In defense of wealth – Part 1
I know defending the rich is not a popular thing to do right now, but…heck, I’ve never been popular anyway. Right now, due to relocation for work and the current housing market (caused as much by well-meaning politicians trying to help poor people who, oddly enough, can’t afford houses), I’m carrying two mortgages. That’s okay. [...]
Book Review: Great By Choice – Jim Collins & Morten T. Hansen
As a business-owner of sorts I am very interested in new findings in business and leadership. I recently was recently talking to my brother about my company and how we need a guiding vision going forward from our first successful year. He recommended “Great By Choice” as a book he had recently read and thoroughly [...]
Your mind is worth something
I just encountered this interesting article from Adrienne Graham at Forbes.com about the value of your experience and thoughts: I can’t tell you how flattering it is to be approached by representatives from major companies seeking my wisdom and advice. It shows they are listening, and like what I have to say. But often I [...]
How NOT to do social media
This article from MSNBC.com shows how quickly a jerk can rally opposition these days. Evidently a customer named Dave inquired about the ship date for some gaming hardware he had already paid for and was told it would be late. Dave also found out the vendor was offering a $10 discount to new customers because [...]
In defense of introverts
I am an introvert. I admit it with pride. It takes work to be an introvert, but not as much work as it would take for me to be an extrovert. I can be extroverted, but I’ll be wiped out for the rest of the day. CarlKingdom.com has a great post about the 10 Myths [...]
Random Musings: HP PCs, Redbox, Ed Lee ad, Sprinkler systems, McRib
Meg Whitman, new CEO of HP, has decided to keep the embattled personal computer division. I had no idea HP has passed Dell, but then Dell has been struggling of late. It will be interesting to see what Whitman can come up with to make the PC market more profitable for the company. * * [...]
Develop a deep bench
Can your business do without you? If not, why not? If you’re a business of one, I can understand that, perhaps, but if there are several of you together in a business, why would you be irreplaceable? Sports teams would be in deep trouble if they didn’t have more than one person ready to play [...]
When competitors move next door
Today at the store we learned that national competitor is opening yet another store in our city. Chances are it will be right down the street from us, perhaps even in the same general location as our local competitor that went out of business earlier this year. While we are not yet sure what to [...]
Playing to your strengths
As I’ve written before, much of the marketing ideas that come through our door have to do with offering coupons, discounts, or other promotional specials, either as the main point of the marketing, or as a means of measuring the response to the marketing. Everyone wants to be free with our money, it seems. And [...]
Do social coupons work?
It seems lately that social coupon sites are all the rage. If I understand correctly, these sites offer discount coupons to popular businesses. Customers just have to get enough people to commit to buying a coupon in order for the coupons to be offered (ie. get 100 people to buy this 50% coupon to McDonalds, [...]
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