Small Business Minute By Greg Weatherdon

  We all know how much work it takes to survive, let alone thrive as an entrepreneur. We have all put in the long hours and have faced disappointments along with the successes that come with the territory. Some days, you’re just freaking awesome. On others, not so much. It just feels like you’re taking one step forward and two steps back. Such is the life we have chosen! You work your butt off to get the business, but somewhere along the line you or your staff drops the ball and turn in a less than stellar performance. This typically results in a call from an unhappy client that until you picked up th… Read More

Small business owners are faced with a myriad of challenges every single day. If it isn’t sales, then it’s receivables and if it isn’t receivables, it’s operations. Add to this the hundreds of thoughts they are juggling trying to sustain their enterprises. Always at the top of their worry list is how to keep their staff focused and motivated. Unlike much larger corporations, small business owners usually don’t have the financial resources to implement sophisticated incentive programs. A big part of the problem in smaller organizations is that the employees usually wear more than one hat or … Read More

We all learn lesson throughout our working lives. Some are good lessons, some are a little painful. Some of those lessons we remember, some we forget. Hopefully, we learn to apply the good lessons as frequently as possible and not repeat those painful ones too often. One of those lessons I learned a long time ago, was to play the long game when it comes to sales. So, what do I mean when I say, “the long game”? The long game means understanding that actions today may pay off at some future point with unknown timing. The long game is understanding that people are different. Whereas some people need to buy … Read More

In the movie City Slickers, Jack Palance’s character Curly and Billy Crystal’s character Mitch are riding along having a bonding moment, when Curly turns to Mitch and asks, Curly: Do you know what the secret to life is? Mitch: No What? Curly: This! (As he holds up one finger) Mitch: Your finger? Curly: One thing. Just one thing. You stick to that and everything else doesn’t mean (expletive). Mitch: That’s great, but what’s the one thing? Curly: That’s what you gotta figure out   I’m always reminded of that scene whenever I ask my clients “What’s the number one thing every business needs in or… Read More

In its heyday, the Kodak company used the following tagline in their advertising: “Make it a Kodak Moment!” This phrase was used when taking a picture of someone at a particular moment that will never be forgotten. It even made its way into everyday use to highlight anything good or embarrassing that happened to an individual, even when it wasn’t captured on film. I’m sure we’ve all experienced our fair share of Kodak Moments in our lives, so I want to share one of mine that will be forever burned into my memory. It was an expensive sales lesson about being overly confident, that I’ll never forget. T… Read More

A constant refrain that I hear from business owners is “they should know better!” “They” of course being any or all the employees that screwed up. Naturally, when I hear this statement, I just can’t leave it alone and therefore I need to challenge it. At which point the conversation goes something like this, Client: They should know better Me: Really, why is that? Client: It’s their job Me: Did you tell them? Client: No, I shouldn’t have to Me: Why shouldn’t you have to? Client: Because they’re supposed to be adults Me: That may be true, but you still need to tell them what you expect Client: I hired th… Read More

READING TIME: 5 minutes Discipline is not always a strong suit when it comes to describing many entrepreneurs, it just goes against their rebel nature. One of the main reasons they went out on their own is because they figured they could do a better job, make more money and have a better life, but to do it their way. For many, their jack of all trade, get it done, whatever it takes the attitude, helped them launch their business, but this, not an enduring strategy if one wants to create a sustainable business. On second thought, it can be, if you enjoy long days, doing everything yourself and running ar… Read More

I have worked with hundreds of entrepreneurs helping them to shape their businesses into their vision. One problem that I frequently come across is the quality or I should say, the lack thereof of some 3rd party service providers e.g. bookkeeping, IT specialists, etc. For the record, I’m all about outsourcing non-core or mission-critical activities to individuals who specialize in a given area. But time and again I find that many of these providers never consider the best interests of their clients. Most of my entrepreneurial ventures have been as a service provider and one of my key mandate… Read More

Someday I’ll be able to slow down. Someday I’ll be able to take more than just a couple of days off. Someday, someday, someday. This refrain is repeated daily by millions of overworked and underpaid entrepreneurs. Some feel trapped in a design of their own making. Others feel they have traded their soul or some other part of their being for the sake of their company. Still, others are oblivious to what’s happening and just accept, whether it’s right or wrong, that this is what they signed up for. They kid themselves every day into believing that someday is just around the corner, when in fact, it’s n… Read More

Why is it that so many owners think they and they alone have all the answers, to every problem in their business? When you consider that most owners started their companies as the only employee, it’s easy to understand how this attitude got started but why it continues is the question? Granted, there will always be those technical, legal or safety issues that require the owners input, but what about those day-to-day operational, sales and marketing challenges that arise? Businesses are not democracies Contrary to all the discussions about managing in the new millennium, businesses are not d… Read More

Reading time: 3 minutes Many successful entrepreneurs get asked, “What was their defining moment?” or some similar question. Several have never even thought about it, nor can they easily identify that special moment. Those that do, will admit that they didn’t recognize it at the time as a defining moment, because no trumpets blared or some similar event. It was only through hindsight that it became evident. Defining moments just happen The point is, nobody, sets out to create defining moments. They aren’t goals in and of themselves, they just happen. What these individuals do though, is the… Read More

Read Time: 5 mins Don’t worry about your competition. Pretty unusual advice to receive for any business owner. To be sure, we need to know some things about our competitors like: • Who they are • What products they sell • Their pricing strategy i.e. cheap or expensive • Their reputation i.e. after sales service, timeliness, etc. But this just makes good business sense. Far too often I find small business owners who obsess about every move their competitors make. This obsession often leads to distraction and paralysis as they are not sure whether to match a competitor’s activity or ignore it. In i… Read More

Successful entrepreneurs share many things in common. Hard work, focus, belief in themselves, hungry for knowledge and so on. One trait that doesn’t get much mention is the ability to accept and overcome failure. As entrepreneurs, failure can be a daily occurrence, but the worse is when a business fails. To be sure there is a lot of noise made on social media and from the start-up world about “fail fast”. It is often heralded as a badge of honour and a goal in and of itself. The premise being that the sooner I fail, the sooner I’ll become a success. Failure is no guarantee of success. Success requires … Read More

  Reading Time: 5 mins We all have our own definitions of training for our team, but in all honesty, most of it sucks. Sure, for customer facing team members, we do the mandatory, how to acknowledge a customer stuff, with all the expected please and thank you’s. It also goes without saying that we spend time teaching them “the system”, whether that be a retail POS or other software necessary to capture and order or process payment. Add to that the mandatory workplace safety and theft prevention training, we usually feel pretty good about our efforts.   This whole area of training, has be… Read More

Reading Time: 6 minutes Be visible is really nothing more than the opportunity to get in front of the customer in some meaningful way. Unfortunately, it is proving far more difficult to do so. B to C or B to B businesses are equally challenged in getting through to their customers, because there are just many more roadblocks.   In the time before voicemail, a phone call to a customer’s home resulted in one of three outcomes; no answer, a busy signal or someone actually answered, pretty predictable outcomes. Along comes voicemail and call display, so now people could just ignore the call. Voi… Read More

Read Time: 3:58 minutes I often get approached by entrepreneurs who are facing significant challenges in their businesses. By significant I mean – They’ve dug themselves into a hole so deep that they’re going to go out of business if something doesn’t change! So, my first piece of advice courtesy of Will Rogers , the American humourist is, “When you find yourself in a hole, quit digging! As far back as I can remember, I’ve always been the person called upon to help fix a situation. For the less urgent ones, I’m more of a troubleshooter, as I usually had some time to assess the problem or problems and t… Read More

We all spend time, money and other resources making sure we put forth the right professional imagine. Many people limit their definition of image to how we look, dress and speak and for the most part that would have been acceptable once upon a time. But not anymore.   In our connected digital world, the tools we use to do business number in the many. What was once a Yellow Pages ad has been replaced by a website and a variety of social media business pages. Where a human being answered the phone, auto attendants and voicemail now do the job. All in all, these are wonderful tools that have increased … Read More

Recognition is the easiest and most effective way to motivate employees, yet remarkably, one of the least used.¬ Entrepreneurs spend endless hours trying to figure out how to motivate their teams, yet ignore this basic human need. A little research will show that there are an untold number of studies that rank recognition, or appreciation for their work, in the top 10 qualities that lead to job satisfaction, often placing it as the number one item. The funny thing is, this is not revolutionary. I remember being a young manager in the pre-digital age and regularly coming across articles statin… Read More

Every business has lots of moving parts. By default, an owner must have a wide ranging skill set if they hope to achieve any success with their enterprise. Those skills include, but not limited to, sales, marketing, human resources, bookkeeping, production and administration. Of course, at the onset, we as owners tend to do all these activities. But as your company evolves, and demands on your time increase, you need to seriously consider getting out from under all of those responsibilities. Doing so, would free you up to focus on what you do best as an individual and allow the company to grow. F… Read More

The economy is humming along and your sales are doing just fine. As a matter of fact, things are actually pretty good. That’s why this is exactly the time you should heed that famous Boy Scout motto to “Always be Prepared”. Great advice, but be prepared for what? Every seven years On average, there is an economic downturn of some sorts every seven years. Sometimes a little longer, sometimes a little sooner, but seven years on average. Yet when they do happen, most owners seem to get caught totally off guard.     A slowdown, a recession, a depression, each one a little more serious than the … Read More