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Succession and Retirement Planning: Neither Should Be Ignored

How are you doing planning for your own retirement? Do you plan to keep your business alive even after you go away?  Stop putting things off.  Now is the time to address succession and retirement planning for your small business.  Give yourself the time necessary to accumulate a significant cache to fund your golden years.  You should probably started much sooner, but there is no time like the present to catch up. We read all the time about the need to create generous compensation and benefit packages to attract top talent for our small businesses.  Health care, paid holidays, paid [...]

By |2017-10-04T00:27:55-04:00October 4th, 2017|Strategic Management, Strategic Planning, Succession Planning|
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Technology Levels the Playing Field Between Big and Small Businesses

Not long ago, there was a vast chasm between what Big Business and smaller, Mom-and-Pop startups could accomplish.  Why?  The biggest differentiation was the size of their budgets.  Big Biz could easily afford to put themselves in front of potential customers on a grand scale.  They could afford splashy advertising with celebrity endorsements in big name national and international magazines.  They could afford to regularly market on radio and television. Small business budgets were limited mostly to local publications, direct mail, flyers and bill boards.  Most could not even afford a marketing specialist, so the owner took on that task.  [...]

By |2017-09-25T19:08:43-04:00September 24th, 2017|Systems and Processes, Technology|
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Get Your Small Business Growing: Off the Treadmill and Onto a Conveyor

'Designing Strategies' eNewsletter September - October, 2017                                         Volume 14  --  Issue 79   Do you find yourself doing the same things in your business that you did last week, last month or even last year?  Not good.  You have reached a plateau where  you are comfortable and decided to stay put?  Really not good.  You know what happens when something sits still in the same place don't you?  If you've ever watched 'American Pickers' on the History channel, you'll understand that [...]

By |2018-01-05T03:40:43-05:00September 22nd, 2017|Growth, Newsletter, Systems and Processes|
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Employee Recognition Programs Help Recruit and Retain Great Staff

It seems there is never neutral ground when it comes to recruiting and retaining top talent to move companies forward.  On the employee side of the conversation, we hear that there are no good jobs available.  Or, they say that what jobs are available offer pay and benefit packages that are unimpressive.  Attracting and keeping top talent takes time and planning on how you can find, engage, recruit then motivate good employees.   Part of motivation should include an employee recognition program. On the other side, employers complain that there just aren’t enough good workers out there to fill vacancies they [...]

By |2017-08-27T00:22:26-04:00August 28th, 2017|Employees, Systems and Processes|
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Exceptional Customer Experiences:  7 Infallible Rules Not To Be Ignored

Every small business claims to have excellent customer service.  I’m not kidding.  Go out and do an informal survey of your own.  At your next association meeting, ask ten or twelve colleagues – read:  competitors – how they rate their own customer service.   I’d be willing to bet that 9 out of 10 will tell you they are just ‘supercalifragilisticexpialidocious’ when it comes to customer service and exceptional customer experiences. For those of you who prefer to speak in simpler terms, that very, very long word from Mary Poppins just means “exceptionally good”.  By claiming to have exceptionally good customer service, [...]

By |2017-11-20T16:22:24-05:00August 9th, 2017|Customer Experience, Customer Relationships, Newsletter|
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Does Your Firm Accept Credit Cards? Maybe You Should.

This week, we contracted with an award winning local landscape firm to do some stone and brick work on our property.  We met with the owner to sign the contract so work could begin.  When I asked if they would accept credit card payment for our deposit, we were told their company doesn't accept credit cards.  Interesting.  I thought most every small business today accepts credit cards for payment. Credit and debit cards have taken over the world.  Those, myself included, who still write the occasional check are looked at strangely.  Change takes time for most people.  Yes, I do [...]

By |2017-08-03T00:12:00-04:00August 3rd, 2017|Customer Experience, Strategic Management|
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Influences on Small Businesses for 2017: Competition & Customer Behaviors

'Designing Strategies' eNewsletter July - August, 2017               Volume 14     Issue 78   Any small business owner or manager who has been operating over the past ten years has experienced big time changes coming at them.  It is no secret that changes and external  influences on small businesses are a constant we need to prepare for.   Any not willing to do necessary zig-zagging required to change strategies or pivot on a dime may well be gone now.  We have been facing more than a few significant external changes, trying to stay afloat.  [...]

By |2017-10-23T00:12:35-04:00July 23rd, 2017|Customer Experience, Customer Relationships, Market Research, Strategy|
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Strategies for Change: Be Alert, Be Aware, Be Strategic

The world as we know it is coming to an end!  Sounds an awful lot like the childhood story, Chicken Little, doesn’t it?  Remember that story about Henny-Penny running around the barn yard telling everyone the sky is falling after some innocent thing fell on her head?  Definitely not a good strategy for dealing with change.  Unlike every other day, something new and different happened - something changed.  Strategies for change should be top of mind for every small business owner who is passionate about the success of their firm. Notice the key words in that first sentence are "...as [...]

By |2017-08-16T15:39:58-04:00June 20th, 2017|Strategic Management, Strategy, Trends|
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Offline Marketing Is Alive, Well and Great For Local Marketing Campaigns

Small businesses have been told that old-school traditional marketing methods are extinct.  As extinct as dinosaurs.  They are things of the past.  They don't work anymore.  Old-school methods are too costly.  Offline marketing methods take too long to become effective.  You HAVE to move to online marketing channels.  I'm here to tell you it just isn't true.  I'm here to tell you that offline marketing is alive, well and works great for local audiences.  Sure, the Internet has opened some new marketing channels for us.  They may be less costly, but unless we do it exactly right, they won't work for [...]

By |2017-06-30T02:41:45-04:00June 20th, 2017|Marketing, Strategy|
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Your Unique Definition of Success – The Foundation of Your Small Business

'Designing Strategies' e-Newsletter Volume 14               Issue 77   Success – what does it mean?  From a quick Google search, Success is defined as either:  the accomplishment of an aim or purpose, or the attainment of popularity or profit.  Ask any small business owner or entrepreneur what they want to get from their start-up enterprise and odds are, they will respond with:  "Success.” or "I want to be successful."  Sounds about right, doesn't it? In reality, those answers are simply not enough.  What does success mean to you, as an individual, small business owner? [...]

By |2017-11-20T16:21:24-05:00June 2nd, 2017|Newsletter, Strategy, Strategy|
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