Friday, September 22, 2023
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Articles

Training process

How to create a shareable job aid

The number one most effective form of shareable job aid I have seen is the...
interuptions

Transform work interruptions into opportunities

If you’re wondering whether interruptions from colleagues have disappeared during the COVID-19 pandemic, rest assured,...
Red stick figure followed by others

If you want to build real influence, don’t fall for the quid pro quo

I’m fond of saying, “If you don’t have authority, you’ve got to use influence.” Sounds...
Man in block of ice

How to handle being frozen-out by colleagues

If you are doing your best to build real influence at work—by serving others and...
Buried in work

Helpers, experts, and rogues

Certain types of employees, more so than others, tend to jump into projects outside their...
email box

Six steps to good email hygiene

Many of us have embarked on worthy crusades to tame our inboxes and therefore our...
dog with a bad attitude

Five bad attitudes you do not want to become known for at work

Everybody has bad days or bad moments. But, even if you are not feeling it...
Yes men

Three types of ‘Yes’ people to avoid at work

We have all known someone with a reputation for saying “yes” to any new request...
Drowning in commitments

The cascading effects of overcommitment at work

Overcommitment syndrome emerges when everything on your to-do list is “urgent and important.” New priorities...

How to say yes, no, and maybe at work

To avoid burnout in today’s workplace, you have to be savvy about which projects you...

Five simple steps to achieving alignment at work

It’s not enough to align yourself after the fact. You want to help inform the...

The peculiar mathematics of real influence

Real influence is the power you have when other people really want to do things...
Successful woman

I could have chosen the easier path

In a recent article, "What does it take to succeed in business?" my CEDF colleague,...
Business woman floating away on a balloon

What does it take to succeed in business?

Previously I have written about my conclusions in Five Disciplines of Our Most Profitable Clients....
Santa's bag

Someday you’ll thank Congress

Santa may have come late this year to small business owners but he finally arrived...
Examining digital ads

Are small businesses missing out on advertising?

An article in the Wall Street Journal recently reported that U.S. digital advertising for the...
Compass

Can your employees figure out what’s right?

We recently featured a webinar about establishing an ethics program and why this is important,...
Computer Malware

Covid-19 work from home is a hacker’s paradise

Editor’s Note:  The author is founder and CEO of Netology, a Stamford-based IT services provider...
Empty Pockets

What if I can’t pay my loan?

Editor's note: Many businesses have been significantly impacted by the pandemic. And while, fortunately, many...
Dead chicken

No escape from the fatal flaws

Previously I’ve written about five fatal flaws that I’ve seen that commonly causing small business...
Winning a race

How are you going to compete?

There are really only three ways that a company can compete: cost, innovation, or customer...
Ghost of Christmas Future

Let’s be optimistic about disaster debt

The Last of the Spirits, from Charles Dickens: A Christmas Carol. In Prose. Being a...
Steel balls striking others

Seven strategies for expanding your influence in uncertain times

This is an excerpt of an article published in the August 2020 issue of Realizing...
Fishing hook in 3D person

Don’t be a chicken when recruiting

In the space of a few months the COVID crisis has brought the country from...
Man on highwire approaching stairs

Will you choose fear or opportunity?

This is an excerpt of an article published in the August 2020 issue of Realizing...
fuel scale with dollar sign

Without cash, your business is as good as closed

Businesses this March quickly went from normal to cautious to a standstill. No wonder small...
email

Go-to person’s guide to good email hygiene

One symbol of the collaboration revolution must surely be the little “mail” icon on our...
Nick Tarzia

The opportunity of loss

Editor’s Note:  The author is a CEDF client who operates Awesome Toys and Gifts in...
money locked away

COVID-19: What about customer deposits?

I've been taking calls from business owners worried about conflicts with customers over deposits for...
Stuart Katz

Emergency legislation brings new employer mandates

There are very limited exceptions to the law.
negotiating commercial leases & renewals

COVID-19: Negotiate a Rent Abatement or Deferral in your Lease

I am speaking hourly with business owners that have dwindling revenues or no revenue in...
digital media

It’s high time you learned SEO basics

Nate Berger of KnockMedia in New Haven provided an excellent introduction to the world of...
red fish with blue fish behind it

It’s the leader not the concept

The mythology of American entrepreneurship goes something like this. You research a problem that startlingly...
people surrounding money

Kickstarter may be your best option to raise capital

In business, anything is possible, but you need money. I wrote the book “Get the...
donuts

Give the customers what they want

It may seem like the oldest lesson in marketing to give customers what they want...
breaking piggy bank

Where does small business get its capital?

Recently I was asked to pinch hit for a presenter at an SBA-sponsored Reboot workshop...
angry bear

Be ready to wrestle the bear

In recent months, this column has addressed competition with Amazon from a couple of different perspectives. While...
Punching Amazon

Could you use the Golden Triplet?

A recent article in these columns discussed the response a small business has to take to compete...
wanting money

Think like your lender to understand how to land financing

As critical as it is in a lender’s decision making process for a term loan,...
Lose vs win

How to win when you’ve lost?

Show up, believe in yourself and be fearless. That’s the key. A few weeks ago I...
meter

When business credit scores start to matter

Character and past performance matters a lot in the world of lending as every business...
people climbing

Networking might be the wrong approach

Networking is an an oversimplified concept that to some people means shaking a lot of...
Punching Amazon

How to compete against Amazon

There has been so much hand-wringing over the difficulties caused to Main Street retailers by...
Money being sucked away

Is revenue-based financing right for you?

Among the options available to small businesses, revenue-based financing (RBF) seems to be getting more...
Devil carrying man

$10,000 for your soul

Millions of people love Amazon for the instant gratification, the almost universal selection and the...
whiteboard

What would your employees say?

I stopped at one of my favorite spots early one morning recently before my first...
man next to an I

Is your selling environment all wrong?

It’s often taken on authority that the right way to sell is to develop a...
woman with hardhat and calculator

This will be an unforgettable opportunity

For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth...
base jumping

Leave the flying to the squirrels

In surfing with my internet news reader app recently, I ran across a documentary about...
Steering a ship

Are you following these seven natural laws?

Business is often depicted as a struggle, a battle, a war. It's an apt description,...
woman with binoculars

Use the Yogi Berra method

One of beloved baseball legend Yogi Berra's famous malapropisms was "You can observe a lot...
computer malware

Take Warren Buffet’s advice

As usual, Warren Buffet's 2019 shareholder letter has drawn attention for what some may consider...
inspecting money

Can you really withhold price information?

The internet age has disrupted so much about pricing of products and services. In decades...
trapped under dollar sign

Is there such a thing as too much capital?

It’s not unusual for a borrower to submit a loan proposal to a bank or...
bug carrying world

What’s wrong with being smaller?

Company of One by Paul Jarvis is a contrarian's message against the popular business mantra of growth at...
money with people and phones

Can you really finance a business on social media?

It was probably inevitable that the tried and true friends and family approach to small...
sorry

How will your customers ever forgive you?

It’s pretty easy to throw stones at airlines nowadays, what with stories of passengers being...
Trophy

Run your business like a champion

Among the many offerings of CEDF’s business advisory services as explained on our website is...
empty pockets

If I’m profitable, where did my cash go?

This time of year small business owners who only infrequently take a glance at their...
Triangle

He ran a big company like a small one

I used to snicker in journalism school when our professor explained that the obituary section...
man being pointed at

How do you handle an employee’s big mistake?

There’s a well-worn business story, likely worked over by the internet to the level of...
group huddle

Being a responsible business owner means surviving

In recent weeks I have attended seminars and business forums where the question of the...
puzzle

Does 1 + 1 equal more than 2 ?

The work, worry, and sacrifices required of those going into business is not much of...
handshake

Do your clients believe in you?

One of the burdens of being a solopreneur or a company with just one or...
bucket

Who is going to “BAIL” you out?

The Small Business Administration has many excellent educational programs for entrepreneurs. Inside the curriculum of...
meter

Do you treat your customers differently?

An article in the Wall Street Journal recently caused quite a buzz with many other...
hacker

Action — the best insurance of all

When personal computers began making their way into businesses in the late 1980s the country...
goals and gears

Goals and systems can work together

Having begun my business career in a chain store retail environment the importance of achieving...
branding table of elements

There’s more to branding than a logo

If you can forget the torture inflicted in eighth grade science class surrounding the forced...
business valuation

How do you put a price on your business?

Once in a while, the conversation between a CEDF business advisor and a client turns...
utility meter

Don’t forget the utilities when planning a new location

I recently sat in on a teleconference seminar hosted by CEDF about the range of...
apple

Are you failing to pick the low hanging marketing fruit?

Marketing programs can certainly get expensive in a hurry and lots of options are out...
dollar sign

Do you even need more money to solve your problems?

It’s probably natural that a nonprofit lender like CEDF, will encounter a lot of small...
book sign

Let your fingers do the walking (the hard way)

Most every business wants to be easily findable on the internet.  As the internet has...
help wanted

With unemployment low, can you avoid turnover?

Most of CEDF’s borrowers have five of fewer employees. Businesses of this scale are often...
excellent scale

Do you have the right Key Performance Indicators?

Key Performance Indicators or KPIs are a staple of business, especially in corporate life, and...
name sticker

Entrepreneurism is overrated

Americans have revered the economic freedom of the independent business operator and honored the dignity...
brand

Can you differentiate your brand?

One of the most revered concepts in marketing dates to the early 1940s and is...
price tag

How do you set the right price?

There are basically only two methods for determining the selling price of a product or...
chess pawn

Don’t be afraid to hire the overqualified

During my ten years as a small business owner, I experienced plenty of opportunity to...
woman with mega phone

Do you have brand ambassadors?

The internet has changed so much about we used to think of as simple advertising....
dollar sign with arrow going up

Do you want more sales or more profit?

If we asked a room full of business owners to raise their hands if they...
pyramid

What does today’s consumer want?

Business owners who survived The Great Recession are recognizing that the consumers who were influenced...
road leading to question mark

Gather the courage to deal with uncertainty

I wish I could say that all of our CEDF borrowers experience smooth sailing after...
money in hand

What’s the proper use of profit?

It might seem like a peculiar question, but deciding what to do with profit happens...
man with calculator

What exactly is an accountant?

A recent article in Inc. magazine online discusses six excellent concepts – three things you should never...
social media

How do you find the right voice for your business?

Love it, hate it, or avoid it completely, social media quite literally drives many conversations...
sucker punch

Five things business ownership will surely teach you

A few weeks ago I read an article dealing with the reality that even a graduate...
sinking ship

Five fatal flaws of some unfortunate clients

Writing last month’s Chalkboard article, "Five Disciplines of our Most Profitable Clients," inevitably got me thinking about the...
cow

What can a cow teach you about business models?

In the conventional world of Main Street small business, the model has been virtually the...
Franchise

Choose your competition wisely

Not being a coffee drinker, I indulge in the guilty pleasure of buying a $1...
Screaming

One theory and five steps to improve your customer service

Early in my career I worked in the office of a specialty retailer that had...
ants

Five disciplines of our most profitable clients

Working as a business advisor provides exposure to different company sizes, a range of industries,...
Character

Are you looking for traits or skills?

Here’s a simple, yet misunderstood concept. Before interviewing candidates for employment be sure to evaluate...
negotiating commercial leases & renewal

Commercial Lease Renewal Dos & Don’ts for Tenants

Replay the outstanding CEDF teleconference featuring Jeff Grandfield. Approximately two million commercial lease renewal transactions take...
piggy banks on a balance scale

The road to profit is paved with budget discipline

One of the great joys and motivations of owning a small business is freedom. You...
surprised face

Reputation monitoring demands constant attention

Businesses have always faced threats of whispers, rumors, false claims or complaints that tell only...
percent sign

Small business borrowing: Easy, fast, affordable – choose two

Even as the nation recovered slowly from the Great Recession, commercial bank lending policies for...
handshake

Networking success. It’s more than just a meeting, it’s a process

Memberships in chambers of commerce and other organizations or associations provide wonderful opportunities for business...
responsibility

Ready to do more for your community? What’s your CSR plan?

What used to be considered, civic spirit, self-interest, or just plain neighborliness on the part...
pointing at you

Your responsibility to yourself = responsibility to your stakeholders

Business owners are famous for being self-sacrificing. Besides the long hours, in many enterprises they're...
rocket ship

Are you really sure you want to add that new product or service?

You may have heard some clichés about knowing your customer. Perhaps you’ve heard some about...
credit card thief

So you thought chips would end credit card fraud?

Business owners of all kinds accept credit cards, not just retail stores. And while certain...
dyson dryer

You won’t believe what they’re selling in the men’s room

I frequently speak to clients about finding and exploiting their Dominant Selling Idea – a...
hourglass

Where will you find time if you don’t make It?

A very common problem among CEDF clients is the inability to “get out of production...
card reader

Negotiate better merchant credit card rates and send your child to college

CEDF clients come from a wide variety of industries, but a surprising number accept credit...
Price Tag

Maybe it’s time to raise prices?

Are you "too hungry to eat?" Knowing what your product or service really costs to provide...
money strapped

Have you wasted as much money as I have?

Top performers in industries with perpetually high turnover learn how to keep the perfect from...
Thank You sign

What’s a “Thank You” really worth?

Talk is cheap until you say "Thank You." This university study reminds business owners that sincere...
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