Just the Facts

I love this post on VentureBlog about entrepreneurs using adjectives in lieu of facts. Smart investors want hard facts about what you will do or what you did. It’s easy to skip the facts and insert a bunch of intelligence adjectives to fill the void.

In business, gathering factual intelligence about the company is done via metrics tracking. Easier said than done of course, but it’s an ultra-critical aspect of business. I’ve got another board meeting next week and this is a big part of the prep. I’ve actually learned quite quickly what works and what doesn’t work in a board meeting. It’s about sticking to an agenda, showing facts not color, staying on schedule coming to the board with specific recommendations, not topics for debate. Interestingly, this is a big part of what inhibits our internal meetings from being effective which I’ve talked a fair amount about lately.