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Ideally wed all love to start our small businesses with unlimited funds but thats a very unrealistic dream.  Suddenly you wake up and realize that you have a very tiny budget to get your business off of the ground.  Then you start scurrying around trying to make the most of your small start-up budget.

If this scenario sounds like something you may be experiencing right now, then youre in luck.  Ive got just the right podcast interview for you to listen to.  Its a 30 minute conversation between Brent Leary and Bobbye Brooks & Tonilee Adamson, Co-Founders of Media 4 Women Enterprises.

Bobbye Brooks & Tonilee Adamson are entrepreneurs with a desire to help people learn how to start and grow a successful business – particularly women. Media

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Being a CEO of any business is not a walk in the park. Leadership is more than just sitting behind a desk all day,  preparing action plans for employee misdemeanors and clocking out at 6. Tenured employees may know all about business operations but tenure is just one of the factors to be considered for a managerial position.

While it takes time to make any one person a leader, there are some born with the qualities inherent in being an effective business leader. Aside from leadership styles, it is the leadership qualities of a CEO, a manager, a supervisor even, which sets a mediocre operation apart from a thriving, successful business.

Lets take a look at some of the lessons we can learn from the CEOs of corporate giants who created their own mold of greatness instead of trying to fit into traditional methods in the business industry.

Lesson #1: Practice Prudence

Warren Buffet has received several honors and awards from the public.

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For years Ive been looking for a free way to transcribe my voice memos to text. I dont get my best ideas in the showerrather I get them while listening to audiobooks while mowing the lawn or driving in the car.

There are a number of programs, services and apps that offer voice to text transcriptions, but none of them were exactly what I was looking for.

Leaving messages for my future self on my company voicemail works, but I have to wait for the outbound message to play and theres no transcription service. QuickVoice for the iPhone has transcription service, but only on messages less than :30.

Then I found out that Google Voice offers free transcription service (among many other features.) I visited and got my free phone number. (Sadly, nothing was available in the 207 area code.) The whole process took about 2 minutes.

I then added my new number to my speed dial and called myself, leaving a message.

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Did you sign up for outsourcing figuring you could forget about IT?

Ignore the management of IT at your own risk. One company outsourced its IT, negotiating excellent rates. Sadly, the outsourcer failed to purchase software, installing the same copy again and again. Horrendous customer service created productivity issues. The company paid a penalty to exit the contract and had to purchase the unlicensed software, taking a serious hit to profitability.

In another case, the organization picked an outsourcer based on a board members recommendation. Now the outsourcer is struggling with tasks many would consider standard, including simple tasks like monitoring backups. Are they a poor outsourcer? For a smaller company, they may be fine.

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Dear Rich,

I was planning on using QR codes for an upcoming campaign, but yesterday someone told me I should use Microsoft tags instead. They said it was because you can change a Microsoft tag but you cant modify the content of QR codes. Which do you recommend?

Going Mobile in Machias

Dear Mobile,

While some people make a big deal out of the ability to change content in a Microsoft tag, I find this to be a bit misleading. You cant change content in a Microsoft tag; rather you can redirect a tags destination by logging into the Microsoft-controlled Tag Manager.

The purpose of this is to extend the life of a marketing campaign and provide regularly updated content to your customers. While extending a marketing campaign is a good reason, theres an easy work around that doesnt require the Microsoft servers.

In a recent campaign for an independent film we used QR codes in our marketing.

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