Blog: Jef Lippiatt

Authentic Workplace

How do you know you've created a great venture? The people already working with you enjoy it and outsiders are eager to join your organization. But a better question is, how do you ensure you are positioning your venture to maintain this status? And how do you attain being a great place to work if you feel you aren't there currently?

Take a listen to this podcast from Harvard Business Review IDEACAST on "Simple Rules for Creating Great Places to Work"

  1. Difference Beyond Diversity
  2. Radical Honesty
  3. Add Extra Value
  4. Authenticity
  5. Meaningful Job
  6. Give Simple Agreed Rules

Authenticity Matters


Everyday Entrepreneur

Being an entrepreneur is more of a mindset and journey than an innate gift. Entrepreneurship is something you must actively pursue on a daily basis. Jason Li gives a great talk for TedxUChicago on this very topic. Watch the video with an open mind, you'll definitely enjoy it.

Who don't you know yet?


In Good Form

Recently I spent sometime interacting with FormSwift and, I must say, if you need to create and edit forms, it has a very slick interface. I enjoyed that the entire process was fast and efficient. Why else is FormSwift great? They have a variety of free legal forms that you can download and print. FormSwift stands out from some similar offerings like Docracy because they curate and maintain the forms themselves. This ensures a high quality end result and helps you save time from having to do tons of searching for a template.

FormSwift also offers some great pointers for creating a business plan with their online example. And that's not all, FormSwift isn't just a resource for creating and editing forms and documents, you can digitally sign them as well.

I can't speak to all of FormSwift's functionality, but so far, it seems to be a very useful tool. Have you tried it yet?


Rival Research

To understand how to position your business, you first should research your competition. This may seem like common sense, however, you may not be seeing the full picture.

We've put together a free downloadable template for identifying your competition. You are welcome to download it and get started right away if you are ready.

If you'd like a bit more information, consider the following: Read more…


Teaming Up

Are you looking to grow your team? If you aren't quite there yet, hopefully you will be soon. Growing your team is vital to scaling up your business. There will come a time that doing it all yourself won't be realistic. If you've never hired someone before, perhaps you are feeling overwhelmed by the idea. Keeping a few key things in mind can make all the difference to helping you overcome this feeling.

You are the expert on your business, so think about what makes your business unique.

  • What values are important to your company?
  • What tasks or roles would you rather not do yourself?
  • How are you sharing your company's story?
  • Do you understand what type of employee to hire to accelerate your business?
Read more…