We are thrilled to honor for the 20th year another class of incredible businesses with a Spirit of Enterprise Award.

Let’s admit it; most of you consider your competitors as an inconvenience that you have to manage. However, the truth is that you will always have competition, and as entrepreneurs you have to live with this reality.

Turnover in key positions is disruptive to the business, costly and consumes time. Sometimes these valued employees want “a piece of the pie,” but some owners are not wiling give up any ownership.

Critical thinking is the ability to use intelligence, knowledge and skills to question and carefully explore situations and arrive at thoughtful conclusions based on evidence and reason.

On September 7, 2001, Jeffrey R. Immelt was named chairman and CEO of General Electric, the industrial giant founded by Thomas Edison 123 years ago. In that half week, Immelt’s world cascaded from an era of “benign growth to one of unprecedented geopolitical and economic risk.”

When it comes to differentiating yourself in the sea of solutions available to prospective clients, something I call “The YOU Experience” is what sets you apart.

This year, major companies like Facebook Inc., Google Inc., StubHub and Airbnb have changed their logo and company branding. Is it time for your company to do the same?

Author and entrepreneur Evan Carmichael wrote: “If there is something in common between the world's highly successful entrepreneurs ... it is their winning mindsets.” But what really do we mean by this term?

What is business success? Profitability, right? But what if you have other aspirations for your business, such as promoting a social cause or helping the environment? Up to now, for-profit companies could not codify those non-financial objectives.

After you have received an application and the application fee from your tenants, you will want to process the application in a timely manner. I ask tenants to notify their employers and previous landlords to expect my call so that I can process the application as quickly as possible.