Sounds ominous. This is the time to wrap up 2015 and plan for 2016! Have you been so busy dealing with the day to day activity of your business that you’ve given little consideration to the annual taxes, budget, goals, etc. for 2016? Don’t feel like the Lone Ranger, many are in the same boat.
Looking For Love In All The Wrong Places?
This may be the title of a Country Western song, but it’s also an issue some business owners face as they try to hire new employees. The following comment was made by a business owner who has been looking for just the right person for several months: “There’s no one worth hiring these days. We’ve interviewed lots of applicants, but for one
Free Your Inner Genius
I have a member whose manufacturing company has been doing “OK” with existing customers, but she’s unhappy about its slow growth. She brought this issue to a roundtable meeting: What could she do to be more proactive, to grow her company more aggressively?
4 Ways To Give Customers What They Want
Everyone needs to understand their customers better, but it’s getting harder and harder. Here is what’s happening: Customers are less loyal than they used to be and far less trusting, especially in industries hard hit during the financial crisis. Customers are more powerful than ever before; think easy, on-line comparison shopping, social media and increased choices. Economic uncertainty and abundant
You Have 77 Days Left To
Periodically, I will walk my members through an exercise called “The Next 90 Days.” The exercise challenges them to hone in on one issue that could significantly improve some aspect of their life. For the next 90 days, they are encouraged to devote an hour a day to that end. The idea is that less is more..
“Excuse Me, Did You Hear What I Just Said?”
If you fly at all today, it’s a fact of life that airlines overbook flights and when planes can’t take off there’s no back-up. Such was the case on my last vacation.
Tomorrow Your Company Will Look Very Different
Brian’s daughter, Carrie, teaches fourth grade in an inner city school in St. Paul. In her class, twelve different languages and dialects are spoken. (There are 125 different languages and dialects spoken in the St. Paul school system!) Her students represent different races, religions and vastly different socio-economic backgrounds. There are translators available and several students attend ESL (English as a
Are Your Conversations Fierce Or Fuzzy?
My boss Bob was a dominating bully. His idea of brainstorming was to disparage each suggestion until everyone at the table shut up and his idea was the only one left standing.
Have You Ever Thought Things Were Just Too Tough?
Last week I had an appointment with Treavor. When I asked him what challenges he faced as a business owner, the dam opened and his frustrations poured out:
You CAN Build A Great Team!
A critical task every business owner faces is finding the right people to take their business to the next level. But this is like making a rhetorical statement. Everyone knows it’s true, but how do you accomplish it?