The VAR Guy

Generally speaking, I have little interest in online slideshows. They’re often lame excuses by media companies to drive more page views. However, this slideshow from BusinessWeek features a range of experts describing how the President should help entrepreneurs.

Lots of IT-focused franchise opportunities are popping up. But experiences will certainly vary from franchise to franchise, and industry to industry. I’ve been in a national franchise for over six years. The franchise isn’t IT oriented, but my lessons learned may help VARs and solutions providers weigh their own franchise options.

One of my clients, Ken, runs a very successful service business. He has two employees who do administrative tasks. His problem: he hasn’t been able to free up enough time to pursue projects that capture his imagination and will propel the business forward — largely because he is not comfortable with delegating. Here’s what Ken was doing wrong, and how he’s moving forward.

I recently got together with a group of executives from a company based here on Long Island to discuss entrepreneurship. A number of them already have side businesses going on and therefore I won’t name the company. These are people really itching to bust out and succeed on their own. I took some notes from our flip-chart sheets that I thought would be interesting for any entrepreneurs in the making. Here they are:

Reading an article in the New York Times the other day, I was struck by a problem I see all the time in business (and in life in general): our difficulty communicating clearly with others. The article was about an American baseball manager who’s training the Chinese Olympic baseball team. The story certainly applies to solutions providers.  Here’s why.

The single most important success factor for entrepreneurs is choosing the right business. Many entrepreneurs make their choice based on what they have done successfully in the past or what they are naturally good at. Those are important considerations but there’s one thing that’s much more critical.

So, one of your long-established clients calls up and says she’s been told by another business partner that your prices are too high. She wants to meet soon to discuss the future of the relationship. Here’s how to regain your composure and prepare for the meeting to come.