What is an Entrepreneur? The Ultimate Definition.

The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines an entrepreneur as: “one who organizes, manages and assumes the risk of a business or enterprise”. Really? I am left completely underwhelmed, as this definition falls short at so many levels. To me, an entrepreneur is so much more than that, and hopefully, the below definition will give you a better appreciation for how special entrepreneurs really are.

Read the rest of this post in Forbes, which I guest authored this week.

For future posts, please follow me on Twitter at: @georgedeeb.

Thoughts on Chicago's Growing Tech Scene, And How to Improve It Over Time

I recently read a very good post on Chicago's tech scene: where it is today, from a talent and ecosystem perspective, and where it is heading.  But, honestly, many of the recommendations herein can apply to any startup ecosystem that is in the early years of getting off the ground.  It was written by my good colleague, Jeff Carter, an angel investor at West Loop Ventures, co-founder at Hyde Park Angels and author of the Points and Figures startup blog.  Jeff was kind enough to let us share this post with all of our Red Rocket readers.  So, here it is:

How to Recruit Employees for Your Startup

As a startup, odds are you will not be able to afford a dedicated HR person or 30 percent headhunter fees, and will most likely need to be doing the recruitment yourself. Here are a few tips on how to find the right talent for your business, in a way that brings in the best candidates and reduces any distraction from your main business focus.

Read the rest of this post in The Next Web, which I guest authored this week.

For future posts, please follow me on Twitter at: @georgedeeb

Targeted Marketing Has Never Been Easier . . . or Cheaper!!

The marketing world has substantially evolved over the last few years, in terms of how you can target prospective customers for your business.  Before, your primary options for targeting, were largely around demographics or geographies through media buys on larger websites and ad networks, or through keywords through the search engines.  But, the major social networks have made some very interesting strides in the last couple years, in terms of letting advertisers drill down like a laser beam on very narrow targets within their broader audience.  Below are a few examples of what I am talking about.

Read the rest of this post in Forbes, which I guest authored this week.

For future posts, please follow me on Twitter at: @georgedeeb.

10 Things You Need to Know When Responding to RFPs

If you are in the B2B space, odds are you will need to respond to requests for proposals (RFPs) from prospective customers throughout your normal course of business. But the RFP process is typically filled with potential pitfalls along the way. Here's how to identify, and more importantly, avoid them.

Read the rest of this post in Entrepreneur, which I guest authored this week.

For future posts, please follow me on Twitter at: @georgedeeb

Lesson #222: Measuring Your Company’s Culture Can Pay Big Dividends

Building the right culture for your startup is a critical driver of its success or failure, as we learned back in Lesson #13.  It is one thing to talk about building the right culture.  It is an entirely different thing to actually know you have built it.  I recently got a crash course on this subject from my colleague Barry Saltzman at Culture Measures, a culture consulting firm, who taught me that measuring culture has become a science.  And, once harnessed, it can help turn culture into a competitive weapon for your business.  I wanted to share those learnings with you.

To start, and to be perfectly clear, your company’s culture is a direct driver of your business performance (e.g., customer satisfaction, employee satisfaction, productivity).  The better your culture, the better your business output (e.g., throughput, variable costs) and business outcomes (e.g., net profit, equity value) will be.

But, how do you measure culture?  Barry, suggests there are four key drivers of a company’s culture: (i) your people (and them feeling empowered, being trusted and getting engaged); (ii) your process (which should be adaptable with continuous learning and improvement); (iii) your clarity (in terms of clearly communicating and understanding the company’s vision and values); and (iv) your execution (in a way that is productive, accountable and collaborative).  Unless you can clearly track and measure these four different areas, and the numerous sub-categories therein, you really won’t know what is working, and what is not working, with your company’s culture.

If you feel you have a culture issue in your company, companies like Culture Measures can help you clearly identify where the problems lie.  Or, you can try to solve these items on your own by: (i) introducing the concept and survey to your team and getting all issues aligned; (ii) reviewing the results with the management team; (iii) appointing an in-house culture leader to plan steps to address issues raised; (iv) build a metrics dashboard to measure your success over time; (v) make sure goals are set and are in line with the company’s priorities and financial metrics; and (vi) roll out the program to  your employees with clear near term and long term objectives.

If you do this right, not only will your culture and employee productivity improve, but it will lead to data-driven buy-in from your senior management to know they are getting a clear ROI on their culture investment which is perfectly in alignment with the company’s goals.  Pretty cool stuff, bringing hard data to a formerly hard to measure area of the business.

For future posts, please follow me on Twitter at: @georgedeeb.