This is a true story. Imagine you’re 93 years old and living in a nursing home. Your days run one into another with little diversion. As you sit in your chair, stories of your life play through your mind: your favorite song, your first kiss, your wedding day, your bowling team, the tragic death of your daughter and on and
You just don’t know about people
I’ve been in meetings this week with people I don’t know – even though we’ve been meeting 5 or 6 times a year for the past four years. Our meetings have always focused on business, not each other.
Sometimes it Pays to Pester
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
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 —
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
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
From 10 Hours a Month to 60 Hours a Week Darn it!
From 10 Hours a Month to 60 Hours a Week Darn it! Fred owns a manufacturing company; he’s also semi-retired. Or at least he was.
Let your employees make their own rules ~ what the heck?!
Last week I was visiting with John, a fellow business owner who had discovered that one of his key employees (Chris) had been adding overtime hours on his time card that he hadn’t worked. John was beside himself, this wasn’t the first time Chris had been reprimanded for stealing; the last time it was for taking scrap material.
I pick you. I pick you. I pick you.
I pick you. I pick you. I pick you. Remember when you were a kid and wanted to play a team game? Two kids were captains and they chose their teams one-by-one from the remaining group. If you were picked early on, you felt great. The captain recognized your importance and your ability. It was a rush. You were wanted.