Articles & Reports

Top Level Survey Results including All Small Biz Responses & SMBs with 1-10 employees vs. 11-100 employees

This summary splits the results out by overall respondents first, and then compares at the differences between small businesses with 1-10 employees, versus those with 11-100 employees. The following comparison by business size does not include individual reporting on those 37 businesses who reported their size as 100-500 employees, as these comprise of only 4.4% of respondents.

Column by Janine Popick, Inc.com "Female CEOs"
October 30, 2009

I don’t know what kind of boss I am at VerticalResponse—you’d have to ask my staff about that. I think they’d say I’m fair, fun, I like to cut to the chase, and will use fewer words than most to try to get my point across. They’d probably say that as long as they’re getting their jobs done, I don’t interfere too much, and I’d like to think I try to remove obstacles for them. I hope that they’d say I believe in growth from within a company. I like to think I learned this from a few bosses in my past that just happened to be women.

Column by Janine Popick, Inc.com "Female CEOs"
October 16, 2009

When I started VerticalResponse we had just four employees. With such a tight knit group there wasn’t really a need for company or product training. We all knew everything that was happening, who our customers were, how our product worked, and how to sell it.

But what happens when a company starts to grow and the tight knit group starts to unravel? Inevitably you hire people you don’t know and people that might not know your product or market as well as you.

I can tell you that we waited way too long to start formally training our new employees, and for a while it showed. We didn’t take the time to invest early in our employees so that they understood our company, our customers, our culture, and our product.

Column by Janine Popick, Inc.com "Female CEOs"
September 30, 2009

Last week I was at the Inc. 500 Conference and caught a session with Michael Sheehan, CEO of Sheehan Associates. His company helps businesses, people, and government officials craft messaging. At this session he was discussing how hard it has become to get your message right and get it understood by your audience in a world where we all have information overload.

Column by Janine Popick, Inc.com "Female CEOs"
September 29, 2009

Last week, I heard Jill Blashack Strahan, CEO of Tastefully Simple, speak on the main stage at the Inc. 500 Conference. Today Tastefully Simple is a $140 million company that sells easy to prepare food for busy people.

Jill’s story is interesting and inspirational. It actually started with the death of her brother when she was just 26, which was a major wake up call and ultimately what motivated her to start her business. The saying “Life is Short” became very real to her and she decided that it was time to DO something. She has three major points she lives by: Just Start, Know Where You’re Going, Don’t Stop.