As the business world starts to get going for this year, it struck me as a good time to get feedback about the kind of content you would like to see.
One of the challenges of writing about entrepreneurs and startups is that there is no lack of topics to be covered. This offers the opportunity to cover a lot of ground - but it also means that there can be no particular area of focus.
So, here's where you come in.
What are the subjects and areas that you see as the most interesting, relevant, valuable or necessary? What kinds of topics, trends or news would you like to see covered? What are the topics that don't resonate, and that you would like to see fewer columns about?
One of the areas that I'm considering putting more focus on is productivity and efficiency. Although the economy seems to be staging a modest, if not fragile, recovery, many companies are still operating lean and mean. As a result, employees are still being asked to do a lot because there does not appear to be a strong appetite to hire more people to share the load.
I'm interested in services, products and ideas that can help entrepreneurs and startups operate their businesses more efficiently. This includes using services and products that save time so resources can be deployed more productively.
Another topic that I have touched upon is managing employees - everything from how they are hired and fired to how they are motivated, engaged, nurtured and compensated. If lean and mean remains the order of the day, it seems that employee management will remain an important issue for many companies. What are the tips, tricks and techniques to help better manage?
So what interests you? If you're an entrepreneur or startup with insight, information or lessons you want to share, that would be great, too. Leave a comment, or send an e-mail to mark@markevans.ca.
Special to The Globe and Mail
Mark Evans is a principal with ME Consulting , a content and social media strategic and tactical consultancy that creates and delivers 'stories' for companies looking to capture the attention of customers, bloggers, the media, business partners, employees and investors. Mark has worked with three start-ups - Blanketware, b5Media and PlanetEye - so he understands how they operate and what they need to do to be successful. He was a technology reporter for more than a decade with The Globe and Mail, Bloomberg News and the Financial Post. Mark is also one of the co-organizers of the mesh, meshUniversity and meshmarketing conferences.