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Author of Fire Someone Today, CEO of Faithlife, and speaker on digital publishing and entrepreneurship.
  • Is trimming 5% usually a one-off exercise in response to a specific need or is it done on a regular schedule?
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      Ahh, just had to read further: "make this type of belt tightening a regular event in your business year"
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      Yes, I think it is an exercise worth repeating, though it's hard and I find we don't do it enough. But every time we do, we find some great savings.
  • In terms of a cash-aware culture, what should a typical employee, who does not make direct financial decisions, know about the company's cash and use of cash? And are "card-carrying" employees different in their level of awareness?
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    Fire Someone Today: And Other Surprising Tactics for Making Your Business a Success
    You need to create a cash-aware company culture
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      This is a tough area. When the company was smaller just a few people spent money, but everybody had a sense of what we were spending on. Now more people have the ability to spend on the company's behalf -- which means more reasons to explain the situation and get buy-in -- but it's harder for everyone to understand the real situation, and it's hard for people to make wise decisions about trade-offs without all the information. I think the best thing is to get people to think about it in terms of 'If this was my money...', plus an attitude that cash always needs to be conserved.
  • What about stake(or share)holders--would they fit on this list? Granted, by taking care of the business, you are taking care of stakeholders; but, I imagine stakeholders could have different opinions of how to 'take care of the baby' and the expected outcome of doing so.
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    Fire Someone Today: And Other Surprising Tactics for Making Your Business a Success
    If everyone is saving their love for their own baby, how do you get more love for your baby? The answer is showing people how taking care of your baby is taking care of their baby too. There are only three groups you need to show: • Vendors • Employees • Customers
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      I'm writing to the entrepreneur, so in this case the entrepreneur is either the only shareholder, or is acting as the proxy for the other shareholders.
  • I greatly enjoyed reading your book this spring. As it was written 8 years ago within a different season of Faithlife Corporation's history, have you considered writing an addendum or revision to your book now that Faithlife has ~3x more employees? Are there any chapters that are easier or harder to do with a dynamically growing company?
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      I haven't really thought much about what I'd change. I think it's more likely I'd write something different with new thoughts / lessons. The stuff I've been posting on BobPritchett.com is what's on my mind most recently -- company values, corporate culture, etc.
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      Thank you, Bob.
  • Do you mean a business is always growing or decreasing, or do you mean if you aren't growing then you're shrinking?
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    Fire Someone Today: And Other Surprising Tactics for Making Your Business a Success
    There are only two kinds of businesses: growing businesses and shrinking businesses.
    Continue reading »
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      Well, both, I suppose. I think you're growing or shrinking at any given moment. At the very least inflation and cost of living are shrinking your business right now, even if no growth is occurring.
  • Hey Bob, Love the book. One question for you: What's the most important/most meaningful business lesson you've learned since your book was published?
    • "Find a group of business peers with whom you can share and learn. I cannot recommend YEO strongly enough; if YEO is not the right fit for you, then find the group that is. This is one of the best investments you can make in your business." Hi Bob, Amen to the importance of getting connected with business peers. A few years back I hooked up with the Dallas Junior Chamber and I've met a lot of great people there. Most of the meetings are geared towards networking, which is okay, but I've often thought it would be fun to try to recreate Ben Franklin's Junto club and broaden the base of conversation. I tried to find the YEO that you mentioned in your book but couldn't. Did they rebrand under EO by chance? Thanks for your book, I appreciate your honesty.
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      Fire Someone Today: And Other Surprising Tactics for Making Your Business a Success
      One of the best investments I have made in business, and in getting wise counsel, has been joining groups of other entrepreneurs. The first was a local CEO roundtable that held informal monthly meetings, and the second was the local chapter of the international Young Entrepreneurs Organization (“YEO”).
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        Yes, they dropped the 'Young' and re-branded as EO.
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    • I like this concept. But I find that meals are good for maintaining friendship and relationship, but often not for accomplishing things. How do you have a working meal where work happens?
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      Fire Someone Today: And Other Surprising Tactics for Making Your Business a Success
      A meeting is an event where you follow an agenda or topic through to conclusion and then part ways. A meeting may be productive, or it may be a waste of time. A meeting is rarely relaxing.
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        Relationship is often the business purpose of a meal. But if there's 'work to be done', I generally save it till after the entree has been cleared. Coffee and even dessert leave you lot of space, physically and mentally, to work.
    • Do you use questionnaires that identify 'high flyers'?
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      Fire Someone Today: And Other Surprising Tactics for Making Your Business a Success
      I worry that the better processes we have in place now, which are designed to filter out people who would not fit well, are also filtering out the people who would fit very well but who have no education or experience that would indicate it.
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        No, but we do look for non-standard indicators -- things other than grades or resume bullet-points -- that serve as indicators. Initiative is a big one. We love initiative.