The Price of Being An “On Call Service Provider”
And How to Break Away From It!
In the offline world, there are two main types of service contracts. They are known as Firm Fixed Price (FFP), and Time & Materials (T&M). Each have their pro’s and con’s, and each is based on selling hours. You can read my post on how selling hours can actually hurt your brand and your bottom line to see what I am talking about. There is another price to pay, and that is the toll it can take on yourself and your employees to be “on call.” The mindset of providing “good customer service” by bending over backwards and sacrificing a healthy work life balance to please a client is very troublesome.
From Intangible to Reality
Entrepreneurship is much more than finding a gap in the market and filling it by solving a problem. That is what entrepreneurs sell, but it is not what they do. Entrepreneurs take visions, imaginative concepts and ideas and bring them into reality and into the marketplace. It is the Process That Fascinates Me Talking to [...]
Announcement: Big Changes on the Way
One of the struggles of this blog has been finding the right feel for the content. What I mean by that is often the design does not reflect how I want the site to look or how the experience that I want the end user to have. To put it simply, it feels as though [...]
TED Talks: Jessica Jackley; Poverty, Money-and Love
Image via CrunchBase I am a huge fan of TED Talks. I think they are inspiring, educational, motivating, and provide a unique forum for sharing. Just tonight, I came across an inspirational and very motivating talk given by the co-founder of Kiva.org. Kiva is a microlending site to help entrepreneurs get the capital they need [...]
Can Too Much Positivity or Optimism be a Negative?
Image by subadei via Flickr Just a quick thought – while positivity and optimism are very important characteristics to have, is there a tipping point? Lately, it seems it has caused an “analysis paralysis”, stalling my creativity, making it harder to put them to paper. Maybe I am thinking too much. What are your thoughts [...]
The Five Flaws of Too Much DIY (Do-It-Yourself)
At the beginning of nearly all small businesses, the entrepreneur and business partners and/or employees all wear multiple hats as the company is launched and positioned into the marketplace. However, if the multiple hat wearing continues past a certain point in the business, the system created is flawed. It means that there are still too [...]
New Articles Being Featured At Ezine Articles
Here are five new articles that have just been picked up by EzineArticles.com, where I am a Platinum Expert Author. They will be the topic of more detailed blog posts at a later date. For now, check out the articles, send them to friends, family, coworkers, anyone who you think would benefit from them. Understanding [...]
Marketability is the Name of the Game
The product based business model is fairly straight forward. A product has a set life-cycle within the market, so to continue that product’s existence, a new version of that product is created and launched. In the technology industry, that is about every 12 to 18 months. For the auto industry, that is about every 7 [...]
Understanding Cashflow vs. Capital Gains
Image via Wikipedia Part of being an entrepreneur is understanding the financial aspect of running a business. Being an expert in finances is not necessary as you can add team members who are experts to fill in the gaps for you. Knowing the basics and understanding the rules are important in order to develop your [...]
Intertwining Yourself Into Your Company’s Brand: How to Avoid It
So often, small business owners end up becoming their brand. In other words, they develop a reputation within their industry as the go-to person to deliver the best goods and/or services. The reputation is great, however, what happens when that person wants to scale up the business, or replace themselves so that they can focus [...]
