“When harsh economic winds blow, there’s a natural impulse to hunker down. Entrepreneurs often react to recessionary times by freezing spending and dramatically cutting expenses in an effort to boost their business’s bottom line. But that strategy can backfire when the cuts go so deep that they end up stifling growth. So in addition to paring down unnecessary expenses and getting your organization lean and mean, focus on increasing top-line growth by finding new sources of revenue” C.J. Prince on the Entrepreneur.com

“One of the rewards of angel investing is the ability to live vicariously through an entrepreneur's efforts. Angels want to relive the thrills of entrepreneurship while avoiding the firing line. They enjoy helping you, so seek their guidance frequently. By contrast, most venture capitalists only want to get involved when things are going really well or really poorly.” Entrepreneur.com

Learning to throw
Jeff Dennis
From the June 2007 issue of PROFIT magazine
Pitching to investors is a whole new ball game for most entrepreneurs. Unlike baseball, which gives you multiple chances to throw a strike, investors give you one chance to throw the ball over the plate and capture their imagination. Considering what's at stake when you're selling to investors, it's one of the most important skills an entrepreneur can have. But based upon what I have witnessed over the past couple of months—as has my fellow columnist Rick Spence—many entrepreneurs should be busted down to the minor leagues to work on their delivery.

Find your sales superstars
Dominic Rubino
Canadian Business Online, June 30, 2008
“I want a sales team full of top performers, but they’re so hard to find…” That’s a lament you’ll likely hear anytime business owners slow down long enough to compare notes with each other over coffee. And they’re right: high-flying salespeople are indeed tough to find in today’s tight labour market.

Yet this is a challenge well worth solving. After all, top salespeople not only drive your revenue, they generally do so at the expense of your competitors’ market share.

Use testing to model the perfect candidate: Did you know you can use science to (legally) create your own dream team of sales superstars before you even meet them? By using a behavioural test like DISC — which profiles people based on the quadrants of dominance, influence, steadiness and conscientiousness — you can gauge the key personality traits of your current best performers and use those to create a prototype of the perfect selling machine. Think of it as sales Darwinism.

Give a recruiter clear directions: Now that we have the perfect person in mind, where the heck are they? This is where recruiters come in. I know that with this suggestion you’ll either agree with me or be completely turned off. And I’ll admit that companies don’t always get the results they hope for from a recruiter. But it’s not that hiring a headhunter is a bad idea; what’s a bad idea is doing so without also giving him the specific criteria he needs to find good candidates. The right recruiter, armed with the right candidate profile thanks to the modeling you’ve done upfront, will save you a ton of time and money.