The hiring process — hiring employees — is an incredibly difficult, time-consuming process. It’s only slightly less painful than firing employees (or laying them off…sadly, I’ve had to do both.)

Which is why, as entrepreneurs, we tend to put hiring employees off until the point where the business is breaking down. You know that point…when papers are flying off your desk and you’re getting past-due notices and the phone is ringing off the hook and someone is yelling at you and then, only then, do you look up from it all and think “Oh, God, I could really use an assistant right now.”

That happens to be exactly the worst time to hire someone.

Today, I want to share a different perspective on hiring. Hopefully, this will motivate you to hire someone before the crap hits the fan and you decide you’ve really picked the wrong week to quit sniffing glue. (more…)

Starting your own business: The definitive guide. Are you hung up on the “idea phase” of starting your own business? Do you feel like none of your ideas are good enough–or do you have so many ideas and don’t know which one you should turn into a business? This post is for you!

First: I hear from many of you who have heard the advice that business should be about your “passion”. If I hear the words “find your passion” or “follow your passion” one more time, I’m going to stick a fork in the eye of the person who says it.

Starting your own business isn’t necessarily about “following your passion”, and you don’t have to “find your passion” before you start a business. Stop beating yourself up for not having a passion that people will pay you large sums of cash for, and follow this four-step process to starting your own business instead: (more…)

Choosing a domain name: Your difficult
questions answered! What domain name should you choose for your business? Is a .com still important? Should you pay hundreds or thousands of dollars for a .com, or just register a .biz or other extension? Are Google search engine ranks affected by whether you have a .com or not?

In this post, I’ll answer these questions and more, and make some recommendations to help you choose the right domain name. Some of my suggestions may be controversial! (more…)

I was stymied recently…by cheese.

I was at a local high-end grocery store buying meat, produce, and a pile of gluten-free goodies. Richard, who has recently gotten into cooking, decided to make organic hamburgers for dinner. We were out of cheese, so I walked over to the cheese section to pick up some cheddar slices.

I was confronted with a variety of gourmet cheeses. And they were pricey–running about $4.50 for 8 slices!

I picked one at random that said “cheddar” and looked at it. And that’s when I noticed something odd:

Right there, at the top of the package, in the “money spot” — the spot where my eyes went right after reading the brand — it said “Rennet Free.”

What in the world, I wondered, was “rennet”? (more…)

Often, we believe that if only we knew “how to” do more–more blogging, more Tweeting, more SEO or social networking–that our business would be successful.

But all the “how to” information in the world won’t help your business succeed. Your own ingrained beliefs are stopping you without you even knowing it. In fact, the biggest obstacle to your success (I hate to say it) may be you. (more…)