Think you have a great presentation or a truly moving speech? Well, here are the classic mistakes that can transform your masterpiece into a huge hot mess:...

Ever wish you had more than 24 hours in a day to get more things done? As 2018 draws near, this is the time of year to start thinking about new habits, tools, and techniques that work to our advantage without us working ourselves to death. Well...

Top Contenders. For our title of Company of the Year, we looked for ambitious startups that epitomize business in 2017. Only one came out on top, but many came close--including these ten companies who competed against the winner: Mailchimp...

As 2018 gets closer, many professionals focus on what they can do better next year. Increasing productivity at work is a common New Year's resolution, as there is almost always room to improve anyone's practices. To help you get started, here are 27 productivity tips to begin 2018 right...

To leave your mark on the world and accomplish truly interesting things, do you need to be rich? Brilliant? Able to take a mental beating and keep on fighting? Not according to Steve Jobs. None of those factors will probably hurt your efforts to be exceptional, but according to the former Apple boss and general icon of excellence, the most important factor when it comes to living an extraordinary life is understanding that no one can stop you. In a 1995 interview...

Without a doubt, a key quality every successful person has is perseverance: the grit and drive and will to keep pushing forward in spite of challenges and obstacles. Luckily...

A sales email's subject line gives recipients an initial glimpse of you and your business and, hopefully entices them to open an email. But it's the call to action (CTA) that usually determines whether someone will actually hit "reply" and write you back. Far too often...

If you're hiring a salesperson, there's one thing you should be looking for: sales aptitude, which is clearly not something everyone possesses. That's according to John Asher, author of the recently released "Close Deals Faster: The 15 Shortcuts of the Asher Sales Method" and CEO of Asher Strategies, a high-level growth strategy consulting firm focused on improving sales for business-to-business companies. To determine sales aptitude...

When a barrage of hurricanes made landfall in Fall 2017, we all learned--and relearned--lessons on how to be empathetic to those in need. While the federal government and FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) have become better responders to victims of natural disaster, many leaders still need more practice with learning to communicate empathetically to clients and partners (Hint: disaster is not a marketing opportunity, no matter how great your hurricane proof vest is.) Our company, like many others...

Prominent billionaire investor Prince Alwaleed bin Talal was arrested Saturday night in an anti-corruption probe, Saudi Arabia announced. At least 24 others, including princes, ministers, and former ministers, were also arrested. Alwaleed, the chairman of the Kingdom Holding Company, is one of the world's richest men with a $16.8 billion fortune, Forbes estimates. As of last year,...

For many freelancers and owners of small businesses, signing up clients and completing projects is just one part of the work. Trying to get paid can be almost as time-consuming. Sandy Sloane needed 11 months of persistence before one client paid in full for her publicity and event-planning work. The client was having cash flow problems, but...

When I was at Apple, I met with all kinds of people: General Managers of hockey teams, CEOs of big companies, billionaires. No meeting scared me. That is, until I got here to Scrollmotion--and had to face my first board meeting. That gave me night terrors I will never forget. If you've followed this column,...

In late 1864 Union General William T. Sherman marched into Atlanta, crippling the southern war economy. The practical effect was massive but so was the psychological impact, and not just on southerners: Abraham Lincoln would ride the resulting wave of public confidence into his second term as President. As Ron Chernow describes in...

The issue of respect in sales goes far beyond the experience of just the 14.5 million people who work as sales-related professionals. It affects the success or failure of startups, the economy at large, and even the ability to solve some of the world's most pressing problems. To understand why,...

Can one sentence really create an avalanche of new business? Yes. I have always loved marketing, and over the years I have experimented with just about every marketing method out there. It all started with...

In the early stages of the building of Amazon, Jeff Bezos used to interview every job candidate himself. Bezos believed each employee played a key role, so the quality of new hires was as crucial to the success of the business as the products it sold. As a result, Bezos was not only obsessed with creating an outstanding customer experience. He was also tenacious about hiring the strongest employees possible...

Google's parent Alphabet Inc. said Friday that its stratospheric balloons are now delivering the internet to remote areas of Puerto Rico where cellphone towers were knocked out by Hurricane Maria. Two of the search giant's "Project Loon" balloons are already over the country enabling texts, emails and basic web access to AT&T customers with handsets that use its 4G LTE network. The balloons...

Kirk W. McLaren is an Entrepreneur's Organization (EO) member in Washington, D.C. and CEO of Foresight CFO, a strategic financial management and accounting services firm that performs hands-on responsibilities to help businesses achieve optimal growth. We asked Kirk to discuss the difference between cash flow and profit and how both impact business success. Here's what he shared...