Business Decisionshttp://kevinready.com/business_decisions/en-US2012-02-23T11:17:16ZSquarespace Site Server v5.11.81 (http://www.squarespace.com/)Success: One Step at a Timehttp://kevinready.com/business_decisions/2011/7/6/success-one-step-at-a-time.htmlKevin Ready2011-07-07T03:24:53ZThe key to success in business is often the little stuff. In my experience, it is most often the result of doing a lot of small - and strategically correct - things every day without fail. It is strikingly similar to the challenge of moving a boulder by hand. The same rules apply:

1) Use leverage. Don't try to lift the heavy thing off the ground directly by grabbing it. Use a lever of some kind. For my business metaphor this means using the talents of my team and allowing them to express themselves. They are the ones doing the work - and they all desire to do well and to express their talents. As a manager my job is to set the "what" and "why" for them on their tasks and then get out of the way.  

2) Move it a little at a time.  A heavy object is not going to move far very fast without a fork lift. If you are moving it by hand you are goint to do it an inch at a time. In business this is the same: You don't grow a business from zero to millions overnight. It is a series of steps. By focusing on the small steps accessible to you today - and doing them well - you are following the only available path to success. Do the small things you can do today and do them well. Repeat tomorrow - and the next day and the next. This as opposed to the illusion that you can force your way into a market or into 'success' by doing everything at once and working 'extra hard'. It will be a series of steps whether you like it or now.

Focus on the step-by-step, pace yourself, and always look to see that the path is clear ahead. This is your best chance to getting there. This is an aspect of the "Work Smart, Not Hard" principle. Not to be forgotten.

 

]]>To Tweet or Not to Tweet?http://kevinready.com/business_decisions/2011/3/25/to-tweet-or-not-to-tweet.htmlKevin Ready2011-03-25T17:08:19ZMy current (tentative) hypothesis about Twitter is that it is a worthwhile engagement given the following conditions:

1) You are a member of a ‘niche’ (market, specialty, trade, profession).

2) You deem that access to current information is critical to your performance in the niche.

I am involved in online marketing and brand building. This means that I need to stay on top of the ever-increasing pace of change across a wide swath of areas. My strategy is to employ the filtering capacity of a carefully-chosen cadre of industry experts to assist me in the gathering/monitoring of this expertise. This is a ‘passive’ activity whereby messages from my chosen group come to me, and I audit them. This is an adjunct to my routine ‘active’ searching for new information through my network, employees, and media outlets. The passive element of this strategy is very important in that my active research can only be seeded by things that I already know about- and thus has a built-in limitation of search-bias. The randomization and wide reach of the Twitter audience serves as a seeder for my active research.

“Twitter” seems to be an important ingredient in the recipe. For now.

 

 

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