I hate surprises in my liquor store business. “Oh, no! We’re almost out of sacks!” “We need to come up with money to cover the insurance payment!” “Why didn’t you remember to order the Oktoberfest last month?!” No one likes surprises like that, so I started using a perpetual calendar. Hanging above the current…
There’s always plenty of holiday advice for retailers, including our 5 Retail Holiday Tips for 2014. We even talked about how service businesses can make themselves into holiday gifts. But what about the rest of us? Consultants, writers, manufacturers, engineers, farmers, and more all have businesses, but we aren’t necessarily retailers. What can non-retail…
I’ve been thinking about how we have all we need. We don’t need to learn more, read more, acquire more. That’s why what John C. Shepard, planner from Wyoming, USA, said caught my attention: “Implementation is my watch-word for 2014.” That deceptively simple sentence could change everything. What if you made implementation your watch word?…
Opening and operating a business on the side occurs for lots of reasons. Some side businesses are operated by individuals who already own one business. Yet for others it means starting a business while working another job. A third category are people who have an idea for a business. They may not have another…
People going into business want to be successful. Lots of tips about success can be found online and in writing. Yet one tip is consistently seen and offers a great track record – Make good decisions, and do it consistently. It may seem obvious that successful business owners are good decision makers. In reality,…
Will you make plans and set goals for your business in 2014? Or not? If you are typical of most people, you start the new year by making some resolutions or set some goals that you want to achieve in the next 12 months. And typically those resolutions are forgotten in a very short time….
You want to start a business but you just can’t find that one great idea. This dilemma is often a major stumbling block for many aspiring small-business owners. They just keep waiting for that one big idea that will guarantee a successful business. The reality is that more often, a good idea, rather than a…
Many people dream of owning their own business. Yet because they live in a small community, they perceive that developing a successful business just can’t be achieved. Such a viewpoint is one of the small-business myths that exist among the public. Certainly, we don’t want to imply that success is easy in small communities, but…
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