Articles

The number one most effective form of shareable job aid I have seen is the humble checklist. It’s a simple but powerful tool used...

If you’re wondering whether interruptions from colleagues have disappeared during the COVID-19 pandemic, rest assured, they have not. Ask just about anyone—those side conversations...

I’m fond of saying, “If you don’t have authority, you’ve got to use influence.” Sounds great, right? But ‘influence’ is often hard to define...

If you are doing your best to build real influence at work—by serving others and adding real value—the same cannot always be said of...

Certain types of employees, more so than others, tend to jump into projects outside their normal jobs. I classify these people into three groups:...

Many of us have embarked on worthy crusades to tame our inboxes and therefore our time. (Remember the inbox zero trend from a few...

Everybody has bad days or bad moments. But, even if you are not feeling it today, make sure you don’t wear your bad feelings...

We have all known someone with a reputation for saying “yes” to any new request or project, without considering whether they should. Maybe they...

Overcommitment syndrome emerges when everything on your to-do list is “urgent and important.” New priorities are added to the list every day. Everybody is...

To avoid burnout in today’s workplace, you have to be savvy about which projects you accept and which you decline. But how do you...

It’s not enough to align yourself after the fact. You want to help inform the decisions and priorities being made, and you want to...

Real influence is the power you have when other people really want to do things for you, make good use of your time, and...

In a recent article, "What does it take to succeed in business?" my CEDF colleague, Frederick Welk, compared five business disciplines related to measurement...

Previously I have written about my conclusions in Five Disciplines of Our Most Profitable Clients. Not everyone measures success in dollars and cents, and...

Santa may have come late this year to small business owners but he finally arrived Dec. 27 when the President signed the Economic Aid...

An article in the Wall Street Journal recently reported that U.S. digital advertising for the first time will overtake all other forms of media....

We recently featured a webinar about establishing an ethics program and why this is important, even for smaller businesses. It’s been my observation that...

Editor’s Note:  The author is founder and CEO of Netology, a Stamford-based IT services provider that manages network systems for many small businesses in...

Editor's note: Many businesses have been significantly impacted by the pandemic. And while, fortunately, many have been able to take advantage of loan deferrals...

Previously I’ve written about five fatal flaws that I’ve seen that commonly causing small business demise. One might wonder if Main Street businesses (or...

There are really only three ways that a company can compete: cost, innovation, or customer intimacy. Let’s examine what this means for the typical...

The Last of the Spirits, from Charles Dickens: A Christmas Carol. In Prose. Being a Ghost Story of Christmas. With Illustrations by John Leech....

This is an excerpt of an article published in the August 2020 issue of Realizing Leadership Magazine with the author’s permission. By David O’Brien Read Part...

In the space of a few months the COVID crisis has brought the country from record low to record high unemployment in some areas....

This is an excerpt of an article published in the August 2020 issue of Realizing Leadership Magazine with the author’s permission. By David O’Brien Never before...

Businesses this March quickly went from normal to cautious to a standstill. No wonder small business owners were in a state of shock. Who...

One symbol of the collaboration revolution must surely be the little “mail” icon on our devices. All day long it flashes the growing numbers...

Editor’s Note:  The author is a CEDF client who operates Awesome Toys and Gifts in Stamford and Westport, CT. This is an excerpt of...

I've been taking calls from business owners worried about conflicts with customers over deposits for services they have ordered but now either don't want...

There are very limited exceptions to the law.

I am speaking hourly with business owners that have dwindling revenues or no revenue in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic. Business owners are...

Nate Berger of KnockMedia in New Haven provided an excellent introduction to the world of Search Engine Management (SEM) and Search Engine Optimization (SEO)...

The mythology of American entrepreneurship goes something like this. You research a problem that startlingly nobody has ever noticed. You contrive a solution that...

In business, anything is possible, but you need money. I wrote the book “Get the Loot and Run: Find Money for Your Business” to...

It may seem like the oldest lesson in marketing to give customers what they want but in a litigation-filled society there's always some fearful...

Recently I was asked to pinch hit for a presenter at an SBA-sponsored Reboot workshop for veterans interested in starting their own businesses. CEDF...

In recent months, this column has addressed competition with Amazon from a couple of different perspectives. While current statistics still show the majority of sales on...

A recent article in these columns discussed the response a small business has to take to compete effectively against the Amazon steamroller. It isn’t price certainly...

As critical as it is in a lender’s decision making process for a term loan, what is often misunderstood by the owners of small...

Show up, believe in yourself and be fearless. That’s the key. A few weeks ago I attended my first Greater New England Minority Supplier Development...

Character and past performance matters a lot in the world of lending as every business owner knows. Lenders can only rely so much on...

Networking is an an oversimplified concept that to some people means shaking a lot of hands, exchanging a lot of business cards and meeting...

There has been so much hand-wringing over the difficulties caused to Main Street retailers by the rise of Amazon, but the reality remains that...

Among the options available to small businesses, revenue-based financing (RBF) seems to be getting more attention recently. It’s structured like a loan and the...

Millions of people love Amazon for the instant gratification, the almost universal selection and the typically good pricing the platform offers. Uncountable others, including...

I stopped at one of my favorite spots early one morning recently before my first client meeting. That happened to be the Chick-Fil-A in...

It’s often taken on authority that the right way to sell is to develop a consultative approach that makes you a trusted advisor to...

For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it?Luke...

In surfing with my internet news reader app recently, I ran across a documentary about wingsuits. Apparently cutting out television a few years ago...

Business is often depicted as a struggle, a battle, a war. It's an apt description, if only because so many business owners spend their...

One of beloved baseball legend Yogi Berra's famous malapropisms was "You can observe a lot just by watching."  Many of his supposed quotes are...

As usual, Warren Buffet's 2019 shareholder letter has drawn attention for what some may consider to be a surprising risk to his insurance portfolio...

The internet age has disrupted so much about pricing of products and services. In decades past, price was so much more opaque and subject...

It’s not unusual for a borrower to submit a loan proposal to a bank or a community lender like CEDF for more money than...

Company of One by Paul Jarvis is a contrarian's message against the popular business mantra of growth at all cost. This growth message is ingrained in business...

It was probably inevitable that the tried and true friends and family approach to small business financing would make its way to the small...

It’s pretty easy to throw stones at airlines nowadays, what with stories of passengers being insulted, beaten up and dragged off the plane, or...

Among the many offerings of CEDF’s business advisory services as explained on our website is this phrase: “…management of emotional components of business ownership.”...

This time of year small business owners who only infrequently take a glance at their financial statements may be getting a full year P&L...

I used to snicker in journalism school when our professor explained that the obituary section was one of the best read parts of a...

There’s a well-worn business story, likely worked over by the internet to the level of urban legend. The tale’s wisdom makes it much too...

In recent weeks I have attended seminars and business forums where the question of the social responsibilities of business owners was up for discussion....

The work, worry, and sacrifices required of those going into business is not much of a secret. Any entrepreneur paying attention knows they will...

One of the burdens of being a solopreneur or a company with just one or two employees is the battle raging in the mind...

The Small Business Administration has many excellent educational programs for entrepreneurs. Inside the curriculum of several of their courses is a clever reference that...

An article in the Wall Street Journal recently caused quite a buzz with many other media outlets retelling what was described in the headline...

When personal computers began making their way into businesses in the late 1980s the country saw a huge boost in productivity and companies quickly...

Having begun my business career in a chain store retail environment the importance of achieving measurable goals -- particularly sales increases -- was baked...

If you can forget the torture inflicted in eighth grade science class surrounding the forced memorization of the Periodic Table of the Elements, then...

Once in a while, the conversation between a CEDF business advisor and a client turns to the possibility of the borrower selling the business....

I recently sat in on a teleconference seminar hosted by CEDF about the range of issues to consider before buying a commercial building. There...

Marketing programs can certainly get expensive in a hurry and lots of options are out of reach for small businesses. But there’s an enormous...

It’s probably natural that a nonprofit lender like CEDF, will encounter a lot of small business owners who are at their limits when it...

Most every business wants to be easily findable on the internet.  As the internet has sophisticated, this chore has gotten its own name –...

Most of CEDF’s borrowers have five of fewer employees. Businesses of this scale are often in a circumstance where the available jobs don’t come...

Key Performance Indicators or KPIs are a staple of business, especially in corporate life, and I’ve read several articles quite critical of the practice...

Americans have revered the economic freedom of the independent business operator and honored the dignity of small business owners long before President Calvin Coolidge...

One of the most revered concepts in marketing dates to the early 1940s and is attributed to Rosser Reeves who later became one of...

There are basically only two methods for determining the selling price of a product or service? You can either use what’s called a cost-plus model where...

During my ten years as a small business owner, I experienced plenty of opportunity to interview job applicants that were all suitable, but who...

The internet has changed so much about we used to think of as simple advertising. Giving individual customers a voice, whether to praise, criticize...

If we asked a room full of business owners to raise their hands if they wanted to make more money, you can be sure...

Business owners who survived The Great Recession are recognizing that the consumers who were influenced by the disruption are behaving differently from the past....

I wish I could say that all of our CEDF borrowers experience smooth sailing after they close on their financing but that’s just not...

It might seem like a peculiar question, but deciding what to do with profit happens to be one of the most important planning decisions...

A recent article in Inc. magazine online discusses six excellent concepts – three things you should never ask your accountant and three things you absolutely should...

Love it, hate it, or avoid it completely, social media quite literally drives many conversations in today’s world, and getting your voice heard in...

A few weeks ago I read an article dealing with the reality that even a graduate degree from a business school won't prepare you for...

Writing last month’s Chalkboard article, "Five Disciplines of our Most Profitable Clients," inevitably got me thinking about the darker days of being a CEDF business advisor.  It...

In the conventional world of Main Street small business, the model has been virtually the same since the 19th century. 1. Identify a product or...

Not being a coffee drinker, I indulge in the guilty pleasure of buying a $1 fountain diet soda from McDonalds most mornings that I...

Early in my career I worked in the office of a specialty retailer that had an “exchange only, no refunds” policy. Without getting into...

Working as a business advisor provides exposure to different company sizes, a range of industries, and a variety of management personalities. But I have...

Here’s a simple, yet misunderstood concept. Before interviewing candidates for employment be sure to evaluate which traits are important for the position. Traits by...

Replay the outstanding CEDF teleconference featuring Jeff Grandfield. Approximately two million commercial lease renewal transactions take place every year in North America. Whether a tenant...

One of the great joys and motivations of owning a small business is freedom. You are free to make the final decisions. Free to...

Businesses have always faced threats of whispers, rumors, false claims or complaints that tell only half the story. But the public and instant nature...

Even as the nation recovered slowly from the Great Recession, commercial bank lending policies for businesses with short track records or owners challenged with...

Memberships in chambers of commerce and other organizations or associations provide wonderful opportunities for business development through networking. They key word here is opportunities. There...

What used to be considered, civic spirit, self-interest, or just plain neighborliness on the part of the Main Street merchant now has a much...

Business owners are famous for being self-sacrificing. Besides the long hours, in many enterprises they're the last to sit down at the table to...

You may have heard some clichés about knowing your customer. Perhaps you’ve heard some about knowing the products or services you sell. This post...

Business owners of all kinds accept credit cards, not just retail stores. And while certain kinds of stores arguably might be the biggest targets,...

I frequently speak to clients about finding and exploiting their Dominant Selling Idea – a concept explained in the book “Why Johnny Can't Brand: Rediscovering...

A very common problem among CEDF clients is the inability to “get out of production and in to management.” Sure, it's necessary to bake...

CEDF clients come from a wide variety of industries, but a surprising number accept credit cards from their customers, even those that we don’t...

Are you "too hungry to eat?" Knowing what your product or service really costs to provide is crucial. Could this tech industry legend have the...

Top performers in industries with perpetually high turnover learn how to keep the perfect from being the enemy of the good... or the potentially...

Talk is cheap until you say "Thank You." This university study reminds business owners that sincere appreciation can be worth more than you think --...