Tom Gegax founded TiresPlus, a company he built up to a 200 million dollar business with 150 locations. He recently wrote a book called The Big Book of Small Business: You Don't Have To Run Your Business By The Seat Of Your Pants. He has taken his years of experience and put it into a practical textbook for entrepreneurs. Here we talk about his success, why he wrote the book, and what he'd like other small business owners to know about what it takes to reach the same levels he did.
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Jay Moore is the Founder of GPSDude.com, an online store that sells - you guessed it - GPS units. Here we talk about how he got started, the early days of constant tweaking to see what worked, why he doesn't use paid search and why he is obsessive about monitoring the conversion from visits to purchases. Jay uses ProStores.com, an eBay company, to run his e-commerce site. The recording is a bit "hissy" so I apologize in advance for that.
Gordon Quick has 30 years of hands-on business experience and is the co-author of The Enlightened CEO: How to Succeed at the Toughest Job in Business (co-authored with Bob Fifer). Here we talk about why self-awareness is important for a successful CEO (and what exactly it means in the first place), the number one thing Gordon thinks causes problems for CEOs of small business that grow, and the two main things he says are the most important points of the book. Gordon's website is CEOMentors.com
Bob Fifer is President of Fifer Associates, LLC, which he launched in 2000. For 28 years, Bob has provided advice to more than one hundred companies, including a dozen of the Fortune 50 and numerous smaller firms both public and privately-held. Bob has authored a variety of articles and books including Double Your Profits which received strong reviews throughout the business and popular press, and became required reading for management at a wide variety of Fortune 500 companies, including General Electric (where Jack Welch bought 3000 copies), Allied Signal, and Citicorp/Travelers Insurance. His 2007 book, The Enlightened CEO: How to Succeed at the Toughest Job in Business (co-authored with Gordon Quick) has debuted to glowing reviews. Here we talk about his most recent book and the characteristics effective and successful CEOs share - especially CEOs of small companies.
C.C. Chapman is VP of New Marketing at Crayon. Crayon is a new type of marketing company that is using Second Life as a real business tool for themselves and for their clients. Here we talk about the virtual world Second Life, why it's getting so much attention and how a small business can use it to earn more business in the "real" world.
Rob Cartwright is the Founder of Integrated Building Services and Controls Limited, a UK company he started several years ago. Here we talk about why he started the business, the challenges of finding good employees in a niche technical business and his decision to offer high-end service and solutions from the beginning rather than competing on price.
Jerry Swain, Founder and CEO of Jer's Handmade Chocolates, talks about the jump from working at IBM to owning is own small business and how he adjusted to the entrepreneurial life after several years in corporate culture.
Allen Fishman is the author of 7 Secrets of Great Entrepreneurial Masters and in 1990 founded The Alternative Board. TAB is a system for providing peer boards and coaching solutions for business owners. Here we talk about the benefits of having the input of fellow business owners and why passion for business may not be enough for great success.