Business Life
Breaking in to big companies. It’s the fastest, easiest way to
increase your profits, make a difference in lots of people’s lives, and grow
your business beyond just the solo-entrepreneur or independent consultant
model.
So how do you do it? The obvious answer would seem to be: ask for the big opportunity.
Guest post by Lynda Russell-Whitaker.
'Do you mean that you think you can find out the answer to it?' said the March Hare.
'Exactly so,' said Alice.
'Then you should say what you mean,' the March Hare went on.
'I do,' Alice hastily replied; 'at least — at least I mean what I say — that's the same thing, you know.' Alice in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll
Whilst humorous and entertaining, Alice’s conversation with the March Hare is a fantastical yet very commonplace example of the sort of misunderstandings – and frustrations - that can occur in a dialogue of two differing styles!
Cultural differences and different
languages can be challenging when leading a team remotely. Whether your team is
based over different continents or all over the world, your communication
skills will help you to keep your people motivated at all times.
As a manager of a multi-cultural and international team of people your understanding of their culture, their clients and the way of doing business in their part of the world is your key to success.
Move
over Branson, Sugar and Caan, a new report from a leading academic reveals over
two thirds (68%) of British female business start-ups are so-called ‘everyday
entrepreneurs’[1].
Based on research conducted with 1,000 self-employed businesswomen[2], the Avon ‘Everyday Entrepreneur Report’ shows these women are breaking the Branson mould and hadn’t planned to be self-employed business owners[3]. In fact, enterprising women are supporting the UK economy by running thriving enterprises, often from home, and appear to be motivated by flexibility and a passion more than the idea of money and power, with most not even connecting with the word ‘entrepreneur’[4].
A recent
release from the GMAT people showed two interesting trends for Chinese
women – first, they are going to grad schools at a far higher percentage than women
in other countries and at a much younger age, 25; and second that most are
heading to Western universities. For most of the women quoted, they see foreign
universities offering better educational experiences, especially for those
wanting to work in foreign countries. India, Canada, the UK and Singapore are
the top b-school destinations, according to GMAC.
Supercharged growth is all in your mind. Four women explain how changing
your mindset can change your growth potential.
If you want to be a winner, watch the moves of big winners. To find winning women entrepreneurs, a good place to start is Ernst & Young's Entrepreneurial Winning Women. These women entrepreneurs had already reached the $1 million revenue mark and had the potential to ratchet that up even further.
Revenues of the participating companies have grown almost 50% each year on average, with a corresponding average annual job growth rate of more than 25%, according Thinking Big: How to Accelerate the Growth of Women-Owned Companies, an independent impact assessment directed by the Babson College Center for Women's Leadership.
None of us wants to have a bucket with a hole in it, but more often than not
that’s exactly what we have when it comes to our businesses. We work hard
to fill it with all the right stuff — planning, continuing education, contacts,
PR — only to find them seeping out and draining us financially and emotionally.
I have identified the top 3 areas where business owners lose money and power. I experienced first hand how these areas made the holes in my bucket bigger. Fortunately, I figured out how to plug these leaks very simply, and I immediately felt empowered and business took off.
“I love
deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by.”
Douglas Adams (author of The Hitchhiker’s
Guide to the Galaxy)
Whether you are a start-up entrepreneur or an established business owner, you probably wish you had more time to get things done. Most of us learned to tell the time quite young, but spend a lifetime trying to manage the 24 hours we have in each day.
Ultimately, the story of your life will depend on how you use the time you have been given. Your success in business depends on how you manage your own and other people's time. It is our most precious business resource.
Time management is of course self management. It is a combination of planning, realism and self-awareness. But to control time we need to understand our relationship with it. For many people, the hardest part of a task is deciding when and how to get started; or which goal is the most important and what the direction of the action is going to be. If you consistently delay giving due attention to something that ought to be a priority for you or your business, you are procrastinating.
Guest piece by Dr Stephanie Parson.
I used to believe that there were three levels of leadership: leading self, leading teams and leading organizations. However, there is a fourth level – leading global settings or global change.
How does one move from leading organizations to leading global change? Think about it; there are very few people who actually lead from a global perspective. In countries where there are Presidents, one could say that these individuals have reached that fourth level of leadership. And of course we can look at world industry leaders such as Richard Branson, Percy Barnevik, Warren Buffett and David Simon; however, the question becomes, what makes these individuals different from those of us who have mastered the first three levels of leadership?
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