Rick's Blog - Common Sense Experience for Small Businesses

Recently I had lunch with Tommy Thompson. Tommy has run the daily operations of our 1,000+ member church campus. In that job he uses all the skills and experience he has accumulated in 40+ years of working in a variety of jobs in Corporate America. In his career, Tommy has held several positions, such as corporate safety manager for a major energy company, which required him to be a top-notch strategist as well as a…

The hiring process for many small businesses is a daunting task. Most lack a HR department or person to manage the process. Instead, the business typically relies more on what I call “gut instinct” than a well-designed process or procedure. This means that many of the basic steps necessary to making a good hiring decision are not considered or taken. The result is an employee turnover rate that is way too high and that impairs…

How much does your business spend annually on marketing and advertising the products/services that you offer? How much does your company spend annually on customer service? Which of the two, marketing/advertising or customer service, give you the biggest bang for your buck? The chances are that you cannot or do not calculate how much you spend annually on customer service; therefore, you cannot answer my question about which gives you the biggest bang for your…

You finally have made the decision to go into business for yourself. A big step in anyone’s life to realize their dream to be their own boss! The decision does not come without risk and your ability to reduce or mitigate risk can make the difference in being successful or not. The fist step to finding the success that you are looking for is writing down a plan. In building your plan, you should look…

Technology purchases have become increasingly more challenging, and in some cases more expensive and in all cases more important to the success of a business. Each time a business introduces a new technology into their business, there is a chance that the technology will have a negative impact verses a positive impact. This risk of failure makes the selection, implementation and maintenance of all-important business technology even more critical. The risk of failure of choosing…

I placed a call this morning to our A/C Heating service company to make an appointment for a summer check-up for our system. The phone was answered by a very professional lady who had the voice and demeanor of someone who really wanted to help the customer. However, when she tried to set up the appointment her computer apparently refused to work. She apologized for the inconvenience and delay, but she had to refer to…

How many times have you attended a business networking event and walked away empty handed? You invest the time and effort to attend the event and you fail to make a connection that could be useful in your marketing efforts. This happens all to often to small business owners because they are not prepared to use networking as a marketing tool. It all starts with determination. You must have the determination to share your business…

Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines “will” as “the power to control one’s actions, impulses or emotions.” In the context of a small business, what is your ability (as the owner) to control your actions and those of your business? I think this a fair question that each business owner needs to be able to answer. Our ability to control the actions of our business potentially has very special and important consequences for ourselves and our business. If…

When all is said and done what is it that you want to accomplish with your business? Hopefully you already have an “exit strategy” in place that will take care of how you hope to dispose of the business. However, there is an opportunity to consider so much more when you look at what you want to accomplish. For example, do you want your business to have an impact on your community. Every community has…