Rick's Blog - Common Sense Experience for Small Businesses

We have finally arrived at the holiday season. Celebrations abound for those who choose to celebrate. Is your company celebrating this year? I don’t mean are you having a Christmas party or handing out year-end bonuses, but is your company really celebrating another year in business. The Christmas/New Year holidays is a great time to celebrate what your business has accomplished the past year. The key is to get everyone involved from employees, vendors and…

I want to talk to you for a few minutes about your business and where you and your business stand on disruption. By disruption, I mean a change or innovation that changes how your products or services are used, delivered or perceived in the market. Every day we are subject to disruptions such as the driverless car, cell phones and Facebook advertising. Who could have seen these changes or disruptions coming 2, 3 or 5…

Well we have almost reached the end of another year. How did your business perform this past year? Did you leave some money on the table? I suspect that most of you did because in my experience raising prices is one of the most difficult task for most business owners. As you beginning your planning for 2017, I suggest that one of the steps be to look at your pricing. The cost of doing business…

Recently I was listening to a podcast hosted by John Jantsch of Duct Tape Marketing and featuring David Finkel, author of Scale: Seven Proven Principles to Grow Your Business and Get Your Life Back and Build a Business, Not a Job. David and John had a great discussion about how to grow your business. David believes that the primary ingredient to successful grow your business is building strong workable systems in all parts of your…

Every business needs to be heard. If no one hears your business, then the chances are very high that you will have few sales and little revenue. Getting your business heard in a cost effective manner is a real challenge for most businesses, particularly startups and new businesses. The first rule of being heard is to get your business in front of your prospects and existing customers. This is something that literally should happen every…

Dick Hendee, a fellow Silver Fox and editor of The Silver Fox monthly newsletter, recently wrote an article entitled, “Go or No Go”. In the article Dick explores how to make the right decision when presented with an opportunity that may have a positive effect on your business. http://www.strategicplanningsuccess.com/images/newsletter_pics/SFA/SFA-Sep-1.pdf I personally call the opportunities that Dick refers to in his article as ‘Impact Opportunities.’ These are opportunities that can really have an impact on one’s…

Every business needs a Strategy. Its own unique strategy or roadmap to follow in building the business to its point of success. The ‘look’ and ‘feel’ of the strategy is really up to you as the owner of the business. The key is that you, your employees, other stakeholders, if any, must be able to clearly understand what your strategy is. Your strategy and the resulting business plan is a communication tool from which every…

30th Anniversary Luncheon Celebration – Silver Fox Advisors As I have many amigos that are Silver Fox Advisors, I decided to make my reservation way in advance to make sure I got a seat for this event. Because of the extra attendees, the event was in the large banquet room, in lieu of the smaller regular meeting area where their ”normal” luncheons are hosted. The meeting was brought to order by James Griffing, current Silver…