small business Archives - Page 13 of 19

Wanna Buy a Fake Egg? Neither Do Your Customers!

I’m a geek.

How much of a geek? I am a card-carrying member of the International Brotherhood of Magicians (IBM). Need I say more? IBM has a monthly magazine called The Linking Ring, and there’s a regular column that reviews magic tricks, books, and apparatus. In the most recent issue there is a product review that ends with this sentence:

[quote style=”boxed”]So if you are looking for a fake egg that compresses into a relatively small space and pops back into its ... Continue Reading →

13
JUN
2013

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Customer Service, Producing Results, Sales

Bill Stainton, keynote speaker, leadership, leadership speaker, motivational speaker, professional speaker, running a business, running your business, sales, small business, small business success

The Key to Producing Great Teams

Posted by: Bill Stainton

Since my job is to help leaders produce seriously award-winning teams, I’m exceedingly (some would say irritatingly) interested in what makes great teams tick. Turns out I’m in good company! The folks at MIT’s Human Dynamics Laboratory have been working on this question for some time now, and they’ve come up with an answer. A single answer.

The MIT ...

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21
MAY
2012

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Producing Results, Teams

award winning performance, Bill Stainton, communication, leadership, leadership training, motivational speaker, small business, small business success, team building, team communication, teambuilding, teamwork

It’s Okay to Say “No” to the Wrong Customer

Posted by: Bill Stainton

I was at an event recently where one business speaker asserted that there were four words you should never tell a customer: “I can’t do that.” And he had some very good reasons for this assertion:

Your competitors love it when you tell a customer, “I can’t do that.”

It’s music to their ears.

When you tell a customer, “I can’t do that,” you’re giving them an excuse to look elsewhere, and you’re opening a window of ...

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27
MAR
2012

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Customer Service, Producing Results, Sales

award winning performance, Bill Stainton, business integrity, customer service, keynote speaker, leadership, leadership training, professional speaker, running a business, running your business, sales, small business, small business success

An Award-Winning Performance…Every Time

Posted by: Bill Stainton

Some of you know that I used to produce a sketch comedy TV show in Seattle called Almost Live! It was on the air for fifteen years, and number one in its time slot for ten straight years. During those fifteen years, my team and I won more than 100 Emmy Awards. At the risk of sounding immodest, we were really, really good at what we did. Our ...

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15
MAR
2012

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Producing Results, Teams

award winning performance, Bill Stainton, business integrity, customer service, exceeding expectations, running a business, running your business, sales, small business, small business success

The Joy of Checklists

Posted by: Bill Stainton

It was 4:00am yesterday morning, and I was driving to the airport for a speaking engagement in Pittsburgh. This is a pretty common occurrence for me (not necessarily the Pittsburgh part, but the rest of it). All of a sudden I had one of those, “Oh no, did I leave the iron on?” moments. I forget what it was that I was actually worried about—it wasn’t the iron. Probably, “Did I lock the door?” or “Did I water the plants?” ...

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14
MAR
2012

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Producing Results, Work Ethic

award winning performance, Bill Stainton, keynote speaker, productivity, professional speaker, running a business, running your business, small business, small business success, time management

Would You Hire You?

Posted by: Bill Stainton

Would you hire you?

A friend and I were talking recently about Michael Gerber’s seminal book, The E-Myth Revisited, and that got us talking about the by-now-almost-cliched concept of “working on the business” rather than “working in the business.” The basic idea is that a baker (to use Gerber’s example) decides to open a bake shop, and then spends all her time baking rather than running a baking business. To grossly oversimplify, Gerber is saying that, as business owners, we need ...

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8
MAR
2012

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Leadership, Producing Results, Teams

award winning performance, Bill Stainton, business integrity, customer service, leadership, running a business, running your business, sales, small business, small business success

Don’t Be Like Netflix!

Posted by: Bill Stainton

So I got a Roku for Christmas. Now, I know that “a Roku” sounds like one of those yappy little dogs that Paris Hilton would carry around in a purse, but it’s not. It’s actually a very cool little device that sits near your TV and lets you stream movies and TV shows from sources like Hulu and Netflix. And the ...

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10
FEB
2012

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Customer Service, Producing Results

Bill Stainton, business integrity, customer service, exceeding expectations, integrity, running a business, running your business, sales, small business, small business success, work ethic

The Power of “Focus”

Posted by: Bill Stainton

I just finished co-chairing (with the truly amazing Ruby Newell-Legner) a major conference for my professional organization, the National Speakers Association (NSA). By all accounts, it was a huge success (which translates, of course, into huge relief for me!). In the three days since the event ended, I’ve spent some time trying to discern what it was that made the conference so successful.

Yes, we had some truly great speakers and presenters. Yes, the format flowed ...

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9
FEB
2012

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Communication, Leadership, Producing Results, Work Ethic

attitude, Bill Stainton, branding, focus, leadership, leadership training, making decisions, professional speaker, running a business, running your business, small business, small business success

Why Your New Years Resolutions Fail

Posted by: Bill Stainton

We’re well into January, and I’m guessing that by now you’ve already begun abandoning your well thought out and well intentioned New Years resolutions. And they were well intentioned, weren’t they? That’s because it’s so much easier to be optimistic when you’re looking at the new year through the rosy vapors of last night’s champagne. But then stark reality ...

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25
JAN
2012

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Change, Producing Results, Sales

Bill Stainton, goal setting, goals, leadership training, resolutions, running a business, running your business, small business, small business success

Why Don’t We Take More Risks?

Posted by: Bill Stainton

We all love a risk-taker, don’t we? The business owner, the entrepreneur, the CEO who has a big idea, then boldly rolls the dice with a “Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!” attitude. We look at them with wonder and envy, and jealously applaud them when they make it big. We hear people tell us, “You have to take ...

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6
SEP
2010

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Change, Leadership, Producing Results, The Beatles

attitude, Beatles, Beatles expert, Bill Stainton, leadership, risk, running a business, running your business, small business, small business success, taking risks