Momentum Building · 01. August 2015

As we are a month into the second half of the fiscal year for most businesses, savvy business owners are already planning for the year ahead, along with continuing to look 3 to 5 years ahead strategically. For decades, the norm for situation analysis within a business plan and strategy is to use SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) as a basis for making strategic decisions and prioritizing action. Too often, however, specifically the weaknesses and threats are not effectively...

Confidence Building · 01. May 2015

You may have heard the cold call statistic that it could take as many as 100 phone calls to get one meeting. That statistic has been around since cold calling was in its heyday. But at a one percent return on your time investment, are those odds really working in your favor? After all, wouldn't it be better to have odds that would actually give you the probability of converting that prospect into an actual customer? Over more than 30 years working with businesses, I have tracked what I like to...

Image Building · 01. October 2014

If you want to be considered the best in your industry, seeking awards for your business should be a part of your strategy. Award-winning companies are viewed as more credible, stable and worthy of patronizing. Many business owners do not realize the number of opportunities that exist for a business to be named among “the best” or where to begin to identify them.Google can easily open your eyes to the world of awards in your industry and marketplace. Winning awards can become a competitive...

Value Building · 01. August 2014

The dictionary definition of "bankable" is: "to be considered powerful, prestigious, or stable enough to ensure profitability." If your business is bankable, it means it has earned status worthy of people investing their time, money and attention.When you are looking to grow your business requiring additional resources to achieve this growth, then analyzing how bankable your business is in the eyes of the marketplace is key to consider. Important to note is that I am not just talking about...

Momentum Building · 01. April 2014

Wearing multiple hats is nothing new in the life of an entrepreneur. However, this column is going to focus on the hats you throw upon others. Too often hats are being tossed onto the wrong person or for the wrong reasons, which have a negative impact versus the positive relief you envisioned. Have you or are you placing hats on the wrong heads, causing more confusion or chaos than collaborative gusto? 1. Just for a While Hat: I witness this all the time. An employee is asked by the business...

Team Building · 01. July 2013

People are your greatest asset and you are dependent upon them in your business on many levels. Whether you have employees or subcontractors or are a services or products business, you cannot escape people. Your customers are people. Your employees and suppliers are people. The bottom line is a business cannot run effectively or survive without people. When you multiply yourself as the business owner times the people who work with you and for you times the people you serve, if managed and...