Last weekend I was at a swim meet with my daughter. Just before her first event she said, “Dad, I’m nervous, I have butterflies in my stomach.” To put this in perspective, she has been swimming competitively for the last six years, and that would amount to several hundred events over that time period, so
Category Archives: Advisory
Recently I heard someone say “the things that you hold on to hold on to you.” The conversation was referring to physical items, and I can certainly identify with that. I have a box of vinyl records in the garage that I won’t part with because of the sentimental value. My wife, on the other
Many Southern California residents are Lakers fans, and we know that this year they are not faring so well in the NBA standings. Currently they are 20th out of 30 teams in points per game, even falling far behind the Clippers who are currently ranked 6th. This is clearly disappointing for Lakers fans everywhere. Let’s
I recently watched the movie Moneyball starring Brad Pitt and Jonah Hill. The movie is based on the novel that was written about the 2002 Oakland A’s. They had just lost in the 2001 postseason to the Yankees, and at the end of the season they lost their three top players. The A’s General Manager,
I just returned from a conference in Sedona, Arizona, one of the most beautiful places I have been. While I was there, I worked on my “why.” Why do I go to work every day? For me this was not a new exercise, but a refresher. I have been through this exercise countless times in
I am sitting in a conference session focusing on small business trends. While the topic of the conference is based on revenue and hiring growth, I can’t help but to sit here and marvel at the way the other attendees are using technology. Let me put some frame of reference around this. We are in
03
Feb
Feb
This month, we’re moving into ‘Customer Relationships’, the fourth part in a nine-part series on the Business Model Canvas. Customer Relationships are the different types of relationships we can have with our customer segments, how costly they are, and how they align with the rest of our business model. There are six specific categories of
In times of economic uncertainty we tend to focus on reducing our cost structure and keeping our prices low so that we don’t lose market share. While I advocate that businesses should always contain costs, I also advocate that they should be aware of their pricing structure and terms. Over the last couple of years
For several years I have heard successful business leaders say that profits are earned on the margin, meaning that profit is earned on the outskirts of your business, or not necessarily on the core of your offering. It could be your competitive advantage, your unique core differentiator, or your value added product or service that
How are you progressing toward the plans you set for your business this year? Most all business owners and management teams start each year with a set of goals/objectives that they intend to achieve for the year. Those goals/objectives are supported by strategies, and those strategies are supported by action plans. Now that we’re about one-third