After $2.3 Billion Sale, Entrepreneur Shares the Secret to Growing His Business

Billionaire pet-food entrepreneur Clay Mathile says to really grow your business, you've got to learn how to let go at some point. He learned that lesson the hard way.

Mathile, an Ohio farm boy turned business magnate, came on board to manage pet-food company Iams in 1970 when it was doing $500,000 a year in sales. He put all his energy into the business, working 12 to 16-hour days. A decade later when he bought the company from the founder, sales had grown to approximately $10 million a year. By then, Mathile had gotten to the point where he couldn’t manage the business on his own. He scouted out the best plant manager he could find and hired a man named John Polson.

5 Secrets to Increasing Customer Retention -- and Profits

One-time customers aren't going to fuel the continued growth of your business. Retaining customers is crucial to your long-term success. According to Gartner Group, a 5 percent increase in customer retention can increase business profits by anywhere between 25 percent and 125 percent.

How to Set the Right Goals for Your Business

When you start a company, there is no limit to how big a future you can envision; but usually, you lack the resources to turn that vision into a business.

To close that gap, you have to be great at sales. And the sales pitch you must deliver over and over again is different for each kind of person whose support your venture needs. For example, to attract talent, you need a different sales pitch than the one you would deliver to potential investors.

Amazon Ramps Up $13.9 Billion Warehouse Building Spree

Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) is stepping up a warehouse building spree, signaling the urgency of getting products to customers more quickly amid rising competition from EBay Inc. (EBAY)and Wal-Mart Stores Inc. Consider Amazon’s center in Chattanooga, Tennessee, which opened in 2011 after about 10 months, compared with as much as two years for older warehouses. Boasting more space and technology that makes it easier to find items, the building is part of Amazon’s almost $13.9 billion spending binge on fulfillment expenses -- including 50 new facilities -- since 2010. That’s more than the company spent on warehouses in its lifetime and brought the total to 89 at the end of 2012. Amazon has announced five more in the U.S. this year.

Want to Grow Your Business? Get Out of the Way.

Some entrepreneurs see 20-hour days as the entry-fee to success. Others believe they will succeed by working smart, not hard. In either case, as a business grows, the founder's job becomes too large for one person. You quickly find yourself working in the business, and not on the business.

Successful entrepreneurs know how to let go by handing over authority and responsibility to someone else.

Yahoo Beats Google in Monthly Traffic for First Time Since 2011

Maybe Marissa Mayer deserved that Vogue cover after all.

Yahoo beat archrival Google in traffic in July, with 196.6 million unique visitors against Google's 192.3 million, according to data from comScore. That's the first time Yahoo has topped Google on a monthly basis since May 2011.

Microsoft, Facebook and AOL rounded out the top five.

Your website, an asset

In the last article, I discussed the importance of digital marketing — the basics and the benefits. Digital marketing is regarded as a very important medium of marketing in this era where everything is digitalised: from the world to your client and even your prospects.

What this means for your business is that you need to be where your prospects are — on the Internet. The first stop in creating a formidable online presence is to build your website.

How a Handshake Can Destroy Your Business

We can be our own worst enemies. Please let me assure you, it's not "'if" a partner, vendor or customer is going to drag you into a lawsuit -- it's when. I see so many investors and small-business owners lose their business and sometimes everything, including their savings, to a deal gone bad and poor documentation.

For some crazy reason, we think it is more expensive to call a lawyer and have them review a contract for one hour than risk a multi-thousand-dollar investment to an email chain or a handshake.

How Can I Pitch My Product to Large Companies?

I've been working on a product I haven't seen on store shelves yet. I don't want to give away the details, but it's something that I could see being sold in electronics stores and maybe even toy stores. Now that I'm wrapping up, I really want to get my product in front of major companies who would want to sell my product. Since I'm not well-known, I think the product would have a better chance of success if I could get it sold under a big label or even a big-box store brand. That's where I'm at a loss. What are the next steps I should take to reach my goals?

4 Steps to Deal with an Employee's Substance Abuse Problem

The odds of substance abuse issues finding their way into your business are sizeable. According to the Department of Health and Human Services' 2011 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, of the 18.9 million adults classified with dependence or abuse, nearly 52 percent were employed.

"Many employers miss the signs," says Cali Estes, a certified drug and alcohol therapist who works with companies and individuals dealing with substance abuse in the workplace and elsewhere.

Schedule Your Tweets and Other Lessons for a Houston Bookshop

Though Houston’s Brazos Bookstore was founded in 1974, the shop created its website, Facebook profile and Twitter feed just two years ago. As with many small businesses, the social-media team is learning by doing. Two staffers, floor manager Keaton Patterson and publicity manager Mary Allen, control the store’s profiles and pen posts while helping with the shop's daily operations. With some advanced planning and strategizing, however, our experts expect the shop can increase foot traffic and maximize its social-media minutes.

5 Qualities of Successful Entrepreneurs

A decade ago, I helped found a business dedicated to helping entrepreneurs bring their business ideas to fruition. I've mentored and coached hundreds of entrepreneurs since. Many of my students have licensed their ideas to powerful companies or brought them to market themselves through venturing. I've often wondered what differentiates successful entrepreneurs from their peers. Are there certain qualities they share? I think so. But I also think it's important to acknowledge that timing, luck and simply being in the right place at the right time play a part in many success stories.

Decades of personal experience and mentoring have taught me that successful entrepreneurs share these five qualities:

Why Your Lawyer Might Be Wrong For Your Business

Image credit: Shutterstock

Any of you that have ever hired a lawyer know that if you really want to screw up one of your business deals, a potential litigation issue or the future planning of your business, all you need to do is hire the wrong lawyer.

Too many entrepreneurs go into the selection process with the wrong pre-conceived notions and set of qualifications for the next critical member of their team. The decision to hire the correct lawyer should be considered carefully and using realist criteria.

Yahoo Overpays Tumblr's David Karp By Another $81 Million

Here's a Jeopardy question for you: "Why would an entrepreneur want to spend four years as a middle manager at a shrinking dinosaur that just paid him $250 million?"

After acquiring Tumblr this May, CEO Marissa Mayer decided that was not enough to keep Yahoo from "screwing up" the deal. So on August 9, Yahoo offered Tumblr founder, David Karp $81 million more to stay at the company for four years. It's a personnel move that will not pay off in higher Yahoo revenues and profits.