In tough economic times companies notoriously try to cut costs by resorting to their fallback plan: employee layoffs. Millions of them. This is evident from the high national unemployment rate. This is a problem shared both small, independent companies and larger rival companies. In theory, if you’ve done your hiring right and everyone is essential, even one layoff is unacceptable. If you haven’t done your hiring right and you have “expendable” staff, that’s a separate issu

It's hard to ask for help. Pride isn't necessarily admirable, but our smarts and hard work helped us get here... and admitting that we need help might make us look weak, right? Wrong -- in fact, just the opposite is true. I have a good friend named Mike Robbins. Mike played baseball for the Kansas City Royals organization before becoming an author and professional speaker. Mike is known as an expert on appreciation, and his take on asking for help is simple but brilliant. Hi

There is no single aspect of any business more important than cash. In fact, it's the only really unifying element of all businesses -- cash is the lifeblood. It's the reason you're in business, it's what you're trying to get, and it's how you can measure your success. I've heard countless CEOs say that they don't have time to worry about cash. "That's why I have a CFO/Controller/accounting department," they argue. I can't think of a more ignorant comment for someone to make.

Some of the best innovations we've had in business come from what I call the Meteorite Plan. The premise is, what would you do if a huge meteorite crashed directly into your problem, destroying it and the framework for it in one fell swoop? Your visualization of this scenario may vary (you can replace the meteorite with any sort of disaster) but the results will provide you with a new perspective based on needs, not limitations. The Meteorite Plan works best with a problem th

I spend a lot of time with entrepreneurs -- some would say too much time -- and invariably the conversation flows into the first few years of our businesses. In small, intimate groups, almost every entrepreneur admits that there wasn't a grand vision for their businesses. It was more like a random series of events that led to their now-growing and successful business. However, for some reason, many entrepreneurs want to whitewash their early years and re-tell the story with a

I travel - a lot. Somewhere between 100 and 200 flights a year. I also have about that many hotel stays, and I still drive a lot of miles. It would be fair to say that I've learned a few tips and tricks over the past 15 years of heavy travel. Sometimes I travel alone, sometimes with family, sometimes with co-workers. When the movie Up In The Air came out and George Clooney made his way through the airport, I thought it was a documentary of travel hacks for the first 10 min

I once received a last-minute invitation to visit Ireland's most famous band, U2, in Dublin along with a long week of parties and concerts. To call it a once-in-a-lifetime experience is an understatement. As if I needed more of a reason to be excited, a couple friends offered me front-row tickets. My wife is a huge U2 fan (as any red-headed Irish girl should be), and I had it all planned out. Only one glitch. I couldn't go. My schedule was too booked and I had to turn the tic

I've spent almost my entire business life paranoid. It's not the most relaxing way to live -- I envy friends who walk around with a Zen-like smile and a picture-perfect Type-B personality. I'm just not that guy. My last year in college, I read Only the Paranoid Survive by Intel's Andrew S. Grove. The premise is simple -- get complacent and you lose. This theory, along with the stark reality that I am NEVER the smartest person in the room, keeps me on my toes. You can call it

Tony Alessandra, the author of The Platinum Rule, is a hall of fame professional speaker, a bestselling author, and is close friends with many of my friends. The first time we ever met was over the phone, when he called to let me know that I had quoted his book without his permission. Yikes. At that time, I owned a publishing company -- I should have know better. A bit of history. In 2000, I wrote a book called A Gentleman’s Guide to Etiquette. In the book I mentioned “The Pl

My wife is a trusting woman. She is very smart, and yet when our oldest child was an infant, for some reason she still thought it would be OK for me to take care of our child for four days while she was out of town. On Thursday morning, she left, and I was in charge for the next four days... Fortunately, we already had help arranged during the day on Thursday and Friday. On Friday night, after our daughter went to bed, I thought I was halfway done. The easy part was over -- n

I’ve spent my life working with incentives. Knowing how they work and using them effectively has proven to be one of the most powerful forces in history. Ignoring them is catastrophic. For me, it started early. My parents explained that if I was good, Santa would bring me presents. Unwilling to test the limits of Santa’s forgiveness, I was a pretty good kid. In school, the teachers said if I earned good grades, I would be more successful. If I didn’t study, I would pay the pr

Elevator pitches are good in theory -- take a complicated concept and distill it into a short message. Most of the time, however, they don't make sense, and all too often they include trite buzzwords like "synergy," "maximize," or "Web 3.0." The problem is, most pitches are very forgettable and don't encourage further discussion. Most things can -- and need to be -- boiled down to short, concise comments. But how do you keep them short, make them memorable, and open the door