The owner of an insurance agency I know did an experiment. Sheila VanZile of Watermark Insurance printed business cards with two different titles: President and Queen. Over the course of time, she used both… and Queen won out. That title engaged people, helped start a conversation and gave them a glimpse of her fun personality. […]
A Tale of Two Titles Read More »
I am a frequent flyer on Delta Airlines. Fortunately I did not travel this week and avoided the system outage that resulted in hundreds of cancelled flights. Everyone is talking about how the disruption of service affected travelers and there is no doubt that the impact was significant. Others are speculating how this incident, and
Learn from Delta’s Disaster Read More »
I grew up in a family business so as you might imagine business was personal. It was also pretty casual. There were no agreements in place. There were no job descriptions and no real understanding about how the partnership would work. It just did. Today business is much more complicated and would-be entrepreneurs are much
Get Personal When It Comes to Partnering Read More »
You might think that the numbers say it all but I believe we need to look deeper. According to the Small Business Administration (SBA), there are 27.9 million small businesses in the United States and they make up 99.7% of U.S. employer firms. These businesses employ about 50% of the country’s private sector workforce. For
Start-ups Stalled Read More »
I have always prided myself on being a great multi-tasker. I have been known to work on writing a script while listening to an employee tell me about a day out in the field. I have worked on invoices while listening to a webinar. I am writing this as I sit on an airplane traveling
Are You a Chronic Multitasker? Read More »
Over the past few weeks I have had the chance to talk to the owners of two relatively new businesses in different parts of the country. One is a commercial cleaning company and the other is a manufacturer of specialty ice cream. The passion that these owners possess is very common among small business owners.
Common Problems: Time. Talent . Treasure. Read More »
If you are like most business owners you are inundated with pitches for training, workshops and seminars to attend. They tout things like: Learn the 7 Proven Ways to Grow Your Sales Create a Culture of Success and Overcome Obstacles One Day to Greatness Attend this one-day leadership institute to interact with other women business
Too Busy to Learn? Read More »
This past week there were celebrations across the country for National Small Business Week to draw attention to the entrepreneurial spirit that still exists today despite the challenges that loom large. The week officially kicked off last Sunday at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History. There were the expected speeches and of course awards
I recently had to travel internationally for a client. While I travel extensively in North America to work this was a new experience, not to mention that I left the U.S. on the day of the Brussels bombing. It was a tense time travel. I thought I might share a few thoughts about the experience.
Travel Outside Your Comfort Zone Read More »
A number of movies have been released just in time for spring break. I have watched with amusement as the critics have taken aim at movies like My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2 and Batman vs Superman. The website Rotten Tomatoes rates films with its Tomatometer™ rating. According to the site the rating is “based
Get Out the Popcorn Read More »
