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It’s Always about the People

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Everything Else Is Immaterial

I had to pass this along.

No business is so good that the wrong people can’t mess it up. And no business is so bad that the right people can’t fix it. If you think about what a business is, it’s a collection of people who have been organized in attempt to profit from offering a product or service to the marketplace. So if you don’t get the people part of the equation right, everything else is really immaterial. –Fred Wilson, Union Square Ventures

Thank you, Fred, for saying that.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Behind every Successful business there is an Outstanding manager. Perfect Virtual Manager

Business Rule 4: You Know Your Truth — Listen to Yourself

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Indiana Wants Me . . . Lord, I Can’t Go There

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Back in the olden days, I was hired as a trainee for the Philips Van-Heusen Shirt Company. I was the first woman on the sales team in Chicago, that made me the second in that role nationwide in the company. During that training year, I was kind of a golden child, I got the systems, taught the guys how to use them, made relationships with customers and partnered well with the big time sales reps. I loved my job.

Then the guy in Indianapolis quit. He had replaced the guy who had quit just months before that. I was too young to think through what that quick change in personnel meant.

My boss offered me that territory –- at my six months review — heck, the teritory was even made bigger. That was something. My boss said I didn’t have to go, but he also said that he couldn’t promise I’d still have a job in Chicago, if I didn’t go.

I didn’t want to go. I love Chicago. I didn’t need the money. I had just bought a condo.

A golden child didn’t say “no,” did she? I felt I had to go. I think I was still worried about teacher approval and following orders. Do the program. Pay my dues. Do what I was supposed to do. I made up a romantic rationale and said “yes.”

Soon enough I was singing that old pop tune, “Indiana wants me. Lord, I can’t go back there.”
[Read more…]

Business Rule 3: In PRM, the First Test Always Outweighs the Final

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People Relationship Mathematics

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In the world of textbooks, I worked on problems in Discrete Mathematics for kids. Discrete math includes finite algorithms that do not go on beyond a particular problem or scenario. I have decided that in order to keep the world in balance, I’m adding to that a distinct pattern I’ve noticed about business, PRM — People Relationship Mathematics. PRM is about what folks mean when they say, “do the math.”

In general career management, PRM is more diverse and applicable than traditional mathematics. Every thing we do relates to the people and how we relate to each other. If we do the math on that idea from the very first moment, business life can be much more of a pleasure. Take it from me — I remember well the days I didn’t know that.

Let’s start from the beginning. Beginning — that’s a great word. There are more beginnings than we might suspect. Here are a few:

  • first day at a new company
  • first day in a new role
  • first day with a new boss
  • first day with a new client or new customer

Any one of those and you’re the new guy all over again. Whether you go to work at a home office or one down the road, Personal Relationship Mathematics says you have to show up.

Showing up is like long division, a whole lot trickier than it looks. Showing up requires paying attention to everyone and everything that’s going on. It also means doing the best work that you’ve ever done–beginning, middle, and end.

Day one –- that’s 100 days in PRM –is when you build a concrete foundation. What people think, decide really, about you now will determine whether they will forgive you then. The relationships you forge on the proverbial day one are your safety net.

Do the PMR to pass the first test. The first test always outweighs the final.
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Are You a Freelancer or a Solo Entrepreneur? Use Guy Kawasaki’s Mantra as He Meant

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Guy Didn’t Mean Don’t Have a Vision or a Plan

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With the start of the Perfect Virtual Manager, I’ve been talking a lot to bloggers. Even more interesting is that I’ve been not talking to a lot of them. I’ve noticed something about people who work outside of a traditional setting. We fall into two categories: freelancers and entrepreneurs. Some think they are one, and they’re really the other. Which one are you? Do you know that for sure?

Guy Kawasaki wrote a wonderful post in January called, Mantras Versus Missions. Thank you, Roger von Oech, for reminding me of it. You see, I think some folks do as Guy suggests — make a mantra — and unfortunately, they stop there. That’s not what Guy said to do. He was talking about replacing a mission statement with something more focused. His mantra was meant as a guiding force, not as a replacement for a business plan.

A person with fabulous skills and only a mantra is a freelancer not a solo entrepreneur.

The two think and work differently.

Do you know how to tell a freelancer from a solo entrepreneur?

Turn the page and I’ll show how.
[Read more…]

Blogs Aren’t Books — Not Everyone Starts Reading on Page 1

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Entry Pages Count

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Do you think about your blog as if it’s a book?

Do you have a hidden assumption that everyone reads the front page first, because that’s what you do?

Every page of a blog offers an open door and a place for readers land. Search engines send traffic to pages deep into the archives. Old bookmarks do too.

Next time you check your stats, note the entry pages — where visitors land when they arrive. Then visit the popular entry pages yourself. Take a long look. Do they look up-to-date? Is the information still correct? Was your writing as good then as it is now? It doesn’t hurt to check to be make sure that the place is still spruced up and talking nice. Every entry page is a first impression of your blog, your business, and your brand.

Investing in your landing pages to make them inviting and informative can have as much impact for those incoming readers as any front page does.

How do you use your stats to make your blog more friendly to your readers?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Need a clone or a manager to help clean up your blog? Check out the Work with Liz!! page in the sidebar.

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