Proven programs that grow great businesses for great people who care.
Texas Workforce Hearing preparations can save your business and make you a better business.
Not only is a Texas Workforce Commission (TWC) Unemployment Claims Hearing not something to fear but it’s something to expect — even if you do everything right. If you have employees, you will get audited. It’s just a matter of time. In some ways that’s good because it says that someone is watching. [Read more…]
Online coupons really are forever — or at least five years.
Have you been tempted to buy online coupons, called “daily deals”? They are offered for spa treatments, restaurants, “boot camps”, hair salons or any one of a huge variety of other tantalizing things for half price or more. Maybe you bought one but didn’t use it. Maybe you threw it away because you thought it expired.
Good news. [Read more…]
Business Challenges: What Goes Up Must Come Down
Sir Isaac Newton statue from Trinity Chapel. Photo by Harlequeen.
Sir Isaac Newton proved it. David Clayton-Thomas wrote about it in the “Spinning Wheel” song. BS&T (Blood, Sweat & Tears) and Dame Shirley Bassey covered it in their albums.
Songwriter & singer Dame Shirley Bassey.
How many ups and downs has your business experienced? Since we started our business, we have been through seven ups and downs – oil, banking, real estate, savings and loans, dot.com, Wall Street, and now real estate again. It has caused us to refine and redefine our business at least that many times.
If it’s a part life, it does not make sense just to try to survive this one. Another wave is coming. If you own a business, the wave that could take you under could be something global like this “Great Recession” or something unique to you and your business. So be watchful; be prepared for those business challenges that are out there.
Rodin’s “The Thinker” could have been named “The Introvert”. Photo by James Whitesmith.
Networking skills are not the exclusive property of extroverts. Introverts have them, too.
Not the belle or beau of the ball? Don’t do well in groups? Are you kind of shy or just hate playing the networking game? You can still be a great networker. The best part is, you don’t have to and shouldn’t change you.
You do have to play by the rules. Networking is a balancing act; give and take. It’s not just about sales or prospecting. Although these can happen. You can also use it for finding friends, jobs, fun places to go or avoid, and a million other things. Think about it as a combination of a “net” which gathers things in and keeps things out and a lot of hard “work”. Believe me, it doesn’t come easy to extroverts either although it may seem that way. [Read more…]
GoLocal, a great rewards program, based in Austin, Texas, to encourage people to buy locally.
I have just finished a five-hour sales training session for Go Local an Austin, Texas company that is licensing its program nationwide to encourage people to support their locally owned businesses and buy locally. This is a great marketing tool for businesses and reward system for new and existing customers. Even though some of the licensees had sales experience, their questions and concerns prompted me to put together this list of sales concepts that I consider critical to success.
It starts with agreeing with the first “golden rule”. [Read more…]
Business Success Center prospects tell us in their initial meeting they want a “Mentor” to advise and guide them to solve a specific problem or achieve a specific goal.
I completely understand. I’ve had several wonderful mentors. My godmother, Northwestern University professor Alvina Krause, had “teas”. At these salons, I learned the fine art of conversation. My grandmother taught me the importance of family. My mother helped me find my voice and be comfortable being myself. She always said, “We grew up together”. Maybe so, but she was my guide.
There were important male mentors, too. My brother Bill (aka WC Triplett, II) has worked for Presidents and Senators, Tibet and Tienanmen, written best sellers and significant treaties. He showed me how important it is to get involved. Ed Van De Vort gave me confidence because he believed everyone was capable. [Read more…]
Price right & reap your reward. Cartoon by Roger Stewart, Porthole Productions.
I have proposed a topic, “Best Practices in Pricing”, for ProductCamp Austin. If you’ve never been or ever heard of it, it’s a great day of free business information for product managers, business owners, and those thinking of starting a business. Attendees select the topics the day of the event so they get to hear what they are most interested in that day.
Although the session has sold out, there is a waiting list. I encourage you to get on it. For more information on Austin Product Camp, go to http://productcampaustin.org. For information on my session on Pricing and the 39 other great sessions, go to http://bit.ly/e6chc0. [Read more…]
Upper Crust Bakery — Austin’s finest!
I love Upper Crust Bakery on Burnet Road in Austin. Great birthday cakes, eclairs and great service. They always know what I want and make me feel special. A few weeks ago, one of their terrific staff told me I was a great customer. Wow!
That got me thinking. What can customers do to give great “business service”? This would help businesses have better sales and create more Platinum Customers™. It’s just what our economy needs: all of us to play a positive role and take responsibility. [Read more…]
RG4N worked to keep Austin Neighborhood & Small Independent Business friendly.
Next month, it will be four years since I became the Business Liaison Chair for Responsible Growth for Northcross (RG4N).
I chose to get involved because I am a business owner, a small business activist and I live and work in the area.
Last night was the VIP opening of the more neighborhood-sized WalMart on Anderson Lane in Austin, Texas. The RG4N board was invited and several of us went including the original President, Paige Hill.
Our efforts to stop the supercenter were not about size as much as about the impact of that size. That impact includes traffic, litter, security, safety issues for those with disabilities, crime, air and water quality. It was also about the impact on locally owned stores that do not fare well with a big box, especially a WalMart, nearby. [Read more…]
I’ve said for years there’s a problem. The issue of the Bush tax cuts just points this out in spades.
I saw Keith Olbermann’s Countdown program, “Small in Name Only” on MSNBC on September 22, 2010, about the “kooky” (their word not mine) definition of small business. It isn’t weird, it’s just flexible as the Small Business Act intended it to be. Maybe it needs work. I certainly think so.
This is what the SBA (Small Business Administration) says on the FAQs page of their website. You can check me out on this.
“Size standards define the maximum size that a firm, including all of its affiliates, may be to participate in federal government programs that are reserved for small businesses. The Small Business Act states that in determining what constitutes a small business, the definition will vary from industry to industry to reflect industry differences accurately.” [Read more…]