Recently in Business Life Category

Are you cutting your budgets because of the economic turbulence ahead? Lots of small business folks are, maybe rightly so. Perhaps this is a time accelerate some things and cut out others, but don't just stop. There are various schools of thought on how to navigate choppy waters, and lowering costs is always good, however just don't let it dominate your every move. During these troubled times do not become paralyzed, and in fact capitalize on your competitors trepidation. 

These are certainly some pretty strange economic times for small business owners and lots of folks are afraid, understandably. And, all indicators point to a pretty tough 2009. So, what are you going to do, pack up the tent stakes or wrestle down this dragon? 

Another year has almost gone? How is your overall profit looking? Maybe it's not quite what you had expected for the year. Well, step it up! Encourage yourself and employees to think outside the box the way many successful big and small fish companies have. Yes there may be failure but from failure you'll learn and grow. "It's fine to celebrate success but it is more important to heed the lessons of failure." - Bill Gates.

Looking for an edge in today's wacky economy, and simultaneously help you and your employees and team Do the Right Thing? Perhaps a public forum on your web site or a blog may just help nudge you or your company along to "Do the Right Thing" and improve performance. 

It has been said; it isn't what you know, but who you know.

Personally, I don't think it is as much about who you know, as it is, who knows YOU. This is especially true when you own a small business. How can you maximize your personal outreach with out maxing out your calendar or your budget?  Educational events.

As a tag to Beth Harte's twitter post, I wanted to share a story that is from First Hand Information. Not to digress, but my old boss, turned mentor, had one of many sayings, but one that has stuck with me is "Do you have first hand information" and to him, if it wasn't first hand information, it wasn't credible. Well, my story here is First hand Information, so I hope you find it credible.

It is a pretty scary time to be navigating the waters in a small business, or a large business for that matter. Even the "veterans" you talk to have not seen such times.  Irrespective of the economic conditions, we are functioning in a time where everyone knows your name, knows what you are doing, or not doing and they, your customer, have the power to broadcast that to many, thousands, hundreds of thousands with a few keystrokes. Yep, times have changed, and small or large businesses may want to begin conducting themselves "As If" someone is watching because they are, and YOU do not get to choose when and or where they show up and decide to broadcast, or do you?

Success means a lot of things to a lot of people, but the bottom line, for most of us, is that success doesn't come easy. Most people who see someone else's "overnight success" cannot fathom the months or years of hard work, lost sleep, and sacrifices made to achieve that success.

Of course success is more than money or power. I tend to subscribe to definition #1 above rather than #2. You don't have to have any of those things to truly be successful, and you can be successful in many things that won't ever provide them. In business, success merely means that you've achieved your goals and dreams.

Every business goes through tough times. Expecting to have season after season of continuous growth without any dips or downturns is pretty much unreasonable. And despite all your strong marketing pushes, there will always be times when business isn't as swift as you'd like it to be. But that doesn't have to be cause for concern. Well, OK, concern is good, but there are things that you can do to make slow times a whole lot less stressful on you and your finances.

Every now and then I'll catch a conversation about monitor envy on Twitter. You know what I'm talking about...someone posts a picture of some crazy monitor setup and all the desktop junkies go nuts over the size and quantity of monitors in someone's setup. It's like every hard working computer junkie simply dreams of sitting at mission control with a monitor for every application.