Robert Glazer is a serial entrepreneur and customer acquisition specialist with an exceptional track record of growing revenue and profits for early to mid-stage consumer business. He founded Acceleration Partners in 2007 and in that time, created a reputation as a go-to advisor for affiliate and customer acquisition marketing. Follow him @accelerationpar.
Who is your hero?
Herb Kelleher.
What’s the single best piece of business advice that helped shape who you are as an entrepreneur today, and why?
I think the key to success is to having people do what they love and do what they do well. I have seen too many companies work on trying to fix what people don’t do well, which is a waste of both time and resources in the long term. I have designed our company around the work I love to do and the values that I believe in. For our team, we play to people’s strengths. I fully subscribe to Jim’s Collins’ notion of getting the right people on the bus and in the right seats.
What’s the biggest mistake you ever made in your business, and what did you learn from it that others can learn from too?
Hiring too fast and being to slow to make changes. We have now adopted the hire slow and fire fast mentality. If someone is not a fit, it’s really better for everyone just to move on.
What do you do during the first hour of your business day and why?
I get a coffee and, check my email and then try to work out. We work with a lot of West Coast companies, so my inbox is usually flooded from the night before with emails that need attention.
What’s your best financial or cash-flow related tip for entrepreneurs just getting started?
For those in services businesses, structure your contracts to get paid up front. If you are in an hourly business, sell blocks of hours up front at a discount. Otherwise, try to work on a fixed fee or retainer for predictability. We are a small business and can’t be in the business of lending money to out clients, just because they want to wait 30-60 days to pay the bill. The nature of our contracts means that we need a lot less working capital so we can reinvest faster in our business.
We pay all our bills within a week.
Quick: What’s ONE thing you recommend ALL aspiring or current entrepreneurs do right now to take their biz to the next level?
Set aside the time to work on your business and not just in it. It makes all the difference.
