July 14, 2021

When Was the Last Time You Did a SWOT Analysis?

July 14, 2021/ Mike Krupit

If you’re in business, you’ve heard of a SWOT analysis. You’ve probably done one — maybe more than one. When did you last do a SWOT analysis for your organization? Unless you’ve just been doing some strategic planning, it’s likely been awhile. We see businesses wait too long between SWOT analysis sessions. They trudge along under old conceptions of their strengths or weaknesses and fail to effectively respond to the changes around them.

June 30, 2021

Being a Solo Founder: How to Combat the Loneliness of Entrepreneurship

June 30, 2021/ Mike Krupit

When you’re going it alone as a founder, you might be missing some critical personal elements of running a business. And the absence of those supports can lead to loneliness.

June 15, 2021

How Bootstrap Startups Get it Right

June 15, 2021/ Mike Krupit

Bootstrap startups control their own destiny, and they learn how to harness their own skills and creativity. They also need to control their spending, hold themselves accountable, and get creative.

June 02, 2021

All Employees Should Have Professional Development Plans. Do Yours?

June 02, 2021/ Mike Krupit

Intentional professional development is one of the most effective investments organizations can make in their own success. Yet it’s something we frequently find lacking. Here’s how to create a plan for every employee.

May 19, 2021

When a Startup is No Longer a Startup — And Why It Matters

May 19, 2021/ Mike Krupit

The CEO rulebook is completely different from the founder rulebook. And once you’re not a startup anymore, you can’t keep acting like one. If you do, you’ll risk the success you’ve worked so hard to achieve.

April 27, 2021

These Are the Four Things You Need to Develop Your Leadership Team

April 27, 2021/ Mike Krupit

Whether you’re creating a full-fledged training program, helping a few high-potential individuals, or support a recently promoted manager, you need four things to support their development.

April 14, 2021

How to Develop Your Core Values (And Implement Them) in Six Steps

April 14, 2021/ Mike Krupit

Every organization has a culture, whether it was created intentionally or not. Developing and implementing your values puts you in control of that culture. Most importantly, it helps you identify who’s aligned with it and who’s not. Here’s how to create your core values — not just some words that you put on a wall or a website — but the actual tenets that underpin your organization’s culture.

March 31, 2021

Should You Outsource Your Hiring?

March 31, 2021/ Mike Krupit

As it turns out, determining whether someone will be a good fit for your organization is hard. Outsourcing the hiring process is a smart choice for many organizations. And you’re not limited to recruiting firms.

March 17, 2021

5 Strategies for Overcoming Imposter Syndrome as an Entrepreneur

March 17, 2021/ Mike Krupit

If you’ve achieved an ounce of success in your life, there’s a good chance you’ve experienced imposter syndrome. It’s that uncomfortable feeling that you’re not as smart or talented or skilled as others believe you to be. At any moment, you’ll be exposed as a fraud.

March 03, 2021

If You’re Not Doing Scenario Analysis, You’re Basically a Sitting Duck

March 03, 2021/ Mike Krupit

The future is uncertain, and the businesses that succeed will be the ones who prepare for it. They’ll do more than a quick risk assessment. They’ll follow a series of careful steps to ensure they’ve planned for whatever lies ahead.

February 17, 2021

Expanding Your Business Without Expanding Your Resources

February 17, 2021/ Mike Krupit

Growing your business has costs — time costs and money costs. Making sure even the smallest investments pay off is key to growing organically and without big cash infusions you may not have.

February 03, 2021

How to Delegate Like a Boss

February 03, 2021/ Mike Krupit

At some point, that do-it-all person will have to stop doing and start delegating. Otherwise, they’ll begin to feel like they’re on a hamster wheel — doing what they’ve always done but suddenly getting nowhere. Making that shift is challenging. In fact, it’s one of the most difficult, yet important, transitions founders go through.

January 27, 2021

What Does a Good Business Coaching Relationship Look Like?

January 27, 2021/ Mike Krupit

The concept of a coach used to be reserved for athletes. Now you can hire a coach to help you with everything from weight loss or parenting to public speaking and career transitions. So with all these coaches running around, how do you know what’s a worthwhile investment of your time and money?

January 13, 2021

An Early-Stage Founder Belongs In the Trenches (Lesson #8 of 8 Lessons Growing 8 Companies)

January 13, 2021/ Mike Krupit

All those important lessons you learn over the course of a career can actually hurt you if you don’t know when to set them aside. You have to see when it’s not a time to be the seasoned CEO and instead lean into your role as the scrappy founder — even if this isn’t your first (or your seventh) rodeo.

December 02, 2020

What Percentage of Profits Should You Reinvest In Your Business?

December 02, 2020/ Mike Krupit

Managing your business’s finances might not feel intuitive. Many of us begin our entrepreneurial careers with a great idea. We spend the rest of that career trying to understand all the moving pieces that will make it profitable. There are people that will give you numbers. The truth is that there’s no clear rulebook. These profit and investment calculations are individual to each business.

November 24, 2020

Pivoting When Your Industry Shuts Down: Ralph’s Path to Trajectify

November 24, 2020/ Ralph Thorn

Trajectify's new Business Coordinator shares the ups and downs of a six-month job search after the pandemic left her industry in decline.

November 11, 2020

What’s the Antidote to Pandemic Fatigue? Pandemic Accountability.

November 11, 2020/ Mike Krupit

Here’s the truth: Our plans for 2020 got blown up. Everyone’s plans. We didn’t plan for our lives or our businesses or our cultures to get this disrupted. Back in the spring, we got scrappy. We came together. We figured out new ways to do things. Back in the spring, we thought we were trying to weather something that would be a few months long. Now, we’re tired. So, what’s the antidote?

November 04, 2020

Tech Entrepreneurs Can't Do Everything (Lesson #7 of 8 Lessons Growing 8 Companies)

November 04, 2020/ Mike Krupit

Being part of building a seventh company taught me many things. It taught me that tech entrepreneurs can’t do everything — more than that, I learned that honesty about how your skills and expertise line up with what you’re trying to build is much more important than a passion for what you’re selling.

October 14, 2020

The Passion Trap — When to Let Emotion Take a Back Seat

October 14, 2020/ Mike Krupit

Many entrepreneurs believe that being led by their passion is a prerequisite for starting a successful organization. Definitely for starting one that they’ll enjoy running. The problem with this narrative is that passion does not equal success. In fact, I would argue that too much passion in a business leads to failure.

September 30, 2020

What Is An Organizational Assessment?

September 30, 2020/ Mike Krupit

For many young or small companies, managing processes and meeting goals is pretty straightforward. They have a team of three or four people committed to the mission. They’ve defined roles and responsibilities. There are few barriers to communication. Then they start to grow. Now they’re a team of 15 or 20, and they’re not sure why exactly, but things aren’t going so well. That’s where an organizational assessment can help.