Partnerships and PreNups: Gotta Work For That Happily Ever After
Remember how you felt when you first became engaged to be married? The whole world was beautiful. Your intended was wonderful. The future seemed so perfect – full of hope and promise. You were on cloud nine and ready to live that fairytale Happily Ever After life. However, we know that even in the best […]
There is no “I” in Customer
The old sports mantra says, “There is no ‘I’ in Team.” Well, the same thing can be applied to business… “There is no ‘I’ in Customer.” As a SBDC consultant, I talk with many successful, as well as aspiring business owners. Although there is no guaranteed rule-book for success, the prosperous business owners seem to […]
Focus on Your Strengths and Grow
As small business owners continue to tighten their belts, minimize discretionary spending, and watch as friends and family lose their businesses, their jobs, their homes and suffer personal challenges during this recessive economy, it is critical to focus your energies on your business strengths. For those companies who have weathered seasons of the highs and […]
Leadership That Drags at the Top: Five Steps to Prevention for CEOs and Owners
In The Future of Management, Gary Hamel writes about the challenge of preventing top management’s out-ofdate beliefs from impeding strategic renewal and how to minimize the drag of old mental models. The issue is, understandably, one usually more obvious to middle managers than to top management. As small businesses grow, a common practice is to […]
Survive and Thrive
In his book Deep Survival, Laurence Gonzales examines stories of people who survived the most dramatic life and death situations. He asserts that while proper equipment and intelligence are important, the most important indicators of survival lie in a person’s psychological and emotional make-up. Gonzales writes that searchers often find people who have died while […]
Layoffs: An Option of Last Resort
With the economy tightening on a daily basis and few words of encouragement for the immediate future, many employers are enacting layoffs as a means of reducing costs and sharpening their focus. Layoffs are a particularly difficult option for the small business owner because oftentimes employees are wearing multiple hats; thus, the remaining employees will […]
Making Performance Appraisals Effective
Are performance appraisals necessary in today’s business world? Yes, the appraisal is an important opportunity for the employee and employer to sit down and evaluate the prior year’s performance. Work performance cannot be improved unless it is measured. The actual appraisal meeting should be scheduled so that both parties can sit down and have an […]
Back to the Basics for Business Owners
We all know the economy is in turmoil and businesses are being forced to reinvent themselves to simply survive. So what now? What should business owner do? President Obama’s words during his inaugural speech were very clear when he said, “Starting today, we must pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and begin again the work […]