Passion as a Secret Weapon for Small Business Success – Lessons from my Customers.
When you’ve been around for as long as I have (nearly 30 years!) you’re delighted with any opportunity to be able to share your learnings and experiences. You tend to want to do it a lot but need to be reminded that life is a two-way street and that learning [...]
The White Elephant in the Room – Collections
The White Elephant in the Room – Collections Today I want to cover a subject that is the Rodney Dangerfield of small businesses and their owners. No, I’m not talking about your boss’s bad breath, nor his shirt/tie combinations (which in reality, never combine), nor are we talking about how [...]
Why Poet Robert Frost was also a Brilliant Marketing Expert
The Road Not Taken, by American poet Robert Frost Two roads diverged in a wood, and I— I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference. At church Sunday listening to our priest’s sermon he used an analogy from American poet Robert Frost’s “The Road [...]
What I’ve Learned in 3 Years as a Business Owner
Twenty-seven years in corporate America working at such household brand name companies like GE, Whirlpool, Philips, and Oster provided a great backdrop for my career as a small business owner. But even today, as I celebrate my third year as an entrepreneur, not only do I feel grateful for having [...]
‘Bility Number 4 – Profitability
As a kid growing up in the Midwest I remember seeing t-shirts that said "life begins at forty". Today, with all we know about fitness and foods, the folks who were wearing those t-shirts have likely updated them to now read "life begins at sixty" and probably even look better [...]
‘Bility Number 3 – Sustainability
We are in the middle of my blog series describing the five items critical to a company’s potential for real growth – which I have playfully punned as the “’Bilities.” In the last blog, I talked about Replicability - you can read all about that here. The third ’bility has [...]
‘Bility Number 2 – Replicability
Your business model ultimately determines how your company will profit from the products you make or the services you provide, outlines the mechanics of how you will be paid, and how much money your company will make in a given period. It also sets the stage for five items critical [...]
‘Bility Number 1 – Scalability
Your business model ultimately determines how your company will profit from the products you make or the services you provide, outlines the mechanics of how you will be paid, and how much money your company will make in a given period. It also sets the stage for five items critical [...]
What Robert Frost’s Poetry and Factors Have in Common
What do Factors have in common with famous American poet Robert Frost? Well actually, quite a bit – and I’ll explain what I mean in my comments below. The phrase “Good fences make good neighbors” comes from the Robert Frost’s “Mending Wall,” published in 1914 and deals with the sometimes-arbitrary [...]
6 Questions You Need to Ask Yourself Before Starting a Business
Thinking about starting your own business, or know someone who has? Well, before you quit your day job, let’s go through a few things that you should know before you effectively pull the plug on your current gig and go solo, as an entrepreneur or business owner. This may sound [...]
Money Can’t Buy Me Love – Is It Time To Fire Your Customer?
In today’s world of business, it’s no longer that “the Customer comes first”, but also that you’re really only as good as the Customers you purportedly are putting in first place. That said, sooner or later you or your small business will be in the position where you’re faced with [...]
How Does it Work and How Much Does it Cost?
In case you missed it, I recently announced the launch of my new company, ei Funding, an Orlando based alternative finance company dedicated to providing small to medium sized businesses working capital needed to grow and ultimately become successful. I do this primarily through the funding methods of factoring, purchase [...]