Posts Tagged ‘Stefan Doering’
Six Parts to Managing a Public Crisis
For the first time in recent memory I found myself yelling at a client last Thursday. He had just finished telling a group of us on his core team that he had been withholding crucial information.
How Entrepreneurs Deal With the Challenges of Getting Funded
“I always tell my kids if you lay down, people will step over you. But if you keep scrambling, if you keep going, someone will always, always give you a hand. Always. But you gotta keep dancing, you gotta keep your feet moving.”
Morgan Freeman—1937, actor
We all know raising money can be really tough. But some entrepreneurs make it look easy. Ron and David are two of those people.
As CEO, Where Do You Spend Most of Your Time?
On Monday I had a room of 30+ entrepreneurs glaring at me. They had just been told that where they should be spending most of their over-worked and overwhelmed working lives wasn’t even close to what they have been doing.
It started when I asked them how much time they spend in the following three basic areas of (any) business:
The Importance of Being Your Word
Last night I found myself in an intense conversation a networking event held a friend and colleague. We were discussing what the following four organizations all had in common: BP, Goldman Sachs, Toyota, and the Obama Administration.
We agreed each had recently lost serious credibility because their actions have not been “meeting their words.”
Are You an Entrepreneur? Want a Job? Create It!
Recently I’ve met with three entrepreneurs looking for jobs. They’ve come to me somewhat frustrated and out of options, or so they feel.
The first, a clothing designer, was laid off from a major clothing design company. Since she was fairly high up in the company finding a similar job had slim pickings. After some time, she had not found anything.
The second, a recent graduate from college at a fairly reputable school, has serious overseas experience and was having the dickens of a time finding work in the business consulting world. She wanted to work for a major consulting firm here in New York, as she had some previous internship experience at one.
The third,a former managing director at a major investment bank, was recently laid after the new bank that acquired his failed company phased out his division. He has been looking for several months, but because so few jobs are available at his level, has not been successful.
I told each of them the same thing: don’t wait for a job/position to become available, create it.
Seven Steps to Attracting Your Billionaire Angel Investor
The first time I met John I was really surprised. He was introduced to me from an investor in my new company at the time and John was an old friend of his. What surprised me about John how human he was. He was in his late sixties and somewhat stubborn and opinionated. But not it an arrogant way.
John’s wealth started with his grandfather’s company. The family ran and grew it into a conglomerate that was eventually sold. John now managed the family’s assets of over a billion dollars. I was really nervous when I pitched him, knowing what he could mean to my company. But after listening to me for a few minutes and asking a few questions, John politely rejected my request to invest.
Features vs Benefits – Jolting Your Sales NOW
Earlier this week I was teaching marketing to about 20 entrepreneurs here in NYC.After the class several came up to say they got some super-cool tips on how to immediately impact their sales with little or no cost. Just rewriting and designing their marketing strategies based on what they just learned.
And here is what they learned: the difference between selling the features and benefits of your product or service.
Avoiding Risk: The Opposite of Being an Entrepreneur
Recently I was at a business networking event in New York. And a man was doing a good job presenting his product to the audience. It was high-end with nice “green” features that he was hired to design for his client, who operates in a very competitive industry. But there was no indication of the environmental features of the product, a key selling point.
After the presentation, I asked him what was up with that. He said his company has been around for 50 years and they are not about to change. How’s their business doing? “Struggling. Sales are way off and more competition is setting in daily.”
Businesses are in serious trouble when are not taking on bold, new ideas. Especially today with the economic climate, fierce global competition and technology shifts.
