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In their own mind, every entrepreneur thinks that their business is a slam-dunk opportunity for a banker or investor to consider. What an entrepreneur often fails to realize is that a banker or an investor is not as close to their business as they are. They lack the intimate knowledge of all the small details … Continue reading How to guarantee your business is approved for financing →

Have you ever asked yourself this question? When you consider the work required to keep a business alive, trying to figure out how to grow a business can seem impossible and pointless. Why bother growing a business when it’s hard enough to keep it going without complications and challenges? When it comes to growth, what … Continue reading What is the point of growing a business? →

It doesn’t always need to be complicated. It doesn’t always need to be difficult. Sometimes the simplest goals are the ones that don’t require a lot of thinking. As entrepreneurs we strive to build value by using people and resources to solve a problem in the market. To get a return on the effort and … Continue reading Want a simple goal? Double your results. →

There are moments when everything is going well. Money is in the bank. Profit is finding its way to the bottom line. Customers and staff are happy. These moments can cause complacency if we aren’t careful and it’s only a matter of time until life feels upside down. When the good moments come along, they … Continue reading You need to copy them before you can beat them. →

Not every day is awesome. Depending on where you are in your journey as an entrepreneur you might find that most days are tougher than others. Cash flow concerns. Challenges with people on your team. Market problems that you didn’t anticipate would impact your business. The list is endless. There are days when it can … Continue reading When it seems impossible. →

The best times in a business are not obvious until you look back. Was it the market helping your business do well or was it brilliant management decisions? Maybe a little bit of both? You never can tell when the good times are coming to an end and the same can be said about bad … Continue reading You never can tell. →

It’s easy to see in hindsight where you may have went wrong. As entrepreneurs we can often find ourselves making decisions that may not necessarily be contributing to a better result. We make decisions to grow our business or to offer new products and services only to find we didn’t execute well or encountered problems … Continue reading Take the hit and move on. →

As if it wasn’t hard enough to find a customer and generate sales, every entrepreneur also has to find ways of keeping customers happy and has to find new ways of keeping them coming back. It’s not an exercise for the faint of heart and not every business is able to do it. Business is … Continue reading Your business can always do more. Don’t wait until it’s too late. →

Day in and day out things can often seem the same. As entrepreneurs we can get into the habit of keeping our head down and focusing on the numerous tasks and requests being made of us without looking up to see what’s going on in our market. Our businesses can often feel stagnant or uninteresting … Continue reading What is the most exciting trend in your market today? →

Many entrepreneurs (myself included) are reminded today that we are only limited by our imaginations when it comes to realizing our dreams. Day after day we can get caught up in the details, issues and tasks that can take our minds away from pursuing our dreams. As Sir Richard Branson captures another dream through Virgin … Continue reading Sir Richard Branson captures another dream through Virgin Galactic. →

It can be tough to keep your head on straight when life seems to be crumbling down around you. The financial crash of 2018/2019 was a tough time for many entrepreneurs. COVID has been very difficult for many entrepreneurs. Notwithstanding the difficult moments an entrepreneur might find themselves in, a new normal always sets in … Continue reading There is always a new normal after a downturn. Watch the box office. →

Nothing is guaranteed in life. Being responsible for an active business that is relied upon by customers, vendors and employees alike means being ready for anything. If you can learn to expect the unexpected you will always be in a position of directing your own outcomes. Many entrepreneurs can be caught off guard when circumstances … Continue reading No more lines of credit says Wells Fargo. Expect the unexpected. →

Pretty presumptuous right? Everyone knows that entrepreneurs have a high failure rate and are expected to fail because that’s what makes a small group of entrepreneurs successful – learning from failure and continuing down the path of creating profit by providing solutions to problems that exist in the market. But what if entrepreneurs didn’t have … Continue reading What if entrepreneurs didn’t have to fail? →

I believe we all have a bag of gold. Some people have one piece of gold in their bag while others may have 2 or more. Gold represents the value or currency of our talents and abilities. Each day we get the opportunity to trade our gold out in the marketplace in exchange for more. … Continue reading Bag of gold →

I don’t like to fail. I use to think that failure was weakness and something that I needed to try harder to be better at, stronger at. I have come to understand that failure is a feedback loop and doesn’t reflect weakness if I am able to get on my feet and keep going. Perseverance … Continue reading Failure happens →

When I catch a break, it tends to catch me off guard. Running a business is like running a marathon…uphill! I exert so much effort every day that when I catch a break I try to take a moment to take it in. The grind of tasks, issues and challenges can feel normal over time … Continue reading Winning happens →

It’s tough sometimes to come to terms with reality. Even as an entrepreneur it can be difficult to hold out hope for the future when your current circumstances suggest there should be no hope. When I feel like I want to put on a brave face I have learned that being honest and dealing with … Continue reading Honesty happens →

Wouldn’t it be great if the best decisions you made were able to provide a lasting difference? Wouldn’t it be great if things stayed the same in your business? I have thought about this often and have decided that change is good. The challenges I was able to overcome through innovation and pressure have contributed … Continue reading Change happens →

Do my actions and activities change the result? It’s a tricky question for an entrepreneur to answer because we tend to think that everything we do matters. I have learned that every business has an organic result it can generate without much effort based on being in the market and making its products and services … Continue reading Organic or ??? →

I wish it was easy. I wish the things in my head could easily be put into place. Marketing strategies would just work. Sales activities would produce amazing relationships with customers. Operations would deliver products and services seamlessly. Finance would always be up to date and helpful in providing insights about where to invest all … Continue reading Finding the energy →

I enjoy a tremendous amount of freedom. Every day I get to do the things I want to do but even in the middle of all my freedom I have days where I wonder: “Is this worth it?” I find I have days every now and then where the volume of noise and issues wears … Continue reading Why bother? →

I use to hate Sundays. More specifically Sunday evenings. I would begin to think of all of the outstanding tasks and issues I would be faced with come Monday morning and would being feeling the anxiety creeping into my chest. Once Monday morning hit I would have a running list of things to do, people … Continue reading Mondays are the best →

Every day you are either moving your business forward or it is moving backwards on its own. Like a balloon suspended in the air, you are either watching it fall to the ground or you are continually propping it up but you are never doing neither. There may be moments when you are not sure … Continue reading What’s your next move? →

Take a look at your business right now and see if you can identify the next challenge it may face or the next opportunity it might have. Is is sales? Is it order fulfilment? Is it customer service? It is e-commerce? Over the past 6 weeks many businesses have been forced to re-evaluate what they … Continue reading Have you filled in the gaps? →

Everyone has a different way of dealing with difficult circumstances. One of the keys to getting through a difficult time is to be honest about the challenges you are facing and the people that your actions (or inaction) may be impacting. In your business you have creditors, staff, the government and other people that depend … Continue reading How to have the hard conversations →

When faced with difficult situations involving the cash your business needs, it can be easy to think that finding new money to put into your business will solve your problems. Rarely does new money going into a business fix anything if there isn’t a specific plan for how it will be used and how it … Continue reading Should you take the money? →

It’s been a few weeks since the market changed and you may want to ask yourself: “Has the dust settled?”. Are the market conditions that your business is experiencing right now going to change? If so, when? If not, what changes do you need to be making today to ensure the survival and success of … Continue reading Has the dust settled? →

One of the bittersweet aspects of being an entrepreneur or business owner is never being satisfied with progress. Taking calculated risks, making intentional decisions and measuring outcomes are all behaviours that entrepreneurs exhibit to push the edges of what they are capable of so they can push their business to the edges of its capacity, … Continue reading (5/5) How do you increase the value of your greatest asset? →

Making decisions often involves measuring results against expectations. There is a small percentage of entrepreneurs that run their business according to a budget and even less that hold themselves accountable to it. For those that do, their results speak for themselves. Because they measure their results consistently, they are able to make adjustments and change … Continue reading (4/5) How is your greatest asset performing? →

What is the real value of any business? Could one answer be its ability to add value to the market by solving a problem for people that are prepared to pay for it? If people are prepared to pay for a product or service, wouldn’t that mean that the customers or prospective customers of your … Continue reading (3/5) What is your greatest asset worth? →

Human nature says that we (including entrepreneurs) will take the path of least resistance. When it comes to customers there can be a tendency to actively engage with them when a sale is imminent and engage less actively when there is not. This is not the best strategy for ensuring your business is set up … Continue reading (2/5) How do you engage with your greatest asset? →

The most obvious opportunities can often times be the most overlooked opportunities. Most entrepreneurs know that it costs less money to serve an existing customer than it does to try and find a new customer. Yet many entrepreneurs focus on getting a new customers and simply assume their past customers will always be there. There’s … Continue reading (1/5) Where do you manage your greatest asset? →

There is a theory that states it is easy to find the answer once you know the question but it’s very hard to ask the right question. Every business should have several feedback loops that an entrepreneur can use to understand where to focus their efforts. The feedback loops should be set-up based on question, … Continue reading (5/5) Why will you fail or succeed? →

By definition (my definition) an entrepreneur or business owner’s job is to bring people and resources together to solve a problem in the market. Part of being able to do that job well is to know where to find what you need. In order to find what you need you have to identify the specific … Continue reading (4/5) Where can you find what you need? →

Identifying the problems your business struggles with is easy. Determining what you need to solve those problems and prioritizing them can be more challenging. No business is good at everything and when times get tough it becomes very obvious where the overlooked parts of the business are. Many entrepreneurs and business owners approach their business … Continue reading (3/5) What do you need right now? →

For those entrepreneurs that have been through tough economic moments before, they know that when the economy “comes back” or “returns to normal” that it is never like it was before the tough moment came along. Entrepreneurs and business owners that have never been through a crisis will tend to hang onto hope that life … Continue reading (2/5) Where will your business be when the dust settles? →

The statistics tell us that 50% of business fail by their fifth year. There are numerous reasons why a business fails and from time to time there are economic circumstances that can speed up the failure rate of small businesses. We are in such a moment right now.

Knowing a storm is coming and being in the middle of it are not the same thing. When you see a storm coming in your business you can take steps to prepare for it only to find that your steps were wholly insufficient when your business is being pounded from all angles. The best you … Continue reading The sun will rise tomorrow →

Small businesses are the foundation of the economy with owners coordinating people and resources to provide solutions to problems in the market. The balance that small business owners need to keep is a precarious one because having people without resources, or resources without people, means that no business can function properly. By most accounts, more … Continue reading Many small business owners are desperately trying to solve these 10 serious problems right now →

A positive gesture or action, no matter how small, can have a massive impact. In my experience, entrepreneurs can underestimate how much of a difference they can make by finding ways to support or get involved in community challenges, problems and opportunities. When an entrepreneur has had a measure of success they haven’t done it … Continue reading Small gestures matter. →

For entrepreneurs that do not find themselves in a crisis during tough times, there is always an opportunity to use the skills, talents and resources your business has to help the community it exists within. A business that has been able to generate success has usually done so through a community of customers and clients … Continue reading Where can your business be useful? →

When it seems like everything is out of sorts and you can’t find your footing, remember that one thing you can get control of is your approach to your challenges. When the challenges are overwhelming you can make one decision at a time. Deal with one problem at a time. Don’t think of the next … Continue reading One day at a time →

There is opportunity in every market. Even the competitive ones. Even the competitive ones where the competitors have more money, time and resources. The trick is figure out where the opening is and then focus, focus, focus on getting your business to expose and leverage it. There is a saying that some companies think they … Continue reading $3 billion dollar Rockstar →

Find yourself spread too thin? As you look to manage your business are there areas or tasks that maybe have consumed more of your time and resources than the results would suggest are necessary? As an entrepreneur it can be easy to think that everything you and your business are doing is important but that … Continue reading Is what you are doing working? →

You always need a hook. You always need an angle. If you want to have a profitable and valuable business, you need to do at least one thing better than your competitors. That one thing needs to be meaningful and impactful to ensure the advantage your business has can be leveraged into better margins and … Continue reading What is your competitive advantage? →

There are times when you may need all hands on deck to complete a task, project or to solve a problem. As an entrepreneur your job is to bring people and opportunity together to solve a problem in the market and sometimes those problems require a little extra effort. People generally need a goal to … Continue reading Pull out all the stops →

Uncertainty can create chaos but it doesn’t have to. As the leader of a business you may find yourself facing uncertain outcomes in your business that no matter how hard you try, you will not be able to predict the outcome. When considering your options you may want to give some thought to hedging your … Continue reading Cut your losses so you can win →

When the time comes to make tough decisions about what to do in your business, it can be helpful to keep one principle in mind as you work through the challenges you may be facing. What is your business great at? Not all of the things your business may be good at but the single … Continue reading What is your business good at? Double down on that. →

“Ideas are a dime a dozen. People who implement them are priceless.” As an entrepreneur are you a dime collector or are your skills priceless? A tricky question for an entrepreneur who has started a business and is looking to build something meaningful and valuable. Starting a business is easy. Running a business is hard. … Continue reading Get busy executing. →

Trying to grow a business that can’t quite get to the next level can be frustrating. Trying to turnaround a business that has experienced some setbacks can be frustrating. Most frustration comes from an entrepreneur not really understanding why they can’t get to where they want to be when it appears that they are busy … Continue reading Is your business right sized? →

There really are no original ideas. Everything is copy of something else. The features may have improved. The usability might be better. The function being served is probably still the same. As an entrepreneur you may go through times where you can’t figure out how to get traction. Maybe you can’t get your sales going. … Continue reading If you can’t beat them, copy them. →

You may have tried something once, twice or even three times without seeing the success you were hoping for. Feeling defeated you may have walked away and decided to focus on something else. Being an entrepreneur and having a business means trying things that may or may not work. The key is having the conviction … Continue reading Eventually something connects →

When things are going well in your business it can be easy to think things are going well without realizing that your business is way off track. Because real life happens every day it can be tough to see problems in real time that are building up in your operations or other parts of your … Continue reading Growing your business is a good thing right? →

Do you feel the need to set a goal for your business? Are you are struggling to pick a goal that is meaningful enough to pursue that will get you out of bed in the morning? How about considering the opportunity to relieve your balance sheet of the debts and liabilities that might be listed? … Continue reading What is the easiest goal you can set? →

Investing in your business is a concept many entrepreneurs are familiar with. Take your profit and put it to work in your business. Grow your business by investing in people, equipment, inventory and anything else that makes sense. There are not many entrepreneurs that can take this concept seriously because they are simply trying to … Continue reading What is your business re-investing in? →

You might know who your competitors are and you might not. You probably show up for work every day looking to do the same thing you did yesterday in hopes of servicing some customers and maybe putting some money on your bottom line. But have you ever stopped to think about who in your market … Continue reading Who’s better than your business? →

There isn’t always time for a plan. You don’t always have the energy or the motivation to gather the smartest people you have access to and ask them for help. As an entrepreneur there are days when you need small wins to put wind back in your sail. There are days when you can see … Continue reading How keeping things simple can help your sales. →

Just when you think your business has everything figured out, something happens in the market that can have a profound impact on your bottom line. Sometimes your largest competitor will decide to change their business. Sometimes the government will pass new laws. Sometimes your customers will change their behaviours. Sometimes the market changes for unclear … Continue reading Everything changes. Always be ready. →

It’s easy to come up with an idea. It’s easy to start a business. It’s hard to be profitable. Profit is a funny thing because it doesn’t really show up anywhere and often times don’t know you don’t have any until its too late. For any entrepreneur running a business that is less than five … Continue reading Why is being profitable so hard? →

Finding a new market of customers when you have an existing customer base can be tough to do. This is because as an entrepreneur you tend to see what it is you want to see. It’s hard to find your first customer let alone build a stable group customers so when it comes time to … Continue reading How can you easily find new customers? →

Timing is everything in business. It takes courage and conviction to make a decision that appears to be against the grain of conventional thinking. Some of the best businesses were built or saw a significant increase in value when an entrepreneur saw gold in what others saw as garbage. Taking advantage of opportunity when no … Continue reading Zig when others zag →

Price. Price. Price. Many entrepreneurs feels they could sell more if they simple lowered their prices. While there are times when price cuts are necessary you cannot offer discounts to customers that are below the market price for a long period of time without creating some serious problems in your business. If you are going … Continue reading You can’t discount your way to profit. Not even if you are Under Armour. →

Competing on price is one of many different strategies a business can use to attract more business. The challenge presented by cost cutting is that the type of customer you generally attract may not be willing to keep doing business with you if someone else comes along with a lower price. Every business has a … Continue reading Does your business compete on price? Maybe it shouldn’t. →

Generally speaking, every entrepreneur believes their business is more valuable than what others may think it is. This is because an entrepreneur knows more about the inner workings of their business and will assign value to nuances that no one else could know about. There is a balance to be struck between being optimistic about … Continue reading A little humility can ensure success →

There can be days when you may think your business has run its course. You have served as many customers as you believe your business is capable of serving and you may not think new opportunities exist for your business to do more. While there is a chance you may be correct – there is … Continue reading Apple vs. Swiss – you can always do more →

When you are on top of your game and your business is the best in its market, you can make the mistake of thinking that the party will never end. There is a common truth that suggests the further you are from the last bottom the closer you are to the next one. Even the … Continue reading ExxonMobil’s value drops $184 billion. Even the best stumble. →

It’s always hard to check your ego – especially as an entrepreneur. At one time the passion and excitement you had for the product or service your business offers was probably enough to drive creativity and help you gain a measure of success. You may have rode that wave of success and put some money … Continue reading What worked then probably doesn’t work now. →

You hope your business never makes a mistake. You hope your team always does the best job they can and even though they are human you hope they never make a mistake. When a mistake is made your pride and ego may prevent you from giving a legit apology. You can say “I’m sorry” because … Continue reading Just say ” I’m sorry “ →

Getting lost in the forest of ideas is a common problem faced by entrepreneurs. It’s a problem because you don’t know you are lost in the forest until you can’t see that the results you are looking for in your business because they seem hidden and hard to find. You may have customers. You may … Continue reading Tim’s is going back to basics. Should you? →

The work required to create, sustain and grow a business is not for the faint of heart. Entrepreneurs spend years and even decades investing their life into a business that they hope will provide value to customers. There are crossroads that many entrepreneurs face when they no longer have the same desire or drive to … Continue reading Sometimes the magic runs out. →

A question that many entrepreneurs have a hard time answering is: “What would your business do with a meaningful investment?”. Common responses would include paying off debt, buying more equipment or inventory or taking some money off the table. An uncommon response would be an entrepreneur explaining exactly how the money would be employed and … Continue reading Every entrepreneur is betting on the future. →

There is a special moment many entrepreneurs experience when they realize their business is working. They have figured out their value proposition to customers, they have fine tuned their expenses and margins and begin sleeping at night believing that the work needed to prove out a business was worth it. The joy of accomplishment might … Continue reading Remember when your business was self-funding? Elon does. →

When things are going well you may tend to think that they will remain that way indefinitely. It’s not uncommon for an entrepreneur to underestimate the need to be forward thinking and overestimate how long success lasts. It’s prudent to have a little bit of paranoia when you are building and growing a business that … Continue reading Getting ahead of yourself is ok if you have a plan. If not, adjust. →

Making a decision to borrow money or accept investment capital while under pressure or without a credible business plan, can be a decision you regret for a very long time. When an over eager entrepreneur meets a shrewd investor or banker, the long term results can have a devastating impact on what might have otherwise … Continue reading A bad decision and $200MM of debt. →

As an entrepreneur you can’t be good at everything. Depending on where your business is in its lifecycle, your business probably isn’t good at everything either. There are times when both an entrepreneur and a business need to outsource jobs tasks that could be done better (and more affordably) by third parties. Every task has … Continue reading Little Caesars leverages DoorDash to win marketshare →

It’s hard to believe if you haven’t had any first hand experience with the concept of perceived value but it is very real. People will pay what they think something is worth. Entrepreneurs generally understand this but seldom put the concept into use. Someone will pay disproportionately more for a product or service that delivers … Continue reading Are your profits a Ferrari or a Mercedes-Benz? →

Entrepreneurs generally know their business better than anyone else. In fact, some entrepreneurs know their business so well that they miss the obvious opportunities that exist to provide their customers with more value. Often times an entrepreneur will stick to their main line of business based on their knowledge and experience and miss out on … Continue reading Like Netflix & Chill Ice Cream your business may have an obvious opportunity. →

Business challenges are real. At some point the failures made in your business will surface if you haven’t gotten ahead of them. Assuming you have a decent business underneath your failures, you may find yourself scrambling one day to find money to keep your business alive. You may get frustrated that banks, lenders and investors … Continue reading Need an emergency loan? So does Aston Martin. →

Taking the opportunity to give back to the community that your business is a part of doesn’t take much. Your team can volunteer for any number of not-for-profits, your company can donate to local causes or your business can invest in initiatives that fundamentally improve the community. Being an entrepreneur means taking advantage of opportunities. … Continue reading Amazon might inspire your business to give back. →

Being a leader in an industry or a market place is a good thing. Your margins can be higher than your competitors and your cost of acquiring a customer can be lower. Being a leader often times means doing things that your competition isn’t doing or doing things they are doing – but doing them … Continue reading 119 stores closed. Bose ends an era. →

Making mistakes is part of running a business. Coming up with ideas and goals is easy. Executing and getting your team to perform is hard while hitting targets can seem almost impossible. Good intentions are important however great results are what matter. Having a long term strategy with short term milestones can be one of … Continue reading Learn from your mistakes and adjust like Bed Bath & Beyond →

Business is people. No matter what business you are in – people matter. In order to improve the experience your customers or clients have when they interact with your business, you need good people. Good people never cost your business money. Good people help your business make money. The other benefit of hiring good people … Continue reading People matter. Taco Bell to pay managers $100K per year. →

Getting an opportunity to take on a contract from a large reputable company can be a big win for any small or medium sized business. It’s not unusual for an entrepreneur to make a quick decision to do work for a larger business and naively believe that everything will work out and that there should … Continue reading Boeing proves you should always have a Plan B. →

When your business is in trouble it can be easy to think that borrowing money is the easiest fix you can make, but money comes at a price. Fundamentally, borrowing money means you are taking future profits into today in hopes of being able to get a better result with them compared to waiting for … Continue reading Think your business needs money? WeWork borrows $1.75B →

Be prepared. Always be prepared. Be prepared to have significant changes made to your business overnight. The loss of a major customer. The loss of a major contract. If your business depends heavily on one or two customers or contracts you may be exposing yourself to unnecessary business risk.

What got your business here may not get it there. Whatever advantage your business used to gain customers and market share may not continue to work as your competitors adopt and improve what was once unique to your business. You should certainly make money while you can but be aware that very few businesses can … Continue reading Robinhood went from 1st place to last place. Where is your business? →

Timing is everything. Well thought out plans are important but sometimes you need to act quickly to take advantage of a window of opportunity that may only be open for a moment. Your ability to see an opportunity and execute on it can give your business a bump when you least expect it.

When your business is on fire and doing well, you want to capitalize on growth as quickly as you can so you don’t miss your window of opportunity. When all the signs are pointing in the right direction you can lose your way if you aren’t watching for the speed bumps and pitfalls that can … Continue reading $4B in sales to bankruptcy. Forever 21 is a lesson in how not to grow. →

One of the greatest aspects of business is that nothing stays the same. Entrepreneurs need to stay on their toes to win market share and ultimately profits. Changes in technology, customer behaviors and cultural shifts are all opportunities in disguise but are seldom recognized. No entrepreneur is immune from competition and the best entrepreneurs seek … Continue reading When the market changes do what Harley Davidson is doing. →

No entrepreneur wants to admit defeat and failure. There is a part of every entrepreneur that needs to be optimistic about the future and carry hope for their team when circumstances seem overwhelming. It’s usually not a secret when a business is having a tough time. Staff can tell as can customers and suppliers. The … Continue reading Ted Baker should have made tough decisions sooner. Should you? →

Your business is only as strong as its weakest part. No business big or small does everything perfect. There is always something holding your business back from getting to where you want it to be. Sometimes it’s financial. Sometimes it’s your lack of vision and leadership. Other times it’s sales, marketing or operational challenges. As … Continue reading Every business has a weak spot. What’s yours? →

Whether your business is growing or in the midst of being fixed, partnerships can be a low cost way to improve your bottom line. Partnerships can be tricky but the key to making them work is to ensure that both sides are benefiting. In competitive markets, partnerships can be the leverage your business needs to … Continue reading Win-win. Rent the Runway makes a good partner. →

There are no shortage of opportunities in the marketplace. There are no shortage of opportunities your business can take advantage of. Ideas are easy. Executing on ideas is very hard. Executing on an idea and being profitable is extremely hard. Just because it’s hard doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try. Because the failure rate of businesses … Continue reading Be the best once and do it again. Like Warby Parker. →

Some days you don’t feel like going into the office. Some days you don’t feel like responding to folks on your team that have questions and need direction. Some days you think it might be easier to let someone else lead while you take a vacation from making decisions. Every entrepreneurs has had days, months … Continue reading Feeling Blue? So is JetBlue. →

How many times have you set a sales target and hit it? How many times has your business really worked hard on a sales strategy that produced an amazing result? How many times have you watched in disbelief as your revenue doubled and maybe tripled? If you are like most entrepreneurs, the answer to these … Continue reading Imagine selling more than what you expected. Cyber Monday. →

What will your sales be next month? Which customers are most likely to interact with your business over the coming months? What tools and resources will your business need access to? These are the types of questions that forward thinking entrepreneurs are always asking of themselves and their team. A well run business is able … Continue reading BMW is proof how thinking ahead can help your business. →

There is a saying: you never know what you have until it’s gone. This couldn’t be more true for entrepreneurs that grew their business on the expectation that sales would continue into the future as they had been in the past. The funny thing about a growing business without a plan is that you never … Continue reading What do you do when costs rise faster than sales? Don’t ask MEC. →

“Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” Funny how we are creatures of habit. If something worked once we want to keep doing it again and again but every time we do it the results become less – something like the law of diminishing returns. For businesses that are … Continue reading A real life business turnaround (hopefully) →

Analysis paralysis. At least that’s what it feels like when an entrepreneur tries to think about how to grow or improve their business. They don’t want to ruin what they have and the ignorance it took to start their business gets replaced with overthinking that can be expensive and time consuming. Granted, an entrepreneur has … Continue reading Don’t overthink. Improving your bottom line could be this simple. →

Managing cash can be tricky for a small or medium sized business. There never seems to be enough. For busy entrepreneurs that are running a business, cash can be an afterthought or a conversation best had with their accounting team when necessary. Entrepreneurs will focus on where the pressure leads them each day and unless … Continue reading Ford has $37 billion in the bank and is being cautious. What about you? →