The first job I ever had was as a paperboy – a position that doesn’t even exist anymore. I would deliver paper seven days a week and then once a month go around and collect as much as I could from the subscribers. I had a fixed amount I had to pay the paper, the…
If I had a dollar for every time I’ve heard a business owner wish for more time, I wouldn’t need to run my current business! I get it – it seems like there is never enough time in the day to do all the things you’d like to do and still have any kind of…
There are a ton of business books out there and new ones come out every year that try and teach you how to be better at business. Some are useful but many more are not especially helpful. But this is not going to be a reading suggestion list. You probably don’t have time to read…
Years ago, when we were much smaller, I used to tell myself the goal I wanted to reach was having 10 bookkeepers. I figured that if I had that many, then if I suddenly lost one to an illness, competitor, or whatever else, then I could redistribute the work among the remaining nine and it…
Most businesses can’t grow, or can’t grow as fast as they want, because of some capacity constraint. Simply put, they lack enough of an important resource their business needs to be able to generate more sales. Here are a few examples: In each case, the business is losing out on revenue because they can only…
This is a guest post from Riverbend Consulting. Interest rates hit their highest level in 22 years this past week. Inflation, and the economy in general, is swirling with uncertainty. What are e-commerce businesses and Amazon sellers to do? While your individual business can’t singlehandedly boost the gross domestic product (GDP) or decrease the Federal…
I’d suggest you stop and figure it out right now. If you still can’t answer it even after working on if for a while, your business is likely in some serious trouble… Here is the question: Why do your customers pick you over their other choices? See I told you it was an easy question….
If you are in the position of needing to hire someone – part-time, full-time, contractor, or even service provider, I have a simple tip for you. Actually, I have a lot of tips – write a clear, detailed job description first, make sure you have a plan to train this person, make sure you have…
Before I started my first business, I had the same mindset that a lot of startup new business owners have – that I have one chance to get it right and it has to be perfect from the start. But of course that doesn’t make sense and you are never going to be perfect, never…
As a business owner, you often don’t get time to stop and take stock of your business. You get all wrapped up in the day to day problems and don’t spend hardly any time (maybe none) asking yourself how it’s going and if you’re on track. That kind of stare into space time just seems…