One of the challenges of a business is developing your team of employees. Previous posts have discussed how to find and hire new employees (Hiring New Employees, Time to Hire, and Employees are Your Foundation are three examples). The difficult part though is getting everyone to work together and focused on the end goal. Business…
Any rural business owner can offer an apprenticeship Kevin Rubash is now the owner and designer at Interior Spaces which is a interior home design business in Webster City, Iowa (population 8,000). Kevin designs interiors for homes and business and sells everything from bedding to furniture to flooring and curtains. He got his first chance…
Did you ever have a really good idea only to see someone else jump on it first? Well, this blog post is representative of that. I came up with the idea last week and as I got ready to write this blog appeared in my email, “This Place is Perfect.” So my options are to…
There are several common thoughts on the key elements to a successful business. Two of those most often mentioned are to build the business around a need or to build your business around your passion. While there are examples of both elements working, realistically, a combination of the two provide the strongest launching pad. Passion…
If this happened to you as a customer, how would you feel? Our washer has a problem. Service person came out and ordered a part for it. Part should be here in two weeks and made the next appointment. The day before the appointment, I get an automated call. If my issue was a service…
Retaining your existing customer base is one key to the long term growth and success of your business. Customer retention begins your thought process of having a business not only today but tomorrow, next month, next year, and even 10 years from now. It takes you from being upset at the customer who leaves with…
Business owners often take customer loyalty for granted. Yet, in this competitive market, nothing could be further from the truth. The returning customer often is key to the bottom line of just about any business. So often you only see them spending $10 in your store and never making any big purchases. But if they…
You have hear the phrase, “Give the customer what he or she needs or wants.” As a business owner, you know that is true and so you focus on providing goods and services that meet those needs. You focus on specific solutions, quality, and timely delivery. You work hard to ensure that the product works…
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