twanless

The Curse of Complexity: Afraid To Be Simple

If you’re orga­niz­ing a busi­ness and want to be suc­cess­ful, answer some of the big, sup­pos­edly sim­ple, ques­tions first. Then, and only then, do you put the more com­plex mechan­ics of busi­ness oper­a­tion in place. Recently I’ve been work­ing with sev­eral young pro­fes­sional ser­vice com­pa­nies that are try­ing to cre­ate spe­cific online spaces to mar­ket and...

twanless

7 Reasons Why Clients Will Hire Your Services Business

Because you’re expert in some­thing doesn’t mean peo­ple will pay for it.  To start a new advi­sory busi­ness or make one thrive in a crowded mar­ket, inde­pen­dent advi­sors must under­stand what clients look for. Most man­agers and pro­fes­sion­als who go inde­pen­dent do so because they’re look­ing for a bet­ter way to deliver their spe­cial expertise. The think­ing is that...

wanless

Log Rolling

In regions where forestry is big indus­try, log­gers reg­u­larly gather for games, one of which is some­thing called log rolling. With this, two log­gers climb on a log float­ing in water and use their spiked boots to “roll” it furi­ously to throw their oppo­nent in the drink. To be suc­cess­ful at log rolling, you have to be very fast on your feet, cre­ative, and nim­ble. You have to be...

wanless

Killing Your Babies

A review of my wife’s new novel Under­ground (June Hut­ton, Cor­morant Books) called it “taut”, “lean” and “elegant”. It was, but hav­ing been involved in its cre­ation, I can assure you it wasn’t always so. Like many ideas, it was orig­i­nally con­fused, a lit­tle bloated, and unfo­cused. It took many rewrites and a lot of “killing her babies” before it became taut...