on the past year and look forward to the next.
2014 year was a fantastic year. I presented over 30 different seminars, traveled to places like Glacier National Park, attended a public speaking conference in Orlando, and met one of my fitness goals.
But I also had some shortcomings in 2014. While I...
Read MoreAs a recovering perfectionist, my tendency is to want to master something before I share it and find myself in a place of vulnerability. For this reason, perfectionism is both one of my strengths and one of my weaknesses. It is a strength as I prefer to offer quality work. It is a weakness because I often work on things that never get finished as I fear they won’t be able to find perfection.
And then I heard someone say: “If you aren’t embarrassed
Read MoreAs a business owner, I love innovation because it provides a competitive advantage. As a consumer, I look toward innovation to solve problems. As a cat owner, well...
Growing up, we had always been a dog family. But my wife came from a cat family. So when my two and half year old daughter found a stray kitten, I became a cat person. And as a cat person, I quickly learned that I needed to look for letterbox smell solutions.
As a dog owner, I had always been accustom to having any animal dirty business conducted outdoors. Yes, cleaning up the fenced in yard was not a desirable job, but it was better than what I was now facing as a cat owner: cat dirty business is done inside. So my I knew we had to find a solution.
Read MoreMy readers are amazing. I am so thankful for each of you and all of the support you show me. You are the motivation for me to continue writing and blogging.
This last week, I put on two seminars in Illinois and was reminded of something: diligence matters more than preparation or even execution.
When I teach seminars, I get a survey from every attendee. Because of this, I often
Read MoreI final did it. I made my first video.
To be honest, ever since I hired the videogropher and scheduled a date to shoot this two minute video, I have been extremely nervous. It is hard to put yourself out there every week when you write a blog, even though you can somewhat hide behind those black and white letters. But a video is a whole new ball game.
Read MoreEver since I first read (listened to) The Four Hour Work Week by Tim Ferris, I have been intrigued with the idea of outsourcing work to a virtual assistant for a low price. So when my friend Herby told me about Fiverr, I knew I had to try it out.
Read MoreThe fourth of July is a celebration where we burn money. Literally. We buy fireworks and other explosives and blow them up with nothing to show for it. Well, something to show for, but then it is quickly gone. In my youth, I spent several summers working selling fireworks and that industry amazes me even today. Products are sold only 2 and a half weeks a year and can bring in millions for just one owner, as Mark Lazarchic explained on a Mixergy interview. But what is more interesting to me is that our society has gotten used to paying for disposable products.
Read MoreContent is everywhere. Products are available from many different sources. In the online information age we live, there is so much content available for free that you have to wonder why anyone would pay for it. One of the biggest hurdles for us content creators is to be able to justify to ourselves that our content has value. Why would someone want to pay for content when they can get so much for free? And, why would they want to pay for my content anyway?
Michael Hyatt recently published an excellent blog post on this topic where he explains why charging for your content is a good thing. The interesting thing about Michael, a person who makes a living on content creation, is that he also allocates a large budget for spending money on content. He has said that his budget is one of the largest content budgets he knows. While my budget isn't even close to Michael's, I too have placed a value on paying for content and paying for products. You have to understand that I am a "penny pincher" by nature, but I have come to realize that content is more valuable to me when I pay for it. Yes, I would rather pay for content than get it free. Here is why:
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