Recent Articles From EvanCarmichael.com http://www.evancarmichael.com/ http://www.evancarmichael.com/Business-Coach/740/Critical-Success-Factors.html http://www.evancarmichael.com/Business-Coach/740/Critical-Success-Factors.html The Critical Success Factors are those components of your strategic plan that must succeed if the overall plan is to succeed. It is from the Critical Success Factors that you identify your 30/60/90 Day Focus. http://www.evancarmichael.com/Business-Coach/740/Technology-and-the-Small-Business.html http://www.evancarmichael.com/Business-Coach/740/Technology-and-the-Small-Business.html The technology available to the small business owner is comparable to that available to large corporations. This is a remarkable fact, one that will allow small business owners to create and build sophisticated operations. To explore this further I knew I would have to have a conversation with Leslie Babel, President of DigitalFire Inc, an IT Support and Technology company. Leslie’s passion is technology and how he can apply it to make small businesses more effective, more competitive and more fun! http://www.evancarmichael.com/Business-Coach/740/Business-Growth-Strategies.html http://www.evancarmichael.com/Business-Coach/740/Business-Growth-Strategies.html Growing a business is a risky business. In fact there are more risks associated with growing a business than there are with starting a business. Four of the most common hurdles preventing business growth are: • The business owner is too busy to work on growth activities. • There is not enough money to finance the growth. • The business owner has gaps in knowledge and experience • There is no growth plan. Here are the strategies to deal with these hurdles. http://www.evancarmichael.com/Business-Coach/740/You-Cant-Do-It-Alone.html http://www.evancarmichael.com/Business-Coach/740/You-Cant-Do-It-Alone.html One of the major barriers to business success is not having a coherent well thought out strategic action plan. Once this hurdle is overcome the business owner faces another equally debilitating barrier. They don’t have the time and/or resources to execute the plan. http://www.evancarmichael.com/Business-Coach/740/With-Technology-Everything-Has-Become-Possible.html http://www.evancarmichael.com/Business-Coach/740/With-Technology-Everything-Has-Become-Possible.html The technology available to the small business owner is comparable to that available to large corporations. This is a remarkable fact, one that will allow small business owners to create and build sophisticated operations. To explore this further I knew I would have to have a conversation with Leslie Babel, President of DigitalFire Inc, an IT Support and Technology company. Leslie’s passion is technology and how he can apply it to make small businesses more effective, more competitive and more fun! http://www.evancarmichael.com/Business-Coach/740/Lessons-to-learn-from-the-book-Good-to-Great.html http://www.evancarmichael.com/Business-Coach/740/Lessons-to-learn-from-the-book-Good-to-Great.html While the companies in the book Good to Great are large publicly owned corporations I believe that many of its lessons can be applied to small, privately owned businesses. I regularly recommend it as essential reading to our clients, who are all small business entrepreneurs. Here are some of the lessons to be learnt from Good to Great. http://www.evancarmichael.com/Business-Coach/740/How-Healthy-Is-Your-Business.html http://www.evancarmichael.com/Business-Coach/740/How-Healthy-Is-Your-Business.html Cholesterol is often described as the silent killer. High cholesterol is bad for us and yet there are no symptoms. There is no pain; there is no nausea; there is no shortness of breath. That is why doctors regularly check our cholesterol. http://www.evancarmichael.com/Business-Coach/740/Business-Accountability-Teams--they-go-to-BAT-for-you.html http://www.evancarmichael.com/Business-Coach/740/Business-Accountability-Teams--they-go-to-BAT-for-you.html How hard it is sometimes to stay focused; to put in that extra effort to achieve the business results we want. How easy it is to be wooed by the warm day to play a round of golf when we should be making sales calls. How easy it is to rationalize that taking the afternoon off will be made up for next week. This is especially true when there is no one to hold us accountable; ah the freedoms of business ownership! http://www.evancarmichael.com/Business-Coach/740/Achieving-Successful-Business-Growth.html http://www.evancarmichael.com/Business-Coach/740/Achieving-Successful-Business-Growth.html Successful business growth is not a miracle. It is the result of business owners directing all their talents and energies to the single purpose of building a bigger business. Through our work with successful businesses we have identified 6 key actions that business owners must do if they are to successfully grow their business. http://www.evancarmichael.com/Business-Coach/740/Focus.html http://www.evancarmichael.com/Business-Coach/740/Focus.html One of the common attributes of successful people, whether they are athletes, entertainers, or business leaders, is their ability to focus. They are able to concentrate all of their attention and energy on the right things in the right way. They are focus gurus.