When the very first employee was hired at The Greentree Group, Travis Greenwood (now President & CEO of the strategic technology consulting firm), talked to his wife about how to bring the new team member onboard. His wife, Lisa, said, “Let’s send him something to welcome him, like a fruit basket.” So they did, and after 25 years, the [ Read More ]
Several years ago, a customer came to Promotional Spring asking for point of purchase signage. (Promotional Spring is a company that creates experiences and solutions that help organizations to promote their products and services.) Even though they had asked for a specific deliverable, after further conversation, leaders at Promotional Spring realized the customer had 4 different pain points. Those challenges they [ Read More ]
People picked on my generation. People picked on my fathers’ generation. People are picking on this generation, and I think it’s wrong,” says Scott McGohan, CEO at McGohan Brabender, a company that provides employee benefit consulting, compliance, and health risk management. “We have to understand technology and communication paths that are going to be attractive [across generations], but to pretend [ Read More ]
This Insights post has been updated. For our latest thinking on professional management, see our most recent post here. In the video below a number of small business owners explain—in their own words—how professional management has helped their businesses. Professional management is something that can help you run your business, rather than letting it run you. It [ Read More ]
Throughout my career, I’ve developed many products and services that were good, sometimes even great. But more times than I would like to admit, they never got noticed. Never got talked about. Never achieved the desired results. Why? Because they were really just another offering in a sea of offerings. Imagine you compete in the market for rock bands. [ Read More ]
What’s one of the biggest challenges in small business today? Keeping employees motivated and productive, says Marty Grunder, President and CEO of Grunder Landscaping Co., in Dayton, Ohio. Knowing how difficult this can be, Marty shared a few lessons on how to create a high-energy, productive atmosphere at work. Lesson #1: Make Time For Individuals to Express How They [ Read More ]
When hiring, LaRosa’s, Inc.’s philosophy is, “Good people know good people.” That’s why they make sure to tap their current employee base to help find additional great talent, says Steve Browne, Executive Director of HR at LaRosa’s. (LaRosa’s is a chain of pizza restaurants located in Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana and Tennessee.) “When we have openings, we go to our team [ Read More ]
How do you let go of doing it yourself? In this video, Lavender Home Care Solutions’ President, Bernard Dalichau, shares how he’s learned to let go. Many can relate to the feeling of having to "do it all"—whether they are a business owner or not.. Being able to effectively delegate is a critical capacity to both scale your business [ Read More ]
Is your profit margin average for your industry? Is your revenue per customer in the middle of the pack for companies like yours? How about your growth rate as compared to the industry? Statisticians like to point to averages as a way to explain trends and define an industry. And we oftentimes think that we are lucky if we [ Read More ]
Not all company growth comes from selling more. Wes Gipe, Founder of Agil IT, agrees, saying he experienced this within his own company: “I had been so externally focused. I was focused on growing the business," he says in this video. "I really didn’t spend a lot of time thinking about the success of the people within the organization.” [ Read More ]
It was the first time in 13 years as a business owner that Barry Chandler had faced this kind of emotional challenge. For the first time ever, Barry was feeling a sense of loss. It had been two years since Barry sold his subscription services and marketing agency. He had built the organization from the ground up. As part [ Read More ]
In 2008, Nick Sarillo’s team at Nick’s Pizza & Pub made the decision to abandon its expansion plans for a third restaurant, and refocus on its existing two. (Based in Illinois, Nick’s Pizza & Pub is one of the top ten busiest independent pizza companies in per-store sales in the nation. Today, it has margins nearly twice that of [ Read More ]
