Business Blogs: Trends, tips, and real-life anecdotes from industry experts.

It’s Sunday, September 6, and Linda and I are in Philadelphia. We stand in a pouring deluge – the brunt of tropical storm Hanna is upon us – as we wait to enter Independence Hall, located in the city’s Historic District. Drenched despite our umbrellas, 30 of us enter the annex of the building. We [...]

“The quality of your communication equals the quality of your life”
-          Anthony Robbins�
The sense I have developed over the years is that quantity of communication is more important than quality of communication. Of course, this refers to sensible discourse between two parties. It is no good if one spews unlimited information while ignoring the other [...]

It seems logical the manager’s total efforts should be focused on the product or service itself; that all energy be directed to the work that must be done, the customers who must be found, and the money that must be made.
And this is the problem! Focus entirely on these tasks without an overall strategy of [...]

“Why? Because I’m the mommy and I said so.”
- Anonymous mommy
Do it now and let’s get on with whatever is next!�
Point-of-sale is a phrase taken from the cash register industry. It describes action “where the purchase takes place.” Consider the latest generation of cash register which instantly updates inventory and orders new product. Before the customer [...]

The numbers are gloomy. Statistics show that of one hundred new business startups, eighty will be out of business within five years. Too often, the causes of these failures are recurring inefficiencies and their offspring: fire-killing and distraction. Most business owners wake up in the morning with only a vague sense of their ultimate, primary [...]

A little while ago, I had the pleasure of a short interview with Jeff Shay, Engineering Manager and Environmental & Safety Officer at Rejuvenation. For those not familiar…

Rejuvenation began in 1977 as an architectural salvage shop in a derelict North Portland saloon. Jim Kelly, who still owns the privately held company, began the business with [...]

Most people have jobs, and as of this writing, there is not a general revolt against the concept. In any society, it is a revered position - one that carries a certain “it’s a good feeling to be part of the team” camaraderie. Whether a democratic or a socialistic state, it is understood that the [...]

Your employees are not mind readers or fortune tellers, and your business is not a free-form venue for experimentation, or a place where individual preference based on mood, time of the day, or random circumstance can rule the day. Your purpose and methodology must be clear, concise, consistent, and understood by everyone involved. Aim for [...]

Economists and the media may debate whether we are in a true “recession” or not, but that doesn’t change the fact that sales are down and consumers are pulling back.  I’m certainly not excited about this, but I’m not traumatized either.  The economy is full of ups and downs and we obviously can’t have the [...]

In Western culture, the word “control” has an undeserved bad rap. It conjures up the image of a type-A personality gone wild with power, who, headed down the road of personal self-destruction, cuts wide swaths of anxiety among all those encountered. “Control freak” is a term that often surfaces. But if hyper-control is a bad [...]