What Every Company Needs; Holganix Theme; Franchise Funding; Perfect for Children

"…keeping you great" 

HEADLINES:  

Holganix's Baseball Card Theme — below are photos of Barrett Ersek's new quarterly theme
they've rolled out – and in just the first month they are 300% ahead of plan on
their critical number. Theme's work!! More below, but first…

How Samsung is Beating Apple — and the one article I would read this week is how
Samsung, smartly jumped on the back of Apple's publicity (something all of you
can do with your competitors) to become the smart phone rival to beat. Take 1
minute and read the first two paragraphs of this outstanding

Fortune article. This is another reason I featured Samsung in my new
book

The Greatest Business Decisions of All Time.

Every Company Needs One
— everyone company needs one person certified and deeply knowledgeable in the
Topgrading methodology, the only interviewing methodology proven to provide 90%
plus success in hiring or promoting the right person for the job. Who is that
person in your company that can teach everyone else? How can they get trained
easily from the comfort of their desk?

Here's how.

Topgrading Certification Starts February 14 — we're enrolling right now executives to participate in 6
webinars (recorded if you miss the live session), 3 hours of online video
training watched at your own pace, a 90 minute private coaching session
scheduled when you're available, access to specific Topgrading tools, and a
personal coach – spread over three months — a quick and easy way for someone in
your firm to learn and become certified, in-depth, the Topgrading methodology.
No time for amateur hour. Enroll someone in your company now. Hiring is one of
the two most important executive skills. 100% Money Back Guarantee.

For more info.

Google Docs Version of One-Page Strategic Plan — and thanks to Floyd Marinescu, CEO and Co-founder of C4Media
and his colleague Kevin Huo, Co-founder & CEO of

InfoQ China, for producing a Google
Docs version of our One-Page Strategic Plan. It was actually a gift to
Howard Shore, their Gazelles' coach, with permission to share with all the
insight readers. Thanks Floyd and Kevin.

Franchise Funding

— Peter Thomas, founder of Century 21 Canada and key figure in building EO
throughout Canada in the early days, has a new fund to support franchise
opportunities. If franchising is your growth strategy in the consumer space

here's their qualifying criteria. In general, they are looking in the health
space and franchises that solve specific consumer needs, like their first
investment in doggy day care –

Dogtopia. However, not interested in the food space. Email him at

[email protected].

$59 PC for your Wrist
— StormFly just launched their Kickstarter
campaign yesterday. Designed by an ex-Apple guy, it's perfect for children,
schools, execs who want their PC with them, etc. In essence, the wristband
carries its own operating system so you can plug it into anyone's PC and it just
uses the hardware and doesn't mess with any of their software, not even their
operating system. This is perfect for keeping children from messing up your
computers at home or school. And everything is backed-up in the cloud. Clever
entrepreneurs are going to figure out a ton of ways to use this!!

Minecraft Users
— are your children addicted to Minecraft? Stormfly was the rage at the first
Mindcraft convention in Europe. Because Minecraft stores info on a specific PC,
children are not able to play it on anyone else's PC. With Stormfly they can
essentially bring their game with them and play on any computer. And, again,
you're not going to risk viruses messing up the computer. FYI, I'm a tiny
investor because the founder/CEO of Now Computing is a dear friend in Barcelona
– Feargal Mac Conuladh. Stormfly is their first consumer product.

Check out their Kickstarter campaign.

Holganix Theme
— many of you might recognize Barrett Ersek as the X-Factor example we use
(Happy Lawns). He's now building another rocket ship of a company, Holganix
(organic fertilizer). Always a fan of quarterly themes, he launched a theme
where every employee has a personalized baseball card with their picture on the
front and the specific number of RADs (patented machine for dispensing the
fertilizer) they need to help place on the back. # of RADS placed is their
Critical Number for the quarter and as mentioned above, they are already 300%
ahead of their goal just after the first month. Themes drive focus!!