113 Posts found for Source: OPEN Forum (American Express)

Business planning advocates will tell you that every business needs a full-fledged business plan, which is certainly true if you’re going to seek outside investors or a small business loan. While it’s beneficial to have one even if you don’t seek outside funding, the reality is that many successful businesses launch and grow without a full, formal business plan. However, few businesses succeed without any … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: Scott Allen | Source: OPEN Forum (American Express) | Subjects: Entrepreneurship, Small Business

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Virtually nothing comes out right the first time. Failures, repeated failures, are finger posts on the road to achievement. The only time you don’t want to fail is the last time you try something. One fails toward success.

Content: Quotation | Author: Charles Kettering | Source: OPEN Forum (American Express) | Subject: Success / Failure

In addition to listening to those who call you, e-mail directly, or chat with you in person, there are four ways you can “listen” to what your customers have to say.

Content: Article | Author: Eric Groves | Source: OPEN Forum (American Express) | Subject: Customer Related

Here are two words you should never forget: attitude and gratitude. If you have the right attitude, life will be much better for you; but if you’ll show gratitude when someone is good to you, it will be even better. And if you don’t, life won’t be very nice at all. So always say ‘please’ and ‘thank you,’ and do it with a smile, not … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: John Mariotti | Source: OPEN Forum (American Express) | Subject: Attitude

What’s your story? Here are a few action steps and resources to get you started on your storytelling path.

Content: Article | Author: John Jantsch | Source: OPEN Forum (American Express) | Subjects: Marketing / Sales, Personal Development

There are a lot of numbers in a small business. Most entrepreneurs do a lousy job of reviewing their financial statements while simultaneously trying to manage with the production, sales and delivery of their product. However, numbers are a very powerful tool in business. Without knowing how a business has performed financially, it is impossible to predict where it should go. If as a small … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: Barry Moltz | Source: OPEN Forum (American Express) | Subject: Small Business

William C. Taylor is the founding editor of Fast Company and author of Practically Radical: Not-So-Crazy Ways to Transform Your Company, Shake Up Your Industry, and Challenge Yourself. He believes we are living in the age of disruption, so we can’t do big things anymore if we’re content with doing things a little better than everyone else or a little differently than we did them … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Authors: Guy Kawasaki, William C. Taylor | Source: OPEN Forum (American Express) | Subject: Management

I believe that all people are creative, in their own way. Not all people are good at creating lots of really great ideas, nor do they have to be. Innovation success comes not from a single innovator or team, but from a number of people and teams coming together to fill a set of nine innovation roles. These roles must be filled in order for … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: Braden Kelley | Source: OPEN Forum (American Express) | Subject: Innovation

Although receiving a venture term sheet to fund your company is a cause for celebration, please consider the various booby traps that it may contain before you break out the party hats. This is a top 10 list of things an entrepreneur should understand about term sheets.

Content: Article | Authors: Guy Kawasaki, Nitin Gupta | Source: OPEN Forum (American Express) | Subjects: Entrepreneurship, Finance

Twitter gets much more interesting and useful when you can filter out 99% of the junk that doesn’t apply to your objectives and focus on the stuff that matters.

The basic search.twitter.com functionality is fine for searching things that are being said about your search terms. The advanced search function offers more ways to slice and dice the stream, but still leaves some room for improvement … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: John Jantsch | Source: OPEN Forum (American Express) | Subjects: Market Research, Marketing / Sales

There are always awkward moments when a company’s new hire is younger than the team he or she is managing.

Older employees who thought they were in the running for the same position may feel slighted, others may assume youth amounts to inexperience, or they may not be bothered. Often though, the experience tends to be just as uncomfortable for the new boss who … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: Mamta Badkar | Source: OPEN Forum (American Express) | Subjects: Human Resources, Management, Organizational Behavior

One of the most dynamic speakers at the recent World Business Forum was legendary business thinker and author Jim Collins. I had not had the chance to hear him speak before, but his presentation was wide ranging and offered many lessons that would be easily applicable for any small business owner. This post is an attempt to share some of what I felt the most … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: Rohit Bhargava | Source: OPEN Forum (American Express) | Subject: Management

For some products and services, such as power tools or software, an owner’s manual is a very necessary and accepted part of the deal. But many businesses can take this notion to heart and use it as part of their education experience, even if others in the industry don’t practice this approach.

Content: Article | Author: John Jantsch | Source: OPEN Forum (American Express) | Subjects: Customer Related, Marketing / Sales

Dan Heath explains how the environment has a tremendous influence on the way that we act and asks, “at work can you find ways to make your people better simply by changing their situation?”

Content: Multimedia Content | Author: Dan Heath | Source: OPEN Forum (American Express) | Subjects: Management, Organizational Behavior

Dan Heath talks about how to get your ideas across through the power of testable credentials.

Content: Multimedia Content | Author: Dan Heath | Source: OPEN Forum (American Express) | Subject: Marketing / Sales

Working capital is an important measure of a company’s financial health. It’s defined as the difference between Current Assets and Current Liabilities (Working Capital = Current Assets – Current Liabilities). When a company has positive working capital, it is able to pay off its short-term liabilities from assets that can be quickly converted to cash.

Inventory is a part of current assets … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: Michael Periu | Source: OPEN Forum (American Express) | Subject: Operations

Dan Heath speaks with Fast Company on how to avoid “that dreaded bullet-drenched PowerPoint that everybody hates”.

Content: Multimedia Content | Author: Dan Heath | Sources: Fast Company, OPEN Forum (American Express) | Subject: Personal Development

It’s called a continuity sale, and variations of it abound all over the place. If you’ve ever seen or used a business punchcard — you know, those “buy five pizzas, get one free” deals — you’ve seen continuity sales at work.

Here’s the thing: they work in virtually any service business to increase the number of sales you’ll make.

Content: Article | Author: Trent Hamm | Source: OPEN Forum (American Express) | Subject: Marketing / Sales

Dan Heath speaks about appealing to the higher levels of employee motivation.

Content: Multimedia Content | Author: Dan Heath | Source: OPEN Forum (American Express) | Subject: Organizational Behavior