Entrepreneurship Archives – Page 3 of 3

13 Apr 2017

Daraja – Raising Chickens and Developing Business Skills

By Doug Wagner|2017-05-26T17:44:19-06:00April 13th, 2017|Categories: Current Events, Doug's Blog, Non-Profits and Community|Tags: Arsheen Dhalla, business, business skills, case study, Chicken Farm, Daraja, Daraja Foundation, entrepreneur, Entrepreneurship, non-profit, orphanage, school, Zanzibar|

Arsheen Dhalla is busy doing remarkable work in Zanzibar through the Daraja Foundation. Daraja means bridge in Swahili. During one of her infrequent visits to Calgary, I had the pleasure to sit down with her and listen to her story. There are many stories to tell. For this first video in the series, we decided to focus on the development of life and business skills.

The Chicken Farm Club

Initially when Arsheen traveled to Zanzibar in this capacity, her work primarily centered on an orphanage and a local […]

27 Jun 2016

Who is the Hero In Your Story?

By Doug Wagner|2017-04-03T11:09:16-06:00June 27th, 2016|Categories: Business Strategy, Doug's Blog, Marketing, Sales, The Good Men Project|Tags: advice, business, business advice, business success, changing roles, entrepreneur, Entrepreneurship, everyday heroes, happiness, leadership, manhood, marketing, masculinity, Steve Jobs, Storytelling, success, Work|

Who Is The Hero in Your Story

Great leaders and businesses have a story to tell. The best understand who the hero should be.

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Many men have lost their place in the bigger story. We bought into one narrative that has not worked out and are now struggling to find a new one as the world rapidly shifts underneath us. Some are looking for a hero, and some are seeking to become one again. We […]

12 May 2016

Need More Money? Take a Close Look at How You’re Creating Value

By Doug Wagner|2017-04-12T11:29:28-06:00May 12th, 2016|Categories: Business Strategy, Manifast, Marketing, The Good Men Project|Tags: adding value, advice, business, entrepreneur, Entrepreneurship, entrepreneurship lessons, leadership, marketing, pivot, sales, small business, success, Work|

When times are tough it is tempting to play a safe game. You might want to reconsider that strategy to win in business.

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In tough times, it is tempting to tighten the belt and keep doing what you do.

Our natural inclination is to reduce the bigger risk by taking fewer risks at all; to seemingly play it safe. If you are the sole breadwinner it feels like every business mistake is taking food out of your family’s mouth.

So we get paralyzed with […]

9 May 2016

The Secret to Great Leadership is Letting Others Win

By Doug Wagner|2017-04-03T11:10:39-06:00May 9th, 2016|Categories: Doug's Blog, Leadership, Mindset and Motivation, The Good Men Project|Tags: advice, business, business teamwork, Competition, competitive, Dysfunctional Entrepreneur, entrepreneur, Entrepreneurship, Great Teams, leadership, manhood, mission, narcissism, passion, seeking recognition, success, winning and losing, Work, Zig Ziglar|

Winning-Competition-Leadership-and-Goats-Butting-Heads

Being competitive can be good or it can be dysfunctional. Effective entrepreneurs learn the difference.

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Most entrepreneurs are competitive by nature. Being a competitive man isn’t a bad thing.

Sometimes, we watch some men take competition to the extreme. Every interaction is a death match to prove they are winners, and everyone else is a loser. I watched a documentary about well-known billionaire developer who always had to win, even against other accomplished businessmen. In making […]

7 Apr 2016

The Power of Knowing Your Entrepreneurial Focus

By Doug Wagner|2017-04-12T11:44:15-06:00April 7th, 2016|Categories: Business Strategy, Manifast, Mindset and Motivation, The Good Men Project|Tags: advice, business, business strategy, business success, entrepreneur, Entrepreneurship, focusing on results, leadership, mission, purpose, self focus, strategy, success, workplace|

It is very difficult to focus on a business mission and yourself at the same time. Clarity makes all the difference.

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“He who has a why to live can bear almost any how.” ~ Friedrich Nietzsche

Robert

Robert has somewhere between seven and a dozen small business ventures on the go at any time.

If he sees an opportunity or has an idea, he is quick to launch it. One of the businesses started out in managed information technology services. Then a client asked
if he could build her a […]

6 Jun 2013

12 Success Attributes for an Ideal Coaching Client

By Doug Wagner|2017-06-07T21:12:45-06:00June 6th, 2013|Categories: Doug's Blog, Go-Giver Coach, Leadership, Mindset and Motivation|Tags: business advice, Business Coaching, business strategy, business success, Coachable, Coaching, Coaching Client, Continuous Improvement, entrepreneur, Entrepreneurship, Go-Giver Coach, Ideal Client, Ideal Clients, Ideal Coaching Client, Learning, self-awareness, small business owner, success, Trust|

Are you a business coach wanting to find better clients or working with a coach and want to get more from the deal?

I was thinking about what an ideal coaching client would look like. Then I realized that the attributes of the ideal coaching client are that exact same attributes for:

Personal Success
Career Success
Sales Success
Leadership Success
Business Success

Yes, coaches want to work with clients who REALLY want to win, take action and apply what […]

24 Oct 2011

Start Your Engine of Growth

By Doug Wagner|2017-05-31T12:26:32-06:00October 24th, 2011|Categories: Business Strategy, Doug's Blog, Manifast, Working on the Business|Tags: Brand Strategy, business advice, business growth, business strategy, business success, Engine of Growth, entrepreneur, Entrepreneurship, Eric Ries, Lean Startup, Manifast, Marketing Strategy, SaaS, Software, Startup, Sticky Engine of Growth, Working on the Business|

We are in the midst of launching our new Manifast product. In fact we are committing to launching our MVP in November 2011. This has gotten me to thinking about marketing, sales and most importantly our revenue model. Do we have our engine of growth defined?

In “The Lean Startup” Eric Ries talks about three engines of growth for startups:

The Sticky Engine of Growth (customer retention (churn) is key)
The Viral […]

19 Jul 2011

Are You Working on the Business?

By Doug Wagner|2017-05-24T13:03:07-06:00July 19th, 2011|Categories: Business Strategy, Doug's Blog, Working on the Business|Tags: business, business advice, business growth, business strategy, business success, Dysfunctional Entrepreneur, Entrepreneurship, leadership, small business, small business owner, strategy, success, Working on the Business|

What does working on the business really mean?

As a business owner (or entrepreneur) you spend a lot of time working to build your business. You are:

Finding new customers,
Keeping existing customers happy,
Providing your product or service to customers,
Hiring good people,
Retaining your employees,
Keeping on top of the finances,
Putting out fires,
And generally growing your business.

And many business owners can generate a lot of revenue and even profit doing the above. They may even significantly grow their businesses.

So isn’t that […]

21 Feb 2010

Business Strategy: What Do You Really Want to Optimize?

By Doug Wagner|2017-06-21T15:53:41-06:00February 21st, 2010|Categories: Business Strategy, Doug's Blog, Leadership|Tags: business, business growth, Business Optimization, Business Performance, business strategy, business success, Clients, Customers, entrepreneur, Entrepreneurship, innovation, Selling Your Business, small business, small business owner, strategy, Working on the Business|

Before you spend resources on improving your business performance, it is best to know where you want to go. This means getting clear on your business strategy.

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Improving Business Performance

There are two main ways of improving business performance:

Optimization – Making things better, best practices, incremental improvements,
Innovation – Doing different things, doing things differently, leaping past the competition.

It is easy to think there is a magic bullet for optimizing your business’s performance. […]

27 Jul 2009

Marketing Budget Allocation For Results

By Doug Wagner|2017-06-06T16:06:43-06:00July 27th, 2009|Categories: Business Strategy, Doug's Blog, Marketing, Sales|Tags: business advice, Clients, Cold Calling, Customers, Entrepreneurship, Lead Generation, marketing, Marketing Budget, Marketing Budget Allocation, Marketing Strategy, Networking, Prospecting, Referrals, sales, small business, SMB|

As per the last two posts (The Value of a New Customer and Marketing Budget 101) I talked about one way of determining your marketing/sales budget.

If you want a simpler method, allocate a percentage of total revenue.

Now the question is where to spend your money for maximum effect.

There are basically four sources of future sales:

Existing customers,
Referrals (word of mouth),
Prospecting, cold calling and networking, and
New leads from marketing.

You will want to allocate funding (or effort) to […]