Posts by Fran Tarkenton
You Have to Measure What Matters
Every business should know the metrics that lead to success or warn of trouble ahead. They are different for every business, and go beyond just counting dollars and cents. Instead it’s about what things you do that cause those dollars and cents to come in, that make it possible for you to provide real value…
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Let Your Customers Expand Your Business
Adapted from One More Customer by Fran Tarkenton and Scott Miller Businesses often get funding in order to expand. The great Sam Walton certainly did that, but he didn’t do it until he had proven his business model and proven he could get a lot more people to come back more often to buy more. Many others…
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Start Talking About Failure
The taboo against uttering the F-word—failure—grows stronger the closer you get to the top. In the mailroom, or in mid-management, you can bet they talk about problems in the business all the time. But as you rise to the C-suites, you find executives who think they have to hide behind the pretense that they are…
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Working for Yourself to Make Life Better for Others
I know that not every partnership I enter into and every business I start is destined for longevity, much less forever, but every one of them is important to me. I am tempted to regard my businesses as more than just “important.” To me, they are very special because, in them, I feel I have…
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Invest in Your Career and Your Family
Invest yourself fully and honestly in both your career and your family. Give yourself a test. Are you ever too busy to return a phone call from a family member, an employee, a customer, a vendor? Do you delay answering e-mails as long as you possibly can or maybe forever? Do you habitually put off…
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The False Idea of Work/Life Balance
The “work/life balance” is one of the saddest, most corrosive buzz-phrases of our time. To me, that phrase seems to come down to this: when you’re working, you’re supposed to feel guilty that you’re taking time away from your “life,” by which most people mean their family; but when you’re spending time with your family…
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Book Review: Co-Create, by David Nour
You have to disrupt yourself, or else someone else is going to disrupt your business for you. That’s a consistent theme that David Nour, growth strategist and author of the best-seller Relationship Economics, hits again and again in his newest book, Co-Create. And it’s so true! In my life, I’ve found that it’s whenever I…
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Sales Partnerships vs. Ownership Partnerships
Partnerships are important, but it’s important to be very careful before entering into an ownership partnership. Ami Kassar, author of The Growth Dilemma, encourages anyone going into an ownership partnership or getting an investors to go through some exercises to prevent trouble down the road. For example, how big do you want your business to be…
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The Downsides of the No-Debt Badge of Honor
Many business owners avoid debt like the plague. Ami Kassar, author of The Growth Dilemma, refers to it as the no-debt badge of honor. And avoiding debt has its benefits, but it also has its downsides, and you should take your time to think through any decision you make about financing your business. I recently…
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Are You Eligible for an SBA Loan?
Has this ever happened to you? You walk into your local bank branch looking for a small business loan, and you’re told that you’re not eligible for an SBA loan. Does that mean you’re not qualified to get an SBA loan at all? Absolutely not! Ami Kassar, author of The Growth Dilemma, talks about the…
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