Being your own boss. Owning your own business. Such initiative is part of the American Dream, but you must be daring and be able to take risks. And risk is both pain and glory for small business owners. The reality is that business ownership is not necessarily for everyone. Every town in America has seen […]
New Year + New Decade = Great Time To Regroup
Wouldn’t it be great if all small business owners had a big red button that would re-set at the touch of a finger, everything that needed our attention? It’s a nice fantasy, but I’ve never found restructuring my work strategy to be that easy. Ever. But with a new year and a new decade, it […]
Is Your Business Winning Or Losing With Technology?
As business owners, what can we do better in 2020? One of my own personal steps for review is a careful (often painful) review of my budget. I try to be brutally honest with myself about what worked and what didn’t and be honest about how well I understand everything I spend operating money on. […]
4 Tips To Help You Plan For 2020 Business Goals
I’m already planning goals for my business in 2020 and I suspect almost all small business owners are doing the same. Before I think about product improvement or personnel upgrades, though, I think about whether my infrastructure can or cannot support those initiatives. Maybe the best plan for growth starts with an assessment of what […]
Empower Your Employees To Help Protect Your Business
In a survey by Wombat Security Technologies, more than 30% of employees didn’t even know what phishing or malware was. It would be worth your time to have an informal survey of your own employees to see what your percentage might be. This statistic alone should be enough to explain the value of empowering your […]
Working On The Puzzle of “Fit” With Your Suppliers
When you own a business, you spend much of your time working on puzzles. Your ever-changing market can be a puzzle. Maximizing employee productivity can be a puzzle. Staying on the leading edge of your industry can be a puzzle, and sometimes just finding the leading edge of your industry is a puzzle. Part of […]
Before The Internet
How well do we remember our lives before the internet? Before we had instant knowledge of everything just a few clicks away? Before we could hear driving directions as we motored through a new city or country? Before we could do stupid things because we didn’t know any better, and it wouldn’t come back to […]
Fun Facts About Better Business IT
The technology landscape today offers an overwhelming array of business improvement options. Safe to say it would be easy to buy new and better business IT products that might not interface effectively with technology you already have–unless you ask an IT expert. As your business grows, streamlining processes will improve company performance. Compatible technology can […]
Don’t Settle When It’s Your Business Technology
“Don’t settle” is a hot topic for me. Often when I take on a new client, I can be surprised at what I see this business has been using for their IT. It can be obsolete hardware, outdated software, strange network configurations, poor security and data preservation techniques, and antiquated workflows. I see businesses working […]
No IT Strategy? Are You Leaking Time and Money?
Too often a small business owner doesn’t know how bad his IT strategy is until something catastrophic happens. Think of Marriott and their 500 million client info breach. It’s comparable to how bad yours can be, if even on a much smaller scale. Maybe 3 years ago you overhauled your business computer network and you […]