Fix these three things and your business will thrive again Jesse sat in my office shaking his head. His business was grossing millions of dollars in sales, yet his bottom line was miserable. Not only was he discouraged about his results, he felt he had lost control of his employees, and it was difficult for…
A recession provides as many opportunities as challenges In 1988 I was interested in starting a retail business. My partner, much wiser and wealthier than I, had weathered several recessions in his entrepreneurial quests and shared his insights that have stuck with me over the years. Here is what I learned from watching, listening and…
The key to reducing expenses is to regularly review the effect of change on your business In times of recession or changing economic conditions, business owners should be looking for ways to reduce their expenses in preparation for challenging times. A few years ago, when I wrote the book Profit Yourself Healthy, I came up…
How we manage disruption dictates how successful we will be in the future Recently we were given notice by our landlord that we had six weeks to find a different office space as our current office was going to be needed by a company he had just purchased. The office was, in a sense, the…
Transitions occur after we sell a business, have a team member leave us, or we are retiring As a distraction from business, I competed in triathlons for a number of years. While I was never really competitive, one of my most embarrassing moments occurred when I climbed out of the water after the swim at…
Writing down your goals is the first step to success Ange sat across from me, her face stressed with the worries of the day and her business. “If you could name last year, what would you name it?” I asked. Without hesitation, Ange blurted out: “The year of the s--t show.” She told me about…
Reaching out to past customers is effective and gets results Jason had been struggling for months trying to drum up new business for his company. The marketing firm he hired to drive leads was expensive, and he wasn’t getting near enough increase in sales to offset costs that had been growing significantly. Despite being in…
What is your recipe for success? We couldn’t have had a better boarder! Billy Burchell would come each and every week from McLeod Lake to live with our family while he went to school. He would arrive Monday for school and would take the bus back on Friday after school. Billy was in shock for…
By focusing on these key areas, you can achieve the success and profitability you deserve Karen bought into a small business in her community because she thought she would love the thrill of owning a company that she believed espoused the values of her living lifestyle. Having given up a good-paying but tedious government job,…
If we only focus on our successes or failures, we miss out on so much A couple of weeks ago I had the opportunity to hear a talk by Kaleb Dahlgren, a young man who was a member of the Humboldt Broncos Hockey team that was hit by a bus in 2018. Sixteen of the…