Do You Really Know The Right Way To Say No? By Brett Fox “Thanks for taking the time to meet with me today. I really appreciate it, but I don’t see a fit for you in our organization,” the CEO said to me. The CEO’s tone was firm and even pleasant. He certainly wasn’t being…
I walked up to the white board and in huge capital letters I wrote: IGNORE PHYSICS! We were starting the first step of defining our next generation process technology, and I wanted to set the proper tone to the engineers in the room. [Do you want to grow your business? Maybe I can help. Click here.]…
Can Your Startup Survive A One Customer Market By Brett Fox at brettjfox.com I’ve loved the Chicago Cubs since I was a little boy growing up in the northern suburbs of Chicago. The problem is they have broken my heart many, many times. I watched my Grandfather pass away without the Cubs winning a World…
The Second Way Complaining Customers Help Businesses Stay Ahead By Brett Fox at www.brettjfox.com Shit! The check engine light just came on my car. And that means I’m going to have to drop a thousand bucks to get it fixed. “Well, at least it isn’t blinking red,” I thought. A blinking red light is the…
Why Saying “No” Might Be The Key To Growing Your Business By Brett Fox We were in a meeting with an outside business consultant. I was bored stiff and I just want the meeting to end. Then, the consultant asked a question to our sales managers. The question was, “Who are your customers?” Ken, one…
What’s The One Marketing Mistake You Can’t Afford To Make? By Brett Fox at www.brettjfox.com You are starting a company, and you have a great idea. You build a great engineering team to execute the idea. All you need to do now is sell the product. “It’ll be easy,” you say to yourself. It won’t…
What Are The Six Traits Of Great Co-Founders? By Brett Fox I had known and worked with one of my co-founders for over twenty years. Two of my co-founders came through recommendations of other co-founders. Another co-founder and I worked together and had known each other for about nine years. The one thing all…
What Are The Five Keys To Using Goals The Right Way? By Brett Fox at www.brettjfox.com Where have we all seen this movie before? You hire someone, or better yet, you promote someone to a senior position. Let’s say you just promoted someone to become COO. That’s the end of the story, right? Just set…
What’s The Right Way To Ask For A Promotion? By Brett Fox “Move up to Oregon, prove you can recruit engineers, and then we can talk about promoting you,” the CEO told me. This was not how it was supposed to go. “Promote me first, so you have skin in the game,” I responded. That…
How To Focus Your Business So You Will Win By Brett Fox at www.brettjfox.com “I don’t care about how many new customers you added this month! Why isn’t revenue going up?” One board member asked me during a board of directors meeting. The company was adding customers at a fast pace, but revenue was not…