Need for Speed in Planning Too

Ferrari

This week it's been refreshing to work with some international clients who are not burdened by a lot of the U.S. business' tendency of planning, planning, planning. Don't get me wrong - the team at Growth Nation believes in planning. And many U.S. business owners have built their companies for speed. And lots of international companies plan too much. … [Read more...]

National Export Initiative 2012

Export Ship

In 2010 President Obama announced the National Export Initiative to double exports from the U.S. within 5 years. Exports mean dollars, and dollars mean jobs. It will be up to business owners to get the job done, and we are lucky to have many here in the Western U.S. who are blazing the trail to grow exports and encourage investment. Regional export … [Read more...]

Entrepreneurs are Entrepreneurs

New-Beginnings-175x150

The World Affairs Council of Arizona has been working with the U.S. Department of State and the International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLV) for over 20 years to host international visitors from around the world in Arizona. We have an important group coming in this week. Growth Nation is fortunate to once again participate in the U.S. Department … [Read more...]

Keep Calm, Unclench and Grow

Keep Calm

Keeping calm is one of those qualities that the best serial entrepreneurs that we work with are able to do. They don't panic when the going gets tough, and they don't get over-confident when things are going well. Despite that many of them can have a tendency to get too involved in the day-to-day operations of their firm. As someone who constantly … [Read more...]

Hey Entrepreneurs, Build It to Sell Out

Sell Out

Every entrepreneur comes to the point in their personal or professional life when they’re ready to move on from their current venture. However some find that when they are at that point their business is not in a condition to sell at an optimum selling price.  I was reading a blog posting by @BizTeam that described how you can keep your business … [Read more...]

Funding Your Growth: VCIC Take-aways

vc1

This blog post is one in a series of five written by Christian Lorentzen of Growth Nation. Watch for all of them over the next 5 days. On March 4th, Robert Jansen, John Wilson, Matt Herricks, Arun Kumar and I representing Arizona and Thunderbird School of Global Management participated in the 13th annual Venture Capital Investment Competition. We … [Read more...]

Underfunding Marketing Makes Us Weep

people baby crying

Every day we see companies that are unfunding their marketing. That's particularly sad because we're sure that's a leading reason why companies fail.  It makes us weep, and going out of business or underperforming expectations makes entrepreneurs weep, too. Why is investing in marketing so tough to understand?  Spend a dollar, make three, ten … [Read more...]

What Business Can Learn from George Steinbrenner

Yankee logo

"The New York Yankees are a professional baseball team based in the borough of the Bronx, in New York City, New York...", starts Wikipedia in describing the Yankees. How's that for an understatement? Love 'em or hate 'em, they are arguably the greatest franchise in American sports. With the passing of George Steinbrenner we can take a look back … [Read more...]

51 Free Marketing Tips #21 through 30

Are you ready for more free marketing tips from Growth Nation? Thanks again to Francine Hardaway, Ed Nusbaum and Phillip Blackerby for inviting me to share these with the current Tempe Fast Trac group of entrepreneurs last month. There are 51 free marketing tips, and here's 10 more. 21. Get some content out there. Francine Hardaway is the queen of … [Read more...]

51 Free Marketing Tips for Small Business: #1 through 10

Francine Hardaway and Ed Nusbaum of Stealthmore Partners recently asked if I wouldn't mind stopping by a Fast Trac group to discuss bootstrapped marketing. I figured that this might mean 'free', and so I put together a list of 51 free marketing tips for small business that everyone seemed to have fun with, especially since the list was free, too. I … [Read more...]