In the early years of our business, my husband did the sales. He was pretty good at selling but he absolutely hated it. He was tremendously relieved when I came on-board at Raven Machine & Tool and took over the sales and marketing.
Can you also walk on water?
In a previous life I was a headhunter. I scoured the region looking for just the right people to fill jobs. Applicants were screened and tested and interviewed. Only the best two or three got “live” interviews. The role I played was mostly detective; the higher the position, the deeper I dug. It was pretty easy to ferret out the
“Maybe I’ll sell T-shirts….”
Kevin loved working on cars and had a knack for making even the roughest running rust bucket purr like a kitten. But even more than fixing cars, he loved building cars – race cars. He enjoyed welding roll cages, reinforcing fenders, upgrading chassis and narrowing rear ends. It was his passion.
Mistakes were made Lessons were learned
I had lunch recently with Sam (not his real name) who owns a property development business. He company purchases land all over the country, usually close to college campuses. Their specialty is building apartments for student housing. They would own and manage the properties for a few years and then sell them. Life was good for a long time —
For goodness sake, pay attention!
For goodness sake, pay attention! A friend of mine recently went to Mexico; the airports coming and going were packed. Long lines snaked through the terminal as people waited to go through security. As they waited, some texted, and texted and texted – one after another – totally oblivious of their surroundings until the moment the agent asked for their
The secret to keeping good employees (Hint: It isn’t money)
The secret to keeping good employees (Hint: It isn’t money) The topic of the week was how to keep employees. At a CEO Roundtable meeting this week a business owner admitted that hiring an admin person would make her much more efficient, but she hesitated to do so because she couldn’t afford to pay much. She said, “I can only
Graphs & Pie Charts – How do you spell B-O-R-I-N-G?
The beginning of each year brings a list of new goals for companies: • Increase sales • Control costsTags • Improve margins • Bring on # number of new accounts
Don’t make resolutions – Make changes
Newspapers and magazines are full of articles on how to make New Year’s resolutions that succeed. Even Harvey Mackay joined in: • “Resolutions need to be specific, attainable and personal. They need to come from your heart.” • “The fewer resolutions you have, the better.” • Tell other people; it puts pressure on you to stick with it. • Reward
This isn’t how I thought I would be spending Christmas Eve
No one likes to get a call late at night and the call I got on December 23rd at 10:30 was bad news. My younger sister LuAnn had died suddenly and unexpectedly from a heart attack. To complicate matters, LuAnn lives with and cares for Charlie, her 21 year old autistic son. My sister had done minimal end-of-life planning. What
Put your credit card away; It won’t work on this.
Put your credit card away; It won’t work on this. Next week is Christmas, a time of celebration and gift giving; of sending cards and catching up with old friends. It’s a time of shopping and wrapping and hiding presents. It’s a time of looking for the perfect tree, dragging it home and spending a whole day decorating it until